your say ‘A six-year-old can be a threat to this nation? Syed Albar/Bukit Aman, is that the level of the Malaysian intelligence services? Are you that heartless to the girl?'

Jesmine:

A six-year-old can be a threat to this nation? Syed Albar/Bukit Aman, is that the level of the Malaysian intelligence services?

She is six, for crying out loud! Are you now going to arrest all Indians under the guise of Hindraf being a ‘threat'? Are you that threatened by kids and the mere 6% or less of the population of Indians? Such bullying acts.

And PM, you are afraid of a group of 11 people with a six-year-old? They threaten you too? Are you that afraid when you have Bukit Aman behind you?

Are you that heartless to the girl? You have successfully made our country yet another laughing stock of the world. Thanks for nothing.

Malaysians, we must not tolerate such nonsense from BN. We must let our voices be heard. I know that 90% of you know that these are crazy acts by the ruling government.

We must show and tell them that Malaysia is much, much, much more than what they are showing to the world.

Ahmad Kamal: I am shocked beyond words that a child of a tender age was sent to jail by the police in this country! Of course, the child is not the subject of arrest as common sense and the law dictates that such a young person could not have the capacity to form intent for the commission of a crime, but heads should certainly still roll.

Why had the police not sought the support of the social services? How stupid is that? This inhuman act and the complete disregard of the rights of the child add to our litany of complaints against the police.

Umno and the Umno-led BN government has not been able to reform the police, has added greater ambivalence to the independence of the judiciary with the recent elevation of Zaki as chief judge and nothing much has really changed in terms of good governance.

Now that Pakatan has lost its steam in taking over the reins of government, it is again left to the good sense of our civil society and human rights defenders to take up the cause of justice.

Let's get organised again.

CK Chim: I read with a sickening feeling in my stomach the appalling news that the police had detained a six-year old girl and 11 others. Were they screaming racial or religious slogans and throwing stones?

Was this group chanting hatred and raising a ruckus and being led by thugs and were threatening at any point?

The central figure was a six-year old child and all they were trying to do was to submit an anti-ISA petition to invite the PM to a Deepavalli open house!

The government and the police are a disgrace and a bunch of bullies, period. You are testing the patience of all right-thinking and decent folks in the country. Shame on you.

JD Lovrenciear: The saga surrounding little citizen child P Vwaishhnnavi's recent spending time within a police detention center is drawing much flak in the country. And the police action will also place the country under the radar of global movements that champion child protection and human rights.

While PDRM's image has suffered much from numerous accounts of failed court cases, negative reports and a host of unresolved allegations, this latest episode of a six-year-old citizen being taken and kept within a police station is sending the wrong message across the planet.

Whatever the reasons that the authorities may now dish out to do damage control, the rakyat remains baffled as to why the authorities are ever digging deeper into the mud with their antics.

Whether Hindraf is good, bad, banned or not is not the issue here. The crux of the problem is the government and its appointed leaders have failed miserably in conflict resolution.

And as two wrongs can only lead to a third failure, today we are getting stuck with yet another embarrassing situation given the seeming 'detention' of a six-year-old child in the very vicinity of brutal criminals and law breakers.

How do we explain all these to the child? How do we tell our children to respect the law? Who is going to pay the price? And locking up people without trial is not going to remove the problems.

On Syed Hamid defends Hindraf ban

Hahn: For a home minister to ‘think' that he's got support from the Indian community to justify his actions makes me think that the governance of Malaysia at the moment is like something out of a comic book.

It is true that we've somewhat lived peacefully for the past 50-odd years since independence but perhaps its also true that all that time we suffered for the sake of our children and our children's children.

Maybe that's the only way that we could move forward in hope that one day we could remove this stigma of being a Chinese, Malay or Indian and be known as a Malaysian without reference to race.

I wonder if Umno is also an extremist group since they, too, incite feelings against certain segments of the community (although behind closed doors).

Ganasan Kailasanathan: Well done, Syed Albar and the Malaysian government. It seems Umno is against the whole Indian community. Banning Hindraf denotes that you are against the Indian community and you are guilty of marginalizing them.

Umno is an extremist group and you should ban Umno, MCA and the MIC. They are an extremist and a racial group. Please ban the real extremist group.

Because of Umno we are having nightmares and racial conflicts. Why arrest an innocent child and seven women who just came to give an invitation to the PM?

On Q&A: Home ministers 'burn' themselves for society

Timo Fnian: It's downright wishful thinking on the part of the home minister to fancy himself (and the others before him) a candle 'burning' for society.

Hello? The only candles we see are the ones lit in protest, always in the aftermath of one of his highhanded decisions that appear to be originating from a 'blaze' rather than a candle.

C'mon Mr Home Minister sir. Do you seriously think you can use the 'candle' analogy to come out of this present situation smelling like a rose?

A candle 'burning' for society? Seriously sir, shouldn't it read 'a blazing inferno scorching up the fabric of democracy and the freedom of speech?

Proud Malaysian: Syed Hamid Albar said: ‘You should see Malays when they fill in their nationality, a Malay would put Malaysian but others would put Indian Malaysian or Chinese Malaysian. Why do you do that?'

I'm utterly shocked by his remark and think that he should be corrected or reprimanded. I know with 100% certainty that all my friends and family members don't write in forms ‘Indian Malaysian' or ‘Chinese Malaysian' when asked of our nationality. We are all Malaysians and should be treated equally. Period.

It's only when we are queried about our race - which disappointingly is a required field in all government-related forms - that we offer our race in.

To begin with, all government and public agency forms should not ask for a person's race. What is the need?

M Sureisen: Pity Syed Hamid has ‘burnt' himself so much for us. Hopefully he finds peace in doing that.

On Syed Hamid: Utusan 'given warning'

Peter Ooi: Utusan is just given a warning only after so many controversial articles being published? No, I think Syed Hamid is just being more tolerant of Utusan 's whims and fancies.

Just a mere allegation of Teresa Kok by Utusan had instantly sent her to detention under the ISA.

And Sin Chew journalist Tan Hoon Cheng was wrongfully detained for just reporting the truth on Ahmad Ismail's inflammatory statement.

Those detentions were done so swiftly and worse, without in-depth investigation. Did I read rightly when Syed Hamid said that Ahmad Ismail is still being investigated for sedition?

Many weeks have gone by and Tan Hoon Cheng had gone in for no reason at all and yet Ahmad Ismail is still being under investigation? Come on, Syed Hamid.

Raja Petra was so swiftly detained under the ISA and after so many weeks you say Ahmad Ismail is still being investigated for statements which were highly racial in nature?

Syed Hamid, I try to understand you but all your reasoning goes against logic.

Joe Fernandez: Actually, what he's saying is that he gave them a soft rap on the knuckles, saying ‘naughty, naughty' while winking at them. The double standards is so blatantly obvious.

Umno has thrived since independence on ‘the politics of what separates us' but now has been sent back to the drawing board by the opposition alliance's ‘politics of what brings us together' on March 8

Has Umno changed for the better? No. They are still in a state of extreme denial as evident in the contents of the mainstream Malay media which is trying to whip up racist sentiments by blowing up issues out of proportion.

The idea is to win back lost ground and emerge as the only party for the rural folks in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

Umno and BN should either focus on affairs of government and the economy or make way for those who can be trusted to do the right thing at this crucial juncture of the world economy.

We should not fall into Umno's trap when they raise issues out of the blue to whip up racist sentiments. Example of one such recent issue includes the social contract.

Jr Lee: In the absence of any evidence whatsoever that Teresa Kok was a party to the mosque controversy, the home minister, in his ‘wisest' decision chose to arrest and imprison her under the draconian ISA.

His act has poisoned the minds of many innocent Malaysians that Teresa is guilty and some even threatened her and her family with Molotov cocktails.

When Utusan published a fictitious article on the assassination of an MP, which may provoke some people to actually commit this act and even incite a racial riot, the home minister chose only to give a cursory warning to Utusan .

The editor and writer were left scot-free whilst the minds of thousands of innocent Malaysians were already implanted with the thought of assassinating an MP.

With this double standard practised by the home minister, it is no wonder that race relations in this country is now at the abyss. Racist politicians see this as an opportune time to incite racial tensions for political gain as they very well know that they won't be arrested under ISA but just be reprimanded.

Until and unless the home minister practises justice without fear and favour, we will never see race relations improve in this country.

It is the duty and responsibility of the home minister to ensure that we Malaysians live in harmony and his decisions are not bias.