Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Tuesday urged Jakarta to ensure the security of its citizens in neighbouring Indonesia following an anti-Malaysian protest.

"We hope the Indonesian government can take measures to prevent the situation ... don't let the people worsen the situation," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"We should not be guided by emotions in dealing with international relations."

Syed Hamid said Monday's burning of the Malaysian flag by Indonesian demonstrators was not the way to conduct international relations, and warned that such actions would harm longstanding bilateral ties.

Malaysians have been advised to avoid travelling to Indonesia because of anger there over Malaysia's treatment of illegal immigrants.

Don't do it here

Meanwhile Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin defended Malaysia's new tough

immigration laws, which include jail and caning for illegal immigrants, and warned Indonesians here not to hold street demonstrations.

"Malaysia will also not allow any demonstration, even our own people are not allowed to hold demonstrations, what more foreigners, if they do so they will be deported," he said.

Zainal said caning was meted out after due process of the law and applied to all nationals who breached Malaysian immigration laws.

Singapore also imposed similar punishment, he said.

Flag burning

On Monday, a group of 40 protestors chanted slogans and set fire to a Malaysian flag in addition to pushing down the main gate of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta.

Police stopped them from entering the grounds and a small delegation later handed over a protest letter to an embassy official, calling for an end to Malaysia's "inhuman" caning and fining of illegal workers.

It demanded Jakarta sever diplomatic relations if Malaysia continues to punish Indonesian workers who are trying to return home.

Malaysia's tough new penalties for illegal immigrants, which include a minimum jail sentence of six months and up to six strokes of the cane, followed the July 31 expiry of an amnesty which saw the exodus of more than 300,000 illegal migrants, most of them Indonesians.

Courts have since then sentenced dozens of those who failed to leave to whipping and jail.

Indonesia's national assembly chairman Amien Rais had criticised Malaysia for what he called the "inhumane" and "insulting" punishment.

Illegal Indonesian immigrants made up 70 percent of the building industry's 500,000 foreign workers, according to the Master Builders Association of Malaysia (MBAM). AFP