The Home Ministry will not hesitate to take action against any political party found to have made baseless allegations on their websites, said Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung ( photo ) today.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby, Chor said his ministry monitors the websites for such allegations as they could lead to disorder in the country.

"If they contravene any current act, the ministry would monitor [the situation] and take [the necessary] action," he said.

He was referring to the police report lodged by DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock early this month over an article by Umno Pasir Mas division chief Ibrahim Ali on the Umno official website.

The article titled Cina DAP hasut Cina MCA jangan setuju guna Bahasa Inggeris , alleged that the Chinese in DAP were inciting the Chinese in MCA not to agree on the use of English in the teaching of Science and Mathematics in all schools from next year.

Kerk said the baseless allegations could promote ill feelings or hostility among races. He also charged that the article had infringed the Sedition Act 1948.

ISA not simply used

Chor said the party would be cautioned and asked to clarify its allegations, but added that the Internal Security Act would not simply be invoked.

"We won't simply use ISA to arrest people who have made the allegations. We will write to them first and tell them their allegations will cause chaos in the society," he said.

Asked if any Internet media is being monitored, he refused to comment, saying that this task was under the purview of the Information Ministry.

Earlier, Chor told the Dewan Rakyat in the question-and-answer session that his ministry had since last year checked 1,345 printing plants and confiscated 2,305 copies of publications for not having a publishing permit.

However, only119 cases have been brought to the court against distributors and book sellers for not having a publishing permit.

In a supplementary question, Ramli Ibrahim (Keadilan-Kota Bharu) asked the ministry to explain its justification and rationale in issuing a permit for a new publication.

Denial of permit

The opposition MP claimed his party and other opposition parties had tried to apply for publishing permits but had their applications rejected by the ministry.

Ramli said the refusal was a violation of freedom of speech and expression in a democracy.

Responding to this, Chor said the government does not restrict any party from publishing its own bulletin.

"We didn't restrict any freedom of expression...every political party has its own paper," he said.

"If you said we don't have freedom of expression, what is that freedom? You should ask why they have been suspended," he said.

Chor said Malaysia has 63 newspapers 24 in the peninsula, 16 in Sabah and Sarawak and 23 foreign papers.

Of the newspapers in the peninsula, five are in Chinese, eight in English and another eight in Malay and three in Tamil.

The Oriental Daily News which was suspended on its first day of publication last month and which is appealing its suspension, is not included among the five Chinese papers in existence.