The police will carry out investigation into the report lodged by Umno Youth yesterday against malaysiakini for publishing a letter which the political movement claimed was seditious.

Inspector General of Police Norian Mai said today that a thorough investigation would be carried out to determine whether the letter published by the popular online daily was "seditious" or not.

According to a RTM news telecast tonight, Norian was quoted as stating that the police would investigate all reports of a seditious nature as sedition was a serious matter.

After we have completed the investigation, we will decide what action to take, he said adding that so far, no one from malaysiakini has approached the police over the report.

Yesterday, Umno Youth information chief Azimi Daim lodged the report against malaysiakini over a letter which was published on the website on Jan 9. He filed the complaint at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Questioning Malay rights

According to the report, the letter titled ' Similarities between "new Americans" and bumiputera ' contained seditious remarks that could create chaos in the country.

Azimi told a press conference later that the letter, by making false accusations as well as questioning the Malay special rights, could instill hatred towards the government in non-Malay Malaysians.

He said the letter was also malicious for having likened Umno Youth to the Ku Klux Klan in America "which was ready to kill other races".

Meanwhile, malaysiakini editor Steven Gan said that the online daily's policy with regard to the letters forum is to encourage free and open discussion on controversial issues.

Gan said that "letters to malaysiakini go through a strict selective process and those considered personal attacks or could possibly breach existing laws are left out".

"We believe that the said letter did not carry any seditious remarks that could incite racial violence, but was based on a factual comparative study."

Third police report

Yesterday's police report was the third made against malaysiakini since its launch three years ago.

In March 2001, Selangor police lodged a report against the news website for quoting the opposition that the death toll from the Petaling Jaya Selatan racial clashes could be higher than the official count of six.

In July the same year, a university student leader filed a report claiming that a letter published on malaysiakini bearing his name was not written by him.

In a related development, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said today that his ministry does not have the right to stop malaysiakini or anyone from publishing their articles or views on the Internet.

This was because those wishing to run news portals on the Internet were not required to get a licence from the ministry.

He said, however, that the ministry could act against any party or invididual who spread news or articles over the Internet with intention to undermine security and racial unity in the country.