The government has unleashed its cyber-trackers on the trail of a commentator who posted allegedly seditious and inflammatory remarks against a certain race and religion in an online forum called Malaysia Boleh Forum.

The Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysia's cyber police that regulates Internet content and enforces Malaysia's stable of cyberlaws upon detection of violations, is probing into the matter.

No immediate comments were available from the MCMC monitoring and enforcement division and the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCert) due to the long festive break.

Yesterday, national news agency Bernama quoted Water, Energy and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik urging newspapers not to highlight the issue for fear of giving a wrong impression of Malaysia.

Describing the postings as made by "a mad person" or someone mentally unsound, Lim said he would raise the matter with the cabinet next Wednesday.

He was responding to a report in Malay-language tabloid Harian Metro yesterday that highlighted a forum which allowed the posting of uncensored and uncontrolled views on allegedly sensitive issues pertaining to race and religion.

Forum shut down

Quoting an unidentified forum member, the paper said the posting allegedly used obscenities to insult Islam and likened Muslim men who congregate at mosques for Friday prayers to performing unnatural sex acts.

Another forum member had allegedly questioned the government's assistance of the country's Malay majority and called for all special rights to be revoked. The member also allegedly claimed that Indians, not Malays, were the first to settle here.

The paper also reported the reactions of a forum member, a religious figure and a youth body who expressed dissatisfaction over the allegedly insensitive and insulting nature of the remarks.

Lim said the MCMC has since shut down the forum.

A search by malaysiakini today yielded a cache of the forum page but clicks on the postings prompted this message : "Forum closed! This forum has been closed down, and the following is the reason. Suspended due to violation of TOS."

A link at the bottom of the cached page names OneCenter.Com as the provider and host of the forum and discussion but it remains unclear where the company is based. It offers free web space and webmaster tools for various online activities and claims to serve 60,000 websites and 12 million online users daily.

Mad and irresponsible

Harian Metro also frontpaged Lim's remarks today with a headline screaming " Tutup! Tutup!" (Shut down! Shut down!).

The minister was quoted as saying that it was the work of "mad and irresponsible" people and did not reflect the overall situation in Malaysian society.

He assured that swift action would be taken against the site owner under the Sedition Act, Penal Code and Communications and Multimedia Act.

Last month, cyber forensic experts at MyCert successfully tracked down a commentator known as 'Anwar' who posted an allegedly blasphemous comment on Islam Hadhari on Screenshots , a blog owned and run by Jeff Ooi.

'Anwar' surrendered to the authorities, but not before e-mailing Ooi an apology for the trouble caused by the unsavoury remarks. The apology was later published on the Malaysia Today website.

No action has been taken against anyone to date.