The auction of a Vietnamese woman at a market in Kuala Lumpur was "shameful and crazy", a minister said after the incident prompted the Vietnamese authorities to send a diplomatic protest note to Malaysia.

"This is a very medieval way, such things should not happen in Malaysia," Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz told reporters at Parliament lobby yesterday evening.

"There are laws against such activities in Malaysia, I will certainly deal with this matter in a fastest manner because it is really shameful. We are talking about developing the country and Vision 2020 but we find this kind of third world mentality here," he said.

The minister said he would get in touch with the internal security minister as soon as possible to get to the bottom of the matter. He added that it was Hanoi's rights to send a diplomatic note over the matter.

Queried for details, Nazri who is also de facto law minister said he was uncertain of the legislation the matter could be investigated but added that "certainly it is not allowed, it is crazy".

No money left

Action, Nazri said, should also be taken against the owner of the market where the auction was held.

The matter was also raised by Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) and Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Itam) during their debates in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday. Both condemned the act.

Chinese language daily Guangming Daily first reported the 21-year-old Vietnamese woman offered herself for sale last week during a morning market in a village in Gombak, outside Kuala Lumpur.

She came to the village with a 40-year-old peddler who made the offer on her behalf, the report said, adding that the woman apparently volunteered to be sold because she had been in Malaysia for some time and had used up all her money.

It did not say what she had been doing while in Malaysia or how much she was sold for.

The auction started at 7am and was concluded four hours later when a 60-year-old man bought her, the report said. It was unclear whether the Malaysian man intended to make her his wife, surrogate daughter or maid.

After the report was picked up by the foreign media, the Vietnamese ambassador in Kuala Lumpur sent a note to Malaysia's Home Ministry "protesting against any act of trading Vietnamese woman" and sought their help to identify the woman.

Questionable out-source

Meanwhile, Lim in his debate on the National Culture and Heritage Academy Bill 2006 claimed there is attempt to out-source the filtering Chinese newspapers job done by the Internal Security Ministry's publication control unit (Chinese section), to its former official.

Lim alleged he has received relevant information and understood the proposal to out-source the work is almost certain as it is at the final stage at the moment. The proposal was made based on the argument that the workloads to go through Chinese newspapers is 'too heavy' for the unit.

"Why not just out-source the entire ministry?" questioned Lim.

The opposition leader also named the person who is the former chief of the Chinese section unit and questioned whether there was any element of cronyism involved.