KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 ― Selangor Umno chief Datuk Seri Noh Omar has offered to be investigated by police should they find his speeches during Wednesday’s pro-Malay Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally to be “racial” or “seditious.”

He added that no one was above the law, not even him, and that he would cooperate with authorities.

“If my speech was racial, seditious and such then that is the police’s power to investigate and the power of the deputy public prosecutor to prosecute,” he was quoted as saying in Malay daily Sinar Harian.

However, he insisted that the DAP was the reason for the “red shirt” rally, accusing the opposition party of being responsible for Bersih 4 participants stepping on pictures of several Malay leaders, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

“It’s just as of late, the opposition parties like DAP intentionally arouse the anger of the Malays. The pictures of Malay leaders that were stepped on, Islam being insulted and all sorts of provocation. Who started it?” he was quoted asking.

The “red shirt” rally on Malaysia Day was the second time racial provocation against the Malays was cited as the reason for the community to turn unruly in the national capital this year.

A mob turned violent in front of popular tech mall Low Yat Plaza on July 12 after rumours spread online that a Malay youth had been cheated by an ethnic Chinese trader who allegedly sold him a counterfeit smartphone.

Police later arrested Armed Forces Veterans Association president Mohd Ali Baharom or “Ali Tinju” for a sedition probe over his speech that went viral proclaiming, among other things, that the country is “bumi Melayu” or Malay land, and that the Malays must be united to stand against “rude DAP Chinese” in the country.

However, the Attorney-General’s Chambers has dropped the sedition charges, ostensibly  due to insufficient evidence, news portal The Malaysian Insider reported last night.

Noh Omar also said that Bersih 4 participants, who flood the streets of Kuala Lumpur by the tens of thousands last month to call for clean elections, should have waited for the next general election (GE) to express their dissatisfaction with the current administration instead of taking to the streets.

“Bersih has to wait for GE14 if it wants to show off. Why now, what is their intention? Don’t poison the minds of the public, just wait for elections.

“The red rally is not a Malay issue. To us, we want to show the public our power not by gathering but at the ballot box. If you’re not satisfied with BN, wait for an election,” he said.

Thousands of red shirted people were bussed into the federal capital on Wednesday, which was also Malaysia Day, for the rally officially called “Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu” or the United People’s Assembly, but which caused concern among traders in the city centre and ethnic Chinese business leaders.

The protest was also marred by sporadic outbreaks of racism, with one attendee recorded calling a reporter “Crazy Chinese pig”, among other insults.

During the rally, Noh Omar said that supporters of the Bersih movement and their ilk were merely bent on doing “whatever they want” because they had no gratitude for what the “Malay government” has done for them.

He also asked Bersih and DAP not to use street demonstrations to “bring down the government,” adding that both groups had “no manners” and were “ungrateful.”