KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Perkasa claimed today that the Federal Constitution mandates that all official affairs be conducted in the national language, as it expressed support for the Malaysia Film Festival’s (FFM) language segregation policy.

The conservative Malay rights group cited Article 152 of the Federal Constitution that states that the country’s national language shall be the Malay language, although the constitutional provision does not touch on filmmaking.

"All parties must uphold the national language as it is the basis of the country’s Constitution, with reference to Article 153,” Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali said in a statement, referring to the constitutional provision on the special position of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

"Perkasa also regrets that there are Malays who are active in the arts world and who want equality in terms of competition, but when other races violate their rights to things like air time or TV slots, they claim that they’re downtrodden,” he added, without naming anyone.

Local cinematographer Mohd Noor Kassim returned yesterday two trophies that he previously won at FFM and has withdrawn himself from being nominated for Bravo 5 at this year’s film awards ceremony, labelling the non-Bahasa Malaysia categories as "racist”.

The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) said yesterday that the non-Bahasa Malaysia awards categories at the 28th FFM this year, scheduled for September 1 to 3, may be abolished after public uproar.

The nominations of two critically acclaimed movies — Chiu Keng Guan’s Ola Bola and Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s Jagat — for Best Picture (non-Bahasa Malaysia) at the 28th FFM, instead of the main Best Picture category, had sparked outrage both among the public and within the film industry.

There are also non-Bahasa Malaysia categories for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the national film awards ceremony this year.