Bring it on, says Putra veep of potential charges for racial incitement

CYBERJAYA, Jan 21 — Lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz today said he is ready to take on charges against him for his latest social media post insulting the ethnic Indians and Chinese in the country.

“I am a lawyer, and I am at court every day anyway. So, bring it on.

“If I have to be present at court, I will defend myself the best I can. But it’s normal that I will be represented by another lawyer. That is usually the case,” he said when met by reporters at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) office.

Mohd Khairul, who is also the vice-president of Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra), was at the MCMC headquarters to have his statement recorded.

This is after the MCMC had received complaints from the public regarding his latest controversial Facebook posting.

In the video posted on Facebook with the title “Cina dan India takde dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia” (Chinese and Indians are not in the Federal Constitution), Mohd Khairul held a copy of the Federal Constitution and pointed out that only the Malays were mentioned while the Chinese and Indians were not.

“These are facts. What I said in the Facebook video, they are facts found in the Federal Constitution.

“Those who are not happy (with the Facebook post), to me, it’s because they themselves don’t understand the Federal Constitution.

“They think maybe before this, the content existed.

“So when I say it isn’t there and it has been proven that it isn’t there, and they have checked and found that it isn’t there, so they are unhappy... also may be due to other instances such as the ‘tanglung’ issue,” he added.

Prior to posting this video, Mohd Khairul previously courted attention when he issued a letter to a school in Puchong complaining of “excessive” Chinese New Year decorations, labelling the decorations which consisted of flowers and lanterns as being “too religious”.

This led to political parties such as DAP and Gerakan to call for stern action against Mohd Khairul.

Both parties’ leaders claimed that Mohd Khairul, who uses the name Syed Buzze Azam on Facebook, was trying to incite hatred among the different races in the country with his latest posting.

According to DAP’s David Marshel, the Federal Constitution uses “other races” to encompass all races other than Malays as it was not feasible to list out every different race in the country including those in East Malaysia.

He also reportedly said that Mohd Khairul obviously twisted the Federal Constitution to suit his needs.

David and party colleague Jason Raj have since lodged police reports against Mohd Khairul over his latest video.

When asked to comment on political involvement in the matter, Mohd Khairul said he did not want to say much about what has been done by the respective parties.

“At this stage, I don’t want to comment on what they have said. But in general, this issue has gained public attention, including political parties who are hoping to ride on the popularity of the matter.

“So, it’s up to the public to make their own assessment. But what is important is that I am a responsible person, and I don’t deny (what I have done) and I will give full cooperation to investigations carried out on this,” said Mohd Khairul.