MALAYSIA'S Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, defended the government's crackdown on dissent, including the arrest of ethnic Indian activists, saying it averted a serious threat of racial violence.
He raised the spectre of the country's worst race riots, in May 1969 when almost 200 people were killed in clashes between ethnic Chinese and Muslim Malays.
'If the Malays of Kampung Baru come out then we have the spectre of a serious possibility of a racial clash in this country,' Datuk Seri Najib said.
The Malay enclave of Kampung Baru was one of the flashpoints of the 1969 riots.
'There were signs that they were preparing to come out so we had to tell them, 'look, don't make the situation any worse',' he said.
The government was taking action to 'prevent anything worse from happening', he said.
Unprecedented street protests by ethnic Indians last November, which police broke up with tear gas and water cannons, opened a new faultline in Malaysia's increasingly tense race relations.
Five leaders of the Indian rights group, Hindraf, who claim the community is the victim of discrimination at the hands of the majority Malays, are now being held without trial under tough internal security laws.
Datuk Seri Najib defended the use of the much-criticised Internal Security Act (ISA) against the Hindraf leaders.
'A great deal of people thought we should have used it earlier, but if we had... there could have been pros and cons, those who say we are not tolerant, we are autocratic, we are not democratic enough,' he said.
Datuk Seri Najib said the government allowed events to pan out and did not to use the ISA too early. 'When we used it, the vast majority of Malaysians supported it.'
The Hindraf rally came two weeks after another rare demonstration organised by electoral reform campaigners, which saw 30,000 people take to the streets. They were also dispersed with tear gas and water cannon.
Police have since broken up other peaceful demonstrations, Datuk Seri Najib said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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