Flag Burning..

Yesterday was reading NST. Saw one article with a picture of one motorcycle helmet guy burning the Malaysian Flag. Very disappointed. Here is the article.






KUALA TERENGGANU: The rioters at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat ceramah here on Saturday night caused RM1 million in damage.

State police chief Datuk Ayub Yaakob said 23 people were arrested for rioting in the incident, adding that three were injured along with four policemen.

He said two of the rioters who were injured had been shot by a policeman when he was attacked.

He said the constable had fired twice in the air after being pushed to the ground, somehow hitting the two suspects.

Ayub said the two men and the constable were warded at the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital, but the policeman was discharged yesterday.

Also warded was Federal Reserve Unit personnel Lance Corporal Azmi Hussein, who was assaulted with sticks by a group of about 20 men.

The others injured were given outpatient treatment at the same hospital.

The 23 suspects, in their 20s and 30s, will be charged under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting and for other offences.

The incident on Saturday saw 350 police and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel quelling about 600 rioters.

A crowd of 200, which had been waiting for a ceramah by Keadilan treasurer Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim in Jalan Sultan Mahmud, Batu Buruk, turned unruly after the police Light Strike Force asked them to disperse.

The crowd later swelled to 600 and began attacking the Light Strike Force, forcing it to call in the FRU.

The FRU then used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd, which became even more aggressive and began hurling Molotov cocktails and burning sticks.

The FRU started to retreat around 1am, three hours after the incident, hoping that the crowd would become less aggressive.

However, the mob pursued the police and FRU personnel.

Three bonfires were lit using plastic road dividers, tree branches and construction material.

Several flags were thrown into the bonfires.

Commenting on the incident in Petaling Jaya, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he felt police had acted according to the law.

He said everyone, including Umno and other Barisan Nasional component parties, were required to get police permits before holding functions.

"Such laws apply to all and not just to the opposition parties.

"The police acted accordingly. They have the responsibility of enforcing the law."

Asked to comment on the rioters’ refusal to disperse, Najib said they had to obey the law.

"If we don’t follow them, there will be anarchy in the country with no one respecting the rules and regulations."

Earlier, Ayub said he ordered the police and FRU to retreat to prevent the situation from turning ugly.

"Our main priority is to restore public order. We would have preferred it if no confrontation had taken place, but at the same time, we had to take action to show that we are not weak," he said.

Ayub said police had invited organisers of the ceramah to the police station here for talks over the permit but up to 6pm on Saturday, no one had turned up.

The permit for the ceramah, he said, was rejected on safety grounds as it was being held at a residential area and near government quarters.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said opposition supporters who were at the incident on Saturday had gone overboard in their actions by rioting and burning flags, including the Umno flag.


My dissapointment is, what did the flag ever do to them? Why did they have to burn it? They should be tried for treason for this.

Flags which ever country, is an important symbol for the country. Think of the men and women in Uniform who have defended this country and some even paid their lives for it.

One may not like the politicians or government of the day but who wins or loss, the Malaysian Flag stays the same.

Don;t ever disrespect our Malaysian Flag (or other country's flag).