Student must face the law, Cabinet, however, accepts his apology

Student must face the law, Cabinet, however, accepts his apology - The Star
By DEVID RAJAH and V.P. SUJATA, Friday August 17, 2007

PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet has accepted the apology by student Wee Meng Chee, who caused a furore with his Negaraku rap video clip on video-sharing web portal YouTube, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

However, the Prime Minister said the law would still have to take its course.

Wee, 24, could be charged under the National Anthem Act 1968 with disrespecting and lowering the prestige of the Negaraku, he said.

Abdullah said a Minister had brought up the matter during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Good job: Abdullah shaking hands with Federation of Malaysia Manufacturers president Tan Sri Yong Pok Kon after the press conference on Pemudah at his office in Putrajaya yesterday.
“He (Wee) said he wants to apologise, we can accept. But if it is an offence, how to let him go without him being punished? The law has to take its course,” he said during a press conference on the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business here yesterday.

Wee’s six-minute video of a Mandarin rap number using the Negaraku as background created an uproar, with several quarters condemning him for mocking the national anthem and making offensive statements.

The 24-year-old mass communications student at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan had on Tuesday apologised for the parody In Kuala Lumpur, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Cabinet was not in the position to forgive Wee, LOH FOON FONG reports.

Nazri said “the offence was not against the Prime Minister or Ministers concerned but against the nation.”

”If he had committed an offence, and I think it was an offence, then we must allow the Attorney-General to investigate and decide whether to take him to court,” said Nazri.

“To not prosecute him is not ‘on’ at all because he has committed an offence against the nation and no one, not the Cabinet or political parties, are in a position to forgive him.”

Wee could be charged under the Sedition Act because he had insulted the symbol of the nation, he said.

“We cannot be like the West where you can have the underwear with the design of the Union Jack. In Britain, you can insult the Queen or the flag, I don’t care, but in this country we have laws and we cannot set a precedent whereby you commit an offence, apologise and get away with it,” Nazri said, adding that Wee was not a boy but a 24-year-old man and he should be held responsible for the act.

“It is not about ethnicity or being racial but it is against national interest,” he said.

When asked how Wee had insulted the national anthem, Nazri said the song was supposed to be sung in a proper way, otherwise it would mean insulting the song, especially when the lyrics were changed.

“Malaysia Negaraku ku. Ku ku can also mean ‘cuckoo’, so it was insulting. I don’t think this was done out of ignorance. He was a university student and he meant to insult the national anthem,” he said.

On whether Wee would be called home to answer charges against him, Nazri said the A-G would have to investigate and if he decides to prosecute him, then when Wee returns, he would have to face the charges.

The Minister also said that he wanted action to be taken against YouTube and other bloggers who allowed sensitive material which went against the laws of Malaysia to be published.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim concurred with Nazri, saying that the country was governed by the rule of law and Wee had to abide by it.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/17/nation/18614032&sec=nation