Nine copies of ' Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things (Vol 2) ' by local writer Amir Muhammad were seized by police officers from MPH Mahkota Parade, Malacca, last week.

NONE This was confirmed by the store's supervisor Darren Teow Chow Chow Liang, who said he was told by the officers that they "wanted to browse through, then make a judgement".

The raid was led by Special Branch officer, chief inspector Zaarah Md Idrus, of the Malacca police headquarters.

It was carried out under section 18 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

Section 18 of the PPPA states that the authorities are empowered to "seize and detain" any publication which they have reason to believe to be evidence of an offence under the act.

Amir, who was only informed this morning, described the incident as "the latest act of harassment by the authorities against bookshops and publishers".

Negative impact

He wrote in his blog: "If, indeed, these people suspect that the book (which has been on sale since December 2008 - yes, for 14 months - with no hassle) might 'have a negative impact on public tranquility/morals/public safety/relations between the country and foreign nations', why can't they just go through the proper channels by banning the book?"

lelaki komunis 060506 amir muhammad "The book has many pictures and very little text; even so, did it really take the authorities 14 months to even suspect that the book committed any or all of those vaguely-stated offences? If so, should we worry about the literacy rate of the members of the police force?" added Amir ( right ).

Of late, there has been a string of crackdowns on locally published books by the authorities.

A total of 114 books published by Kinibooks , a subsidiary of Malaysiakini , were seized in recent weeks throughout Malaysia.

Copies of ' Where is Justice? ' and ' 1Funny Malaysia ' were removed from the bookstores during police raids .

It is understood that the books are being studied for any seditious content that could compromise harmony.