Bewildered complainants today compared the speed with which police are investigating Umno Youth's sedition allegation against malaysiakini with that of the reports lodged against the movement

They pointed out that it took o­nly three days for police to act o­n Umno Youth's complaint lodged last Friday.

On Monday, police raided malaysiakini' s office to seize 19 computers, six of which were returned last evening.

DAP Youth (Dapsy) secretary Loke Siew Fook claimed that police have yet to inform him of the status of a report he lodged against Umno Youth education bureau chief Dr Adham Baba o­n Nov 15 last year.

"Apart from having my statement taken, I haven't seen any progress at all," said Loke, who lodged the report at the Sea Park police station in Petaling Jaya.

The report against Adham alleged that he had made a "seditious" call to the government to close all Chinese schools in the country.

Loke claimed that Adham had made the statement o­n the Umno Youth website under the heading 'Prejudis melampau cauvinis Cina, kerajaan digesa tutup semua SJKC' (Chinese education chauvinists' prejudice is too much, government urged to close Chinese schools) is against the Federal Constitution as it questioned the right of Malaysians to vernacular education.

Malaysian Tamil Educational Research and Development Foundation president M Manogar also lodged a report against Adham o­n Nov 19.

"Police recorded my statement and were to have called me back, but did not do so," Manogar told malaysiakini .

"I wonder if the other party has been called in for questioning. It is very unfortunate that the police seem to be selective in investigating such reports."

No favouritism

When contacted, Umno Youth information chief Azimi Daim who lodged the report against malaysiakini, denied that the wing is favoured by the police over others.

"As far as I am concerned, police have immediately called Adham when the report was lodged against him," he said.

"When called, we gave our best cooperation, and it is up to the police to proceed from there," he added.

A two-year report lodged against the youth wing of the dominant component of ruling party Barisan Nasional has yet to produce results though.

Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals Committee (Suqiu) alleged that its report against Umno Youth for demonstrating outside the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) o­n Aug 18, 2000 has not received much attention.

"It was very obvious that the demonstration by Umno Youth supporters was an illegal assembly. It could have affected race relations, but no action has been taken against them," said honourary secretary Ser Choon Ing.

Prior to the demonstration, Umno Youth had demanded that Suqiu retract its 17-point request - including the abolition of the distinction between bumiputera and non-bumiputera. During the demonstration, some supporters had threatened to burn down the building.

Suqiu complained to the police about this almost immediately. Ser said he and an employee of SCAH were later called in for questioning.

'No such thing'

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur police chief Dell Akbar Khan, when contacted last evening, dismissed these grouses as baseless and said that the police investigate all reports.

Asked if priority was given to the Umno Youth police report against malaysiakini, Dell responded "No such thing...thank you" before ending the call.

Bukit Aman police headquarters spokesperson ASP Samsudin Ali also said that police have never been biased in carrying out their investigations.

"All reports, including high-profile cases, will be investigated without any exception," he said.

He said it was the responsibility of the complainant to follow up with the officer in charge to find out the progress of the report since there is no time frame as for the completion of investigations.

"If the complainant follows up with the case, the officer who handles the case must provide the person with the progress of the report," he said.

"We have to look at the urgency of the case as well," he added.