Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia has done everything to handle the alleged assault of an Indonesian karate referee by four police personnel in a respectful manner, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said.
Syed Hamid said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had personally contacted Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to apologise to Indonesia over the embarrassing incident and promised to handle the case according to the law.
On Sept 1, Susilo urged Indonesians to calm down and stop the anti-Malaysia demonstrations over the alleged assault of referee Donald Luther Kolobita.
“We hope that the matter can be resolved as soon as possible,” Syed Hamid told reporters after opening an exhibition entitled “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit” at Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai Malaysia here Sunday.
Following the alleged assault last Friday in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, Indonesia withdrew from the 8th Asian Karate Championship in Kuala Lumpur and anti-Malaysia demonstrations broke out in several Indonesian cities.
“The actions taken by Malaysia, Susilo and the Malaysian police are polite (berhemah) and clever (bijak) measures to maintain the close Malaysian-Indonesian bilateral ties.
He said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan had also written a letter to apologise to the referee Donald Luther Kolobita.
“The IGP is the highest law enforcement officer. It involves his personnel. He has shown the deep feeling of concern that Malaysia has for such an incident. He has promised that action will be against the four police personnel,” he added.
“The rest of it, we have to leave it to the court. We hope it (the case) can be disposed off the case quickly so that due process of can take place and justice can be done.”
Syed Hamid said hopefully, legal process could be carried out quickly to overcome anger and dissatisfaction among Indonesians.
He also expressed hope that Indonesian media would not attempt to provoke anger among Indonesians.
“I hope we will not be stirred by emotions. Malaysian-Indonesian bilateral ties are too valuable. I don‘t know what is the real agenda of the media that wish to raise anger,” he said.
“We have already stated that we are deeply sad and regret over he incident and showed our sincerity that we want proper action to be taken against the policemen. We hope the media there will not try to provoke emotions among Indonesians,” he added.
Source: www.thestar.com (3 September 2007)
