September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Malaysia's premier said Wednesday that a senior member of the ruling party had been suspended for three years for "stoking racial tensions" by making incendiary comments about ethnic Chinese.
Ahmad Ismail, a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the ruling coalition, had called Chinese "lodgers" and warned of repercussions if they tried to seek political power.
The furore has highlighted rifts between majority Muslim Malays and the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, and caused uproar in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of race-based parties.
"The supreme council has found that Ahmad Ismail's statement and actions have caused much anger and protest from the BN component parties," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said after a meeting of the policy-making body.
"We have decided that he will be suspended from the party for three years," he told a press conference. AFP
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