More Racial Clashes In Malaysia

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31540, 30 November 1967, Page 15

More Racial Clashes In Malaysia

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) KUALA LUMPUR, November 29. Twenty-two people have died and more than 200 have been injured in five successive nights of violence over devaluation of the old Malaysian dollar.

While devaluation cut the exchange rate for the old dollar in line with sterling, the value of the new dollar remained unchanged.

Racial clashes, arson and other disturbances began on Penang Island as a protest against devaluation and have spread into three north-west Malaysian States. Last night one person died in a clash between 30 people on the Malaysian mainland and a curfew-breaker was shot on Penang Island. Three people were injured in the clash and several others were slashed and stoned in various parts of north-west Malaysia. Four houses were burnt down during the night and in one of three incidents in Kedah State—Malaysia’s rice bowl—one person was stabbed and taken to hospital, and three people were arrested for stone-throwing. The Associated Press reported that the Malaysian Government today began mobilising civil defence groups to assist the hardpressed police and army troops. The civiliar defence groups are composed of volunteers who have received extensive training in assisting the police and military. They were previously Used during the 1948-60 Communist insurrection and the guerrilla war with Indonesia from 1963-66.

“The most important thing is to localise the trouble,” the Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, said after the weekly Cabinet meeting. Even as he spoke, fresh reports came in of more rioting, arson and stabbings from the interior regions 200 miles north-west of the capital where reliable sources said

; Malays had gone on a ram- ! page against the Chinese. I The Government kept up its mass arrest campaign against Leftists and Chinese secret ■ society members, blamed for , triggering off the riots. A police spokesman said > the number of arrests had increased to 882 in six of mainland Malaysia’s 11 States.