Home Ministry issues show cause letter to Nanyang Siang Pau Sdn Bhd on caricature

PETALING JAYA: Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau has been called up by the Home Ministry over its publication of a caricature mocking parliament speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
The ministry's secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim said a show cause letter had been issued to the newspaper under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984.
"The editor has been given three days to reply to the show cause letter, and any further action would be taken in accordance with the regulations," he said.
Alwi said the paper was hauled up by the Ministry as the caricature was deemed to have made a mockery of Parliament and Islamic matters.
"It can cause hate among people of different races and religion. To make matters worse, it appears like it is mocking Parliament and Islam as the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) depicted in the caricature is related to Islam," said Alwi.
Nanyang had published the caricature titled "Monkey Act" on Monday.
It featured two monkeys on a tree named "Act 355".
One monkey is seen wearing a songkok while the other a turban. The monkey wearing the songkok was labelled "speaker" while the turbaned monkey was labelled "Hadi Awang".
Under the tree a group of monkeys, alluding to parliamentarians, are seen fighting.
During a protest at the newspaper's office here today, PAS had demanded that Nanyang apologise personally to Abdul Hadi and Pandikar Amin.
Nanyang Siang Pau editor-in-chief Chan Aun Kuang, when contacted, said they would comply with PAS' demand and follow up with official letters addressed to both Abdul Hadi and Pandikar Amin.