KUALA LUMPUR: Two witnesses have had their statements recorded regarding a Chinese Type National School (SJKC) in Seremban singing the national anthem ‘Negaraku’ in the Mandarin language,” said Bukit Aman Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Datuk Huzir Mohamed.
He said the two witnesses were the Assistant Director of the Planning and Management Sector, District Education Office (Complaint/Investigation) from the Negri Sembilan Education Department and the SJKC Headmaster.
“The recording of statements from the other witnesses would be done based on the appointments that had been arranged,” he said in a statement early this morning.
On Dec 6, the Education Ministry said in a statement that the ministry would not compromise with anyone who breached regulations involving the Malaysian Constitution whether directly or otherwise.
The video recording lasting one minute and 23 seconds which showed students singing the Negaraku in the Mandarin language was allegedly recorded on Sept 26, 2018 at a SJKC school in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.
In a similar incident, the national anthem sung in the Arabic language was detected to have occurred in a national school in Gurun, Kedah.
“The recording of statements of witnesses who were identified had been carried out yesterday involving the Headmaster, District Education Officer of Kuala Muda, Kedah as well as the suspect who recorded and uploaded the video in the Facebook.
“So far, the police had received eight reports concerning the same issue and both cases were being investigated under Section 8(3) of the National Anthem Act 1968 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998,” he said.
On Dec 7, recordings of the Negaraku sung by a group of youths believed to be from religious and primary schools surfaced, each lasting between one and two minutes.
Huzir said the investigation papers on the two cases would be referred to Attorney-General’s Chambers together with the suggestions based on the outcome of the investigations. — Bernama
