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Message: <blockquote data-quote="satria_95" data-source="post: 2612978" data-attributes="member: 1506">More..========================Sunday November 25, 2007PM: We have to take action if people commit offencesDEVID RAJAH IN KAMPALA KAMPALA (Uganda): Do not take the police action against three activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as a racial issue, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned. “It has nothing to do with race. People should stop linking or viewing everything that happens in the country as a racial matter,” the Prime Minister said. He added that people should not be too quick to make unfounded claims, saying that those who commit offences would have to face charges. On Friday, police arrested lawyers P. Waythamoorthy, who is Hindraf chief, his brother P. Uthayakumar and V. S. Ganapathi Rao for allegedly uttering seditious words in speeches made at a gathering in Batang Berjuntai, Selangor, on Nov 16. They were charged at a Sessions Court in Klang. All three claimed trial. The police had also rejected an application by Hindraf to gather outside the British High Commission today to hand over a petition over a class action suit against the British government for bringing Indians to pre-independence Malaya as labourers and exploiting them. At least 25 Indian-based groups have dissociated themselves from the gathering and had called on the organisers to cancel their march. Abdullah, who is Internal Security Minister, said the police had evidence to charge Waythamoorthy and the other two for making seditious statements and speeches. The police had been monitoring the activities of the three men and their group for a while now, he told Malaysian journalists at the end of the first day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting here on Friday. “We have to take action if these people have clearly committed offences,” said Abdullah, adding that the arrests and charging of the three Hindraf organisers were not related to the group's planned protest in Kuala Lumpur. Responding to a question, he asked: “What can we do if people want to take to the streets to protest instead of using the proper channels?” “If they have committed an offence, then they are wrong. “We are not out to victimise anyone. If someone is wrong, then the person must be charged and brought to justice,” Abdullah said. He said that if people were allowed to openly commit offences, others who were law-abiding citizens would become angry and upset with the authorities.</blockquote>