Malaysia PM committed to multi-racial coalition
Updated
Malaysia's prime minister, Abduallah Badawi, has reaffirmed his commitment to his multi-racial coalition after a ruling party member's incendiary comments about ethnic Chinese.
A UMNO leader from northern Penang state, Ahmad Ismail, sparked the row by describing ethnic Chinese as lodgers, and escalated the situation with an outburst in which he warned the community not to seek political power.
Mr Badawi has promised stern action against the politician.
The Umno Supreme Council will convene an emergency meeting later today to decide what action to take.
