A ruling ordering a popular, government-owned Mandarin radio station to broadcast Malay patriotic songs and poems has infuriated ethnic Chinese fans of the station.
The station, aiFM, must broadcast the songs and poems between programmes throughout the day.
'We are following the directive strictly,' aiFM director Lee Yuet Siu said. 'But we don't know how our fans feel about the ruling.'
Fans have been protesting at the ruling in letters to Chinese-language newspapers and on internet chat forums.
Most fans see the directive as interference and as an unsophisticated attempt to infuse Malay values into Chinese radio programmes.
'We can't see the logic behind this new rule,' said Vincent Tan, a fan of aiFM, in a letter to Malaysiakini, an independent news website.
'Does this mean the ministry sees Chinese as unpatriotic and always requiring constant reminders to be patriotic? I take this as an insult.'The station, which mixes golden oldies music with in-depth market analysis and world news, is popular among the upwardly mobile, educated Chinese crowd.This row is the latest in a series of clashes pitting the Malay-dominated bureaucracy against the people.
