On 20 January 2003, police raided the Malaysiakini office and confiscated its servers and 15 newsroom computers, costing an estimated RM150,000 ($40,000 USD). The raid followed a call by the youth wing of the right-wing political party UMNO to investigate the site for sedition after it published a letter criticising the government's pro-Malay quotas in hiring and scholarships. The website was able to go back online ten hours after the raid.
