Inter Press Service: 13 January 2000
MALAYSIA: NEW CRACKDOWN AGAINST OPPOSITION UNDER WAY
The arrests on sedition charges of four people
linked to Malaysia's opposition, hours after Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad left for an overseas holiday, have signalled what critics warn will be
a wider crackdown soon. One of the arrested people is Karpal Singh, who is also the lead lawyer for ousted and jailed Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
KUALA LUMPUR: The arrests on sedition charges of four people
linked to the opposition, hours after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad left for an overseas holiday Wednesday, signal what critics warn is
a wider crackdown soon.
The four people were linked to Malaysia's three main opposition parties.
Two of them -- Democratic Action Party deputy chairman Karpal Singh and
National Justice Party (keADILan) vice-president Marina Yusoff -- are
prominent opposition leaders and vocal critics.
Karpal is also a lead lawyer for ousted and jailed deputy prime minister
Anwar Ibrahim, whose sodomy trial was put on hold before the general
election in November.
Mahathir is due to provide evidence in court once the trial resumes and
would have come face-to-face with Karpal, one of his long-time political
foes, in a much-anticipated courtroom showdown. At the same time, it is too
early to tell how Karpal's arrest will affect his involvement in the Anwar
trial.
The other two individuals arrested are involved in producing the
opposition bi-weekly 'Harakah', the country's best-selling Malay language
newspaper published by the Islamic Party (PAS).
Editor Zulkifli Sulong and printer Shea Lim Thye both pleaded not guilty
in court Thursday morning to charges of printing seditious news in August
1999 relating to the Anwar trial.
Karpal is expected to be charged in court on Friday in connection with
his allegation that ''some people in high places'' were responsible for the
alleged arsenic poisoning of Anwar -- which was later not borne out by
additional tests.
Marina is also expected to be charged on Friday over her allegation that
leaders in the dominant United Malays National Organisation -- which
Mahathir heads -- had planned and carried out the massacre of Chinese
Malaysians during the May 13, 1969 ethnic conflict. Her account apparently
conflicts with official versions of the incidents.
A warrant of arrest was also issued on Jan 6 for keADILan youth chief
Mohammad Ezam Mohamed Nor.
However, the web-based publication 'Malaysiakini' reported Thursday
afternoon that KEADILan party source said Ezam denies he had received an
arrest warrant.
The source further said he planned to make a police report against the
newspaper 'Utusan Malaysia' which said he had gone missing after being
served a warrant of arrest.
The arrests of Zulkifli and Shea came soon after the management of
Harakah was warned against selling the paper to non-members of PAS.
Four other Malay-language publications were also warned about violating
the conditions in their publication permits.
The small band of alternative Malay-language media has threatened to
loosen the stranglehold of the mainstream media in the country's
politically charged atmosphere, and especially in influencing ethnic Malays
who make up about half the population.
Mahathir left for his holiday in Argentina and the Caribbean at 1.05
a.m. Thursday, and the series of arrests began with the first at 10.15 a.m.
He is scheduled to return to Malaysia on Feb 3 after rounding off his
vacation with a week-long working trip in Switzerland.
''The prime minister has the knack of being out of the country in
internal travails,'' noted political commentator M G G Pillai.
In the premier's absence, Home Minister Abdullah Badawi, who replaced
Anwar as deputy premier, was left to field questions related to the arrest.
He said more may be arrested later depending on police investigations.
Abdullah, however, stressed it was ''not a crackdown'' and that the arrests
were a follow-up of police investigations.
''But this crackdown was not unexpected,'' said Pillai, who observed
that whenever UMNO is nervous and shell shocked, as now after losing key
seats in Parliament in November, the opposition bears the brunt.
UMNO, of which Mahathir is president, has good reason to be nervous
despite the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition retaining its two-thirds
parliamentary majority in the recent election.
The party lost much ground to PAS, and analysts say that it does not
even command majority support among the Malay community, UMNO's traditional
support base. Anwar's ouster deeply split the community and unleashed the
'reformasi' movement, a widespread clamour for democratic reforms and
political change.
More ominously, analysts are saying that the arrests could signal a
larger crackdown.
In 1987, when Mahathir faced a stern leadership challenge within UMNO,
more than 100 critics and activists were detained under the Internal
Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial.
This time, perhaps as a result of intense criticism of the ISA from
opposition politicians and human rights groups, the authorities appear less
inclined to use that law.
There is also speculation that the crackdown is linked to internal
upheaval that UMNO is due to face during the party elections in May, and
that there is bound to be considerable soul-searching following the erosion
in Malay support in the last election.
Though on paper Mahathir and Abdullah should pick up the top two posts
uncontested following ''advice'' from the party's supreme council to leave
the posts uncontested, it is hard to tell if UMNO divisions will heed the
recommendation when it is time for them to nominate candidates.
Commentators talk of grassroots unhappiness and rumbling about the
no-contest advice. Some observers believe that there should be a contest
for at least the deputy president's post, left vacant after Anwar's ouster.
Already, the field is crowded for the three vice-presidential posts with
10 contenders believed to be vying for them. (END/IPS/ap-ip-cr-hd/an/js/00)