Malaysia urged to scrap harsh security law

The Associated Press
Published: November 8, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia's opposition and international rights groups welcomed the release of a prominent blogger who had been detained under a harsh security law but urged the government Saturday to stop using the law to quash dissent.

Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the editor of an anti-government news Web site, was freed Friday after a high court ruled that his Sept. 12 arrest under the Internal Security Act was illegal.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim hailed Raja Petra's release as a "victory" for Malaysians but said many others still languish in prison under the law, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

"The court's decision ... offers a new opportunity to work together to rid Malaysia of this unjust law once and for all," Anwar said.
London-based Amnesty International hailed the court's decision but said in a statement that the Malaysian government "has used this law as a repressive measure to control dissent."

It called on the government to revoke the ISA immediately and to either release or charge more than 60 people still detained under the act.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Raja Petra should not have been detained in the first place. In a statement, it urged Malaysian authorities to "stop harassing the country's online journalists and writers."
Malaysia's government argues the act is necessary for national security.

The government has accused Raja Petra, 58, of threatening public security and causing ethnic tension by publishing writings that it said ridiculed Islam in the Muslim-majority country.
He has infuriated authorities by publishing numerous claims of wrongdoing by government leaders on his highly popular Web site, Malaysia Today. The government has denounced most of the allegations as lies.

Raja Petra is also on trial for sedition after implying that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the murder of a Mongolian woman. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.