September 23, 2008 - 5:46PM
Malaysia's leading blogger has been ordered to spend two years in detention under internal security laws after being accused of insulting Islam, his wife says.
Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a prominent government critic and founder of the Malaysia Today website, has been sent to the Kamunting detention centre in northern Perak state on the order of the home minister, Marina Lee Abdullah told AFP.
His arrest earlier this month was part of a crackdown amid a political crisis in Malaysia, as Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi faces calls to quit from within his cabinet and a mounting challenge by the opposition.
"(Police) said my husband has been sent to Kamunting this morning and that he will remain there for two years with no trial. This is the worst news I can receive but we will keep fighting for his release," Marina said on Tuesday.
Raja Petra's lawyer Amarjit Sidhu said the government had pulled a "mean, dirty trick" by issuing the detention order the night before a scheduled court hearing on Tuesday to secure his release.
"The government can now hide behind a veil of secrecy because they do not have to disclose reasons for detaining him," he told AFP.
Raja Petra was detained for allegedly "insulting Islam and publishing articles on his website which has tarnished the country's leadership to the point of causing confusion among the people," his wife said.
He was also accused of inciting hate in his articles on Islam - a serious offence in predominantly Muslim Malaysia.
But Raja Petra is best known for his articles on politics, and had already been charged with sedition and defamation for linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to the sensational murder of a Mongolian woman.
He was detained under the Internal Security Act for 53 days in 2001, at the height of the "Reformasi" movement triggered by the sacking and jailing of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who is now opposition leader.
The law, a relic of the British colonial era, has been condemned by human rights groups and opposition parties, who have pushed to have it abolished.
It allows for renewable two-year periods of detention without trial and has been used to lock up government opponents in the past, although in recent times it has mostly been directed against suspected terrorists.
Raja Petra was rounded up earlier this month along with an opposition MP and a journalist but the other two were quickly released.
Their arrests triggered the resignation of Zaid Ibrahim, a cabinet minister in charge of legal affairs, as well as calls from within the ruling coalition for the security laws to be abolished.
© 2008 AFP
M'sian govt denies truce talks PM Abdullah says it's the craziest thing he has ever heard.
ASIAONE
Tue, Sep 23, 2008Reuter
KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S government denied opposition claims on Tuesday that the two sides were holding talks to resolve the country's political crisis ahead of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's trial for sodomy.
'That is the craziest report I have ever heard,' Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters. 'There is no meeting with Anwar's people.'
Mr Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar's Parti Keadilan Rakyat, said earlier on Tuesday the opposition had opened talks with the government via a third party on the political impasse.
'We managed to break through in some discussions through a third party and soon a direct negotiation will happen between Abdullah and Anwar,' he said.
The claim came on the day the Anwar-led opposition alliance had demanded parliament be recalled from recess to hold a confidence vote in Mr Abdullah and a day before Mr Anwar was due in court on sodomy charges.
Malaysia has been plagued by political turmoil since a general election in March, when the opposition won power in five of Malaysia's 13 states and denied Mr Abdullah's coalition a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in 40 years.
The prolonged political uncertainty has helped hammer Malaysian assets. The stock market was down nearly 30 per cent this year even before the latest turn in the US credit crisis devastated Wall Street.
Analysts said the political battle could drag for months.
'It will not end unless the two sides sit down and talk,' said political analyst Khoo Kay Peng. 'Abdullah should resolve this once and for all.'
'I think it will bode well for the confidence of businesses and investors who are pulling back not knowing what's going to happen,' Dr Khoo said.
One of Mr Abdullah's political secretaries dismissed Mr Chua's claim as 'rubbish.' 'You can't lie to all the people all the time,' said Mr Alwi Che Ahmad referring to Mr Anwar.
Mr Anwar's three-party opposition alliance has been piling pressure on the Barisan Nasional government, which has ruled Malaysia for more than 50 years since independence, since it scored its best-ever election result in March.
Inflation, economic uncertainty and rising resentment over corruption and privileges given to majority Malays fueled the voter backlash.
Mr Anwar has said he has convinced enough MPs from the Barisan Nasional government to switch to his side.
Mr Anwar's alliance holds 82 seats in the 222-strong parliament. The 13-party Barisan has 138 seats after two of its MPs quit the coalition and declared themselves as independents.
Mr Anwar, once the political heir apparent to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, is fighting what he says are trumped up charges of sodomy for a second time after being jailed on that charge and for corruption in 1998, both of which he denied.
If convicted, Mr Anwar can be jailed for up to 20 years.
He told London's Telegraph in an interview published on Tuesday he was not ruling out the option of asking the king to intervene to resolve the political crisis.
'We have a problem here because we have the numbers but we can't move,' Mr Anwar was quoted as saying, referring to his inability to prove his majority while parliament is in recess
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)