Anwar lawyer arrested in suspected crackdown

Anwar lawyer arrested in suspected crackdown

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian police on Wednesday arrested
the lawyer of jailed finance minister Anwar Ibrahim and three
others on charges of sedition in an apparent crackdown on the
opposition following bitterly contested elections.

The arrests, which hit each of the three main opposition
parties, drew swift condemnation from critics of Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad, who earlier in the day left the country on a
two-week holiday.

Karpal Singh, an outspoken opposition politician and prominent
lawyer defending Anwar in his high-profile sex trial, was
arrested on a sedition charge and brought to a police station in
the capital, police said.

Police declined to elaborate on the charge against Karpal, who
is a leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) but lost his
seat in parliament in November's snap elections. Karpal was still
at the police station on Wednesday evening.

Marina Yusoff of Parti Keadilan Nasional (National Justice
Party) was accused of inciting racial hatred in remarks made
before general elections in November, the opposition party said
in a statement. Her remarks related to violent race riots that
erupted in 1969.

The editor of the newspaper run by the opposition Parti Islam
se-Malaysia (PAS) told Reuters both he and the holder of the
newspaper's publishing permit were arrested separately on charges
of sedition over an August 1999 article on the judiciary.

Opposition leaders denounced the arrests, which they said
could mark the start of a campaign to stifle criticism of
Mahathir's coalition and governing authorities.

"Apparently a policy decision has been taken for a crackdown,"
DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang told Reuters. "This is not
the way to heal the nation after the elections as it only deepens
the wounds and has far-reaching repercussions for nation-building
in years to come."

Lim Kit Siang's son, Lim Guan Eng, was released from jail in
August after serving a year for sedition.

Keadilan vice president Tian Chua said: "It looks like the
persecution is on. I think they will go for a new round of
attacks on the opposition. I am not optimistic."

More than 100 opposition figures were arrested in 1987 in a
sweep code-named Operation Lalang, many under the Internal
Security Act which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Zulkifli Sulong, editor of PAS's Harakah newspaper, said he
was arrested on charges of sedition in a police station in the
capital and that he would plead not guilty when he appears in
Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Thursday at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Jakarta
time).

He said the executive who holds Harakah's printing permit was
also arrested on the same charge. Zulkifli said under the
Sedition Act, a publication's permit can be suspended for up to a
year. "I am worried about this because of my newspaper," he said.

The government recently ordered Harakah, whose publishing
license says it can sell only to PAS members, to stop
distributing to non-members. Harakah's circulation soared during
the election campaign last year.

Asia's longest-serving elected leader, Mahathir has been in
power since 1981 and won an unprecedented fifth mandate in
November's polls when his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition took
three quarters of the seats in parliament.

Mahathir's supporters credit him with modernizing Malaysia.
But his critics, foremost among them Anwar, say his government
has curbed civil liberties.

Anwar's sacking in 1998 and subsequent arrest galvanized the
disparate opposition, which in the recent polls made deep inroads
into Mahathir's United Malays National Organization's base in the
Moslem Malay electorate.