Anwar supporters teargassed, Malay unity talks off

Anwar supporters teargassed, Malay unity talks off

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia's Islamic opposition on
Sunday postponed Malay unity talks with Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad as police in his home state fired water cannon and tear
gas at supporters of jailed rival Anwar Ibrahim.

The police used the strong arm tactics to disperse hundreds of
Anwar supporters protesting against the trial of opposition
activists, mostly members of Anwar's Parti Keadilan Nasional
(National Justice Party) in Kulim, a town in the northwest state
of Kedah.

Eye witnesses and court officials said at least six people
were arrested.

In a separate incident on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, 45 people
including 11 women marching to oppose the closure of a 70-year-
old Chinese-language school were hauled in by police.

In each case protesters were accused of ignoring controversial
curbs on public gatherings, under which police can declare any
gathering of more than four people illegal.

A few days earlier police in Kedah used water cannon to break
up an anti-government rally of 5,000 people. The police said the
rally was illegal as the organizers had no permit.

Leaders of Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) issued a statement
after the latest incident on Sunday saying the Malay unity talks
with Mahathir's party set for Monday had now been postponed. It
said the talks would go-ahead at a more conducive time.

Bernama news agency quoted PAS president Fadzil Noor as saying
there had been "a few incidents detrimental to the situation and
as such the meeting scheduled for tomorrow... is postponed."

Fadzil said other preconditions for the talks were that oil
royalty payments be reinstated to a state his party governs and
for publishing restrictions on its newspaper to be loosened.

Tolerance

He condemned police actions in breaking up anti-government
demonstrations at the weekend, saying peaceful demonstrations
should be tolerated.

"These wild attacks on gatherings should stop," Fadzil told a
news conference called to announce his parties demands for the
talks with Mahathir.

A newly formed human rights commission is to conduct a study
on whether the rules should be relaxed to allow peaceful
demonstrations. Illegal assembly is punishable by up to one year
in jail, a fine or both, although relatively few people have in
practice been jailed for this offense.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said street
protests staged by opposition parties were "undemocratic" and
would not resolve problems.

"There are (other) ways to do it. They are represented in
parliament and many of their representatives can register their
objections," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

On Thursday, PAS said it wanted any talks with Mahathir to
include sensitive political topics including official corruption,
the independence of the judiciary and the case of Anwar. It also
demanded that the talks include the reinstatement of oil
royalties worth more than 1 billion ringgit (US$263 million)
annually to the eastern state of Terengganu.

Reinstatement of the payments was now a precondition of the
talks, Fadzil said on Sunday.

Mahathir froze the payments last year on grounds that the
opposition group had no legal right to them. Two other states
ruled by allies in Mahathir's coalition continue to receive oil
royalties.

Unity

Mahathir has said the talks should focus on Malay unity, not
political issues. There was no immediate response from the
government party to PAS's announcement.

The fate of former finance minister Anwar, who is serving a
15-year jail term many Malays think is unjust, had been on the
agenda at PAS's insistence, along with a range of other sensitive
issues.

Mahathir is seeking to restore the image of his United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) within the majority Malay community,
which accounts for 55 percent of Malaysia's 22 million people.

UMNO, which has led every government since independence from
Britain in 1957, is probably more unpopular with Malays than at
any time in its history.

The current UMNO-led coalition includes parties drawn from
Malaysia's minority Chinese and Indian communities.

UMNO won less than 50 percent of the Malay vote in the
November 1999 election, its worst performance for 30 years, and
has shown little sign of turning the tide ahead of the next
election due in 2004.

UMNO leaders were stung by the ferocity of criticism leveled
at them during a mass gathering in Kuala Lumpur two weeks ago
which had been billed as a Malay unity rally.

Mahathir last month invited PAS to join in the unity talks,
while Anwar's Keadilan, led by his wife, rejected a similar
offer.

Keadilan won a by-election in the northwest state of Kedah,
Mahathir's home territory, last November. The nine people on
trial in Kulim stand accused of rioting during the by-election.