Opposition Alleges Government Is Using Judicial System as a Weapon : Malaysia Political Fight Shifts to Courts 
International Herald Tribune
September 23, 1999
Thomas Fuller

The arrests of seven prominent anti-government activists in Malaysia this week have again shifted the focus of national politics into the courtroom, leading to accusations by opposition groups that the judicial system is being used to fight political battles.

Preparing to widen the crackdown, Malaysia's chief of police, Norian Mai, said Wednesday that police planned to arrest five more politicians.

The seven men already in detention are being held for their involvement in an anti-government demonstration Sunday that was intended to draw attention to allegations that Anwar Ibrahim, the country's former deputy prime minister, had been poisoned with arsenic.

Lawyers say the detained men could be charged later this week with illegal assembly, defined under Malaysian law as a gathering of four or more people without a police permit. The demonstration Sunday drew about 10,000 people and turned violent at one point, slightly injuring several police and demonstrators.

"This is a massive use of the courts and laws in order to serve the political agendas of the powers that be," Lim Kit Siang, leader of Malaysia's parliamentary opposition, said of the arrests. "It is making more evident the big gap between law and justice."

Malaysia's prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad, denied political motives in the arrests, saying it was a simple case of people breaking the law.

Prisons and courtrooms have become key political battlegrounds in the country during the past year. With increasing frequency members of Malaysia's political opposition have been forced to get their message out during ad-hoc press conferences outside courtrooms or while being led away by police.

Four of the seven activists and political aides detained this week conveyed a message in a handwritten note that was faxed to journalists Tuesday by a human rights group. "We consider our arrest and detention as an act of oppression intended to attempt to intimidate us from our struggle for justice in Malaysia," the men wrote, each signing the note at the bottom. "Let the oppressor see that for every one who is jailed ten more will rise to take his or her place."

On Tuesday, the coalition of political parties opposing the government took the unusual step of naming Mr. Anwar as the man it will back for the post of prime minister if the coalition wins the next general elections, which must be held before June next year but could be called sooner.

Mr. Anwar is behind bars, serving six years for abuse of power. The sentence automatically disqualified him from running for Parliament for five years after his date of release. To get around that problem the opposition parties said they would seek a royal pardon for Mr. Anwar if they won. But Mr. Anwar is currently half way through a trial in which he is defending himself against charges of sodomy.

The seven men in detention all play important roles in the political opposition to Mr. Mahathir.

They are Mohamed Azmin Ali, a top official in the National Justice Party, which was set up earlier this year by Mr. Anwar's wife and is garnering increasing levels of support; Hatta Ramli, a Central Committee member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, the Islamic opposition party; Sivarasa Rasiah, a leading human rights lawyer and legal advisor to the Malaysian People's Party; Hishamuddin Rais, a filmmaker and former student activist; Badrul Amin Bahron, a top official at the National Justice Party; Ezam Mohamed Nor, the National Justice Party's youth leader, and Chua Tian Chang, vice president of the National Justice Party.

Malaysia had been quiet since the demonstrations in April that followed Mr. Anwar's sentencing. But the arsenic poisoning issue has rekindled passions and galvanized the opposition.

Mr. Anwar's lawyers told a judge two weeks ago that tests on their client's urine had shown unusually high levels of arsenic in his system. The judge sent Mr. Anwar to a hospital for tests and a doctor on Monday sent a letter to the court saying that Mr. Anwar was "not fit to attend court." On Wednesday, however, local newspapers quoted one of the doctors examining Mr. Anwar as saying that while initial tests had not shown signs of arsenic poisoning, the former deputy prime minister could be suffering from a different type of poisoning. The article did not elaborate.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune