Malaysian Police Widen Crackdown 
International Herald Tribune
September 27, 1999
Thomas Fuller

The Malaysian police vowed over the weekend to continue their crackdown against anti-government demonstrators and opposition politicians, publishing photographs in local newspapers of dozens of men who took part in a protest last week.

Newspapers quoted the police as saying they had ordered 42 men who took part in recent anti-government demonstrations to be arrested "on sight." Last week, the police arrested and detained 14 opposition politicians and activists, including several leaders of the National Justice Party, created this year with the avowed purpose of unseating Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad.

On Saturday, the 14 men were charged with illegal assembly, released on bail and their trials set for January and February. If convicted, they could be disqualified from contesting elections, which must be held before June, but might be called sooner.

Members of the country's political opposition have decried the arrests as politically motivated. "Opposition leaders feel strongly that the police should steer clear of politics," Lim Kit Siang, leader of the country's parliamentary opposition, said over the weekend, "especially in the present pre-election season when the battle for the hearts and minds of the voters is most intensive, and the police should not be seen directly, or indirectly, to be the tools of the powers that be."

Malaysia's home minister and deputy prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is responsible for the police, has denied political motives in the crackdown. "It's a basic law and order situation," he told a local newspaper last week. "The police did not ask my permission to arrest them. It's in the course of their work."

The police began the crackdown last week after 10,000 protesters occupied the national mosque on Sept. 19, the eve of the anniversary of the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim, the country's former deputy prime minister who is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power.

The police said the protest, which at one point turned violent, was illegal because organizers had not obtained a permit. In addition to marking the anniversary of Mr. Anwar's arrest and dismissal from government, protesters had gathered to draw attention to allegations that he had been poisoned with arsenic.

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, were he has remained for more than two weeks.

On Saturday, however, a government doctor said Mr. Anwar was "certified fit" and that he would return Monday to court. He has been charged with "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" — sodomy — and faces 20 years in prison if convicted. He says the charges are politically motivated.

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