Opposition slams Malaysian government for refusing to free lawmaker

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian opposition party on Sunday condemned the government for its refusal to free an ethnic Indian activist who was elected earlier this month as a state legislator while in detention.

Lawyer M. Manoharan, standing for the Democratic Action Party (DAP), soundly beat the incumbent in Selangor state while being held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said Manoharan and four other ethnic Indian activists should be freed.

"It shows that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration has not really heard the voice of the people in the March 8 political tsunami to change towards a more democratic and accountable Malaysian society," he told AFP.

"The ISA detentions are used as political instruments to suppress dissent. It has no relationship whatsoever with national security."

The five activists -- leaders of the rights group Hindraf -- were detained last December for organising an unprecedented mass rally the month before, claiming discrimination against ethnic Indians.

The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), part of the multi-ethnic ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, on Sunday made an about-face and said it would now ask Abdullah to free the activists.

"I will raise it with the prime minister. If he wants to release all of them ... we have no objections. We also don't want them to be kept inside for too long a period," MIC president S. Samy Vellu told reporters.

The MIC was punished by the minority Indian community in the March 8 polls for deriding last year's protest by ethnic Indians, with a majority of its candidates losing.

Syed Hamid Albar, the home minister responsible for internal security, on Friday rejected opposition calls for the activists' release, citing security concerns.

Abdullah has been battling for his political life since the election, which saw Barisan Nasional lose its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since 1969. - AFP/ac

Channel NewsAsia
30/03/08