The Hindu : Malaysian leader charged with sedition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 06, 2002

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Malaysian leader charged with sedition

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE JUNE 5. A senior Malaysian Opposition leader has been charged with sedition for distributing handbills that had the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, saying Malaysia was an Islamic State.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Democratic Action Party, was arrested early this morning in Ipoh in Malaysia's northern Perak state.

He was later released on a bail of 3,000 ringgit ($789). A DAP leader was saying that Mr. Lim was resting after distributing leaflets when a policeman challenged the DAP chief to repeat his act of distribution.

``Lim got up and distributed the materials and one policeman said the contents were seditious and arrested him,'' M. Kulasegaran, DAP deputy secretary-general, was quoted as saying.

According to Mr. Lim, he has been charged with sedition for distributing leaflets without a permit. The DAP chief maintained that Dr. Mahathir's statement on the Islamic State went against the country's 1957 Constitution.

``The social contract reached by our forefathers from the major communities....(is) that Malaysia is a democratic, secular, multi-religious with Islam as the official religion but not as an Islamic State,'' Mr. Lim said.

The Chinese-dominated DAP has been concerned by activities of the Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS), an avowedly Islamist party, and efforts by the ruling coalition to counter the rise of PAS.

After September 11, PAS and its politics seem to be on the back-foot in Malaysia, but concerns remain over the larger trajectory of Malaysian politics.

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