Court rules for jailed activists

From World Socialist Web Site, 23 September 2002

On 6 September in the Federal Court, Malaysia's highest, a five-judge panel, including Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, ruled that the police had produced no evidence to justify the initial six-month detention of four political activists under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA) and therefore had unlawfully detained them. Due to a technicality, the court did not order the release of the prisoners.

After arresting them in April 2001, the police charged that the four "were planning militant actions to topple the government". Charged with terrorism and subversion under the ISA, the four political activists were detained. The notorious ISA allows the authorities to jail 'offenders' for 60 days. When the 60 days were up, Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi extended their detention for two years.

One of the four detainees, Tian Chua, is significant to AMRC as he was our former editor. AMRC is confident that Tian is incapable of acts of terrorism. We are sure that he and his associates were jailed simply because of their political support for Anwar Ibrahim.

Workers condemn deportations

From World Socialist Web Site, 3 August 2002; South China Morning Post, 1 September 2002

"Who do you think works on Malaysian plantations?", "Without migrant workers, the Malaysia government will collapse", and "Malaysia is truly racist Asia" were among the banners carried by protestors at a demonstration at the Malaysian Embassy in South Jakarta on 31 July. The protest was in reaction to new laws to crackdown on 'illegal workers' after Mahathir's government introduced new laws to regulate migrant labour on 1 August.

Malaysia is host to about two million foreign workers. Estimates say there are 600,000 illegal workers in Malaysia - in four months from March, Malaysia deported about half of them.

During the mass deportations from Malaysian state Sabah on Borneo island, at least 14 children from the Philippines and 63 Indonesians including around a dozen babies and a similar number of children died in refugee camps which sprang up in Indonesia's neighbouring East Kalimantan province.