A Malaysian opposition leader was charged with sedition yesterday for allegedly insulting a royal figure, a day after his son was suspended from parliament for calling the next prime minister a murderer.
The opposition expressed fears the government was on a political witch hunt.
Karpal Singh pleaded innocent to the charge of insulting Sultan Azlan Shah of the northern Perak state on Feb. 6 during a news conference.
“Obviously it is politically motivated. There can be no doubt about that,” Singh, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, told reporters before entering court.
Singh, a member of parliament and prominent lawyer, was freed on bail. No date has been set for the trial.
The charge stems from a tussle for power in Perak, which used to be governed by a three-party alliance that includes the Democratic Action Party, following the elections in March last year. Earlier this year, however, three of its Perak state legislators defected, tipping the balance in favor of the ruling National Front coalition.
The sultan of Perak then fired the alliance’s administration and asked the National Front to lead the state. The sultans are hereditary and titular rulers of nine of Malaysia’s 13 states. They play a largely ceremonial role in politics.
Prosecutors said Singh insulted the sultan and committed sedition by questioning the sultan’s mandate to appoint a new administration without for calling a vote of confidence in the state parliament.
Singh had said the sultan could be sued for his actions.
Anwar Ibrahim, who leads the opposition three-party alliance, said the charge against Singh marked the beginning of a government crackdown on the resurgent opposition, which made substantive gains in the March 8 elections.
“I believe that they [the government] will go on a witch hunt against the opposition leaders,” Anwar told reporters at the court.
“This is a malicious prosecution,” he said.
Anwar said Singh was merely giving his legal opinion about the sultan’s powers.
According to Malaysian law, any act that provokes hatred, contempt or disaffection against a state ruler is considered sedition, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.
On Monday, Singh’s son, Gobind Singh Deo, was suspended from parliament for one year because he called Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak a murderer in connection with the 2006 slaying of a Mongolian woman. Najib is scheduled to take over as prime minister early next month.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
RSS