____________________________________________________________________________________________
Malaysia‘s top anti-government blogger arrested
Staff and agencies
By SEAN YOONG, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 12, 6:10 AM ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Police arrested Malaysia‘s top anti-government blogger Friday under a law allowing indefinite detention without trial in a move condemned by the opposition as a crackdown on free speech.
Raja Petra‘s wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said police came to their home and arrested him under the Internal Security Act, a widely criticized law used against suspects regarded as national security threats.
"We have called and advised him many times about his statements, but he still continues writing in a way that could pose a threat," Syed Hamid told the national news agency, Bernama.
Raja Petra kept the site accessible through an alternative link amid a public outcry that the government was censoring cyberspace. Authorities lifted the ban Thursday, but warned they might use the Internal Security Act against anyone who stoked political and racial strife.
Tensions have risen in Malaysia amid a threat by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to topple the government by next week and a racially charged uproar sparked by a Malay Muslim ruling party politician who accused the ethnic Chinese minority of hungering for power.
Anwar‘s People‘s Justice Party decried Raja Petra‘s arrest and the newspaper warnings, saying "such an attack on democracy will only accelerate the further slide of Malaysia‘s dipping economic and political ratings."
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.