Anwar flies home to sedition allegations

Opposition hero Anwar Ibrahim returned home yesterday from the United States to face questioning by police for alleged sedition, a charge serious enough to derail his long-awaited political comeback.

'They recorded a statement from him today ... we are taking this latest police action very seriously,' said Wan Azizah Ismail, Mr Anwar's wife and president of Keadilan (People's Justice Party).

The government refused to comment on the actions against Mr Anwar. But police said the investigation was related to a speech he gave at a mammoth rally in December in which he criticised special privileges for ethnic Malays as decadent and also attacked government corruption.

It stemmed from a complaint lodged by a politician from the dominant party in the ruling coalition, United Malays National Organisation, but did not identify the complainant.

Mr Anwar's lawyer, Sankaran Nair, described the action as blatant harassment. 'There are very serious political implications for Mr Anwar if they proceed and slam a charge of sedition,' he said. 'They should desist immediately.'

Sedition is punishable with a fine of M$5,000 ($10,500) and three years in jail. A conviction and fine of just M$2,000 is enough to disqualify a person from politics for five years.

Mr Anwar, who has been teaching and studying in the US, has been disqualified from public office or from contesting elections until 2008 as a result of his widely criticised corruption conviction.

But he has said he intends to return to politics in June, and pledged to stand for election in 2008, when the current term of parliament expires.

The Sedition Act, a hangover from colonial days, defines sedition as any speech that 'tends to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection' against the government and promote 'feelings of ill will and hostility between different races'.

It is also seditious to question the special privileges given to Malays in business, education and government employment. Mr Anwar has been attacking the special privileges at numerous political rallies, arguing Malays are better off without them.

He said rich Malays had hijacked the benefits and the Malay poor were poorer now than they were in 1970 when the policy was introduced amid widespread race riots.

Elizabeth Wong, secretary general of Hakam, the national human rights society, said: 'The Sedition Act is a favourite catch-all law and many victims were opposition politicians, journalists and government critics.'

Keadilan information chief Tian Chua said: 'It is interesting that this new investigation comes as Mr Anwar's five-year disqualification from politics nears its end.'

Mr Anwar was convicted of misuse of power and spent six years in prison.

But he was acquitted of sodomy charges and freed in late 2004.

He maintained the charges were trumped up and a Malaysian judge held last year that Mr Anwar was the victim of a conspiracy.

Mr Anwar has promised to put together a credible coalition of opposition parties and take on the National Front coalition headed by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who succeeded Mr Anwar's nemesis Mahathir Mohamad.

'If they level sedition charges and if he is convicted before 2008 he will again be barred from contesting for another five years,' Mr Chua said.