Archive - 8 October 2002

If the police are to be believed, they have no idea where terrorist suspect Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal is, although authoritative accounts have it that he was arrested last Sunday.

The legality of the Ops Warta II has been challenged even by the de facto Law Minister Dr Rais Yatim. Today, Kota Melaka MP Kerk Kim Hock brings up the matter in Parliament, and gets a three-day suspension.

Blunt as always, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has shot down any idea that visitors to Malaysia from Muslim-majority countries would be required to get entry permits.

While doomsayers say it's the end of the road for Sarawak National Party (Snap), its besieged president James Wong Kim Min begs to differ, though citing nothing to support his confidence.

Dewan Rakyat diberitahu hari ini bahawa Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad tidak mencampuri siasatan Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR) terhadap Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz. Kes tersebut ditutup kerana dikatakan tiada bukti yang kukuh.

Kerajaan bercadang mengkelaskan butiran siasatan dalam tempoh 60 hari penangkapan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA)sebagai 'rahsia'. FATHI ARIS OMAR menyarankan Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA menjadikan kempen kebebasan maklumat sebagai aspek utama kempen anti-ISA.

Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) mendakwa terdapat kira-kira sepuluh buah masjid di Selangor yang telah dijadikan "medan politik" parti pembangkang.

Ahli Parlimen DAP Kota Melaka, Kerk Kim Hock yang digantung tiga hari daripada menghadiri sidang Dewan Rakyat berjanji akan terus memperjuangkan nasib pemandu yang teraniya melalui saman polis semasa Ops Warta II.

The explosion of an oil tanker in Yemen has raised fears that commercial vessels too would be exposed to attacks by suspected terrorists. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad responds to these allegations.

Calls to repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 appear to have backfired, for the government is now considering tightening the law instead.

The Malaysian Students Department of London and Eire appears to have declared war on students critical of the government. For a department whose function is to look after student interests, it is gaining a reputation for doing exactly the reverse.

A United States report on religious freedoms gives pass marks to the Malaysian government for allowing religious minorities to worship freely. However the report points out that the government enforces some restrictions on the establishment of non-Muslim places of worship and on the activities of political opponents in mosques.

Police seized more than 100 leaflets, highlighting urban settlers' rights, from members of a housing rights group who were distributing them at a ministry-organised event to celebrate the 'World Habitat Day'.