Archive - 12 October 2002

updated version The Barisan Nasional tonight retained the Gaya parliamentary seat by a wide majority of 11,923 votes, with the DAP and Keadilan trailing in at a distant second and third respectively. The final tally: BN - 15,639 votes; DAP - 3716 and Keadilan - 2613.

Several hours short of the announcement of the Gaya by-election results, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang is already crying foul. Questions are now raised over a large allocation recently for the relocation of Gaya Island squatters who are also voters in Gaya.

Failing to seek the return of Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal to Malaysia in court this morning, lawyer Darshan Singh Khaira (photo) says he will continue to fight the government's action in deporting Ahmed. He will file another application at the Penang High Court on Monday for the court to declare the deportation order illegal.

If Malaysia wants to earn for itself the title of "moderate Islamic state", then its leaders as well as its society must remember that it will only have any credibility if it originates and proceeds from the premises of Islamism itself, says FARISH A NOOR.

Indonesian lawyer Dr Adnan Buyung Nasution was recently denied entry into Malaysia by the immigration authority without giving any reason. Just who is Adnan Buyung Nasution?

Rakyat yang lemah akan tersepit di tengah percaturan BA-BN, ibarat pelanduk terpijak di celah perang besar dua ekor gajah. Apakah mungkin kepentingan rakyat dijulang oleh parti politik? Atau, mereka harus membentuk gerakan politik di luar parti?

The second wife of Perak's Raja Jaafar Raja Muda Musa has been found murdered after being kidnapped a week ago, reports said today.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin has shot down a proposal to set up a second wives' club to protect the rights of women in polygamous marriages

Are the majority of Sabahans happy with a total BN control of the state? At least, part of the answer may come from the Gaya by-election results tonight.

The police have been urged to probe the Malaysian company that imported four endangered gorillas from Nigeria after providing false information that the animals were born in captivity. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), all commercial trade involving wild-born gorillas is outlawed.