A visit to the Bentong wet market this morning for 12 leaders of an opposition party turned out to be a costly affair.

At about 9am, the group, all of them from the DAP, were peacefully distributing the "No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957" campaign leaflets when about 60 police personnel moved in to arrest them, while five Federal Reserve Unit trucks stood by.

Among the 12 are DAP member of Parliament for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan, Pahang DAP chairperson Lee Tak Chee, its state organising secretary Choong Siew Onn, Fong's assistance Lim Phaik Har and Lim Soon Yee, who is the spouse of DAP publicity secretary Ronnie Liu. Liu was not arrested.

According to Liu, seven women and two children were among the 12 arrested. Their photos and thumb prints were later recorded by the police. Liu, who was not arrested, claimed two of those arrested were also handcuffed.

At about 1.30am, the 12 were released on police bail. They were told to report to the station again on Oct 4.

"Nobody could tell why our members were arrested. The police simply told them they were arrested under the law," Liu told malaysiakini ..

No warning

"It's really crazy. We were not given any warning. They (police) came and took our leaflets and asked us to go with them to the police station," he added.

When contacted, Corporal Cik Harun Cik Ha confirmed the arrest and their release on police bail. However, he declined to comment beyond saying that the group was arrested for "distributing pamphlets".

DAP has been going on an active campaign to protest against Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state on Sept 29 last year.

The party is also dead set against PAS insistence on a theocratic state once it comes to power and its tabling of the controversial hudud law by the Terengganu state government.

In Sept last year, DAP severed ties with PAS over the Islamic state issue and imposition of the hudud law.

DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang was also arrested twice under the Sedition Act; in Ipoh on June 5 and Port Dickson on July 21 in connection with the "No to 929" campaign. However, he has not been charged yet.

Not seditious

In a statement today, Lim asked Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to explain whether Malaysia has become a police state.

He also urged Attorney General Gani Patail to make clear to the police that it is no offence, let alone sedition to say "No to 929" or "No to Islamic state" as he (Lim) considered this a very fundamental constitutional principle.

"Abdullah's leadership comes under a great test as the police fall under the jurisdiction of the Home Minister. If the police are allowed to conduct such "false, wrongful and unlawful" arrests with impunity, Malaysians have reasons to be worried about his leadership when he takes over as the fifth prime minister from Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Oct next year," he said.

Lim urged Abdullah to exercise leadership and restrain the police by putting an immediate stop to the police "abuses of power, the series of false, wrongful and unlawful arrests and the harassment of the DAP's legitimate 'No to 929' campaign".

He said the police were taking the law into their own hands by arresting opposition MPs and activists carrying out "legitimate constitutional and political activities".

"The arrests is a gross abuse of police power where the police arrest first and find offence later," Lim said.

He also reiterated that the party's People's Awareness Campaign is not a seditious but a "nationalistic and patriotic" campaign and its objective is to defend and uphold the 1957 Merdeka Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion while maintaining Islam as the official religion.