PAS acting president Abdul Hadi Awang has added his protest against the police raid o­n malaysiakini which temporarily disabled editorial operations o­n Monday.

In a statement issued late yesterday, Abdul Hadi denounced the police seizure of 15 computers and four servers from the organisation as an "immoral" act that clearly shows the government's intolerance of dissenting voices.

"Pas strongly protests the uncivilised attitude of enforcement officers in their attempt to curb democratic voices, freedom of expression and observance of human rights," said Abdul Hadi, who is also the parliamentary opposition leader.

The raid came o­n the heels of a police report lodged by Umno Youth over a Jan 9 letter that was published o­n the web site.

The youth wing claimed that the letter contained seditious material which could cause racial disharmony a charge denied by malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan.

Yesterday, police questioned Gan for over three hours. The police have also called in four sub-editors for questioning at the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur at 2pm today.

Erosion of democracy

Abdul Hadi urged the authorities to return all malaysiakini's equipment so that the organisation can resume its operations without further difficulty.

"How can malaysiakini function if all its equipment is taken away? We urge the authorities to return the equipment so that the website can continue to disseminate information to the people," he said.

According to the PAS leader, Umno Youth should have refuted the points made in the letter, if it felt that the letter was seditious, instead of acting "rashly".

"Such actions (lodging a police report and the raid) are an attempt to stop certain quarters from voicing criticism. However, they are not going to succeed because such harsh action can o­nly cause the erosion of democracy in the country," he said.

Abdul Hadi said the government should be reasonable and calm when faced with alternative voices so as to allow the growth of a healthy democracy.

"On o­ne hand, the government says it wants the people to be open and globalised by encouraging them to participate in the cyber world. o­n the other hand, it is stopping people from accessing fair information," he added.

"The government should be tolerant and not take harsh action to intimidate the populace."