Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) today called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to expedite approval of its application for a publishing permit for party organ Suara Keadilan .

Its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail urged the premier to speed up the process as application was submitted to the Internal Security Ministry's publication unit five months ago. Abdullah is also the internal security minister.

"As a legal and registered political party, we have the right to publish our own publication twice a month - as assured by you on March 2, 2000," she said in a letter sent to Abdullah's office this afternoon.

"We therefore hope that you would take the matter into your attention and subsequently approve our application."

In addition, Wan Azizah said there was no reason for the delay as the party had met all criteria.

In the letter, a copy of which was made available to malaysiakini , she said the printers and vendors had been allegedly harassed by the ministry's enforcement officials.

"We would like to stress that such ugly incidents should not have taken place in an independent country that claims to practise democracy," she stated.

The party's problems in obtaining the permit began when the ministry rejected its application to renew the licence held by Suara PRM , issued to Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) for Suara Keadilan .

PRM had merged with Parti Keadilan Nasional to form PKR in August 2003. The ministry then instructed them to make a fresh application under PKR.

In 1999, the ministry had allowed PRM to change the name of its publication from Mimbar Sosialis to Suara PRM without having to file a new application.

'Stop the harassment'

PKR information chief Tian Chua also urged Abdullah to direct the ministry's personnel not to harass the printers and vendors. (The party has continued publishing the newsletter.)

"Our distributors and vendors in Selangor, Johor, Malacca and Kelantan were threatened and had their publications seized, causing them to suffer losses amounting to thousands of ringgit," he told a press conference at the party headquarters in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur this morning.

According to him, two vendors in Kota Bharu (Kelantan) were issued summonses while two more in Johor has to undergo an interview session with ministry officials.

"We suspect that they issued the summonses to scare our vendors. They are treating Suara Keadilan like an illegal publication. Every political party has the right to its own publication...so this is not an illegal publication," he said.

He also claimed that the ministry was trying to reduce the sale and obstruct the circulation of the party organ.

"To date our circulation is almost 50,000. This is a great improvement considering that our sales were only 15,000 when we first started in June. I believe that we have made a positive impact and the government wants to stop this," he claimed.

Tian said the party will wait until Hari Raya and if there are still no positive developments, a campaign will be launched locally and internationally.

"If we do not get a reply by then, we will write appeal letters and try to meet ministry officials. If they continue to ignore us, we will intensify our campaign," he said.

He also said the party would defy any order to stop publishing and will ensure that Suara Keadilan reaches the public on time.

"As I said our right to freedom of speech cannot be denied. The right of the public to receive information cannot be stopped. If the government succeeds in scaring our printers, we will find a way to get it printed and come out in time to be in the market," he added.

" Even if they scare all our vendors, we will mobilise our personnel to directly sell to the consumers."