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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's premier said Monday he would sacrifice public freedom to maintain security, as authorities rolled out legal action against the organisers of protests that have rocked the nation.
"If the choice is between public safety and public freedom, I do not hesitate to say here that public safety will always win," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a lecture.
"Malaysians must never, ever take their peace for granted and they must continue to be responsible to each other," he said, referring to past racial violence in the multicultural nation dominated by Muslim Malays.
Abdullah's comments came amid a crackdown on dissent after two mass rallies last month, with three separate legal actions Monday that rights groups and opposition leaders condemned as anti-democratic.
Dozens of government critics have been rounded up and now face trial on counts including attempted murder and sedition, and the premier has threatened to invoke draconian internal security laws that allow detention without trial.
The government scored a victory in its bid to revive sedition charges against three leaders of ethnic Indian rights group Hindraf, which organised a November anti-discrimination protest that drew 8,000 people.
Their lawyer A. Srimurugan said he was "extremely disappointed" with the decision to send the case back to court, after a judge had earlier allowed them to walk free on the charges, which carry a penalty of three years in jail.
In another court, lawyers and their supporters were charged in connection with a human rights march that they mounted in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday which was broken up by police.
"The charges are baseless and repressive," said lawyer and opposition member Sivarasa Rasiah, who said the group had spent a night on a cement floor in police custody.
In a courtroom packed with lawyers who broke into loud applause for the defendants, eight of them were slapped with counts of illegal assembly, creating a public nuisance and disobeying a police order to disperse.
Another prominent lawyer, Edmund Bon, was also charged with obstructing a city official who tried to remove protest banners from Malaysia's Bar Council building.
The nine were granted bail but Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, who personally oversaw the case, accused them of showing "contempt for law and authority". They were given trial dates for next year.
"It was not a bunch of lawyers celebrating human rights day. Just look at their names, I don't need to say any more," Abdul Gani said in an apparent reference to the high-profile status of some of the accused.
Another 12 opposition figures were also rounded up over the weekend in connection with an electoral reform rally last month which drew nearly 30,000 people who police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons.
Last week, 31 ethnic Indians were also charged with attempted murder over the wounding of a police officer during a rally at a Hindu temple on the eve of November 25 mass protests organised by Hindraf.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, who came to the court to show his support for the lawyers, condemned the arrests at the Sunday march as "completely unwarranted and a clear reckless abuse of power."
"Yesterday, was a black Sunday for human rights. A black Sunday for the prime minister who promised four years ago to respect human rights," he said.
Human rights group Aliran urged the government to "immediately and unconditionally release all those brave Malaysians who have been unjustifiably detained". - AFP/ir
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