The party was established in 1998 in response to Anwar's arrest for alleged sodomy. He was found guilty on corruption charges in April 1999 and jailed for six years for abuse of power: see WuJesseAunMin, ‘The Saga of Anwar Ibrahim’, in HardingLeeHP (eds), Constitutional Landmarks in Malaysia: The First Fifty Years 1957–2007 (2007) 278–9.
2.
ChanKok Leong, ‘Raja Petra Charged, Chooses Jail over Bail’, Malaysiakini, 6 May 2008.
3.
PathmawathyS, ‘Abdul Razak Baginda acquitted’, Malaysiakini, 31 October 2008 (available at <malaysiakini.com/news/92191>).
‘Group Calls on Bar to Scrap Forum’, New Straits Times (Malaysia), 28 June 2008; Ibrahim Ali objects to Bar's forum on social contract’, Malaysiakini, 27 June 2008 (available at http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85191. On 11 August 2008, the Malaysian Bar Council held a seminar, ‘Seminar on sedition laws – Its Impact on Freedom of Speech in Contemporary Society’. Speakers included Raja Petra Kamaruddin.
They were later freed: see ‘Indian Activists Charged with Sedition Freed in Malaysia’, Rediff News (India), 26 November 2008. <rediff.com/news/2007/nov/26malaysia.htm> at 11 January 2009.
8.
See DavidsonGailFriesenTamiJacksonMichael, ‘Lawyers and the Rule of Law on Trial: Sedition Prosecutions in Malaysia’ (2001) 12Criminal Law Forum1–23.
9.
Karpal Singh is currently leader of the Democratic Action Party.
10.
DavidsonFriesenJackson, above n 8, 11.
11.
See Sedition Act 1948 (Malaysia) s 3(1), and also Davidson, ibid, 12. ‘Seditious’ is defined in s 2 of the Sedition Act 1948 as ‘having a seditious tendency’. According to s 3(1), a ‘seditious tendency’ is a tendency, inter alia, to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government; to promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malays; or to question any matter, right, status or privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federation Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution. Under s 4, any person who, inter alia, does any act with a seditious tendency or utters any seditious words is guilty of an offence.
12.
See Mark Koding v Public Prosecutor [1982] 2 MLJ 120.
13.
See DavidsonFriesenJackson, above n. 8.
14.
SoongKua Kia, May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969 (2007), eg at pp 1–3, p 41.
