M-Star Online | 15 September 2008

PETALING JAYA: Mufti Perlis, Dr Asri Zainul Abidin hari ini menegur tindakan kerajaan menggunakan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) dalam isu agama dan mengheret pengendali laman web Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Kamarudin dan Ahli Parlimen DAP Seputeh, Teresa Kok yang masih ditahan di bawah peruntukan akta itu.

Ketika ditemui di Damansara Kim sebentar tadi, Dr Asri berkata, Islam dibina dari hujah dan dasar yang jelas, dan Islam juga tidak memerlukan ISA untuk membela ajarannya.

(more…)

The Associated Press | September 14, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Less than a year ago, Malaysians would have sniggered at any suggestion that former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, crushed by a sodomy charge in 1998, could make a political comeback.

Today, nobody laughs when Anwar claims he will become prime minister. He appears to be firmly on track to attract enough defectors from the ruling coalition ranks to secure a parliamentary majority and form Malaysia’s first opposition-led government since independence in 1957.

Most analysts believe Anwar can pull it off, if not by his self-imposed deadline of Tuesday, then sometime next month. (more…)

Sydney Morning Herald | September 15, 2008

The former deputy prime minister is working hard to convince ruling party MPs to defect, writes Hamish McDonald in Kuching, Malaysia.

His Dayak ancestors were feared headhunters who once dominated this part of Borneo. Now James Masing is being headhunted.

The six federal members of parliament from his Sarawak People’s Party are being stalked by Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader who has set tomorrow as the date that Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition of the past 45 years will fall.

To achieve that, Dr Anwar needs at least 30 of Barisan’s 140 MPs to jump across and join the 82 MPs of his People’s Alliance grouping of three parties, which rattled the Government with startling advances in federal and state elections in March. (more…)