From: sca-news@slic.cellbio.duke.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Malaysia newsbrief
Date: 6 Apr 92 00:09:14 GMT
Originator: jit@slic.cellbio.duke.edu

Forwarded from SEASIA-L

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Newsgroups:   bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Fri, 3 Apr 1992 04:56:53 PST
Reply-To: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L%MSU.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
From: Indonesia Publications/Task Force <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Andy Mutang Flees Malaysia
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list SEASIA-L <SEASIA-L@MSU>
Status: OR

Forwarded from EcoNet rainforest.timber conference:
Topic 228'ANDY' MUTANG FLEES MALAYSIA
gn:pandersonRainforest Tropical Timber Campaign12:53 pm  Apr  2, 1992

'ANDY' MUTANG FLEES MALAYSIA UNDER THREAT OF ARREST

Terry Gould

SARAWAK, Malaysia, Mar.30 (ENS) - Anderson Mutang, 35, head of the
Sarawak Indigenous Peoples' Alliance, fled Malaysia Friday after
learning that the Sarawak government was planning to arrest and
charge him with "criminal intimidation and abettment of criminal
intimidation".

Antalai Sawing, Mutang's lawyer, said that "fear that Mutang will
urge the Penan people to set up new blockades to stop the logging
of their ancestral homeland," prompted the government's pending
charges.

Speaking from his secret santuary, Mutang said he would remain in
hiding until he determined how the government would proceed
against him. "I suffered much mental torture when I was in prison
last year and I do not wish to go through that experience again."
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Date:         Sun, 5 Apr 1992 16:06:07 PDT
Reply-To: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L%MSU.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
From: Indonesia Publications/Task Force <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Kelantan Islamic Laws
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list SEASIA-L <SEASIA-L@MSU>
Status: OR

    Reuter, Kota Bahru, K.R. Arasu, April 2 - Malaysia's Kelantan state
plans to implement Islamic laws that prescribe stoning, whipping and
amputation of hands and feet.
    "We are determined to implement the Hudud laws," Nik Abdul Aziz Nik
Mat, chief minister of Kelantan and leader of the opposition
fundamentalist Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), told Reuters.
    Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, a multi-racial country
of 18 million people, but the country has had secular laws since
independence from Britain in 1957.
    Since taking power, Nik Aziz, a soft-spoken Islamic religious
teacher fluent in Arabic and Urdu, has tried to impose Islamic practices.
    Gambling has been banned. The government also forbids the sale of
alcohol to Moslems and bars female Chinese hairdressers from attending
to Moslem clients, Nik Aziz said.
    He said the Hudud laws would apply to both Moslems and non-Moslems
in Kelantan.  He declined to say when the laws would be enforced.
    The Hudud laws are a legal code that makes convictions for adultery,
theft, renunciation of Islam and drinking of alcohol automatically
punishable under Islamic or shariah law.
    Stoning, whipping and amputation of the hand or foot are punishments
prescribed under the code.
    "If a thief is caught, his hand will be amputated," Nik Aziz said.
"The punishment is aimed at preventing a crime from taking place rather
than penalising the criminal."
    He added: "If a drug trafficker is caught, he will only lose his
hand and not his head as prescribed by the country's secular laws."
Malaysia has hanged about 100 drug traffickers, including several
foreigners, under its tough anti-drug laws.
    Nik Aziz, popularly known in Kelantan as Tok Guru or teacher, said
the Hudud laws would be applied evenly to all Kelantanese, including
ethnic Chinese.
    "I am sure a Chinese who was robbed would want the thief's hand to
be amputated," he said, when asked if non-Moslems would support the
legal code.
    "The Hudud laws will be like wearing crash helmets," he said.
"Initially, there will be some discomfort but after some use, the wearer
will become used to it."
    If the Hudud laws are found to be incompatible with the federal
constitution, the state government would meet federal officials to sort
things out, Nik Aziz said.
    "But from what we understand, the implementation of such laws are up
to the state government," he said.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean