In Jail in Malaysia

Wall Street Journal Asia

Malaysia's democrats scored a victory Friday when police released opposition MP Teresa Kok from jail. Her weeklong detention under the Internal Security Act was protested by ordinary citizens and by the law minister, who resigned in protest.

The ISA, under which the government can detain people indefinitely, is an artifact of the British colonial era and is intended for use in cases of national security. Ms. Kok, rather, was accused of inciting racial tensions after a newspaper reported -- erroneously, she says -- that she supported a petition to silence a mosque's call to prayer in a non-Muslim area. In a statement Friday, she said she intends to sue the paper for defamation and the government for unlawful detention.

There are 65 detainees under the ISA, according to Abolish the ISA Movement, a human rights group in Kuala Lumpur. Raja Petra Kalamuddin, a pro-opposition blogger, was detained on the same day as Ms. Kok and remains behind bars. Five ethnic Indian activists detained in December are still in jail. A journalist arrested on the same day as Ms. Kok has been released, as was another blogger, Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, who was arrested Wednesday for sedition.

The government denies its use of the ISA is politically motivated. But the spate of recent arrests seems to suggest otherwise. So does Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's comment Wednesday that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had "become a threat not only to our economy but possibly also of security." Mr. Anwar is leading a parliamentary challenge to unseat the UMNO-led coalition that has governed Malaysia since independence.

On Thursday, the U.S. expressed "grave concern" over the use of the ISA as a possible way to silence dissent. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said: "The detention of opposition leaders under the ISA would be viewed by the United States and the international community as a fundamental infringement of democratic rights and values."

On Friday, asked about Mr. Anwar, the Prime Minister said he didn't have "any plan of invoking the ISA against anyone." We trust he will be as good as his word.