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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's Chinese-based opposition party on Thursday said it will attend a ceremony to swear in a state government led by a hardline Islamist party allied to it in last Saturday's elections.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) on Thursday retracted a threat to boycott the ceremony made after the Sultan of Perak, titular ruler of the state, named Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) as chief minister.
DAP advisor and the opposition leader in the last parliament, Lim Kit Siang, had said the appointment "caused shock and consternation" since it and a third party in the alliance, People's Justice, won more state seats. But Ngeh Koo Ham, DAP chairman for Perak, said it was all a "little misunderstanding", noting Perak's constitution requires a Muslim to be chief minister.
He also seemed mollified that DAP, backed mainly by the ethnic Chinese minority, would get most of the seats in the state cabinet. "So he cannot go along with policies without our approval."
This has upset People's Justice. The party said it does not think the proposed Cabinet reflects "the composition of the population of Perak", and said in a statement if it's not altered the party would not take part in government.
Freedom plea
The wife of an Indian activist, who won a seat in the parliament, appealed to the prime minister yesterday for his freedom. Lawyer M. Manoharan, one of five Hindu rights activists detained under internal security laws for organising a major anti-government protest last year, won his parliamentary seat outside the capital with almost two-thirds of the vote.
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