Inter-Parliamentary Union supports Guan Eng’s petition for pardon and is expected to send a mission to Malaysia to investigate into the jailing of DAP Deputy Secretary-General and  MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng on  Oct. 21-23


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Penang, Sunday): The Inter-Parliamentary Union at its Moscow Conference last month has expresed its support for the pardon petition for DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng who is currently serving two concurrent counts of 18-month jail sentence in Kajang Prison under the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

The IPU is expected to send a mission to Malaysia to investigate into the jailing of Guan Eng and the violation of his human rights as a Member of Parliament on October 21-23 as a result of the 100th Inter-Parliamentary  Conference held in Moscow last month.

I have been informed by Ingeborg Schwarz, the Human Rights Programme Officer of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in an email from the IPU office in Geneva that the IPU Conference in Moscow reiterated its resolution at the IPU Conference in Windohoek, Nambibia in April this year to send  an on-site mission to Malaysia on the Lim Guan Eng case "in view of the important issues involved in the case" and that the IPU on-site  mission to Malaysia  had been welcomed by the Malaysian delegation to the Moscow conference.

The IPU Conference in Moscow adopted a lengthy resolution on the Lim Guan Eng case, which concluded with the following  nine-point decision:
 

The Council for Justice, Freedom, Democracy and Good Governance which collected 203,933 signatures during the first ten days of Guan Eng’s jailing in Kajang Prisons appealing to the Yang di Pertuan Agong to pardon Guan Eng so that he would not be disqualified as  Member of Parliament and could continue his good work for the people as country and the National Free Guan Eng Committee (previously the  Support, Sympathy and Solidarity with  Lim Guan Eng Committee) will meet to discuss preparations to facilitate the IPU on-site mission on Guan Eng’s incarceration.

This will be the second time that the IPU is sending a fact-finding mission to Malaysia to  investigate into the violation of human rights of Members of Parliament - the first time was ten years ago during the Operation Lalang when I met the IPU fact-finding mission during my second detention under the Internal Security Act at the Kamunting Detention Centre.

(4/10/98)


*Lim Kit Siang - Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Democratic Action Party Secretary-General & Member of Parliament for Tanjong