Sharing Chinese New Year's joy multi-racially

Last night, Parti KeADILan Rakyat (PKR) held a Chinese New Year public gathering and cultural performance at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) in Kuala Lumpur.

(TOP) When its President Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (second from left) and her deputy, sociologist Dr. Syed Husin Ali (second from right) arrived, they were welcome and greeted by two traditional lion dance troupes at the main gate. Its publicity chief Tian Chua (left) and supreme council member Low Chee Cheong (right) were also there.

(BOTTOM) PKR's vice president and Ipoh heart specialist Dr. Lee Boon Chye delivered his speech to a multiracial and multireligious audience, including foreign diplomats from, among other countries, Singapore, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Finland.

According to a report in the Chinese-language online newspaper Merdeka Review today, Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told the media after the function was over that the suspension of the Sarawak Tribute indefinitely is "excessively stern". She reportedly said that, although the Sarawak Tribute was "wrong" and "insensitive to Muslims' feeling" in republishing the controversial cartoons of Islam's prophet Mohammad, public apology offered by the newspaper should suffice to close the case.

The Ireland-trained eye specialist and wife of former DPM Anwar Ibrahim also reportedly said that the global controversy over the Danish cartoons should not be exploited by the government as a pretext to curb press freedom.