SINGAPORE, Sept 13: Singapore has barred a prominent Malaysian lawyer from representing Muslims contesting a school ban on headscarves, saying his motive was to “intervene in Singapore’s internal affairs”.

Karpal Singh, who represented former Malaysian deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim when he was tried for corruption and sodomy, has been denied an employment pass in Singapore, the manpower ministry said Friday.

Citing numerous statement’s Singh has made on the banning of young Muslim girls wearing the tudung or headscarf in school, the ministry accused the lawyer of wanting to “further his own agenda” by taking up the issue in court.

Singh described the accusation as “unwarranted and without any basis” and said he would be demanding an explanation from the Singapore government.

Singapore’s education ministry imposed the ban to promote racial harmony in the majority ethnic Chinese nation, provoking a rare show of open defiance in this strictly governed city-state and leading to four girls being banned from classes early this year.

In April, when Singh offered to represent the families protesting the ban, he described the measure as “unlawful, discriminatory and unconstitutional”, noting that Singaporean schools allow Sikh boys to wear turbans.

The manpower ministry said Singh, who is also deputy chairman of Malaysia’s opposition Democratic Action Party, has made “public statements to justify why Malaysia should be involved in Singapore’s internal affairs”.

He has repeatedly stated he supported protests over the tudung issue and has said the ban would lead to the alienation of Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia, the ministry statement said.

“Mr Karpal Singh’s application was rejected because there are grounds to conclude that his motive is to intervene in Singapore’s internal affairs. This is evident from the numerous public statements he has made,” it said.

The ministry “will not issue an employment pass to any foreign professional who has so clearly declared his intentions to intervene in Singapore’s domestic issues to further his own agenda”.

Singh said he considered the Singapore argument “plain ridiculous” and needed an explanation.

“I am shocked and surprised that the government would make such an unfair accusation which is certainly unwarranted and without any basis,” he told AFP.

“I would want an explanation from the Singapore government. This is a very serious affair, to accuse someone of interfering in domestic affairs.”

One of the Singapore youngsters embroiled in the controversy, six-year-old Nurul Nasihah Nasser, moved with her family to Australia in July and was attending a school in Melbourne where the tudung was allowed.

“Her education is important and so is religion, but we cannot have one at the expense of the other,” said her father Mohammed Nasser.

In February, soon after the row erupted, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong warned Muslims against going outside the country with their campaign to allow the wearing of Islamic headscarves in public schools.

He warned that non-Muslims were already wary of Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

“And for them now to try to push the wearing of the tudung in schools will only cause greater concern to the non-Muslims, so I would advise them to be quite cautious in this,” he said.

Nearly 80 percent of Singaporeans are ethnic Chinese, with Malays, most of whom are Muslims, and Indians each forming about 14 percent of the population. —AFP