Day 2, Round 2: Kuala Terengganu Walk-about ~ Malaysiakini

Day 2 of the Kuala Terengganu by-election was spent walking around Kuala Terengganu, in particular the Chinese areas. The Chinese gave us an extremely warm reception and made no secret of the fact that they were going to vote Pakatan Rakyat.

KT byelection: Issues versus personalities

Umno has already announced their candidate, so it is too late to backtrack on that. So it is now left to PAS to choose their candidate. If PAS chooses the right man then Wan Farid is dead meat. But Wan Farid’s chances can improve if PAS makes the mistake of fielding the wrong candidate.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Is the Kuala Terengganu by-election on 17 January 2009 going to be about issues or about personalities? It’s actually going to be a bit of both, with internal bickering and sabotage thrown in, on both sides of the political divide.

To understand Kuala Terengganu one must first understand the history of this town. Over 200 years, Kuala Terengganu used to be the meeting point for foreigners and traders. Most of the settlers of the town came from afar to make Kuala Terengganu their home. Even some so-called Malays are actually Chinese from the Yunan province of China. But they are not regarded as Chinese at all. Malays accept them as fellow Malays and treat them as such. And the Yunanis are no longer ‘practicing’ Chinese, being more Malay than Malays themselves; even surpassing the Babas and Nyonyas of Melaka — who may be ‘Malay’ by customs and language but are not Muslims like the Yunanis of Terengganu.

In the 1970s, when oil was first discovered off the coast of Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, again, saw an influx of foreigners, mostly oil industry workers and employees of Bristow Helicopters, the British helicopter company contracted by Exxon to ferry the oil rig workers to and from the oil rigs.

At that time, Kertih was still being built so Kuala Terengganu was used as the temporary centre for the oil activities. There was even one CIA man who masqueraded as an oil company man but was actually there to spy for America. Everyone knew he was CIA but no one shied away from clicking his beer glass with the overweight man with the oversized beer belly who did not at all look like the charismatic James Bond.

These ‘foreigners’, Malaysians as well as Caucasians, would frequent the Pertama Coffee House for their ‘happy hours’ and Muslim plus non-Muslim alike would get drunk and engage in the occasional bar room brawl in the Pertama, which was run by a police officer and his wife.

But the locals were not perturbed. These were, after all, ‘foreigners’. Even the Muslim-Malays were considered ‘foreigners’ since they were not local born. And as long as the ‘Anak Terengganu’ of the Muslim faith did not also get drunk in the Pertama, the locals were quite prepared to leave these outsiders to their own devices and to enjoy their ‘decadent’ lifestyles.

Such was the attitude of the Kuala Terengganu population who were prepared to live and let live, even back in the 1970s, just as long as you did not encroach into their territory and ‘import’ your ‘evil ways’ into the homes of the locals. You can do your thing very much unhindered and with not so much as raised eyebrows from the ‘Anak Terengganu’. And this can be considered unique in a state that takes Islam with much seriousness and even calls the state Terengganu Darul Iman (Terengganu the Land of the Faith).

Things have not really changed that much over 30 years. Outsiders are very much welcome in the town, although in the rest of the state the people can be very regionalistic in their ways. A Besut man (Besut is at the Kelantan-Terengganu border in the North) would find it very difficult to gain acceptance in Kemaman (at the Pahang-Terengganu border in the South), and vice versa — in particular if it is to contest a seat in an election. But a Johor man would face no problems contesting a seat in Kuala Terengganu, and winning that seat as well.

Onn Jaafar proved this when he resigned from Umno out of protest — when the party refused to open its doors to the non-Malays — and he formed his own party called Parti Negara. Onn Jaafar contested the Ladang state seat in Kuala Terengganu and won. Bakar Daud too, an ex-police officer, was another outsider who held the Ladang state seat for many terms until the state fell to the opposition in 1999. If there were one seat an outsider would have no problems of winning that would be Kuala Terengganu.

There are four state seats under the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency — Bandar, Batu Burok, Ladang and Wakaf Mempelam. The Kuala Terengganu parliament seat used to be under Umno until its Member of Parliament, Razali Ismail, died on 29 November 2008. Razali was the Deputy Education Minister. But the funny thing is, while the Kuala Terengganu parliament seat was under Umno, three of the four state seats — Batu Burok, Ladang and Wakaf Mempelam — are under PAS. Only the Bandar state seat belongs to Barisan Nasional and even then it is under MCA and not Umno. How could Razali win the Kuala Terengganu parliament seat when three of its four state seats are under PAS?

This can be attributed to Azmi Lope, the PAS state assemblyman for Bandar who won that seat in the 1999 general election. Azmi’s and the late Razali’s wives are sisters. So many PAS supporters, in particular those aligned to Azmi, voted for Razali — although he was Umno — while they did not vote for Umno for the state seat. This shows that family ties and personalities still play a role in how the voters choose their candidate and sometimes the party comes second, especially in a town like Kuala Terengganu, which is considered more ‘liberal’ than the rest of the state.

Umno has already announced its candidate, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, the one-time political secretary to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and now a Senator and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs. Wan Farid is also the Umno Kuala Terengganu division chief. But Wan Farid is not the choice of either Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak or Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Said. Ahmad Said wanted either Roslan Awang Chik or Zubir Embong to contest the seat but was overruled by Abdullah Badawi.

Wan Farid carries a lot of baggage. Wan Hisham, his brother, contested against Razali for the Umno Kuala Terengganu vice-head post, and won. Of course, with his brother as the division head it was easy for Wan Hisham to defeat Razali. Many blame the two brothers and say that they drove Razali to his death. Razali’s supporters will certainly want to make the 17 January 2009 by-election ‘payback time’. So expect an element of internal sabotage.

Roslan and Zubir are no pushovers. These two, Umno warlords from the Bakar Daud days, still have a lot of support and they will certainly want to make sure that Wan Farid does not sail through with an impressive victory. Ahmad Said, too, will want to prove that Abdullah should have listened to him and that Wan Farid is the wrong choice of candidate. We must remember that Ahmad Said is not Abdullah’s choice of Menteri Besar. Idris Jusoh was. Ahmad Said is the Agong’s choice. So we can expect Idris Jusoh to play a role in ensuring that the Menteri Besar loses the Kuala Terengganu by-election.

The opposition will have to ensure that they field the right candidate — which will be announced on 1 January 2009. Mat Sabu is currently the hot favourite. But then he is an outsider. Umno will therefore go all out to discredit him if he is fielded in Kuala Terengganu. But will the issue of calun luar pose a serious problem to PAS? At the moment it does not appear so but it all depends on how the issue is played up, and it will certainly be played up for sure.

The second alternative will be Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi. But Syed Azman is already the state assemblyman for Batu Burok and this can be used as an issue. Umno can appeal to the voters that since Syed Azman is already a wakil rakyat, while Wan Farid is not, then it is better that the seat be given to Wan Farid instead of Syed Azman. Would the Terengganu voters be prepared to make Syed Azman both a parliamentarian as well as a state assemblyman? There is no way of telling just yet.

Ahmad Said is himself not above controversy. Petronas has just built a shopping complex in Kertih that cost more than RM100 million and one of the tenants is Giant. Giant has already stocked up their hypermarket full of goods plus has hired more than 200 workers. But Ahmad Said will not allow them to open their doors for business.

Petronas tried to meet Ahmad Said to discuss the matter but the Menteri Besar wants to meet Giant and not Petronas. Giant, in turn, refuses to meet Ahmad Said and instead wants Petronas to sue the state government. According to the talk in town, Ahmad Said wants Giant to ‘donate’ a few million ringgit to Umno Terengganu’s ‘war chest’ before he gives them permission to start business. But none of the other Malay-owned establishments have to do the same thing so why is Giant, which is Chinese owned, subjected to this ‘donation’ rule?

PAS can play up this issue to win over the 8,000 or so Chinese voters in Kuala Terengganu. If Umno Terengganu, or Ahmad Said, is seen as racist or anti-Chinese, then this may swing the Chinese votes. And with the other racist from Penang, Ahmad Ismail, still very much in the minds of the Chinese, this stunt by Ahmad Said may yet anger the Chinese enough to vote PAS.

Bandar, which as I said is the only Barisan Nasional seat out of four state seats under the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency, is under MCA because that happens to be the only seat given to the Chinese. The rest of the 31 state seats and 8 parliament seats in the state are all Umno. Therefore, if the Chinese do not give at least that one seat to MCA, then the Chinese will have absolutely no seats in Terengganu.

But that is the Bandar state seat, the solitary seat that MCA contested. The Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat is not MCA but Umno. So there is no reason for the Chinese to be emotional about the Kuala Terengganu parliament seat, which will be Malay versus Malay and not Malay versus Chinese. Sure, the Chinese voted along racial lines when it came to the Bandar seat. That is why the Bandar seat is the only state seat that Barisan Nasional won in Kuala Terengganu. But there is no reason for the Chinese to vote Barisan Nasional when it comes to the parliament seat because whoever wins it will still not be a Chinese anyway.

And what is one more parliament seat for PAS? This will give PAS only 24 seats in total against DAP’s 28 and PKR’s 31. PAS will still be the minority and can’t form the government or even implement Hudud laws with just 24 seats. Plus, if the candidate is Mat Sabu, then one more ‘loose cannon’ can be sent to parliament to give Barisan Nasional a massive headache. So the Chinese will not see any problems with voting for PAS if the candidate is a ‘friend of the Chinese’ like Mat Sabu is known to be.

In 1999, Harun Jusoh of PAS won the Bandar seat and it was because of the Chinese votes. In 1990, the Chinese, again, voted PAS and the MCA candidate was defeated. So, many times in the past the Chinese in Kampong Cina voted PAS rather than for the Chinese candidate from MCA. The Chinese have done this before, many times, and they can do it again. They can vote PAS, especially when voting PAS does not entail ‘sacrificing’ their ‘own’ candidate from MCA.

Bandar is not just Kampong Cina, which is predominantly Chinese. It is also Losong, which is predominantly Malay, and Pulau Kambing, which is a mix of Malay and Chinese. So we need to look at Bandar beyond just the Chinese. The Malays too have a significant vote in the Bandar state seat. But, in the past, when the Malays from Losong and Pulau Kambing were split 50:50, it was the Chinese from Kampong Cina who played the role of ‘kingmaker’.

The bottom line is, the candidate matters. Field the right candidate in Kuala Terengganu and you will win. Field the wrong candidate and not only the voters will reject him or her but your own party will play a role in ensuing that he or she loses. The internal sabotage is going to be brutal, for both Umno and PAS, although more so for Umno than PAS.

PKR has a strong following in Kuala Terengganu and should not be ignored. Even DAP has a presence in Kuala Terengganu and can sway the Chinese voters. PKR and DAP are very comfortable with Mat Sabu and if he is going to be the candidate then expect very strong solidarity from Pakatan Rakyat. But if Mustafa Ali is instead going to be the candidate, then some of the PKR and DAP workers might stage a ‘go slow’ and not be too serious in their campaign.

The problem is not just PKR and DAP though. Even the ‘Young Turks’ in PAS would rather the candidate not be Mustafa Ali. They feel that Mustafa is a hindrance to Pakatan Rakyat solidarity and is from the older generation that should be reduced to an advisory role and not be too prominent on the front line.

Mustafa was also the ‘wet blanket’ who spoke out against Anwar Ibrahim’s plan to form the federal government on 16 September 2008. Many blame Mustafa for throwing a spanner in the works by announcing that the 16 September plan is Anwar’s plan and not Pakatan Rakyat’s plan. Instead of supporting the plan, Mustafa said that he did not think it can happen and has in fact not agreed to it. This sent Pakatan Rakyat into panic mode and there was even talk that PAS might team up with Umno to help prop up the Barisan Nasional government if 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament cross over to Pakatan Rakyat.

Some even went so far as to accuse Mustafa of being an Umno mole whose job is to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat does not succeed in its effort to form a federal government. A lot of damage control needs to be done if Mustafa is chosen to contest the Kuala Terengganu by-election.

The matter of the missing RM7 billion oil royalty or ‘Wang Ehsan’ will also be an election issue, as will the RM300 million a year Terengganu Monsoon Cup. Wan Farid and his brother, Wan Hisham, together with Patrick Lim, have their hands dirty in this and I will be very surprised if this issue is not played up to the hilt. The Agong rejected Idris Jusoh and instead asked that Ahmad Said replace the former as Menteri Besar because of this missing RM7 billion. Even the Agong is upset. So would the Terengganu folks vote for Wan Farid, one of the four men who robbed Terengganu to the tune of RM7 billion?

Then there is the shooting of two people during the Bersih rally along the Batu Burok beach in Kuala Terengganu. It is said that Wan Farid was the man who instructed the police to clamp down on the rally and which resulted in the shooting. Wan Farid, of course, has denied this allegation but witnesses have spotted him in conference with the police just hours before the shooting. Wan Farid will be hard-pressed in washing his hands of this bloody episode along Batu Burok beach.

Kuala Terengganu is a ‘must visit’ come 6 January 2009 once the nominations close. Whether it is going to be a straight fight between PAS and Umno is yet to be seen. But it will be no surprise to everyone if it is a three- or four-corner fight with an ‘independent’ candidate or two entering the fray.

The Kuala Terengganu parliament seat is nobody’s seat. Neither PAS nor Umno can claim it is their seat. And Kuala Terengganu is not one seat. It is a make-up of Kampong Cina, Losong, Pulau Kambing, Ladang, Tanjong, Batu Burok, Kuala Ibai, Cabang Tiga, Wakaf Mempelam, and so on. It is actually many seats in one and a most unpredictable seat to forecast at that. I, for one, would not want to take any bets just yet. There are too many permutations with the candidate being one of the greatest factors to consider.

Umno has already announced their candidate, so it is too late to backtrack on that. So it is now left to PAS to choose their candidate. If PAS chooses the right man then Wan Farid is dead meat. But Wan Farid’s chances can improve if PAS makes the mistake of fielding the wrong candidate.

The more worrying point is, after knowing all these issues, will PAS make the right decision? If they still ignore all these factors and choose the wrong man, then many are going to come away thinking that this was done on purpose. As it is, many are suspicious of the top PAS Terengganu leadership. Talk amongst some people is that PAS many ‘throw’ this election to help Ahmad Said consolidate his position, which is under serious attack from the other factions in Umno Terengganu. In politics this is not unusual — in that we help the weaker enemy against the stronger enemy with a view that, in the end, both enemies will be neutralised when they are equally strong.

PAS is, after all, a political party and in politics an enemy of an enemy can be your friend when it best suits you. And friends can revert to being enemies later once the situation changes. So will the Kuala Terengganu by-election be that platform for PAS to pit one Umno faction against the other? This, the people are speculating, and one wrong move from PAS will set tongues wagging and the “I told you so” will reverberate across the Kuala Terengganu river to the other side of the lavish RM60 million Crystal Mosque built by Patrick Lim, Wan Hisham, Wan Farid and Idris Jusoh at great cost to the taxpayers.

The hypocrisy in men

So, while I might support Hudud in principle, I do not support it as the law of the land. And I do not support it because I can’t support what two-thirds of Parliament does not support.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Christmas is upon us, yet again. Another Christmas, another year gone, another year nearer to our graves. Tomorrow is Boxing Day, also remembered as Tsunami Day, the day when people were drowned in their sleep and swept out to sea into their watery graves.

How quickly joy turns to sorrow. One day we are elated with festivity and drowning in food and wine.  The next we are sedated with reality and drowning in the Indian Ocean. I am now in Penang. I arrived yesterday with an entourage of six families, about 25 souls or so in all. I am now in the land where it all happened almost a memory ago.

The Boxing Day Tsunami, some say, is God’s punishment. It is God punishing mankind for the wrongs it has done. If that was really what God intended then God did not do a good job. Those who deserve punishment certainly did not get punished. Those who were punished were not deserving of that fate. Are we talking about my God, one of compassion and justice, or are we talking about your God, one with a sick sense of humour and misguided sense of justice?

To you your God and to me mine, the religionists say. But then are we not all God’s children and the creation of that same, one God? How can you, therefore, have your God and me, mine? Your God and mine are one and the same. To believe we have separate Gods means we believe there is more than one God. And the doctrine of most religions says there is but one God, in particular that of the Abrahamic faiths.

And are we so different? Did not Muhammad learn from the Christians and much of Islam ‘adopted’ from Christianity? Does not the Ka’bah also appear in the same name and form in the land of the Zoroastrians in the far reaches of Persia? Did not Jesus disappear from the ages of 12 to 30 when he sought tuition from Buddhists, as many now believe? Did not John the Baptist practice what was practiced by the Hindus in India of his time? But what can we really believe? Do we really know what was fact and fiction thousands of years ago? What we do know is what we have been told to believe. And what we are told to believe is what they want us to believe. And what they want us to believe is what suits the political agenda of those who walk in the corridors of power.

John roamed the land with just the clothes on his back to preach the word of God. And he brought no rations save those he accepted as alms along the way. Was John a Jew, Christian or Buddhist? We believe what we want to believe as long as it suits those who walk in the corridors of power. And to believe otherwise will not incur the wrath of God but the wrath of those who need us to believe what we are told to believe for purposes of political expediency.

Such is religion. And such is politics. And religion is not about God. It is about politics. And Cain killed Abel not for God but for politics. The good died that day, thousands of years ago. And we are descendants of the bad that lived, not the good that died.

So, can mankind be good when we are children of bad? How can the fruit of a poisonous tree be nothing but poisonous? If Cain had survived and society had convicted Abel and sentenced him to death for attempted murder, then we would probably be good because then we would be children of Cain, not Abel.

But would children of good also be good? And would children of bad also be bad? Can those whose mothers and fathers who are both nuclear scientists be equally brilliant? Or is there no possibility the son could be born mentally retarded? How many children of Umno diehards join the opposition, to be cursed and disowned by their fathers? And can there not be two brothers on opposite sides of the political fence? Shahrir and Khalid, the two sons of Samad, are testimony that there can. But which of Samad’s sons is Cain and which is Abel? It all depends on whether you walk in the corridors of power. Cain can be Abel and Abel, Cain, if he you judge walks with you and not against you.

Hudud is the current controversy, the latest Tsunami sweeping this land. But what is the issue? Is it about religion or it is merely politics? The hand is quicker than the eye. And what we see is what our brain tells us to see. We see what the hand waves in front of us. Magic is not magic. Magic is sleight of hand.

And the politicians are playing silap mata. It is a cheap show to indulge our fantasies. Is it not fantasy that Hudud will be implemented in Malaysia? How can the minority move the majority? The Federal Constitution does not provide for it. Hudud is not about religion. It is about the law of the land. Religion may be a state matter. But Hudud is not about religion. It is about the law of the land. And the states do not have authority over the laws of the land. Hudud can only become law when Parliament says so. And you need 66.666% of Parliament to say so. PAS owns only 23 seats.  And 23 seats in Parliament is not 66.666% of 222. So Hudud can never be the law of the land.

The non-Muslim coalition partners of Barisan Nasional oppose Hudud. This, they have said so. Umno from Kelantan supports Hudud. This, they have said so. The non-Muslim partners of the opposition coalition oppose Hudud. This, they have said so. PAS, the propagator of Hudud, is split on the issue. This may have a bearing on the Kuala Terengganu by-election on 17 January 2009.

In the meantime the people are confused. Who supports what and who opposes? It is no longer that easy to tell. But it is meant that way. This is what politics is all about. And Hudud is about politics, not about religion. Politics is about exploitation and deception. Politics, not prostitution, is the oldest profession in the world. But, while prostitutes are not politicians, politicians are certainly prostitutes. And they will prostitute themselves if need be. And most times it needs be that they prostitute themselves.

PAS wants to secure the Malay votes in Kuala Terengganu. Umno wants to swing the Chinese votes. So, with the by-election looming over the horizon, Hudud is played to the hilt. Islam is the issue of the day. Hudud is the bad boy of Islam. And there are no sacred cows in politics. All is fair in love and war. So let us play up the Hudud issue for the benefit of winning votes.

A critical analysis of Hudud could lay the matter to rest. Those opposed could become converted if the real issue is explained. But then this will end the confusion. And the objective is not to end the confusion. The game plan is exploitation and deception. That is how ‘good’ politics is played. And there is only one type of politics, the type that wins.

I do not want to explain Hudud. I am not even a Hudud apologist. I can do that if you want me to. It is so crystal clear and extremely simple that it makes me laugh. How can Hudud be an issue? Hudud can be good and can be bad depending on application.  So can the Internal Security Act if you really want to get analytical. Hudud is not about punishment. It is about looking into circumstances. Hudud explores what went wrong and how to put it right. It is not about imposing on society and causing tears to be shed.

Thieves must not be automatically punished under Hudud. The circumstances need to first be explored. Under common law thieves must not escape punishment. The circumstances do not matter. If a thief is a thief because of circumstances then the thief is not a thief and society must instead be punished, as far as Hudud is concerned. Society will be ordered to adopt the thief. The thief will become the ward of the state. And the thief can now leave his life and crime and enter into a life of adoption.

Such is the beauty of Hudud. A thief is not a thief. A thief becomes our adopted child. And if, again, he needs to steal because we have failed him, then we receive punishment instead. The thief loses no limb. But do people understand this? They do not because they are meant to not understand. This is about politics. And politicians are prostitutes. They exploit us and deceive us. And that is a mark of a good politician.

Murder is murder. Death is punished by death. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But that is common law. That is not Hudud. In Hudud the question would be: why did you kill? Circumstantial evidence is not allowed under Hudud. Under common law you hang because of the smoking gun. Never mind they can’t prove that you killed. As long as the gun is yours you will die even if you did not pull the trigger. And did not Mokhtar Hashim get sentenced to death because of the smoking gun?

Even if you confess to murder you still do not die. The family would first be asked whether they want you dead. Taking your life will not bring back the deceased. So do we want a life for a life? Two lives gone serves no purpose. The deceased’s family’s welfare for the rest of its natural days takes precedence over punishment. Dead men do not put food on the table. Would another life lost, notwithstanding it is the life of a murderer, solve the economic problems of the deceased family?

So you can ‘buy’ your life by supporting the family. It may be costly but that is the price of life. But what if you are destitute yourself? How to support your victim’s family when you can’t even support yourself? Many pay tithe or zakat. Zakat must be paid, come hell or high water. You can choose how to pay as long as it assists society. And if your millions can be spent for the benefit of mankind then you have fulfilled your duty to God and society. So a philanthropist can help ‘buy back’ your life for the good of the deceased’s family.

So there are ways. Hudud can be humane if you want it to be. But has this been explained? Are the people aware that Hudud can improve society where common law has failed? But who cares? Who cares that Hudud can be better than what we have now? Hudud is not about religion. It is about politics. And politics is about exploitation and deception.  And that is because politicians are prostitutes. And Hudud has been prostituted for the benefit of politics. That is what Hudud is all about, political prostitution.

But I too do not support the implementation of Hudud. I support Hudud in that it can be better than what we have if properly implemented. But what is properly implemented nowadays? Even the Internal Security Act has been abused. The Internal Security Act was good in 1960. One generation later and it has become a tool to stifle dissent and freedom.

So, while I might support Hudud in principle, I do not support it as the law of the land. And I do not support it because I can’t support what two-thirds of Parliament does not support. This is not about religion. It is about democracy. Even if two-thirds of Parliament supports it I still will not support it. How can 148 members of Parliament decide on behalf of 26 million Malaysians? Never mind some people gave them their two-thirds majority in Parliament. It was only four million people that did. 22 million other Malaysians did not.

Run a referendum. 10 million Malaysians are minors. 16 million Malaysians are of voting age. Get the 16 million Malaysians to decide. And let that referendum of 75% tell us what they want. And if 12 million Malaysians, representing 75% of eligible voters, vote in favour of Hudud then let this be the law of the land. If not forever hold your tongue and let the matter be given a decent burial.

I have just about had it with political prostitutes.  It has come to a point I feel like campaigning for Umno in the Kuala Terengganu by-election just to send a message to PAS that they can’t keep playing this exploitation and deception game of political prostitution. Do they think I have my brains in my ass? Just because they do does not mean I do too.

Those who both support and oppose Hudud do not know one bit what Hudud is. Many years ago I wrote a ‘thesis’ on the matter, which was published in Harakah, the official party organ of PAS. No, I am no lawyer. I am not even a religious scholar. I just have a brain; a brain God gave me. And God gave us brains so that we can use it to think. But I wonder why others do not also use their brains that God gave them to think.

No, Hudud is not evil. Hudud is better than what we have now. But it can be worse if we want to make it so. And chances are the evil in man will make it worse. That is what makes the matter dicey.

Nevertheless, the issue is not whether Hudud is better or worse. It is about whether the majority of the people want it as the law of the land. That is what matters. And we do not care what 23 PAS Members of Parliament want. We do not even care what 148 Members of Parliament want, even if they represent two-thirds of Parliament. We care what 75% of 16 million Malaysians want. If 12 million Malaysians shout, “Let’s implement Hudud”, then let that happen. If not, buzz off and get out of my face before I really lose my temper, you political prostitutes.

Oh yes, and Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you are in the same mood as I am today. I want to kick ass. Don’t know what you want to do though.

The constantly grumbling Chinese – The Chinese are SUPER kiasu.

Some Chinese say they refuse to vote for PAS because they are worried that PAS may implement Islamic laws. But how can PAS implement Islamic laws when they will never have a two-thirds majority in Parliament?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Malays can sometimes be real assholes. But at least they are honest about it. Chinese can also sometimes be assholes as well. But they pretend to be something else whilst they are actually the opposite of what they pretend to be. In that sense the Chinese are hypocritical assholes. And this is where the Malays are better than the Chinese. The Malays are honest assholes while the Chinese are dishonest assholes.

Look at what MCA said yesterday. They want PKR and DAP to state their stand on the Hudud laws. But when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared that Malaysia is already an Islamic state and therefore the Malays do not need PAS any more, MCA clapped and whistled just like trained seals in a circus.  MCA should have demanded that Umno states its stand on the Hudud laws the day Mahathir made his announcement. What about the government proposal on the Syariah laws? What has MCA go to say about the matter? Why no response? Why as silent as a church mouse?

Look at the petition to the King and the Sultans. The Malays keep a respectful silence when it comes to the Rulers. Except for a handful of Malays, the majority of the Malays do not drag the Rulers through the mud. And you do not need the Sedition Act for the Malays to show respect to the Rulers.

The Chinese, however, grumble that the Rulers are a waste of money. “Why do we need Rulers?” the Chinese argue. “It just costs us a lot of money to maintain a Monarchy. And the Rulers do not do anything to earn their salary.” But when we take the initiative to send petitions to the Rulers, these same Chinese will argue, “Why waste time with petitions? It is not like the Rulers will do anything.”

So what do the Chinese really want? When they perceive the Rulers as not taking any action, they grumble. But when we take the initiative to bring to the Rulers’ attention certain grievances of the rakyat, they also grumble. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Sometimes I get the impression that these Chinese get an orgasm by grumbling. Maybe it’s a fetish thing, sort of like kinky sex.

Look at the issue of free speech. When I whack the Malays, I am a great guy. I am open. I am fair. I am a person who allows and practices freedom of expression. But, when I whack the Chinese, I am a racist pig. Whacking Malays is good for the country and in the spirit of free speech. Whacking the Chinese is a negative thing and bad for the country’s future.

The Chinese do not believe in freedom of expression. They believe in the freedom to whack the Malays. And whacking the Chinese is not freedom of expression. It is racism.

Look at the issue of who to vote for in the elections. Barisan Nasional is evil. Barisan Nasional is Umno. The non-Malays have no say in Barisan Nasional. The non-Malays in Barisan Nasional are Umno’s running dogs. But we Chinese must vote for Barisan Nasional because it is a devil we know. Pakatan Rakyat may be an angel but it is an angel we don’t know. Better a devil we know than an angel we don’t know.

The Malays are split into four groups. There are the Malays who support Ketuanan Melayu and the New Economic Policy. These Malays will vote for Umno come hell or high water. And they will defend Ketuanan Melayu and the New Economic Policy with their six-inch keris to the death. Then there are the Malays who support PAS, basically because they believe it is the Islamic thing to do. Then there are Malays who want to see transparency, good governance, freedom of expression and assembly, independence of the judiciary, an end to abuse of power and corruption, an end to police brutality, and all those other ‘Western notions’. These Malays will vote for PKR. Then there are those Malays who don’t care a damn and think that all politicians are hypocrites and politics is sheer bullshit. They don’t bother to come out to vote or even to register as voters.

The Malays are clear in their leanings. They don’t hide their feelings. They say it as they see it and you can go to hell if you don’t like what they say for all they care. But you can’t say the same about the Chinese. They grumble and grumble till the cows come home. But they will do the exact opposite of how they feel. They equate Barisan Nasional as the reincarnation of the devil. But then they will vote for Barisan Nasional because it is the devil they know and the devil they know is better than an angel they don’t know.

Some Chinese say they refuse to vote for PAS because they are worried that PAS may implement Islamic laws. But how can PAS implement Islamic laws when they will never have a two-thirds majority in Parliament? PAS contested only 60 seats out of 222 Parliament seats. Then they went and won only 23 seats.

PAS needs about 150 seats in Parliament to change Malaysia from a Secular state into an Islamic state. But when they contest only 60 seats, even if they win all the 60 seats they contest it will still be only 60 seats. And they can’t win all the seats they contest. They can only win less than half the seats they contest. Where would PAS get the 150 parliament seats it requires?

The Chinese counter this argument by saying that PAS can always team up with Umno to form an Islamic state. So better we vote for Barisan Nasional than vote for PAS. This will prevent PAS from teaming up with Umno to change Malaysia into an Islamic state.

Again, this argument does not make sense. If you refuse to vote for PAS because you are scared that PAS will team up with Umno to change Malaysia into an Islamic state, would voting for Umno instead of PAS prevent this? I mean; you are scared of a PAS-Umno alliance. So you refuse to vote for PAS and instead vote for Umno. Does this mean the alliance will not happen if this is what you suspect is going to happen? You are just transferring from the right pocket to the left pocket. The sum total still remains the same.

You transfer your vote from PAS to Umno. One seat less for PAS means an additional seat for Umno. Or you transfer your vote from Umno to PAS. One seat less for Umno means an additional seat for PAS. You are merely ding-donging from PAS to Umno and vice versa. Therefore, if PAS and Umno form an alliance, would not the number of ‘Malay’ seats total the same? How does ‘robbing’ PAS of one seat and giving that seat to Umno have any impact if PAS and Umno form an alliance?

Now, if Umno and DAP are face-to-face in that constituency and you vote for DAP instead of Umno, then this would make a difference. And if PAS faces MCA or Gerakan in that constituency and you vote for MCA or Gerakan, this too would make a difference. Then you are not giving the seat to either PAS or Umno; you are giving it to DAP or MCA or Gerakan. But DAP will face MCA or Gerakan, not Umno, while it is PAS that is facing Umno. So you either vote for PAS or Umno. There is no DAP to vote for. DAP is fighting MCA or Gerakan.

Anyway, PAS has 23 seats in Parliament. Umno has 66. Even if you add Umno Sabah into the equation, Umno’s seats will come to only 79. 23 plus 66 equals 89. Add the 13 Umno Sabah seats and it still comes to only 102. 102 of 222 comes to less than 50% because 50% of 222 is 111.

So you are scared that PAS will betray us and team up with Umno. But if they do that they still do not have the two-thirds they need to change Malaysia into an Islamic state. In fact, they do not even have 50% of the seats. How do you, therefore, reconcile the ‘logic’ that you vote for Barisan Nasional instead of Pakatan Rakyat to prevent PAS from teaming up with Umno? But this is Chinese ‘logic’ for whatever it is worth.

Chinese demand mother-tongue education. They argue that vernacular schools offer better education than national schools. Many Chinese go to Chinese schools while Malays go to national schools, although some Malays do go to Chinese schools. But Malays can rationalise better than the Chinese can. Chinese may be better at mathematics. That I don’t deny. But those Malays who are supposed to be weak in mathematics can count better than the Chinese. The Malays know that 23 plus 79 equals 102. And the Malays know that 50% of 222 is 111. The Chinese don’t know this in spite of the fact they are better at mathematics than the Malays.

No, the Chinese are not poor in mathematics. They are not even stupid. They are in fact quite clever and, at times, cleverer than the Malays. It is just that the Chinese like to grumble. The Chinese are constantly grumbling. And they will raise all sorts of grievances — the Malays this, the Malays that, the Chinese are second-class citizens, the Chinese are unfairly treated, the Malays are mean to the non-Malays, without the Chinese Malaysia would never have developed, Malaysia is what it is because of the Chinese, and so on and so forth. But ask them to act on their grievances and the Chinese will offer a million lame excuses why they will vote Barisan Nasional instead of Pakatan Rakyat.

You can’t get the job because you have no experience and the job specifications stipulate they require at least three years experience. But how to get experience when you can’t get a job? That is called ‘Catch 22’. The Chinese refuse to vote opposition because, according to the Chinese, the opposition does not have a track record in government whilst Barisan Nasional has 51 years experience. But how will the opposition build up its track record or prove what it can do if it never gets to form the government? That is also called ‘Catch 22’.

Maybe the Chinese can answer this question. But their answer will be the typical: better a devil you know than an angel you don’t know. And then, after voting for Barisan Nasional, the Chinese will go on grumbling about how unfairly they have been treated by Umno, and that the non-Malay parties in Barisan Nasional are Umno running dogs, etc., etc., etc. And the Chinese are supposed to have received a better mother-tongue education than the Malays.

You could have fooled me.

Prosecution deliberately delaying trial: Raja Petra

(The Star) – Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin claimed the prosecution was deliberately delaying his sedition trial when the complainant in his case was not available to be questioned by his defence team on Thursday.

“Why must the prosecution bring this case to court today just to amend the charge and postpone it?,” Raja Petra, 58, told the Sessions Court.

“How long are we going to wait for Supt Gan Tack Guan (chief investigator in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case and the complainant in Raja Petra’s sedition trial)?

“He was on medical leave earlier and is now gone for training,” he said.

The former ISA detainee had on May 6 claimed trial to publishing a seditious article on his Malaysia Today news portal on April 25.

He is accused of publishing the article Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell on the website http://www.malaysia-today.net.

When told by Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob that he only had to record his plea over the amended charge, Raja Petra said: “I plead not guilty and I protest the delay.”

The amendment inserted the title of the seditious article and the addition of the URL of the article to the first page of the appendix attached to the sedition charge.

The Shah Alam High Court had on Monday allowed an application by the prosecution to revise the lower court decision which had disallowed amendments to the charge.

DPP Roslan Mat Nor said the prosecution did not intend to delay the trial and that Supt Gan was not subpoenaed for the trial as he was attending training in Taiwan which would end on Dec 21.

“I have ordered the investigating officer to ask his (Supt Gan’s) office to fax a copy of a letter on the training to tender to the court,” he said.

DPP Roslan said the prosecution was asking for a two-week adjournment to allow the seventh witness, computer forensic investigator Asst Supt Wa’ie Isqal Kria Abdullah, to extract documents from two computers seized from Raja Petra as ordered by the court earlier.

“We have identified the documents from the folders (in the computers) and we need to open those folders so that we can give a copy to the defence,” he said.

However, he said the defence could also cross-examine Cyber Security Malaysia senior digital forensic analyst S. Sivanathan, 28.

Lead counsel J. Chandra said the prosecution’s application was a waste of judicial time.

“We reserve our right to raise an objection upon being served the (new) documents,” he said, adding that Sivanathan was called to intepret the documents extracted by ASP Wa’ie and would be questioned later.

Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo asked the court to direct the prosecution to close the case if they were unable to call Supt Gan to be cross-examined.

“Supt Gan is aware that the hearing has been fixed for four days but he deliberately chose to go away. He is a police officer and should know the procedure,” he contended.

Rozina said Supt Gan was not subpoened and set three days from Feb 10 for continuation of the trial.

Court allows prosecution to amend sedition charge against Raja Petra

SHAH ALAM (Dec 15, 2008) : The High Court here today allowed the prosecution’s application to amend the sedition charge against blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin.

Justice Datuk Su Geok Yiam said the prosecution’s application to amend the charge would not prejudice the accused because the original charge and the amended charge were the same.

The only difference was the inclusion of the website address and title of the alleged seditious article, she said.

She said the application to amend the charge also met the provision under the Criminal Procedure Code and would not prejudice the accused because the defence could recall all five prosecution witnesses who had given evidence.

Besides, she said, the amendment was not a substitution as alleged by the defence but gave a clearer information to the original charge and would make it easy for the defence to prepare their defence.

She said a copy of the original article had also been given by the prosecution to the defence beforehand according to Section 51(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code and therefore, the defence could not claim they were surprised by the prosecution’s application to amend the charge.

“Therefore, the order of the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court judge in dismissing the prosecution’s application to amend the charge against Raja Petra is set aside.

“The Petaling Jaya Sessions Court will resume the trial on Thursday with the amended charge,” said judge Su.

Raja Petra, 58, who came to the court wearing a green shirt and black trousers was accompanied by wife Mable @ Marina Lee. Present his lawyer, J. Chandra.

He was charged with publishing a seditious article entitled “Let’s Send the Altantuya Murderers to Hell“ in the http://www.MalaysiaToday.com website at his house No. 5, Jalan BRP 5/5, Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh, on April 25.

If convicted under Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act 1948, he can be fined up to RM5,000 or jailed not exceeding three years or both.

The prosecution was represented by DPPs Ishak Mohd Yusof, Roslan Mat Nor and  Farhan Read. — BERNAMA

Walking on thin ice

Politics, in Malaysia, is about race and religion. And no Malaysian can escape that. And this is why the 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament should not cross over yet, not if it is going to be 30 non-Malay Members of Parliament. It should only happen if the 30 are half Malay and half non-Malay.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It would be nice to be able to celebrate a white Christmas this year. But it does not snow in Malaysia so this may be quite impossible to wish for. Nevertheless, white and black are mere personal preferences and what is white to some may be black to others. Anyway, what is wrong with black when they say black is beautiful? So we have a ‘black’ or almost black US President who will soon be living in The White House. And certainly they will not change the name to ‘The Black House’ just for the sake of Obama. So white or black, what does it matter? As Deng Xiao Peng said: never mind if it is a black cat or a white cat — so long as it catches a mouse.

A ‘white’ Christmas to most Malaysians would be to wake up on the morning of 25 December 2008 to changes in Malaysia. And ‘change’ here would mean a Pakatan Rakyat government heading the federal government of this nation. Would this be something hopeless to wish for? Would Santa fulfil our wish list this Christmas? Many are no longer holding their breath after the ‘aborted’ 16 September 2008 ‘change’ that did not happen. And it did not happen on the rescheduled date as well. So those who still hoped for a ‘delayed action’ now no longer harbour any hope.

But it is not as simple as many thought it would be. Sure, all it takes is for at least 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament to cross the aisle over to the ranks of the opposition. Is this so difficult? Are there not at least 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament amongst the 140 who clamour for change, as do 50% of the almost 11 million registered voters who voted for the opposition?

Actually, not all the 11 million registered voters came out to vote. As what happened in the 11 general elections before the 8 March 2008 general election, only about 70% of the registered voters came out to vote. The balance 30% stayed home, as they had done since two years before Merdeka in 1955 when we had our first (municipal) elections (the first general election was in 1959). And 12 general elections have shown that only 70% of the registered voters bother to vote. The other 30% do not care who rules Malaysia.

Then we had the 5 million eligible voters who did not even bother to register as voters. So only half the 16 million or so eligible voters actually cast their vote. 8 million Malaysians voted on 8 March 2008 and 8 million more either did not vote or did not register to vote. Half the ‘eligible’ Malaysians sought change. The other half were not concerned what happens to this country. That is the reality of the situation.

And the opposition got only 50% of the votes (which means votes from 25% of the eligible voters). But the 50% that the ruling coalition garnered (which also means votes from 25% of the eligible voters) helped them form the government in all but five states plus they managed to form the federal government with slightly under the two-thirds majority that it hoped it would get. But it still managed to form the federal government, nevertheless, with just half the votes.

Would 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat help solve our problems? Not if the 30 are all non-Malays and the MP for Pasir Mas, Ibrahim Ali, plus the MP for Kulim, Zulkifli Nordin, cross over to Barisan Nasional to reduce Pakatan Rakyat’s majority even further. And we really do not know how many more Pakatan Rakyat MPs, or even some State Assemblymen/women, are lurking in the shadows waiting for the word to change sides. And this is not impossible to happen.

Umno’s nationwide campaign since 8 March 2008 is brilliant, though dangerous. Umno is saying that the Malays have lost political power. Umno is saying that 8 March 2008 was a repeat of 11 May 1969. And the solution to this problem must be the same as the 13 May 1969 ‘solution’, says Umno. This has not only worried the non-Malays but even the Malays as well. And some of these Malays include the Rulers or the Raja-raja Melayu. Umno is playing an extremely dangerous race game and is stoking the sentiments of the nationalist Malays. And there are many nationalist Malays still around, as the Permatang Pauh by-election has proven.

In the Permatang Pauh by-election, Anwar Ibrahim won two out of three votes. This is superb by any standards. But it was the first-timers or young voters who almost unanimously voted for Anwar. In the saluran 4 in one of the UPUs (unit peti undi) or polling stations where the first-timers voted, Anwar garnered more than 400 votes against Arif Shah Bin Omar Shah’s mere 7. But in saluran 1 of that same UPU where the old-timers voted, it was a 50:50 tie between Anwar and Arif Shah.

This means, while the first-timers or young voters were almost entirely with Anwar, the old-timers were split 50:50 between the opposition and Umno. There are many pre-Merdeka voters who still root for Malay nationalism and who do not want Umno out of office. Permatang Pauh proved this as will the Kuala Terengganu by-election probably also prove on 17 January 2009.

Therefore, Umno still has a strong following. There are many who still want Ketuanan Melayu to remain. Sure, they are no longer the majority. They have now been reduced to a minority. But the numbers are still significant, nevertheless. And these are the people the opposition has to win over. But it is not easy to win them over when prejudice, suspicion and distrust cloud their thinking. And to wait for them to die before the majority ‘Malaysian-minded’ swamp the minority ‘Malay-minded’ will take too long to happen. We will need at least another ten years to see this become reality. So this will only happen by the 14th or 15th general election long after 2020.

Thus far, the Umno ‘race-card campaign’ has not quite succeeded. Malaysians are not that bad at maths, though the teaching of maths has ding-donged between English and Bahasa Malaysia. Barisan Nasional has 140 Members of Parliament, 79 of them Malays and 61 non-Malays. Pakatan Rakyat, in turn, has 43 Malay Members of Parliament against 39 non-Malays. This means both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are ‘Malay-majority’ coalitions.

But what happens when 30 non-Malay Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament cross over to Pakatan Rakyat? This would still give Barisan Nasional 79 Malays but it will be reduced to 31 non-Malays. This would make Barisan Nasional even more Malay than it is now. But Pakatan Rakyat would now have only 43 Malays against 69 non-Malays. So, while Barisan Nasional has become even more ‘Malay’, Pakatan Rakyat would become a ‘non-Malay’ coalition. And this would also mean that a ‘non-Malay’ government now runs this country once Pakatan Rakyat, with its 112 Members of Parliament, forms the federal government.

This is what concerns the Malays, the Rulers included. And their concern is not that the Malays have ‘lost political power’ and that the non-Malays have now ‘taken over’ this country. After all, they can even accept a non-Malay Prime Minister. So why fret over a non-Malay majority coalition running this country when the Prime Minister is still Malay? Their concern is that Umno will use this issue to ‘prove’ to the nationalist Malays that, finally, the Malays have lost political power, as they had been saying all along since the 8 March 2008 general election in their many road-shows the length and breadth of this country.

This is what Anwar has to guard against. And the Malays, as well as non-Malays, have told him so. The Rulers too have expressed their concern at the possible backlash from the nationalist Malays who will be led to believe that the Malays have lost political power. And if the numbers do not add up then this would make Umno’s job easier. Umno will have no problems convincing the nationalist Malays that the Malays have lost political power.

So, it is not just about the numbers. It is not just about 30 Barisan National Members of Parliament crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat. It is also about the ‘racial balance’. It is about 15 Malays and 15 non-Malays crossing over to enable Pakatan Rakyat to form the federal government with the ‘right’ balance that even Umno can’t quibble over.

The non-Malays do not like to hear this. It sounds too much like racism. Many Malays do not like it as well. But this is the reality of Malaysian politics that continues to haunt us. Politics, in Malaysia, is about race and religion. And no Malaysian can escape that. And this is why the 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament should not cross over yet, not if it is going to be 30 non-Malay Members of Parliament. It should only happen if the 30 are half Malay and half non-Malay. Then Umno will be silenced. Umno can no longer claim that the Malays have lost political power. Umno can no longer suggest that we are now seeing a repeat of May 1969. And Umno can’t propose that they need a May 1969 ‘solution’ to solve the ‘problem’.

Anwar must not just focus on changing the government. It is not about grabbing power. It is about peaceful change with no loss of life, limb or property. It is about a smooth transition where we can move forward to a better Malaysia — not moving one step forwards and two steps backwards to the ‘dark ages’ of turmoil, distrust and polarisation. This must be what the game plan should be all about.

And Anwar knows this. The non-Malays, too, know this. And many Malays know this as well, the Rulers included. It is not just about the number 30. It is about a ‘solid’ 30. And ‘solid’ must be read as the number that Umno can’t use to turn victory for Pakatan Rakyat into defeat for race relations.

No such thing as a sure thing

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

The Pink Panther

They say: justice delayed is justice denied. But who says the wheels of justice always move slowly. Justice can sometimes move extremely fast when they want it to, especially when it is court cases involving Raja Petra Kamarudin and when it relates to the Altantuya murder.

Raja Petra’s lawyer had not yet walked into his office after their court appearance at the Jalan Duta Court Complex this morning when a fax was waiting for him on his table. And even before he could digest the contents of the fax another fax came in. The Shah Alam High Court will hear the appeal by the Prosecution at 2.45pm tomorrow, Friday, 5 December 2008. So Raja Petra will, again, be in court — tomorrow 2.45pm at the Shah Alam court.

This morning, Raja Petra and his lawyers were in court to confirm the date of the appeal on the criminal defamation case. Yesterday, by order of the court, these same lawyers spent eight hours at Bukit Aman for a forensic test on the computers the police confiscated from his house related to the sedition case. And tomorrow is the Prosecution’s appeal on the amendment of the charge on the sedition case.

Wow! Seldom have Malaysians seen the courts move so fast. There are so many court cases going on at the same time that it is beginning to become very difficult to keep track of who is the defender and who is the defendee, and who is the appealer and who is the appealee.

The issues before the various courts are as follows — the Shah Alam court, the Petaling Jaya court and the Kuala Lumpur court. The prosecution tried to amend the charge in Raja Petra’s sedition case in the Petaling Jaya court but the judge turned it down. So the prosecution is appealing the judge’s decision in the Shah Alam court. And that is going to be heard tomorrow at 2.45pm.

Then, the prosecution is not happy that they did not find the evidence of any crime in the two computers the police confiscated — meaning a copy of the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’. So they asked the Petaling Jaya court for permission to check both computers again in the hope that this time they might find something. They checked the first computer over eight hours in Bukit Aman yesterday and will do a forensic test on the second unit next Tuesday.

Then, Raja Petra’s lawyers are appealing against the decision to transfer the criminal defamation case from the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates Court to the Sessions Court and this appeal was slotted for mention this morning in the Kuala Lumpur High Court. The court ordered Raja Petra’s lawyers to file their submission on 12 December 2008 and for the Prosecution to reply to it on 19 December. The hearing will be on 20 January 2009 when the judge will probably deliver his judgment as to whether the case will be heard in the Sessions Court (as what the Prosecution wants) or whether it has to be sent back to the Magistrates Court (as what Raja Petra wants).

In the meantime, while the Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur courts hear the various appeals and counter-appeals and applications to amend the charge and applications to oppose the amendment to the charge and application to do a second forensic on the two computers and so on and so forth, the hearings related to the crimes Raja Petra has been alleged to have committed are being delayed even further. And this has upset those who walk in the corridors of power.

The Prosecution has been told to wrap up all these many cases as soon as possible, preferably way before March 2009. March 2009 is when Najib Tun Razak is supposed to take over from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister of Malaysia. Abdullah wants these cases settled fast but Najib would rather they drag on until way past March 2009.

Abdullah wants all the cases settled now in the hope that damaging evidence will surface during the trial, which will implicate Najib, or at least his wife, in the murder of Altantuya. If this happens, this will disqualify Najib from taking over as Prime Minister. Najib, however, wants things to remain as they are until he takes over so that, when he is already Prime Minister, he can sweep everything under the carpet and suffer no damage.

How he is going to sweep everything under the carpet will be a bridge he crosses when he comes to it. Dropping the charges would be one way or making sure the judge shouts ‘irrelevant’ every five minutes could probably work as well, as it did in Anwar Ibrahim’s trial in 1998-1999.

Raja Petra never dreamt how important his trials were going to be in deciding who would become the Prime Minister of Malaysia come March 2009. Everyone assumed that Najib would automatically be taking over from Abdullah at the ‘agreed’ time. But it appears like nothing has really been agreed yet. And this is troubling Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well who is banking on Najib taking over in March 2009 as planned.

However, according to Murphy’s Law, what can go wrong will go wrong. And the plan for Najib taking over from Abdullah in March 2009 can certainly go wrong. So Abdullah wants to see to it that it will definitely go wrong. And Mahathir is fully aware of this and he is already lamenting about it even before the plan can be put in place. Call it a preemptive strike if you wish and Mahathir is the master of preemption, amongst other things. So he is preempting Abdullah’s move to block Najib from taking over as Prime Minister in March 2009.

Mahathir realises that you need not be the Umno President to become Prime Minister. Tun Abdul Razak Hussein became Prime Minister without becoming the Umno President, till much later. Mahathir himself stayed on as Prime Minister in 1988 even though be had no party (when Umno closed down) and was an independent Member of Parliament (calun bebas) while Ling Liong Sik was the Barisan Nasional Chairman at that time. In fact, Ghafar Baba became Deputy Prime Minister in 1986 without ever becoming an Umno (Lama) member until Umno Baru was formed in 1988.

Yes, who says you must first become the Umno President or the Barisan Nasional Chairman to become Prime Minister of Malaysia. All the Constitution says is that you must be a Member of Parliament whom, in the opinion of the Agong, commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House — in other words, the 222 Members of Parliament.

Let’s say Anwar Ibrahim has the confidence of the 82 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament. This leaves another 140 who are not with Anwar. Then, say, Abdullah has half the 140 with him, meaning 70. This leaves another 70. Let’s also say 20 abstain. This leaves 50. And, say, these 50 are with Najib.

In this case, Anwar Ibrahim has the confidence of the majority because he has 82, Abdullah has only 70, Najib 50, while 20 are ‘sitting on the fence’ and are not supporting any side.

It must be noted that Umno has only 66 Members of Parliament in Peninsular Malaysia. Even if the 13 Umno Sabah Members of Parliament stay united that would come to only 79. Pakatan Rakyat still has more at 82. Abdullah is said to control at least 20 Umno Members of Parliament. So Najib will be reduced to 59 against Pakatan Rakyat’s 82. The question would be: will Abdullah’s 20 remain neutral or will they swing to Pakatan Rakyat to give it 102? Either way, with only 59 Umno Members of Parliament, Najib would be far short and would need the other component members of Barisan Nasional to take the chair as Prime Minister.

MCA (15), MIC (3) and Gerakan (2) total another 20. These three parties plus PPP (which has no Parliamentarians) are totally pissed with Umno. They may not throw their lot behind Pakatan Rakyat but they would certainly stay neutral and become the ‘third force’ or ‘independents’. Though Pakatan Rakyat may not benefit from MCA’s, MIC’s and Gerakan’s 20 seats, neither would Umno, or rather Najib.

Najib would need the 30 non-Umno Members of Parliament from Sarawak and the balance 11 from Sabah (totaling 41) to make up his majority. If they too decide to follow MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP and stay ‘neutral’, then Najib is sunk. His 59 against Pakatan Rakyat’s 82, Abdullah’s ‘neutral’ 20, and the MCA’s, MIC’s, Gerakan’s, Sabah’s and Sarawak’s ‘neutral’ 61, would mean that he does not have the confidence of the majority and the Agong just can’t appoint him as the new Prime Minister.

Yes, many are looking forward to the 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat to give it 112 seats in Parliament (111 of 222 is exactly 50% so it will be 50% plus one seat). But what if they don’t cross over? What if they just remain neutral or leave Barisan Nasional to create an ‘independent third force’? This too would be enough to deny Najib the Prime Ministership. And there is more than one reason for them to want to remain neutral or to leave Barisan Nasional to become a third force.

This is the dilemma facing Najib. And Mahathir is also greatly concerned. They both know that March 2009 is a long way away. And many things can happen from now till March 2009. The non-Umno component members of Barisan Nasional are reevaluating their relationship with Umno. It is no longer a matter of whether to abandon Umno, and in the process abandon Najib as well. Leaving Umno is almost a foregone conclusion. What they are undecided about is whether they should leave Barisan Nasional to join Pakatan Rakyat or leave to become an independent third force. Both have its merits. In Pakatan Rakyat there is good and bad, as an independent third force there is also good and bad. That is what is preoccupying the minds of the non-Umno component members of Barisan Nasional. And the more mistakes Umno makes the more reason for them to proceed with the divorce. And Umno is making mistakes by the dozen these days.

So they want Raja Petra’s various cases in the Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur courts to be settled super-fast. The legal brains are mind-boggled as to how fast the courts seem to move in dispensing with justice when it comes to Raja Petra’s cases, when other cases are sometimes known to stretch over ten or twenty years with no end in sight.  Why the hurry when it comes to Raja Petra? Is the hurriedness more about Najib than about Raja Petra? Are they hoping that what will be revealed in Raja Petra’s cases will be the noose around Najib’s neck? I can only speculate on the reason but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

Sure, Abdullah said that Najib will take over in March 2009. He even did not contest the Umno Presidency and allowed Najib a walkover as part of this plan. But it was not an unqualified assurance. It certainly is subject to certain conditions. And one of those conditions would be that he is free from any legal problems such as being implicated in a murder. The second would be he procures the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House. The failure to fulfill any one of these conditions is enough to disqualify him. And Abdullah has four months to work on the disqualification.

There is no such thing as a sure thing. Najib and Mahathir of all people should know this by now. And who said Abdullah is stupid? He may not be smart but this does not mean he is stupid. And Abdullah may yet prove he is sneakier than most people give him credit for. I think Malaysians should launch a ‘No to Najib’ campaign. Maybe they should collect 100,000 signatures for a petition to the Agong to appeal to His Majesty not to appoint Najib as Prime Minister in March 2009. Maybe it is not a bad idea after all that Abdullah stays on. At least Pakatan Rakyat can take him on come the next general election in 2012-2013 and finish the job they started on 8 March 2008.

Aljazeeras Riz Khan with Raja Petra & Activists

RPK: 99pc of rumours become fact in Malaysia

By Leslie Lau
Consultant Editor

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 – Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin said tonight that 99% of the rumours he reports on his website eventually turn out to be true.

Defending himself from a caller on a special interview with Riz Khan on satellite television station Al Jazeera who asked why he persisted in writing about rumours, he said time and time again he had been proven right with his stories.

“I have always been told that two things sell and that is sex and politics. And sex involving politics sells even more,” he quipped.

He also denied the perception that Malaysia Today was an opposition mouthpiece, pointing out that he had been critical of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as well.

Raja Petra added that he would also not consider playing a role in government if PR succeeded in toppling Barisan Nasional (BN).

“I do not wish to be in government. I wish to be in a pressure group. I have joked that if Pakatan forms the government I will then join Umno,” he said.

Besides Raja Petra, the other guests on the show were playwright Jo Kukathas and journalist Kee Thuan Chye.

All three guests offered their respective views on a gamut of issues from censorship and the media to the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar also joined the discussion by telephone and made a stout defence of the ISA.

Offering the government’s condolences to the people of India over the recent Mumbai attacks, he justified the continued existence of the ISA by saying the law was the reason why Malaysia had not suffered any major terrorist attacks.

He also contended that it was only what he described as a vocal minority of Malaysians who were against the ISA while the majority wanted safety and order in society.

Kukathas responded, however, to the minister’s arguments by pointing out that most of those who were ever arrested under the ISA were not terrorists.

The twists and turns of mala fide

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was created persuant to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act (1998) as a new regulator for the communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia. At the same time, the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) was passed, to fulfil the need to regulate an increasingly convergent communications and multimedia industry.

The Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 is based on the basic principles of transparency and clarity; more competition and less regulation; flexibility; bias towards generic rules; regulatory forbearance; emphasis on process rather than content; administrative and sector transparency; and industry self-regulation.

The Act seeks to provide a generic set of regulatory provisions based on generic definitions of market and service activities and services. The jurisdiction of this Act is restricted to networked services and activities only.

The MCMC took over regulation of the Postal Services on 1 November 2002. On the same day it also was appointed the Certifying Agency under the Digital Signature Act (1997).

(http://www.skmm.gov.my/the_law/legislation.asp )

********************************************

The above is what they say on the MCMC website. In the section called WHAT WE DO (http://www.skmm.gov.my/what_we_do/licensing/licensing.asp ), the MCMC website says: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issues licences under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Postal Services Act 1991 and the Digital Signature Act 1997.

In the section titled ENFORCEMENT (http://www.skmm.gov.my/what_we_do/Enforcement/enforcement.asp ), this is what the MCMC website says:

The primary function of enforcement is to conduct investigation upon receiving reports relating to the commission of offences under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA), the Postal Services Act 1991 (PSA), the Digital Signatures Act 1997 (DSA) and the relevant subsidiary legislations.

The objective of the investigation is to ascertain whether or not the offender has committed the offence and also to gather sufficient evidence on the offender. After the investigation is completed, the investigation paper will be submitted to the Deputy Public Prosecutor for his decision on the appropriate action to be taken on the case investigated by MCMC.

Effective enforcement carried out by MCMC is to ensure the rights of the licensees, investors, consumers and the public are always protected and the confidence in communications, multimedia and postal services are maintained at all times.

***********************************************

Okay, now read the above again and note the following sentences or clauses:

1)    The jurisdiction of this Act is restricted to networked services and activities only.
2)    …….emphasis on process rather than content……
3)    ……. more competition and less regulation…….
4)    Effective enforcement carried out by MCMC is to ensure the rights of the licensees, investors, consumers and the public are always protected…….

At 6.00pm on 26 August 2008, Malaysia Today suddenly ‘disappeared’. We thought it was a technical glitch and called the hosting company. The hosting company, who was located overseas, said that the site is working fine and that they have no problems accessing it. We insisted we can’t access it from Malaysia and on further investigation they confirmed what we said and told us that Malaysia Today can’t be accessed only in Malaysia but there are no problems if accessing the site from other countries outside Malaysia.

It was soon established that Malaysia Today could not be accessed because the MCMC had written to the 20 or so Malaysian ISPs (Internet Service Providers; such as Jaring, TMNet, Maxis, Celcom, etc.) and ordered them to block malaysia-today.net. They did not unblock malaysia-today.net until barely a few hours before the police detained me under the Internal Security Act around noon of 12 September 2008.

The reason given to the ISPs was that Malaysia Today had broken the law. Which law was never specified but then Malaysian companies that need the goodwill of the Malaysian government to renew their licences or to ensure that their licences do not get withdrawn do not ask for clarification. They just do what they are told.

Before the MCMC acted on 26 August, they had been summoned for a few meetings to be told that the Cabinet was not happy with the countless revelations and exposes that Malaysia Today had dragged up the last four years since 2004. The MCMC was told the Cabinet is of the view that they (MCMC) are not doing their job and the Cabinet wants them to act against Malaysia Today.

The fact that the MCMC, as charted in its website above, does not have that power (read items 1, 2, 3 and 4 above) to block Malaysia Today appears lost to the powers-that-be. The Cabinet is not concerned about what the law says. They just want Malaysia Today closed down and it is the MCMC’s job to do that. The MCMC replied that it would be difficult to block malaysia-today.net on political grounds as this would look too obvious. It would be better that they use ‘insulting Islam’ and ‘insulting Prophet Muhammad’ as that reason. This would look more ‘legitimate’.

So, on 26 August 2008, the MCMC ordered all the Malaysia ISPs to block malaysia-today.net, which they did. But they still needed a reason to block malaysia-today.net and they found this reason in a comment posted by anti-jihadist. The problem is anti-jihadist posted that comment on 28 August 2008, two days after malaysia-today.net was put out of action. Is the MCMC clairvoyant and could see into the future? Did it have a crystal ball and knew, two days in advance, that anti-jihadist was going to post a ‘damaging’ comment? It is mind-boggling that the MCMC was able to block malaysia-today.net two days before the comment that caused it to be blocked was posted.

Soon after malaysia-today.net went out of action, overseas friends of Malaysia Today floated a new website and tried to restore as much of the old data as possible. Some were saved but much was lost when the servers that hosted malaysia-today.net were closed down and sold off.

This posed another problem. I am facing a charge under the Sedition Act and the Attorney-General did not attach an original copy of the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’ with the charge. Instead, they manually typed out the article — so, for all intents and purposes, the ‘evidence’ of my ‘crime’ had been fabricated. They are now trying to amend the charge but the court has rejected the motion to amend the charge. (The Attorney-General has now appealed this decision in the High Court so we are yet to know if they will be allowed to amend the charge).

Nevertheless, because malaysia-today.net no longer exists, they are not able to adduce the evidence to support the charge and even the amended charge is based on the manually typed copy of the article — meaning the evidence is still ‘fabricated’. It would be interesting to see how the prosecution now pursues its case against me in the absence of the original article from malaysia-today.net.

Anyway, on 3 December 2008, the prosecution will be embarking on a ‘fishing expedition’ to see if they can find the original copy of that article in my two computers which they have confiscated. They hope, since they can no longer obtain the original copy of the article from malaysia-today.net, that they can instead find it in one of the computers. They are really desperate to find the evidence with which they can use to nail my balls to the wall.

The MCMC realised that they could not justify blocking malaysia-today.net based on a comment by anti-jihadist that was posted two days AFTER the site was blocked. So they decided to unblock malaysia-today.net and instead detain me under Section 73 of the Internal Security Act, barely a few hours later, on vague grounds that I posted articles that incite Malaysians to hate its leaders plus insult Islam and the Prophet.

My wife then filed a writ of habeas corpus and it appeared like the court might agree with my wife’s contention that my detention was vague and mala fide. The court was due to hear our petition on 23 September 2008. On 22 September 2008, they quickly re-detained me under Section 8 of the Internal security Act and on the morning of 23 September they sent me packing off to Kamunting. This torpedoed the habeas corpus hearing due to be held that same day and my wife had to start all over again and file a new habeas corpus action.

A day or two after the MCMC blocked malaysia-today.net, I received a phone call from that big chap who runs the Chawan restaurant in Bangsar, across the road from The Outback in Bangsar Village, who said he wants to discus how malaysia-today-net can be unblocked. My wife and I went to meet him and he told us that the MCMC wants to explore how to unblock malaysia-today.net but this must be based on certain terms and conditions. He told me that he is an emissary from Mohamed Shahril Tarmizi, the senior manager of the MCMC, the man who ordered Malaysia Today closed down.

The problem, they told me, was not my articles, but the comments. Currently, the comments in Malaysia Today are not moderated. Would I be prepared to moderate them? I asked them how to do that when we receive thousands of comments and they are posted 24-7. I would have to employ at least ten staff and that would cost me maybe RM15,000-RM20,000 per month. I do not have the money to do that. I then asked them what solutions they could recommend.

They admitted that they have been pondering over this problem for some time and also do not have any solutions to suggest. Okay, I replied, I am prepared to hand over the job of moderating the comments in Malaysia Today to the government. The government can take over and moderate the comments in Malaysia Today. Would they be prepared to do that?

They admitted that the government would not be able to do that, as it would require a massive operation to do so. Never mind, they told me, they will unblock malaysia-today.net and give us six months to come out with a solution. On 10 September 2008, I received a phone call telling me that the MCMC has decided to unblock malaysia-today.net and that they will give us six months to come out with a plan on how to moderate the comments in Malaysia Today. On 11 September 2008, malaysia-today.net was unblocked. On 12 September 2008, they detained me under the Internal Security Act.

Can any of you figure out what is going on here? I, for one, can’t imagine what game they are playing.

While under ISA detention, I related this whole episode to SAC1 Dato’ Zamri, the man in-charge of the six-member team of interrogators assigned to me. I am not sure of his ‘surname’ but he is probably the best-looking Special Branch officer in Bukit Aman and most likely will be the head of the Special Branch in time to come.

He was very accommodating (even bought me a packet of cigarettes; which is not allowed when you are in jail) but what concerned me was his insistence that my articles could mislead the readers because the majority of Malaysians have a much lower intellectual level and may not understand what I write. It is not that I have committed a crime as such. It is just that the way I write may confuse Malaysians. In short, my crime is for having a higher intellectual level than the average Malaysian and they might misunderstand what I write. This is why the government regards me as a threat to society.

I do not regard myself as an intellectual or even as being smarter than most Malaysians. But this was the argument THEY were using to justify my detention and this bothered me. Based on what they were tying to tell me, I have to be sent to Kamunting because I am smart and most Malaysians are stupid. So Malaysians need to be protected from me.

I asked Dato’ Zamri: would it not be better that I be allowed to go free and continue to educate Malaysians through Malaysia Today so that, in time, they too can be ‘smart like me’ (tongue-in-cheek of course because I did not buy the “Raja Petra is too smart and Malaysians too stupid” argument)? No, they did not think so. They felt that the best solution would be to lock me up so that the ‘stupid’ Malaysians can be ‘protected’.

I suppose there must be a good reason why the government would rather keep Malaysians stupid and why they lock me up so that I can’t continue my attempts to wake Malaysians up and educate them. Could it be because stupid Malaysians can be easily manipulated while smart Malaysians would vote opposition? Maybe Dato’ Zamri can help reply to this question.

In the meantime, the government has appealed the court’s decision to release me from ISA detention on 7 November 2008. They want me back in Kamunting where they feel I belong and which they feel would be safer for Malaysians. Let’s see what the court has to say about this. Will the court agree that Malaysians should be ‘protected’ and that I should not be allowed to awaken and educate them, or will the court feel that it is time Malaysians received the right information and not the crap that the school history textbooks and mainstream media spews forth?

RPK: I Shall Strip Them Naked

Fatwahs galore

In time, these great Islamic empires became so corrupt that they eventually disappeared from the face of this earth. What we see in the Middle East today is the residual of the once great Islamic empire from the Golden Age of Islam.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Aiyah, so many people phoned me to ask why I have not written about the current fatwah controversy. People seem to have the impression that it is my duty to talk about everything under the sun. I think enough people, right up to the Sultans and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have touched on the matter. Do you really need me to also offer my two cents worth?

I suppose I can’t run away from my ‘duty’ of also whacking the issue seeing that I have been ‘officially’ labelled as an insulter of Islam. People just expect me to put my foot in my mouth on any issue involving Islam. Anyway, he goes.

I have no problems with the Fatwah Council or religious bodies coming out with fatwahs. It is not like anyone would follow them anyway. It is just an exercise in hot air as far as I am concerned. I mean, take the many ‘fatwahs’ already passed by God and cemented in the Quran for eternity. Do Muslims really take heed over what has been forbidden by God?

I remember a talk that Sheikh Imran Hosein once gave in Kuala Lumpur about ten years ago on the subject matter of riba’ or usury. We published his lecture into a booklet and distributed it free to all and sundry.

Sheikh Imran said that, according to the Prophet Muhammad, there are 80 levels of usury, bribery being just one of them. And the sin of the lowest level of all, said Sheikh Imran, tantamount to the sin of sexual intercourse with your own parent.

Can you imagine yourself having sex with your father or mother? Well, the sin of the lowest level usury is the same as the sin of sex with your own father and mother. And bribery is not the lowest level yet. So the sin of bribery certainly ranks higher than the sin of sex with your own mother or father.

Is there a fatwah on bribery? Do you even need a fatwah from the Fatwah Council or any religious body when God has already issued His ‘fatwah’? A man-made fatwah would be unnecessary and redundant. A fatwah can never make bribery more haram than it already is. And that is probably why no one sees the need for coming out with another fatwah.

But this does not stop Muslims from taking bribes. Considering that more than 90% of Malaysia’s civil servants are Muslims, and bribery is most rampant amongst the civil service, this would mean the Muslims are the most corrupt lot, at least as far as Malaysia is concerned.

Look at Umno. Even Tun Dr Mahathir laments about corruption in Umno. They call it ‘money politics’, of course, but this is just corruption by another name. And are not all Umno members Muslims (expect for maybe some from Sabah)? Umno is actually very concerned about the matter and can’t quite figure out what to do. Even the most corrupted Umno leaders are concerned about it. When the crooks worry about the spiralling crime rate then rest assured the problem is very serious indeed.

Sure, ban yoga for all I care. After all I do not do yoga and it does not really affect me personally. Even ban lipstick and high heels as well if that makes us more Islamic. Have separate checkout counters for men and women and ‘his’ and ‘her’ swimming pools. These, to me, are small potatoes. But while we are at it can we also issue fatwahs and ban the more serious practices that ail the Muslim community? Can we ban corruption?

I don’t see how yoga, lipstick and high heels can weaken the ummah (community). I don’t think Muslims will convert to Hinduism or Christianity because of yoga, lipstick and high heels. But corruption can destroy the ummah. And most Islamic communities have collapsed because of corruption.

Muslims are fond of talking about the ‘Golden Age of Islam’. Yes, at one time, Islam was a great empire. But it no longer is. And why is that? In time, these great Islamic empires became so corrupt that they eventually disappeared from the face of this earth. What we see in the Middle East today is the residual of the once great Islamic empire from the Golden Age of Islam.

And that is why the ‘fatwah’ from God, as related by the Prophet, says that bribery is one of the 80 levels of riba’ and the sin of the lowest level of riba’ tantamount to the sin of sex with your own parent. And this is more disastrous than yoga, lipstick or high heels.

Muslims have to get their priorities straight. Sure, come out with fatwahs if need be. But let these fatwahs be about what really ails us and not about some minor issue that was not really a danger to the ummah in the first place.

Armain Carlier, my one-time business contact from Schlumberger, related a story about how he went to Iran many years after the Iranian Revolution. He was there to visit their partner and to see how their joint-venture factory was getting along. It had been years since anyone from Schlumberger had visited Iran and they did not know even if the business was still in operation.

He was surprised when their Iranian partner handed him a cheque for the profits they had made over all those years. He thought the factory no longer existed, let alone was still making a profit. And he never expected Schlumberger’s Iranian partner to be so honest as to hand Schlumberger’s share of the profits over to him.

Carlier was so impressed and said that Islam must be a great religion if its people can be so honest. Yes, that is the example of an un-corrupt Muslim, which impressed even a non-Muslim like Carlier. And this should be the target of the Fatwah Council and religious bodies, to indoctrinate Muslims into becoming honest and un-corrupt.

So carry on fatwahing. I have no problems with that. It is just that maybe we should put yoga, lipstick and high heels way at the bottom of the list of items to be banned. Corruption should be the first target. That hurts us more than yoga, lipstick and high heels. That was what saw the end of the Islamic empire. That was what caused the extinction of the Golden Age of Islam.

And this fatwah fiasco has raised another problem. It has set the Rulers and religious authorities on a collision course. Will we now see a turf war between the Rulers and the religious authorities? The outcome of all this is going to see one party embarrassed, either the Rulers or the religious authorities. And would this not be embarrassing for the Malays as well? And, in the meantime, corruption prevails. It is getting from bad to worse. And no one wants to come out with a fatwah on this.

Raja Petra wants court to subpoena Azilah, Sirul Azhar

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 Nov 2008: Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin who is accused of defaming Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the deputy prime minister, and two others in a statutory declaration (SD), today asked the Sessions Court here to subpoena two policemen.

His counsel Manjeet Singh Dhillon said the defence had submitted an application to the court on 20 Nov requesting it to issue subpoenas against C/Insp Azilah Hadri and Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar, whom he intended to call as defence witnesses and also for identification purposes in the prosecution’s case.

Manjeet said the defence had listed six defence witnesses including Azilah and Sirul Azhar. The duo have been ordered to enter their defence on a charge of murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu at the Shah Alam High Court beginning 15 Jan next year.

Manjit also asked the court to adjourn Raja Petra’s trial pending the decision by the Shah Alam High Court on Azilah and Sirul Azhar’s defence testimonies.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Anselm Charles Fernandis opposed Manjeet’s application to issue subpoenas against Azilah and Sirul Azhar saying that Manjeet should only make the application after the court had ordered Raja Petra to enter his defence on the charge.

He said at this stage the trial had yet to start.

Judge Mohamad Sekeri Mamat said he would decide on whether to issue subpoenas against Azilah and Sirul Azhar later.

On 15 Aug, Raja Petra was charged with committing three offences at Civil High Court 5 on the fourth floor of the Court Complex in Jalan Duta here at 10.25am on 18 June.

Besides the defamation charge, Raja Petra is also alleged to have defamed acting colonel Abdul Aziz Buyong and his wife, Kolonel Norhayati Hassan.

If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail or a fine, or both, on each charge under Section 500 of the Penal Code.

Today was fixed for the trial and the prosecution had informed the court that it was ready to call its first witness.

However, at the outset, Manjeet made a preliminary objection seeking the Sessions Court’s order to send back Raja Petra’s case for trial at the Magistrate’s Court.

The objection was on the grounds that the Magistrate’s order was illegal, void and contrary to the provisions of Sections 177 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

On 15 Aug, Magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham allowed DPP Amir Nasruddin’s application to transfer Raja Petra’s case to the Sessions Court on the ground that it involved public interest.

Manjeet had contended that the magistrate’s order to transfer the case to the Sessions Court was unconstitutional and breached the equality of Article 8 (1) of the Federal Constitution.

DPP Anselm will reply tomorrow. – Bernama

Mission and vision statement, revisited

We use our enemies to fight our enemies. Enemies of our enemies become our friends. We keep our friends close and our enemies even closer. That is the order of the day.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have said this before and it looks like I will have to say it again. Malaysia Today is about the fight for social justice. And just what comes under the ambit of social justice? I suppose anything that touches or affects our daily lives.

Racism, inequality, economic disparity, any form of violence, oppression, persecution, a manipulated judiciary, an unfair election system, social problems, any form of slavery, suppression of the fundamental rights of citizens, violation of the Federal Constitution, corruption, plundering and mismanagement of the country’s coffer; you name it and it would certainly be a fight up the alley of Malaysia Today.

These are actually very broad issues and within each issue they can again be dissected into sub-issues. For example, ‘any form of violence’ could be about wife beating, police violence, road rage, the Mat Rempit problem, crime on the streets, and so on. ‘Suppression of the fundamental rights of citizens’ could be about the stifling of freedom of speech, the University and University Colleges Act which forbids students from speaking out or from getting involved in politics, the Police Act which forbids assemblies of more than four people, the Publication and Printing Press Act which makes it mandatory to apply for a licence before one can publish a newspaper and which is renewable every year, and much more.

Okay, those are our focal points. Those are the issues that have become our focus. Most Malaysians would agree that these are issues that ail our society and which need addressing. But how do we address them? How do we attack these issues and grab them by the horns? This would involve a viable strategy and a coordinated and concerted tactical move. Knowing the problem is one thing. Knowing what to do about them would be the more important issue.

Understand one thing, the problems that plague us are merely the symptoms and not the disease. We can’t get rid of the problem by curing the symptoms. We need to get to the root of the problem and attack them there. Once the root of the problem has been eliminated, the problem will cure itself. But too much time is wasted trying to cure the symptoms rather than the disease itself. And this is why we see very little success from all that effort. And this despairs us and leaves us with the feeling that whatever we try to do is pointless. It leaves us with the feeling that it is hopeless to continue because whatever we try to do we will never see changes.

To understand where we are now, we must first understand where we came from and where we wish to go from here. Therefore, it is crucial that we know our history. Once we know our history and understand what went wrong then we will know what needs to be done to be able to put things right.

Malaysia is 51 years old. For me to explain what happened over the last 51 years and to plot the probable scenario the next 49 years and what Malaysia will be like when we celebrate our Centennial would require me to write a thesis. But then I can’t do that in my normal three to four pages and I am really not looking for a PhD. But how do I summarise in 1,000 words what would require 100,000? Let me try.

In any turn-around exercise, you need to look for the top ten problems. Then you attack the top three and most likely the top three would represent 80% of the organisation’s problems. This means just by solving the top three problems you solve almost all the problems. And chances are you need no longer even look at the balance of the problems because by solving the top three, which represent 80% of the problems, the other problems solve themselves. In other words, the other problems are the result of the top three and by taking care of the top three the balance takes care of itself. And even if they don’t you can still live with them if the top three or 80% of the problems no longer plague your organisation.

So what are the top ten problems facing Malaysia and what are the top three? Let us try to look at them in order of importance and in the priority that it impacts society.

1.    Violation of the Constitution.
2.    Erosion of the independence of the four branches of government.
3.    Arrogance of those in power.
4.    Denial of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
5.    Corruption.
6.    Mismanagement of the nation’s coffer.
7.    Unequal representation of the people.
8.    Lack of understanding of the nation’s history.
9.    Distorting of information.
10.  Poor education system.

That would be my list in order of priority. Of course, this may not be the list of others and, even if it is, the order of priority could be disputed. And certainly our problems are not confined to just these ten. Nevertheless, my believe is that by attacking the top three problems we need not even look at the balance seven because the balance can solve themselves if we tackle the top three.

For example, items 4 and 7 can be addressed by solving item 1 while items 5 and 6 can take care of themselves if we solve item 3, etc. So, by my reckoning, solve items 1, 2 and 3 and most problems will go away.

The Constitution that we have is already quite complete. But this Constitution has been amended so many times and these amendments have distorted what our Founding Fathers and the British Colonial Masters who gave us our Constitution had originally intended.

Many laws that we have today actually violate the Constitution and were formulated using provisions in the Constitution that allow for ‘illegal’ laws. For instance, Malaysia declared an emergency 46 years ago and, under the emergency provision, laws can be passed which actually take away your rights that were originally guaranteed in the Constitution. But the circumstances (war with Indonesia) that allowed for laws which take away your rights have long since disappeared but the emergency was never lifted and therefore the ‘illegal’ emergency laws, though ‘illegal’ going by the Constitution, remain ‘legal’ as long as Malaysia is still in a state of emergency.

Lift the emergency, repeal the emergency laws, allow the Constitution to revert to how it was intended, and laws such as the ISA and many more would no longer exist. And the same would apply for laws such as the Police Act, Societies Act, Sedition Act, PPPA, UUCA, OSA, and many more, which would no longer be needed as well since Malaysia is no longer in a state of ‘declared’ war with Indonesia.

Most countries have three branches of government — the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary — which are all supposed to work parallel to one another and independent of each other. Malaysia, however, is unique. Malaysia has a fourth branch, the Monarchy. If the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and Monarchy were all independent of each other then we would have a fantastic system of checks and balances.

As it is now, power rests in the hands of the Executive and the Executive tells the other branches of government what it should do.

Imagine a company run by the Managing Director who does the accounts and audits the books plus he is also the Registrar of Companies who is supposed to safeguard the interest of the investors. A well-run company has to have an accountant who manages the books and an auditor who checks the books and a Registrar of Companies who make sure that the MD, accountant and auditor all do what they are supposed to do and according to the law. This means four different parties are involved in safeguarding the company’s money.

In Malaysia’s case the man who runs the organisation also balances the books, check the books, and decides if the books have been cooked — all four functions in one. How can we expect Malaysia to have any transparency when one man decides all and no one can question or look into what he does?

And this brings us to the third ailment, the arrogance of those in power. The Executive and his band of merry men feel that they are unshakeable and that no one can remove them, so they blatantly do what they want with total disregard for the citizens’ rights and needs. They violate our trust and mandate every step of the way and retaliate with a vengeance if we have the audacity to question them. This is why items 4 to 10 prevail, because they feel they can do what they like and they think there is nothing we can do about it.

Malaysians need to put these people in their place. We need to cut them down to size. We need to show them that the people made them and the people can therefore unmake them. We gave them that power and we can also remove them from power if need be.

Those who walk in the corridors of power are playing the very dangerous divide and rule game. They divide us by race and they divide us by religion. This is similar to a very dangerous time bomb that, if not properly controlled, can explode with drastic repercussions. And this divide and rule game has escalated of late and has become a matter of concern to many Malaysians who realise that not all fires can be controlled, as much as those who walk in the corridors of power erroneously think it can.

So they play the divide and rule game to keep us apart, as they know a united Malaysian bodes trouble for those who wish to cling to power. Then let us too play this same game. Let us too divide and rule them. United, they are too formidable a foe, as would we be too if we are united. So, as they divide us racially and religiously, let us too divide them politically.

We must support Pakatan Rakyat to keep Barisan Nasional in check. When Pakatan Rakyat forms the federal government then we shall support Barisan Nasional to keep Pakatan Rakyat in check. When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was under attack we supported him (at least Malaysia Today did from 2006) to keep Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in check. Now that Mahathir is, again, strong and his ‘kuda’ is about to become Prime Minister we must support Abdullah Badawi to be able to keep Najib in check.

Yes, it’s a dirty game of checks and balances and divide and rule that Malaysia Today plays. So be it. Dirty or otherwise that is the game they too are playing — and a more dangerous one of race and religion on top of that — so let us play that same game. If we can’t beat them, we will join them. And all is fair in love and war and is this not just that, war?

So don’t become perplexed when Malaysia Today changes side and realigns itself from time to time. We do what is expedient and what the situation demands at that point of time. We need to see a two-party system emerge in Malaysia. And we will support the weak to match the strong in our effort to achieve this. We work with the underdog whoever that may be. And we are not apologetic about it. This is not about lack of principles. Our principle is: absolute power corrupts absolutely. So no man or political party must be allowed absolute power.

We use our enemies to fight our enemies. Enemies of our enemies become our friends. We keep our friends close and our enemies even closer. That is the order of the day.

And that will be how we address the top three problems that plague this nation of ours. The US works with the Al Qaeda to fight Russia and with Iraq to fight Iran. In this game of denying someone absolute power there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. Enemies become friends and friends become enemies in the interest of balance of power. Sentiments have no place in this game of power.

Defence objects to court transfer in Raja Petra trial

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 The transfer of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin”s criminal defamation trial from the magistrate”s court to the Sessions Court is -illegal-, his defence lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon argued today.

Manjeet raised a preliminary objection at the Sessions Court this morning against the transfer of the trial from the magistrate”s court.

The prosecution had filed to transfer the trial on Aug 15 on grounds that it -involved public importance-.

Magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham had authorised the transfer on the same day.

Manjeet claimed that the transfer was “illegal, void and contrary to the provisions of Section 177 of the Criminal Procedure Code” and that it exposed the accused to a potentially harsher penalty “in breach of the equality provisions of Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution”.

He wants the judge to order that the case be sent back to the magistrate’s court to be tried there.

But if the judge decides to carry on with the trial, Manjeet wants a stay of the criminal defamation proceedings until after the completion of the ongoing murder trial of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu at the Shah Alam High Court.

Manjeet told the court that he was applying to subpoena the two accused in the murder trial, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, to appear as witnesses for the defence in Raja Petra’s trial.

He explained that their testimonies may cause subjudice in the trial.

The prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor Anselm Charles Fernandis, requested for an adjournment in order to prepare their rebuttal to Manjeet’s objections.

Justice Mohammad Sekeri Mamat postponed the trial, which started today, to tomorrow morning.

Raja Petra, a minor Selangor royal, was first charged at the magistrate’s court here on July 17 with three counts of criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code.

He is alleged to have defamed Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, wife of the Deputy Prime Minister, in his statutory declaration made on June 18 at the KL High Court, implicating her in the murder of Altantuya.

The 58-year-old is accused of similarly making libellous statements against Kol Nurhayati Hassan and her husband Acting Kol Abdul Aziz Buyong.

If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to two years” jail and an undetermined amount in fines.

While the magistrate’s court can set the amount to a maximum of RM10,000, the maximum fine that can be imposed in the Sessions Court is RM1 million.

The usually buoyant Raja Petra appeared in court today rather more subdued than prior to his detention in the Kamunting Detention Centre under the Internal Security Act. He was dressed sombrely in a dark brown short-sleeved shirt over charcoal trousers and brown leather shoes.

He had been arrested on Sept 12 and was released by order of the Shah Alam High Court on Nov 8.

Asked to comment on the current trial, he merely smiled and said: “Speak to my lawyers.” MI

Dear Pete

Malaysia Today

Any assembly of more than four people at a candlelight
vigil is haram and you can get arrested for participating in a
perhimpunan haram if you do not have a police permit. The police would
normally approve your permit application as long as you do not light
any candles at the candlelight vigil.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dear Pete,

I plan to get a dog but I live in a neighbourhood
where some of my neighbours are Muslims. I was told that dogs are taboo
to Muslims and I do not want to upset my neighbours. I also read
somewhere that the majlis perbandaran has a team of dogcatchers that
goes around mercilessly killing dogs. How can I ensure that I do not
upset my Muslim neighbours and will not run foul of the authority?

Mike

*****************************************

Dear Mike,

Muslims
do not like doggies licking them as doggie saliva is considered najis
or unclean. They have no problems getting licked by pussies though. In
fact, they quite enjoy it. Just make sure that your doggie does not
lick any Muslim and you should face no problems. The best would be to
keep your doggie within your compound and not allow it to stray
outside. Anyway, doggies that stray all over the place face the risk of
getting knocked down by a car or it might catch an infectious disease.
So that is all the more reason to keep them within your compound. And
avoid Mongolian breeds as the police SWAT team has been told to be on
the lookout for Mongolian bitches, though for what reason I really
don’t know.

Pete

******************************************

Dear Pete,

I
am engaged in a land dispute and was advised, in the absence of a valid
land title, to file a Statutory Declaration to support my claim that I
am the owner of the land. Will such a Statutory Declaration stand up in
court?

Clarence Tan

********************************************

Dear Clarence Tan,

Statutory
Declarations are no longer regarded as having any credibility, like in
the past, so the court may not give any weight to it. Anyway, you might
run the risk of getting charged in court as, nowadays, those who sign
Statutory Declarations are arrested and charged for criminal
defamation. Nevertheless, if you sign a new Statutory Declaration
within 24 hours to recant what you said in your first Statutory
Declaration then you will be exempted from prosecution. Instead of
signing a Statutory Declaration, my advice would be to engage a
well-connected lawyer with strong links to the Attorney-General and
Chief Justice and try to ‘negotiate’ your case ‘under the table’ before
it goes to court. Most cases in Malaysia are won on this basis. I could
probably give you the name of an Indian-Muslim lawyer whom you can get
in touch with if you contact me privately.

Pete

**********************************************

Dear Pete,

I
am a Muslim and my ustaz advices me that Muslims should not participate
in candlelight vigils, as, according to Islam, this is considered
haram. Is this true?

Maimunah Harun

***********************************************

Dear Maimunah Harun,

Yes,
that is true. So make sure that the organisers first apply for a police
permit. Any assembly of more than four people at a candlelight vigil is
haram and you can get arrested for participating in a perhimpunan haram
if you do not have a police permit. The police would normally approve
your permit application as long as you do not light any candles at the
candlelight vigil.

Pete

************************************************

Dear Pete,

Yesterday,
the Anti-Corruption Agency arrested my cousin and alleged that he had
attempted to bribe a Road Transport Department officer. They found the
money hidden in his underwear and said that they had been monitoring
his movements for some time on suspicion of handing out dirty money.
What should I advice him to do? Should he just plead guilty and hope
for a lesser sentence or should he fight the case out in court?

Wong

*************************************************

Dear Wong,

It
would be very hard for the prosecution to prove that your cousin had
attempted to hand out dirty money unless they can first prove that his
underwear was not clean. I would advice him to fight the case out in
court. Just make sure that he removes his underwear and lodges it in a
safe place or else something ‘dirty’ might be planted on it like they
sometimes do in cases such as sodomy.

Pete

***************************************************

Dear Pete,

I
run my own business and am engaged in state government contracts. At
the end of every year, just before Christmas, I hand out ‘red packets’
to the government officers who sign my contracts. Should I stop handing
out ‘red packets’ in the Pakatan Rakyat-run states or is it safe to
continue doing so?

Kok Leong

****************************************************

Dear Kok Leong,

I
think it would be dangerous to continue handing out ‘red packets’ to
the government officers in the Pakatan Rakyat-run states. I would
suggest you hand out ‘green packets’ instead, which is more Islamic,
and which the PAS members of Pakatan Rakyat would be more comfortable
with.

Pete

Balasubramaniam’s Statutory Declaration revisited

The Federal Constitution of Malaysia does not state that the Umno President must become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. What it does say is that the Agong must appoint a Member of the House (one of the 222 Members of Parliament) who has the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House as the Prime Minister.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal signed the following Statutory Declaration on Tuesday, 1 July 2008. On Wednesday, 2 July 2008, I spent about six hours with him from 6.00pm to midnight where he not only repeated what he said in his Statutory Declaration but told us much more, which he said would be fully revealed in part 2 and part 3 of his Statutory Declarations that would follow over the next few days. There were six people with us at that meeting, that included three lawyers.

On Thursday, 3 July 2008, Balasubramaniam held a press conference at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat headquarters in Merchant Square, Tropicana. After that press conference we had lunch with about 20 people or so, which included members of the media, and an elated Subramanian told us to wait for SD2 and SD3, which are going to be more explosive than his first Statutory Declaration.

Of course, SD2 and SD3 never happened because on Friday, 4 July 2008, Balasubramaniam signed another Statutory Declaration recanting what he said in his Statutory Declaration of 1 July.

My lawyers tell me that what Balasubramaniam told us on 2 July 2008 is hearsay and therefore not admissible as evidence in a court of law. This means I am not at liberty to reveal what Balasubramaniam told us. It’s a shame really because the story would make a great Bollywood movie script.

On Monday, 24 November 2008, my ‘criminal defamation’ trial will kick of at the Jalan Duta court. This is with regards to my own Statutory Declaration that I signed in April 2008. I have lined up about a dozen or so witnesses who will confirm, amongst others, what I said in my Statutory Declaration, plus of course much more not revealed in that Statutory Declaration of mine.

I am actually looking forward to this trial because this will give my dozen witnesses and me an opportunity to reveal what we cannot say under normal circumstances. Let us see, after this trial commences, whether Malaysians would still want Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to resign in March 2009. My suspicion is most Malaysians would regard Pak Lah as the ‘lesser of the two evils’ and will beg him to stay on till the end of his term on midnight of 7 March 2013.

By the way, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia does not state that the Umno President must become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. What it does say is that the Agong must appoint a Member of the House (one of the 222 Members of Parliament) who has the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House as the Prime Minister. And Pak Lah already has 82 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament with him plus 20 from Umno. All he needs is ten more and MCA, MIC and Gerakan have 20 combined. So, even without the Sabah and Sarawak Parliamentarians, Pak Lah can still remain as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

That is the reality of the situation and this is what the law says. So let us not celebrate the new regime of Najib Tun Razak just yet as it may not happen after all. One week is a long time in politics, let alone four months. So many things can happen. And there are many things that are going to happen over these next four months even if they win their appeal against my release from Internal Security Act detention and succeed in sending me back to Kamunting.

STATUTORY DECLARATION

I, Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal a Malaysian Citizen of full age and residing at [deleted] do solemly and sincerely declare as follows :-

1. I have been a police officer with the Royal Malaysian Police Force having jointed as a constable in 1981 attached to the Police Field Force. I was then promoted to the rank of lance Corporal and finally resigned from the Police Force in 1998 when I was with the Special Branch.

2. I have been working as a free lance Private Investigator since I left the Police Force.

3. Sometime in June or July 2006, I was employed by Abdul Razak Baginda for a period of 10 days to look after him at his office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang between the hours of 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m each working day as apparently he was experiencing disturbances from a third party.

4. I resigned from this job after 2 ½ days as I was not receiving any proper instructions.

5. I was however re-employed by Abdul Razak Baginda on the 05-10-2006 as he had apparently received a harassing phone call from a Chinese man calling himself ASP Tan who had threatened him to pay his debts. I later found out this gentleman was in fact a private investigator called Ang who was employed by a Mongolian woman called Altantuya Shaaribuu.

6. Abdul Razak Baginda was concerned that a person by the name of Altantuya Shaaribuu, a Mongolian woman, was behind this threat and that she would be arriving in Malaysia very soon to try and contact him.

7. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that he was concerned by this as he had been advised that Altantuya Shaaribuu had been given some powers by a Mongolian ‘bomoh’ and that he could never look her in the face because of this.

8. When I enquired as to who this Mongolian woman was, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that she was a friend of his who had been introduced to him by a VIP and who asked him to look after her financially.

9. I advised him to lodge a police report concerning the threatening phone call he had received from the Chinese man known as ASP Tan but he refused to do so as he informed me there were some high profile people involved.

10. Abdul Razak Baginda further told me that Altantuya Shaaribuu was a great liar and good in convincing people. She was supposed to have been very demanding financially and that he had even financed a property for her in Mongolia.

11. Abdul Razak Baginda then let me listen to some voice messages on his handphone asking him to pay what was due otherwise he would be harmed and his daughter harassed.

12. I was therefore supposed to protect his daughter Rowena as well.

13. On the 09.10.2006 I received a phone call from Abdul Razak Baginda at about 9.30 a.m. informing me that Altantuya was in his office and he wanted me there immediately. As I was in the midst of a surveillance, I sent my assistant Suras to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office and I followed a little later. Suras managed to control the situation and had persuaded Altantuya and her two friends to leave the premises. However Altantuya left a note written on some Hotel Malaya note paper, in English, asking Abdul Razak Baginda to call her on her handphone (number given) and wrote down her room number as well.

14. Altantuya had introduced herself to Suras as ‘Aminah’ and had informed Suras she was there to see her boyfriend Abdul Razak Baginda.

15. These 3 Mongolian girls however returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang again, the next day at about 12.00 noon. They did not enter the building but again informed Suras that they wanted to meet Aminah’s boyfriend, Abdul Razak Baginda.

16. On the 11.10.2006, Aminah returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office on her own and gave me a note to pass to him, which I did. Abdul Razak Baginda showed me the note which basically asked him to call her urgently.

17. I suggested to Abdul Razak Baginda that perhaps it may be wise to arrange for Aminah to be arrested if she harassed him further, but he declined as he felt she would have to return to Mongolia as soon as her cash ran out.

18. In the meantime I had arranged for Suras to perform surveillance on Hotel Malaya to monitor the movements of these 3 Mongolian girls, but they recognized him. Apparently they become friends with Suras after that and he ended up spending a few nights in their hotel room.

19. When Abdul Razak Baginda discovered Suras was becoming close to Aminah he asked me to pull him out from Hotel Malaya.

20. On the 14.10.2006, Aminah turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights when I was not there. Abdul Razak Baginda called me on my handphone to inform me of this so I rushed back to his house. As I arrived, I noticed Aminah outside the front gates shouting “Razak, bastard, come out from the house”. I tried to calm her down but couldn’t so I called the police who arrived in 2 patrol cars. I explained the situation to the police, who took her away to the Brickfields police station.

21. I followed the patrol cars to Brickfields police station in a taxi. I called Abdul Razak Baginda and his lawyer Dirren to lodge a police report but they refused.

22. When I was at the Brickfields police station, Aminah’s own Private Investigator, one Mr. Ang arrived and we had a discussion. I was told to deliver a demand to Abdul Razak Baginda for USD$500,000.00 and 3 tickets to Mongolia, apparently as commission owed to Aminah from a deal in Paris.

23. As Aminah had calmed down at this stage, a policewoman at the Brickfields police station advised me to leave and settle the matter amicably.

24. I duly informed Abdul Razak Baginda of the demands Aminah had made and told him I was disappointed that no one wanted to back me up in lodging a police report. We had a long discussion about the situation when I expressed a desire to pull out of this assignment.

25. During this discussion and in an attempt to persuade me to continue my employment with him, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that :-

25.1 He had been introduced to Aminah by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at a diamond exhibition in Singapore.

25.2 Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak informed Abdul Razak Baginda that he had a sexual relationship with Aminah and that [deleted by nat out of respect to the family of the deceased].

25.3 Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wanted Abdul Razak Baginda to look after Aminah as he did not want her to harass him since he was now the Deputy Prime Minister.

25.4 Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had all been together at a dinner in Paris.

25.5 Aminah wanted money from him as she felt she was entitled to a USD$500,000.00 commission on a submarine deal she assisted with in Paris.

26. On the 19.10.2006, I arrived at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights to begin my night duty. I had parked my car outside as usual. I saw a yellow proton perdana taxi pass by with 3 ladies inside, one of whom was Aminah. The taxi did a U-turn and stopped in front of the house where these ladies rolled down the window and wished me ‘Happy Deepavali’. The taxi then left.

27. About 20 minutes later the taxi returned with only Aminah in it. She got out of the taxi and walked towards me and started talking to me. I sent an SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda informing him “Aminah was here”. I received an SMS from Razak instructing me “To delay her until my man comes”.

28. Whist I was talking to Aminah, she informed me of the following :-

28.1 That she met Abdul Razak Baginda in Singapore with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

28.2 That she had also met Abdul Razak Baginda and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at a dinner in Paris.

28.3 That she was promised a sum of USD$500,000.00 as commission for assisting in a Submarine deal in Paris.

28.4 That Abdul Razak Baginda had bought her a house in Mongolia but her brother had refinanced it and she needed money to redeem it.

28.5 That her mother was ill and she needed money to pay for her treatment.

6. That Abdul Razak Baginda had married her in Korea as her mother is Korean whilst her father was a Mongolian/Chinese mix.

28.7 That if I wouldn’t allow her to see Abdul Razak Baginda, would I be able to arrange for her to see Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

29. After talking to Aminah for about 15 minutes, a red proton aeroback arrived with a woman and two men. I now know the woman to be Lance Corporal Rohaniza and the men, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azahar. They were all in plain clothes. Azilah walked towards me while the other two stayed in the car.

30. Azilah asked me whether the woman was Aminah and I said ‘Yes’. He then walked off and made a few calls on his handphone. After 10 minutes another vehicle, a blue proton saga, driven by a Malay man, passed by slowly. The drivers window had been wound down and the driver was looking at us.

31. Azilah then informed me they would be taking Aminah away. I informed Aminah they were arresting her. The other two persons then got out of the red proton and exchanged seats so that Lance Corporal Rohaniza and Aminah were in the back while the two men were in the front. They drove off and that is the last I ever saw of Aminah.

32. Abdul Razak Baginda was not at home when all this occurred.

33. After the 19.10.2006, I continued to work for Abdul Razak Baginda at his house in Damansara Heights from 7.00 p.m. to 8.00 a.m. the next morning, as he had been receiving threatening text messages from a woman called ‘Amy’ who was apparently ‘Aminah’s’ cousin in Mongolia.

34. On the night of the 20.10.2006, both of Aminah’s girl friends turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house enquiring where Aminah was. I informed them she had been arrested the night before.

35. A couple of nights later, these two Mongolian girls, Mr. Ang and another Mongolian girl called ‘Amy’ turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house looking for Aminah as they appeared to be convinced she was being held in the house.

36. A commotion began so I called the police who arrived shortly thereafter in a patrol car. Another patrol car arrived a short while later in which was the investigating officer from the Dang Wangi Police Station who was in charge of the missing persons report lodged by one of the Mongolians girls, I believe was Amy.

37. I called Abdul Razak Baginda who was at home to inform him of the events taking place at his front gate. He then called DSP Musa Safri and called me back informing me that Musa Safri would be calling handphone and I was to pass the phone to the Inspector from Dang Wangi Police Station.

38. I then received a call on my handphone from Musa Safri and duly handed the phone to the Dang Wangi Inspector. The conversation lasted 3 – 4 minutes after which he told the girls to disperse and to go to see him the next day.

39. On or about the 24.10.2006, Abdul Razak Baginda instructed me to accompany him to the Brickfields police station as he had been advised to lodge a police report about the harassment he was receiving from these Mongolian girls.

40. Before this, Amy had sent me an SMS informing me she was going to Thailand to lodge a report with the Mongolian consulate there regarding Aminah’s disappearance. Apparently she had sent the same SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda. This is why he told me he had been advised to lodge a police report.

41. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that DPS Musa Safri had introduced him to one DSP Idris, the head of the Criminal division, Brickfields police station, and that Idris had referred him to ASP Tonny.

42. When Abdul Razak Baginda had lodged his police report at Brickfields police station, in front of ASP Tonny, he was asked to make a statement but he refused as he said he was leaving for overseas. He did however promise to prepare a statement and hand ASP Tonny a thumb drive. I know that this was not done as ASP Tonny told me.

43. However ASP Tonny asked me the next day to provide my statement instead and so I did.

44. I stopped working for Abdul Razak Baginda on the 26.10.2006 as this was the day he left for Hong Kong on his own.

45. In mid November 2006, I received a phone call from ASP Tonny from the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah asking me to see him regarding Aminah’s case. When I arrived there I was immediately arrested under S.506 of the Penal Code for Criminal intimidation.

46. I was then placed in the lock up and remanded for 5 days. On the third day I was released on police bail.

47. At the end of November 2006, the D9 department of the IPK sent a detective to my house to escort me to the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah. When I arrived, I was told I was being arrested under S.302 of the Penal Code for murder. I was put in the lock up and remanded for 7 days.

48. I was transported to Bukit Aman where I was interrogated and questioned about an SMS I had received from Abdul Razak Baginda on the 19.10.2006 which read “delay her until my man arrives”. They had apparently retrieved this message from Abdul Razak Baginda’s handphone.

49. They then proceeded to record my statement from 8.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. everyday for 7 consecutive days. I told them all I knew including everything Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had told me about their relationships with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak but when I came to sign my statement, these details had been left out.

50. I have given evidence in the trial of Azilah, Sirul and Abdul Razak Baginda at the Shah Alam High Court. The prosecutor did not ask me any questions in respect of Aminah’s relationship with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak or of the phone call I received from DSP Musa Safri, whom I believe was the ADC for Datuk Seri Najib Razak and/or his wife.

51. On the day Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested, I was with him at his lawyers office at 6.30 a.m. Abdul Razak Baginda informed us that he had sent Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak an SMS the evening before as he refused to believe he was to be arrested, but had not received a response.

52. Shortly thereafter, at about 7.30 a.m., Abdul Razak Baginda received an SMS from Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and showed, this message to both myself and his lawyer. This message read as follows :- “ I am seeing IGP at 11.00 a.m. today …… matter will be solved … be cool”.

53. I have been made to understand that Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested the same morning at his office in the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang.

54. The purpose of this Statutory declaration is to :-

54.1 State my disappointment at the standard of investigations conducted by the authorities into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

54.2 Bring to the notice of the relevant authorities the strong possibility that there are individuals other than the 3 accused who must have played a role in the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

54.3 Persuade the relevant authorities to reopen their investigations into this case immediately so that any fresh evidence may be presented to the Court prior to submissions at the end of the prosecutions case.

54.4 Emphasize the fact that having been a member of the Royal Malaysian Police Force for 17 years I am absolutely certain no police officer would shoot someone in the head and blow up their body without receiving specific instructions from their superiors first.

54.5. Express my concern that should the defence not be called in the said murder trial, the accused, Azilah and Sirul will not have to swear on oath and testify as to the instructions they received and from whom they were given.

55. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.

SUBCRIBED and solemnly )

declared by the abovenamed )

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal ]

1st this day of July 2008 )

Before me,

………………………………….

Commissioner for Oath

Kuala Lumpur

Narrow-minded bigotry

The ISA detainees have since relented though. They now no longer perform their Friday prayers. They realise that the more they defy the government the longer they shall remain in Kamunting.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The frequent mention of Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and the phrase ‘amar ma’ruf nahi mungkar’ (enjoining good and avoiding wrongdoing) by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been questioned by a Barisan Nasional backbencher. Lim frequently mentioned the caliph, a social reformist and one of the finest rulers in Muslim history, who ruled from 717 to 720.

Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya (Teluk Bahang-BN), during his debate on the Supply Bill 2009, questioned if Lim was qualified to invoke the caliph’s name or the phrase. “You should not use these at your whim and fancy. Are you qualified to speak about the caliph? Even the phrase ‘amar ma’ruf nahi mungkar’ has been used in your posters all over the place.”

“It has not been ascertained if you or even Professor P Ramasamy is qualified to use them. The matter should be referred for clarification with the mufti who has to determine if you can use the caliph’s name and the phrase,” Hilmi added.

Permatang Berangan assemblyman and Penang Islamic Religious Affairs president Shahabudin Yahaya said Lim should not use the term ‘amar ma’ruf nahi mungkar’ as he is not a Muslim.

Debating the Supply Bill 2009 presented by Lim last Friday, Shahabudin said Lim and other non-Muslim assemblymen and MPs should stop using them on the banners put up in the state. “It means to avoid or shun wrongdoing, do good and to enhance one’s faith in Allah, and not to Jesus or to any ‘tokong’ (deity). You are not Muslim, so you should not use it,” he added. – The Edge

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What utter rubbish! Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin don’t know what they are talking about. Since when can only Muslims talk about the Caliph Umar or amar ma’ruf nahi munkar? This is sheer nonsense. Anyone can talk about propagating good and avoiding wrongdoing. This is not the exclusive subject matter of only Muslims.

Are they now going to make a police report against John Esposito? In the first place, have Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin even heard of Esposito?

John Louis Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He is also the director of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

Esposito was raised a Roman Catholic and spent a decade in a Catholic monastery. After taking his first degree he worked as a management consultant and high-school teacher. He then studied and received a Masters in Theology at St Johns University. He earned a PhD at Temple University in Pennsylvania plus studied Islam and held post doc appointments at Harvard and Oxford Universities. He is well-known as a promoter of strong ties between Muslims and Christians and has even challenged the Vatican to make greater efforts to encourage such ties.

Esposito founded the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and is its current director. The center has received a US$20 million endowment from Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal to advance education in the fields of Islamic civilisation and Muslim-Christian understanding and strengthen its presence as a world leader in facilitating cross-cultural and inter-religious dialogue.

Esposito more than just talks about Caliph Umar and amar ma’ruf nahi munkar. His credentials can put both Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin to shame. Dr Hiimi and Shahabudin are novices by comparison. They should be ashamed to even talk about Islam considering they have achieved so little in the cause of Islamic propagation and understanding.

What Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin have failed to comprehend is that Islam is a message for all mankind. The Quran addresses mankind, not just Muslims. Muslims should, in fact, give the Quran to non-Muslims as gifts so that Islam can be better propagated and the message of Islam can reach all mankind, far and wide.

Malays have the impression that we should only preach to Muslims. If you just talk to Muslims sitting cross-legged on the mosque floor then what are you achieving? You are merely preaching to the already converted. It is the unconverted whom you should preach to even if only to make them understand Islam better and to eradicate the misconception about Islam and clean up the negative image that Islam has acquired over the last seven years or so.

We should be proud that non-Muslims find the message of Islam appropriate. When non-Muslims talk about Caliph Umar and amar ma’ruf nahi munkar we should hold our heads high. Instead of criticising Islam, non-Muslims are quoting Islam. This is something we should be elated about. Instead of condemning these non-Muslims we should be shouting far and wide that even non-Muslims are quoting Islam, even if it is just amar ma’ruf nahi munkar. So Islam can’t be all that bad as some people are trying to suggest.

Amar ma’ruf nahi munkar are not holy words. There is not even any magic in those words. It is merely Arabic for propagating good and avoiding wrongdoing. You can say it in Arabic. You can say it in English. You can even say it in Tamil or Mandarin. It does not matter what language you use. The meaning remains the same. And there is no taboo in saying it in Arabic as there is in saying it in any other language. It is just a language of choice and the choice of language is yours.

Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin are being very petty and silly. They should stop all this nonsense. People like these give Islam a bad name. They give an impression that Muslims are unreasonable and intolerant. And this invariably reflects on the religion and the religion is unfortunately faulted. And Muslims grumble when people criticise Islam whereas it is their actions that attract all this criticism.

What Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin should instead do is to take the government to task for not allowing the Muslim detainees to perform their Friday prayers. For a long time the Internal Security Act detainees have been fighting with the government to be allowed to perform their Friday prayers. But the government has persistently denied them permission.

On one occasion, the Kamunting detention camp authorities invited the Perak Mufti to talk to the detainees. The detainees demanded that they be allowed to perform their Friday prayers but the Perak Mufti scolded them. Cikgu Samad, one of the Kamunting warders, confirmed this and said that the detainees are very stubborn. They won’t even listen to the Perak Mufti, complained Cikgu Samad, and defied the ‘fatwah’ by still performing their Friday prayers amongst themselves.

The ISA detainees have since relented though. They now no longer perform their Friday prayers. They realise that the more they defy the government the longer they shall remain in Kamunting. Some have been under detention almost eight years now and it is not worth insisting you be allowed to perform your Friday prayers if it only means that you are going to spend the rest of your life in Kamunting and eventually die under detention.

Most of those under ISA detention are said to be Islamic extremists and are perceived as a danger to society. They are said to be intolerant of non-Muslims and that they wish to set up a regional Islamic empire that includes Malaysia, Indonesia, Southern Thailand, the Philippines, etc. And that is why they have been detained without trial in Kamunting.

I would imagine that, considering the so-called background of these detainees, the government would want to rehabilitate them by making them more tolerant of non-Muslims and less inclined to a regional Islamic empire. I was quite surprised when I attended my first lecture by an ustaz from JAKIM on 28 October 2008 and he condemned all other religions and their holy books. Isn’t this ustaz just spreading hate amongst Muslims and which will convince the ‘extremist’ ISA detainees that they are right in trying to set up a regional Islamic empire?

I, in fact, made a police report on this matter at the Sentul Police Station at 2.30pm yesterday to enable the government to investigate this matter. My police report also included the fact that the ISA detainees are being prevented from performing their Friday prayers. Over to you Dr Hilmi and Shahabudin! Let’s see how you handle this more important issue.

RPK lodges police report over ISA arrest on Video

Isu hina Islam: 1 jam RPK disoal siasat polis

oleh Syukree Hussain

Sentul, 18 November – Pengendali laman web Malaysia Today Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) disoal siasat hampir sejam oleh pihak polis di Ibu Pejabat Daerah Polis Sentul di sini. Beliau yang ditemani isteri, Marina Abdullah dan lebih 20 penyokong tiba di balai tersebut kira-kira jam 2.30 petang.

Lima minit kemudian RPK terlebih dahulu membuat laporan polis terhadap Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim) kerana tidak membenarkannya menunaikan solat Jumaat semasa berada di Kem Tahanan Kamunting (Kemta).

“Laporan dibuat termasuk berhubung kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh Mufti Perak yang menyatakan tahanan ISA tidak perlu menunaikan fardhu Jumaat,” jelasnya selepas keluar dari balai kira-kira jam 4 petang ini.

Beliau mula diambil kenyataan oleh polis pada jam 3 petang.

Walau bagaimanapun, RPK yang hadir bersama dua peguamnya, S Majitsidhu dan C Jadadish, tidak memberi sebarang kenyataan kerana sudah hampir 10 hari semasa beliau ditahan dalam ISA, kenyataannya sudah diambil termasuk berkenaan perkara tersebut.

“Saya pelik kenapa pihak polis mahu menyiasat dan mengambil kenyataan yang sudah saya berikan semasa dalam tahanan ISA,” ujarnya.

Pihak polis menelefon beliau tengahhari tadi melalui ASP Aziz, memintanya hadir ke IPD Sentul berhubung kenyataan yang menghina Islam yang dipaparkan dalam laman web Malaysia Today.

Empat pihak iaitu Jakim, Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah (Jawi), Yayasan Dakwah Islam Malaysia (Yadim) dan Mufti Perak telah membuat laporan terhadap RPK lebih kurang empat bulan lepas berkenaan perkara tersebut.

“Apa yang disiarkan dalam laman web Malaysia Today yang dikatakan telah menghina Islam adalah dikirim oleh pelawat melalui ruangan komen,” jelas RPK yang menafikan beliau terlibat menghina Islam.

Beliau tidak mengetahui sama ada beliau akan dipanggil semua atau tidak oleh pihak polis pada masa akan datang.

Taking a second bite of the cherry

The legal brains may argue that a person can’t be punished twice for the same crime. This might be true but this did not stop them for punishing me twice for the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Today, at 3.00pm, I have to, yet again, report to the Sentul Police Station. It seems the police wish to record my statement, which is a nicer way of saying that I am going to be interrogated. Under Section 112 of the CPC, the police have a right to ‘record’ your statement and:

1)    You must answer all questions (you may of course reply by saying that you do not wish to reply to the question which is considered answering the question).
2)    If you lie then the police can charge you.
3)    If you tell the truth then what you say can be used to charge you.

In other words, if you refuse to open you mouth you die. If you lie, you also die. And if you tell the truth you also die. Either way you die. There is no escape.

According to the police, in September 2008, four people from JAKIM and the religious department made a police report against me. What was said in the police report and under which section of the law they are going to record my statement is not known yet and will only be told to me later today.

The last time they called me to the Sentul Police Station was when they wanted to record my statement on the Statutory Declaration that I signed in April. At that time they told me they were going to charge me for the crime of making a false declaration. So I took pains to prove to them that I did not make a false declaration but had in fact told the truth.

I of course did not realise then that this was merely a trap. They wanted me to make a statement that would incriminate me and after they got what they wanted they used my statement to charge me for the crime of criminal defamation instead of for the crime of making a false declaration. I mean, it’s like they accuse you of murder and then when you offer an alibi to prove that you were not at the scene of the crime but had in fact been sleeping over at your girlfriend’s house they charge you for kalwat (close proximity) instead. So, because of your airtight alibi, they are able to charge you for another crime.

The police report against me was made in September 2008. Based on this police report they detained me under Section 73 of the Internal Security Act on 12 September. From the 13th to the 22nd of September, they recorded my statement in a marathon interrogation session and one hour after my statement was completed they served a Section 8 detention order on me and the following morning packed me off to Kamunting.

They though that that was the end of the whole episode but on 7 November the Shah Alam court declared my detention unlawful and at 4.00pm I was released from detention. So it is now back to the drawing board and they are trying to get a second bite of the cherry. So my interrogation at 3.00pm today is merely an exercise to see how, since I am no longer under ISA detention, they can get me on a ‘legitimate’ charge.

They are of course also appealing the Shah Alam court decision. But if they lose the appeal they can still send me to jail. And if they win the appeal they have the benefit of two detentions that they can hold me with.

The legal brains may argue that a person can’t be punished twice for the same crime. This might be true but this did not stop them for punishing me twice for the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’. Not only am I facing trial under the Sedition Act but one of the four charges for my ISA detention was this very same article. Therefore, apart from facing trial I was also detained without trial for the very same article. That is certainly being punished twice for the same crime.

It appears like they are all out to get me at whatever cost, even if they have to look silly for punishing me twice for each so-called crime. Maybe they feel that the more shots they take at me the better chance they have of at least one shot hitting it’s mark. I suppose when they use a machine gun they have more chance of at least one bullet striking me.

According to the police, the crime rate has doubled. The police has expressed concern that as the economy becomes worse in the coming year crime is going to get out of control. They are having their hands full trying to maintain law and order. Next year we may see an orgy of crime where Malaysians will no longer be safe even sleeping in their beds. With so much resources wasted on trying to send me to jail it makes one wonder whether the police has got its priorities right.

I wrote some time back that Umno blamed its 8 March 2008 general election debacle on the internet, in particular the blogs. Umno feels they it needs to put the blogs out of action if it wants to be able to silence its critics. The Permatang Pauh by-election again proved what damage blogs can do to Umno. So the focus today is not on how to reduce the spiralling crime rate but on how to put the bloggers behind bars where they can no longer do any damage to Umno.

And that is why I have to report to the Sentul Police Station at 3.00pm today. I am now a free man again, at least for the meantime. So they need to see how they can put me back behind bars so that Umno can be safe. It is all about Umno and how Umno can be protected from the bloggers. And they do not care how they do it as long as they can stifle criticism against Umno. The end justifies the means.

On another note, the police has warned the public not to question fatwahs (decrees) by the religious people. If the religious people issue a fatwah declaring that you are wrong then you are wrong. This can’t be questioned and if you do the government will take action against you.

On the Tuesday after Deepavali I was made to attend a religious class conducted by JAKIM. This was part of my religion rehabilitation class while in Kamunting. I stood up to say that, if go by to the many fatwahs issued, all of us in the room that day are infidels (kafir).

In January 2006 the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a fatwah declaring Shias as kafir. The Shias in turn issued a fatwah declaring the non-Shias as kafir. Malaysia too will detain any Malaysian who converts to Shiism, as what happened to a few university lecturers some years back. In short, going be the many fatwahs issued, all Muslims are kafir. None of us are Muslims.

The question would be: whose fatwah is the one we need to follow? And this raises another question of which religious scholar is the legitimate one to follow.

JAKIM has said that I have insulted Islam and must be put in jail. Other people, well-versed and equally knowledgeable in Islam, have contacted me to say that they can’t see in what way I have insulted Islam. They in fact feel that what I wrote was absolutely true. And these people are Arabs who speak the language of the Quran fluently and do not agree with the Malaysian government’s interpretation of Islam. In fact, they laugh at Islam Hadhari and regard it as utter rubbish.

So whose version of Islam is the correct version? The Malay version or the Arabic version? The Malays say I have insulted Islam. The Arabs tells me I have not insulted Islam and they think it is stupid of the government to say that I have.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia, it is what Umno says that carries weight and no Arab, however much he may support me, can change that. That is the reality of the situation.

The Malaysian swan song

Call it what you want, Ketuanan Melayu is racism just like Apartheid. A rose by any other name, as Shakespeare would say. There is no way you can water down Apartheid by calling it Ketuanan Melayu.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

First read this news items from the Jakarta Post of 29 October 2008.

Indonesian anti-discrimination law

The House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill that terms ethnic and racial discrimination as serious crimes.

Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, who presided over the House’s plenary session to approve the draft law, said Indonesia no longer had any room for any form of racial or ethnic discrimination.

Chairman of the House’s special committee deliberating the bill, Murdaya Poo, said the endorsement of the bill should put an end to the long-standing dichotomy between indigenous and non-indigenous people in the country.

“A man cannot choose to be born as part of a certain race or ethnic group, and therefore discrimination must cease to exist,” said Murdaya, who is Indonesian-Chinese.

He said the House proposed the bill as part of its effort to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, which has been enacted since 1999.

Under the new law, leaders of public institutions found guilty of adopting discriminatory policies would face jail terms one-third more severe than those stipulated in the Criminal Code.

Citing an example, Murdaya said the governor or government of Aceh could not ban a gathering held by Javanese ethnics in the province.

He said the deliberation process had been delayed by a disagreement on whether imprisonment should be made the minimum punishment.

Jail as a minimum sentence is typically sought for serious crimes, such as corruption, terrorism, money-laundering or drug abuse.

“We decided to set prison as the minimum sentence to deter people from committing racial or ethnic discrimination,” said Murdaya, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The bill was passed on the same day Indonesia celebrated the 100th anniversary of Youth Pledge, which Murdaya said should encourage Indonesians to uphold the diverse nature of the nation.

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Indonesia used to be the ‘best’ example of a country with one of the poorest human rights record in this region — alongside Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, etc. Malaysia and Singapore would be considered the ‘better’ countries, though their Prime Ministers then — Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Lee Kuan Yew respectively — would always remind their citizens that we do not practice absolute democracy, which is bad, but ‘guided’ democracy, which is better for Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Malaysia can’t allow western-style absolute freedom and democracy, argued Dr Mahathir, where people are free to carry guns and shoot each other at will or indulge in gay marriages or sunbath nude on the beaches or have sex on park benches in full view of the public and whatnot. Granted there are some things that should not be allowed but to ban the good so that one can prevent the bad is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Today, Indonesia allows equal airtime on national TV for opposition parties and makes it a mandatory jail sentence for the crime of racial discrimination. How far Indonesia has come since its cowboy days, the image it used to carry for a long, long time.

Malaysia has many Acts. Publishing and Printing Press Act, University and University Colleges Act, Societies Act, Police Act, Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act, amongst just some of our draconian laws, and all these Acts were passed by Parliament after Merdeka. Therefore it is not true when our leaders argue that these are old British Laws inherited by our country.

The old British laws are called Ordinances, such as the Emergency Ordinance, which also allows for detention without trial. In fact, Malaysia has many duplicate laws — Acts and Ordinance — and both are still being applied. In other words, the Ordinances have not been repealed in spite of the newer Acts that have been passed which should have replaced the old British laws.

As an example, although we have the newer Anti-Corruption Act, Anwar Ibrahim was charged, convicted and sentenced to six years jail under the old British Ordinance in 1998-1999. They chose to charge Anwar under the old Ordinance rather than the newer Act because it was easier to get Anwar convicted. They felt under the newer Act they might have problems convicting Anwar.

There are certain laws still being applied which actually violate the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. But then there is a provision in the Constitution which allows Parliament to pass unconstitutional laws in the event the country is facing an emergency. In other words, if Malaysia were under ‘attack’ it would be legal for Parliament to pass ‘illegal’ laws. This is called the ends justifying the means or matlamat menghalalkan cara.

Emergency was actually declared back in 1962 when Indonesia declared war on Malaysia and we went through a period of Konfrontasi. Though the confrontation with Indonesia ended later on, the emergency was never lifted and when race riots erupted in may 1969 the government just ‘rode on’ the emergency already declared in 1962 and which was never lifted.

Technically, Malaysia is still ‘under emergency’ although Indonesia is now our friend and the May 1969 race riot has ended and the Communist Party of Malaya officially ended the war and signed a peace treaty with Malaysia in Haadyai, Thailand, in 1989.

In other words, Malaysia has ‘officially’ seen peace for almost 20 years now (though unofficially we have had about 40 years of peace) but the emergency still remains and Parliament can still use the ‘special’ provision in the Constitution to legally pass illegal laws that violate the Constitution. Boleh ke macam ni? Mesti boleh because in Malaysia semua boleh.

South Africa too used to be just like Malaysia and at one time Malaysians were banned from travelling to South Africa (plus to Israel, China, Russia, North Korea, North Vietnam, etc.). Today, South Africa no longer has an Internal Security Act and instead has a Bill of Rights. Apartheid ended in South Africa a long time ago and there is no longer any racial discrimination in that country. Lawyers from South Africa, in fact, look down on Malaysia’s laws and judicial system. Is that not an irony of sorts?

The last few months since the recent general election have seen racism on the increase. Barisan Nasional appears totally blur that it did badly in the 8 March 2008 general election because of its racist policy. Instead of toning down racism it is stepping up the race rhetoric. It has not learnt from the election beating that it received at the hands of the voters, 50% who voted for the opposition parties.

Call it what you want, Ketuanan Melayu is racism just like Apartheid. A rose by any other name, as Shakespeare would say. There is no way you can water down Apartheid by calling it Ketuanan Melayu. Ketuanan Melayu is Apartheid by another name but Apartheid just the same. And Barisan Nasional had better get this through its thick head if it knows what’s good for it.

Racism in Malaysia should be made a crime just like in Indonesia and it should attract a mandatory jail sentence also just like in Indonesia. And anything that smacks of racism should be banned and made illegal. And that should include Malaysia’s version of Apartheid going by the name of Ketuanan Melayu.

Anwar Ibrahim has replaced Ketuanan Melayu or Malay Supremacy with Ketuanan Rakyat — the people are supreme.  This must be our mission and vision statement. And all those who oppose this must be rejected in toto. Let that be the swan song of all Malaysians, irrespective of race. And you are either with us or you are against us, as President Bush would say.

Two journalists and a blogger arrested as police violently break up rally

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders today condemned brutality by riot police who broke up a peaceful demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on 8 November. Some 22 people were arrested during the day, including two journalists and a blogger.

Demonstrators were singing the national anthem at the rally, held by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) and supporters of famed blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (RKP), when anti-riot police charged the crowd without warning.

They arrested around 20 people and took them to a police station in Petaling Jaya, in the suburbs of the capital. Among those arrested were opposition Members of Parliament and one of the lawyers for the blogger RKP, who was released on 6 November after 54 days in custody without trial.

Syukri Mahamad, a cameraman for news website Malaysiakini, and a blogger known under his pseudonym “Fisherman’s wharf”, were also arrested. Those arrested were well treated and released without charge early the next morning. The police confiscated Syukri Mahamad’s camera and refused to return it on the grounds that it was needed for their investigation into the “illegal demonstrations.”

“We call on the government to open an investigation into the arbitrary and violent arrests of peaceful demonstrators, aggravated by the fact that the police chief gave the media a false version of the events,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “Journalists and bloggers should be able to cover demonstrations without suffering police threats and violence”, it added.

On the same day, Rusnizam Mahat, journalist on the weekly Suara Keadilan, was arrested after a press conference held by the Selangor police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, within the Petaling Jaya station at which he asked why arrests were made during peaceful demonstrations and the singing of the national anthem.

Even though videos show the opposite (video showing that police charged during the singing of the Malaysian anthem “Negaraku”), Khalid Abu Bakar denied that he had failed to warn demonstrators before giving the order for them to be violently dispersed.

At the end of the press conference, an officer and the police chief told Rusnizam Mahat to go to the interview room and asked him to make a statement. “Another officer asked me why I had gone to the demonstration and to the police station. After half an hour, I had to sign a statement and they released me”, he told Reporters Without Borders.

Rusnizam Mahat said he had personally witnessed police brutality. “I saw a police officer harassing one of my journalist colleagues while he was taking embarrassing photos exposing police violence,” he said.

350km ‘freedom run’ kicks off

DAP’s anti-ISA marathon began its 350km journey to the Kamunting Detention Camp in Pandamaran, Selangor, this morning with several party personalities kicking the event off.

MCPX

Party vice-chairperson and former Internal Security Act detainee Tan Kok Wai flagged off the low-key event at the Pandamaran new village at 8.15am with a short speech.

He said the event was meant to express the public’s disappointment with the continued use of unjust and repressive laws such as the ISA.

“We call upon the government to immediately and unconditionally release all detainees held under the ISA,” he told a crowd of about 50 party supporters.

Tan said the purpose of the event, dubbed the ‘freedom run’, was also to call for a lift of the ban on the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), adding that it symbolises equality, freedom and a call to all Malaysians to unite in order to “move forward”.

The DAP event was given a boost with the presence of popular blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and his wife Marina Lee Abdullah. Raja Petra has been detained twice under the ISA.

The wife of Hindraf legal advisor V Ganabatirau, V Buvaneswary, was also present during the flag off. Ganabatirau and four other Hindraf leaders have been in detention in Kamunting since Dec 13 last year.

‘Run will be bear fruit’

Other personalities at the event included DAP advisor Dr Chen Man Hin and Selangor state executive councilor Ronnie Liu, who was the first runner at the event.

“It was an honour to be the first,” said Liu, who headed towards Bukit Tinggi, where the flag was passed to an awaiting runner at the service centre of Klang MP Charles Santiago.

Liu told Malaysiakini he had high hopes that the objective of the run would be accomplished as similar runs in the past had been successful.

This includes DAP’s campaign to save Bukit Cina, Malacca from development and SRJK(C) Damansara primary school from permanent closure.

“We have organised this kind of run in the past and every time, it had been fruitful. You can expect this run to bear fruit in the future as well,” Liu said confidently.

Also lending their support were Pakatan Rakyat coalition partners PAS and PKR. Elected representatives from these two parties will be joining in the run when the flag passes through their constituencies.

Two Pakatan MP’s who have confirmed their participation are S Manikavasagam (PKR-Kapar) and Dzulkefly Ahmad (PAS-Kuala Selangor).

End in Kamunting

If all goes to plan, the anti-ISA flag would pass through hundred of hands in the coastal towns of Kapar, Kuala Selangor and Sekinchan today, before ending up in Sabak Bernam, which borders Perak, by this evening.

After breaking for the night, the second leg of the run will begin at the border between Selangor and Perak before runners take the flag to Kamunting.

The flag would be passing through Teluk Intan, Setiawan, Pantai Remis, Simpang and Taiping before finally reaching Kamunting.

About a dozen plainclothed police officers kept a close watch at the proceedings at the Pandamaran new village this morning while riot police were on standby in a nearby police station.

Commenting on the police presence, Manikavasagam said there was an overwhelming number of police personnel at his service centre in Kapar.

“There were so many of them. Even the Klang OCPD and his deputy were here,” he told Malaysiakini.

Manikavasagam said the police disallowed more than five persons from running at the same time and asked several individuals to remove button badges with the ‘Hindraf’ on it.

“I’m disappointed because the police did not allow more than five people to run with their elected rep,” he said.

He added that the turnout at Kapar was large and multiracial, adding that the large numbers may have attracted the attention of the police.

Photos below courtesy of S Jayathas, co-ordinator of Police Watch and Human Rights Committee Malaysia

– malaysiakini.com

Rebel blogger caught in the middle of a power struggle

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 Raja Petra Kamarudin knows he could soon go back to jail. The country”s leading blogger was released by order of the Shah Alam High Court last week, after being held in detention since Sept 12, but his troubles are far from over and his freedom could be shortlived.

“The decision to free me was a good sign of a new-found strength by the judiciary. But it is only a sign,” said the blogger, who was arrested under the Internal Security Act.

The ISA is an inheritance from the British, who used it in the colony prior to independence in 1957. In essence, it allows for the arrest and internment of any person without the need for a trial in certain defined circumstances.

Raja Petra’s alleged crimes were linked to his writing. For several years he has published provocative opinion pieces on the issues of the day, as well as a number of articles unmasking corruption scandals, drawing his information from a wide array of contacts. His blog, Malaysia Today, is one of the most popular sources of independent news in a country where the mainstream media refrains from criticising the government.

With popularity, however, came a lot of trouble. His latest arrest stemmed from accusations lodged by several religious groups, which claimed that his Aug 8 article entitled “I promise to be a good, non-hypocritical Muslim” had offended Islam.

After being held for a few days, he was sentenced to two years in detention without trial. But, on Nov 5, High Court judge Mr Justice Datuk Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ruled that the arrest of Raja Petra, 58, was contrary to the constitution and said he should be released. He was freed two days later.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail is expected to file an appeal against the decision, and the blogger could find himself back in custody.

Raja Petra remains defiant. He said his battle with the authorities was a proxy for the larger contest that sees Malaysia torn between the old political establishment and the new contender, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Raja Petra is a close ally of Anwar’s and this association has made him a target of the ruling coalition led by Umno.

“I support Anwar because I believe in what he stands for. But I have attacked him in the past and I would do so again, if he changed his programmes,” he said.

“Anwar and (Deputy Prime Minister) Najib (Razak) are like the kings in a big chess game, and my friends tell me that I am the queen. There is little doubt that my future depends on the future of Anwar,” he added.

Anwar has promised to allow freedom of expression and to do away with the ISA and pro-Malay policies that have discriminated against the Chinese and Indian minorities for decades. He is trying to convince 31 lawmakers from the ruling Umno-controlled Barisan Nasional coalition to switch sides and allow him to form a government.

Raja Petra’s friendship with the former deputy prime minister goes back to 1998, when he was a leading member of Keadilan the party set up in response to Anwar’s arrest and detention.

Anwar, the deputy and heir apparent to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was charged with, and jailed for, sodomy and corruption, accusations widely believed to have been politically motivated.

Raja Petra, who was also the main mover behind the “Free Anwar” website, campaigned tirelessly for Anwar’s release and freely criticised the political establishment. He was eventually arrested under the ISA on April 11, 2001. Accused of plotting to overthrow Dr Mahathir, he spent 52 days in jail.

Fast forward to this year and his political connections have placed him in the middle of a power struggle between Anwar and Najib. The latter is poised to take over as prime minister in March when Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is scheduled to step down.

Najib has been one of the main targets of Raja Petra’s columns. In his most controversial article, “Let’s send Altantuya’s murderers to Hell”, published on April 25, Raja Petra claimed that Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, were involved in the October 2006 murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian-born translator and former model, who was shot in the head twice before her body was blown up with explosives in a jungle outside Kuala Lumpur.

It is known that the former model had had an affair with Abdul Razak Baginda at a time when he was one of Najib’s closest advisers. It is also known she tried to blackmail Abdul Razak when the affair ended, though her motives remain unclear. He was acquitted of abetting the murder on Oct 31.

It has also been alleged that she had an affair with Najib. Many wonder what happened to private detective P. Balasubramaniam, who had also linked Najib to the case on July 1 but then retracted the allegations and has since gone missing.

For his part, Najib has denied any involvement in the case and swore on the Quran that he never met Altantuya.

Anwar has called for the case to be properly investigated.

The article came at a crucial juncture, and has played a key role in the larger political struggle.

“I am aware that I have raised the stakes with this article and I am prepared to go all the way,” Raja Petra said.

Following the article’s publication, Raja Petra was charged with sedition and two counts of criminal defamation. The cases are ongoing.

The blogger’s wife, Marina, has stood by her husband’s claims, and said she feared that when Najib takes power, “there may be even more problems for us”.

In the meantime, Raja Petra said he had taken heart from the courage shown by the judge in releasing him, and that he hoped more would follow his example.

“There have always been independent judges, but they were sidelined and subjugated by the government under strongman Dr Mahathir. The government is now weak, Umno is plagued by infighting and there is a strong opposition,” he said. “I hope more judges will come out of their shells.”

His wife said she had taken strength from the support she received when she led the fight to release her husband. Prominent among those are fellow bloggers who share Raja Petra’s view that Malaysia needs change.

News about Raja Petra, a minor member of the Selangor royalty, was and still is widely reported and commented on in Malaysia’s blogosphere. Bloggers were also behind an online petition to free him and other ISA detainees, which has gathered almost 42,000 signatures, and they attended a weekly vigil in Kuala Lumpur.

Marina explained that she also received public support in the streets from people not normally associated with political life.

“During those days I was often stopped in the street, where people hugged me, shook my hand and told me to keep strong,” said Marina, who did not miss any of the court hearings involving her husband. South China Morning Post

Scandal, Sodomy and Murder

RPK SEDITION TRIAL: Article not found in computers, court told

The Sun

PETALING JAYA (Nov 11, 2008) : The article “Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell“, alleged to be seditious, could not be found on either the laptop or desktop computers seized from the home of Malaysia-Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin, the sessions court was told today.

Questioned by DPP Farhan Read, ASP Wa’ie Iskal Kria Abdullah, who had been responsible for the investigation into the contents of the computers, said that while he was able to establish Raja Petra as an administrator of the news portal, he had failed to find the article in the comuters.

Wa’ie, who carried out his his investigation from May 2 to 4, said he had used the Solo 3 hardware and Encase 6.10.2 forensic software when he conducted his examination.

“On the laptop, it was found that www.malaysia-today.net had been accessed, where the access was done by an administrator user, but the website was not accessed from April 11 to 26.”

Farhan: Why were there no findings for the dates mentioned?
Wa’ie:I am of the opinion that the data was deleted.

Farhan: How did you come to that conclusion?
Wa’ie: In my opinion, the data was deleted as the user of the laptop used a programme called Clean It 5.5 to clean all temporary files on the laptop.

Farhan: You say ‘all’. Why, then, are there still findings?
Wa’ie: Clean It is a programme where one can set the date, time and the location on the computer to erase files.

Earlier, asked by Farhan as to whether both Solo 3 and Encase were working properly, Wa’ie said they were at the time they were used on Raja Petra’s computers. He said the hardware and software were tested once every six months.

DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff asked the court for a re-examination of the computers under Section 425 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

“We ask to allow the witness to analyse the computers and extract the folders in the computers as the witness told the court there were folders in the computers not read by him,” Ishak said.

He said the court has the power “to order an exhibit in or out of the courtroom”.

“The witness said that he saw other folders but did not open them because of his instructions,” Ishak said.

Defence counsel J. Chandra objected to the request, saying Section 425 was only for specific situations.

“It (Section 425) is not applicable as it envisages a situation where the court may call a witness not before the court. Wa’ie is already a witness. He is still in the witness box,” he said.

Chandra said the law only applies to those who have finished giving evidence and should be recalled.

“There is no evidence whether these folders are relevant to the subject matter of the charge or how many folders there are. The witness has said that he did not examine the folders under the guidelines given to him (by investigating officer ASP Mahfuz).”

Rejecting the case law used by Ishak to argue for the re-examination of the laptop and desktop, Chandra added: “The case law can be distinguished on its facts as, in that case, the results of the tests were still unknown.”

Ishak, however, argued that the findings could be in favour of the prosecution or the defendant.
“There were folders that were unread and they could be relevant to the case,” he said.

Sessions court judge Rozina Ayob adjourned the proceedings until tomorrow to decide on the application.

Bala ‘U-turn’ and Raja ‘no-turn’

I was told that Raja Petra is working on a second Statutory Declaration or Affidavit in preparation for his trial that will confirm many things not said in the first Statutory Declaration — which is the basis of his criminal defamation charge. The second Affidavit will be naming names of very senior personalities who walk in the corridors of power and who hold titles such as Tun and Tan Sri.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

The Pink Panther

The following news item titled ‘Missing PI and blogger figure in Altantuya murder trial’ was published in The Malaysian Insider today. Malaysia Today’s new The Corridors of Power columnist — who has taken over this column, together with M. Bakri Musa who started writing for this column soon after Raja Petra was detained under ISA — talks about what is really behind the missing private investigator mystery.

Missing PI and blogger figure in Altantuya murder trial

The Malaysian Insider

A missing private investigator and a blogger, both of whom had implicated Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the case of a murdered Mongolian woman, are being sought as defence witnesses in the trial. The case could become a political hot potato when it resumes in January, as investigator P. Balasubramaniam and blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin have made controversial allegations about Najib and the victim, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Balasubramaniam had alleged that Najib had sexual relations with her, while Raja Petra claimed that Najib’s wife was present when Altantuya’s body was blown up with explosives. Her remains were found in a jungle clearing outside Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

This case, with its brew of politics, sex and murder, gripped Malaysia after the Deputy Premier’s close associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, was charged with instructing two policemen to kill Altantuya. Abdul Razak, who said Altantuya was his former lover, was acquitted recently but policemen Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri have been ordered to make their defence.

Najib, expected to become Malaysia’s premier next March, has repeatedly denied knowing Altantuya but the scandal has continued to dog him. His Umno party has stood solidly behind him. When its divisions completed making their nominations for the party presidency last weekend, they overwhelmingly chose Najib except for one other nominee, Kelantan prince Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. So far, there has been no proof to link Najib to this case.

Balasubramaniam has been missing for the last few months since he retracted the allegations he made against Najib. “The investigating officer has said he is trying to trace where he is. We do not know his whereabouts,” defence lawyer Kamarul Hisham, who represents Sirul Azhar, told the court yesterday.

He also said he wants Raja Petra to testify about his statutory declaration in which he claimed that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was present when explosives were placed on Altantuya. He said he was trying to contact the blogger, who was released last week after being detained under the Internal Security Act. Raja Petra was in another court yesterday, facing a sedition charge over a blog posting implicating Najib in the Altantuya case.

Lawyer Hazman Ahmad, who represents Azilah, plans to call Najib’s senior security aide as a witness. According to court evidence, it was the aide, Musa Safri, who introduced Azilah to Abdul Razak after the latter sought his help, saying that Ms Altantuya had been harassing him. Neither Najib nor Abdul Razak are expected to be called as a witness.

The lead prosecutor, Tun Majid Hamzah, said that the prosecution has up to Friday to file an appeal against the acquittal of Abdul Razak. It has not decided whether to do so.

*********************************************************

As much as they are trying to suggest that Bala ‘U-turn’ is ‘missing’, and some say he is in hiding in India, the truth is he is very much in Malaysia; at Bukit Tinggi to be exact. At least this is what my ‘little bird’ tells me. And if you want to know exactly where in Bukit Tinggi he is hiding, then ask the man whom I will, at this point of time, call ‘the Indian Carpet-man’.

Yes, that’s right, the ‘Indian Carpet-man’ knows where Bala ‘U-turn’ is hiding because he is the one who is hiding the missing private investigator in Bukit Tinggi. And he has paid Bala ‘U-turn’ RM3 million to remain in hiding until further notice.

The ‘Indian Carpet-man’, who I shall certainly name in due course when the time is right, works for Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The ‘Indian Carpet-man’ is Rosmah’s ‘bagman’ and he is in charge of carrying hard cash to and from the Deputy Prime Minister’s house in Jalan Duta. He of course makes a lot more money acting as Rosmah’s ‘bagman’ compared to selling carpets and could easily pass as a Bollywood star to those who did not know any better.

The latest news is that later today the AG’s Chambers is going to subpoena Raja Petra’s lawyer, J. Chandra, to testify in court in Raja Petra’s criminal defamation trial. This is a sneaky move to disqualify Chandra from acting as Raja Petra’s lawyer in his trial, which will commence on 24th November 2008. As for Raja Petra, it is not known yet if he is going to be subpeonaed to testify in the Altantuya murder trial and whether he is going to be a hostile witness, which therefore may actually jeopardise Sirul and Azilah’s case and strengthen the prosecution’s case against them. It makes one wonder whether Sirul’s and Azilah’s lawyer are acting for their clients or for the prosecution.

Raja Petra cheekily said that he will agree to testify in the trial only if Sirul and Azilah publicly apologise for threatening him when he spent three days in the Sungai Buloh Prison. Sirul and Aziah deny threatening Raja Petra who insists that it was made in front of a very senior prison officer named Thana. Thana, in fact, phoned Raja Petra’s wife, Marina, and asked her to come to the prison to try to persuade Raja Petra to accept bail and leave prison because they were worried about his safety. Marina, in tears, begged Raja Petra to agree to bail and the sight of his wife crying away softened him and prompted him to agree to bail.

I was told that Raja Petra is working on a second Statutory Declaration or Affidavit in preparation for his trial that will confirm many things not said in the first Statutory Declaration — which is the basis of his criminal defamation charge. The second Affidavit will be naming names of very senior personalities who walk in the corridors of power and who hold titles such as Tun and Tan Sri. Raja Petra appears to be going for broke and seems bent on bringing down as many people with him as he possibly can if he were to suffer a fall.

When the press asked him, minutes after he was released from ISA detention last Friday, his opinion with regards to Najib taking over as Prime Minister in March 2009, Raja Petra replied with confidence, and of course very cheekily, that he does not care about Najib taking over in March 2009 because Anwar Ibrahim will instead be taking over in December 2008. Was he just being cheeky or does he know something the rest of us do not?

Just as we thought the plot had already thickened it thickens even more. I, for one, can’t wait to name the ‘Indian Carpet-man’ but you will have to remain patient a while longer while we see how the ‘other side’ reacts before I throw one more card onto the table. And this card will certainly not be the Joker from the pack but a very strong Ace that is going to make the Altantuya murder trial more interesting than it already is.

I am Malay, and proud of it

It is time the crutches are removed and the Malays learned how to walk with their heads held up high. Malays have to be made to believe that the Ketuanan Melayu and the NEP is an insult and that is suggests Malays are weak creatures.

NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

Religious superstition and persecution never ceases to amaze me. Take the case of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow of Mogadishu, Somalia. On 27th October 2008, 13-year old Aisha was killed. She was killed when 1,000 people stoned her to death. And she was stoned to death because three men had raped her. She was raped, so they accused of adultery.

Interview with Raja Petra on Video

PETALING JAYA: Pengendali Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, yang dibebaskan kelmarin daripada tahanan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) telah menghasilkan tujuh artikel yang menyentuh pelbagai parti dan personaliti negara ini.

Artikel-artikel berkenaan yang menyentuh perkembangan semasa dihasilkan ketika berada dalam tahanan hampir dua bulan dan akan disiarkan menerusi laman webnya dalam waktu terdekat, kata beliau yang turut dikenali dengan gelaran RPK.

“Saya juga berfikir apa yang akan saya buat sekarang… apa yang perlu saya tulis dalam blog saya.

“Semasa berada dalam di kem (tahanan) Kamunting, saya sempat menulis enam hingga tujuh artikel dan saya akan menunggu masa yang sesuai untuk menerbitkannya dalam Malaysia Today,” kata beliau ketika ditemui mStar Onlinedi rumahnya di Sungai Buloh petang semalam.

Sambil menjelaskan yang beliau tidak tidur sejak dibebaskan petang kelmarin, Raja Petra berkata, beliau secara terus-menerus menerima kunjungan dan mengunjungi kawan-kawasan dan saudara-mara sejak dibebaskan 3.20 petang.

Raja Petra yang terkenal kerana tulisan-tulisannya yang kritikal dan kontroversi, yang membawa kepada penahanan di bawah ISA dan Akta Hasutan menambah:

“Bukan mudah menjadi penulis kontroversi seperti saya. Risikonya tetap ada… mungkin ditahan di bawah ISA tapi mereka tidak akan dapat merasai apa yang saya rasa semasa ditahan di Kamunting.

“Masyarakat suka melihat sedikit pertelingkahan. Saya menentang kerajaan, masyarakat suka melihatnya, cuma yang perlu difikir balik adalah sejauh mana mereka komited untuk turut serta dalam apa yang diperkatakan.”

Beliau yang turut berhadapan dengan tuduhan di bawah Akta Hasutan, kes yang sedang dibicarakan mengakui bahawa tidak ramai yang berani bersuara untuk menegakkan kebenaran.

“Laman web Malaysia Today memprovokasi masyarakat… ada perkara yang menyentuh sensitiviti tertentu, anda akan ditahan… ibarat menjolok sarang tebuan, kadang-kadang kita akan disengat.

“Tapi itu adalah cara untuk mengajak masyarakat agar bersama-sama bersatu untuk membetulkan keadaaan,” katanya.

Mengulas lanjut pendirian dan sikapnya dalam tulisan dihasilkan selama ini dan selepas dibebaskan, beliau berkata, “hakikatnya saya menulis untuk mengkritik agar masyarakat mempunyai kesedaran tentang isu-isu sejagat.”

“Saya tidak hanya menghentam kerajaan, saya juga ada mengkritik PAS. Ini termasuklah artikel terbaru yang saya tulis semasa di Kamunting, saya ada tulis tentang Zulkifli Nordin (Ahli Parlimen Kulim-Bandar Baharu dan pemimpin PKR) biarpun dia kawan saya, saya tidak peduli siapa pun anda.

“Saya juga ada mengkritik PAS, orang Melayu, Cina dan India… saya mengkritik semua pihak jika saya rasa apa berlaku itu tidak betul,” katanya lagi.

Beliau menarik perhatian bahawa terlalu ramai yang mengkritik kerajaan tapi mereka hanya bercakap tanpa mengambil apa-apa tindakan.

“(Misalnya) bila ditanya siapa yang mereka undi, mereka kata mereka tidak mendaftar sebagai pengundi. Mereka yang mengkritik kerajaan paling banyak adalah mereka yang tidak mengundi pada pilihan raya umum yang lalu,” katanya.

Dalam temu bual ini, beliau juga menyentuh pentingnya negara dipimpin oleh barisan kepimpinan muda.

Antara nama-nama disentuh beliau ialah Naib Ketua Pemuda, Khairy Jamaluddin; Exco Pemuda Umno, Datuk Muhkriz Tun Dr. Mahathir dan anak Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Nurul Izzah serta

“Kita perlu beri peluang yang lebih banyak kepada golongan muda untuk memerintah negara kerana mereka yang akan menjadi pemimpin masa hadapan.

“Saya suka melihat Umno sekarang, pemimpin-pemimpin muda seperti Khairy (Jamaluddin) dan Mukhriz (Mahathir), mereka perlu diberi peluang untuk ke depan.

“Pemimpin yang berusia perlu bagi peluang kepada mereka ini. Saya tahu walaupun Khairy tidak suka dengan saya tapi dia menyokong untuk menghapuskan ISA.

“Ini satu perkara yang menjadi titik persamaan kebanyakan perubahan yang dimahukan oleh rakyat.

“Saya tidak kisah jika dia tidak suka saya. Saya bukan menyokong dia cuma apa yang perlu dilihat apa yang masyarakat mahukan,” katanya.

Kata Raja Petra, beliau melahirkan sokongan kerana mereka merupakan golongan muda yang mempunyai pendidikan tinggi.

“Mereka ini yang akan membawa kita lebih maju ke hadapan. Bukan hanya mereka sahaja, kita ada Puteri Reformasi, Nurul Izzah, Hanna Yeoh (ADUN Subang Jaya) mereka ini boleh jadi pemimpin yang berwibawa dengan pendidikan dan kebolehan yang mereka miliki,” katanya.

Khairy, Mukhriz, Nurul dan Hanna merupakan wakil rakyat penggal pertama dengan memenangi kerusi dalam pilihan raya umum ke-12 8 Mac lalu.

Katanya, negara dan rakyat tidak boleh menoleh ke belakang kerana Malaysia bukan lagi berada di era 1969 yang menyaksikan pergolakan perkauman.

“Masyarakat hari ini sudah bijak dan berfikiran terbuka,” jelas beliau.

SOALAN: Apakah perkara pertama yang terlintas dalam fikiran selepas dibebaskan daripada tahanan ISA semalam?

RAJA PETRA: Saya sangat letih dan mahu berehat. Saya tidak cukup tidur sejak dibebaskan semalam. Selepas dibebaskan saya pergi rumah kawan yang mengajak saya makan di rumahnya dan kami berbual panjang tentang pelbagai perkara.

Selepas itu saya ke Seremban dan apabila pulang ke rumah sudah pukul 2 pagi. Bila balik rumah saya buka laptop saya dan buat kerja hingga pagi. Bila dah pagi ramai kawan-kawan dan saudara mara saya mula berkunjung ke rumah.

Mereka datang kerana ingin berjumpa dan bertanya khabar setelah hampir dua bulan saya ditahan. Saya tak dapat tidur yang cukup sejak Jumaat lalu. Perkara pertama yang saya lakukan adalah berjumpa dengan rakan-rakan dan saudara mara dan berbincang dengan mereka sejak dibebaskan 24 jam yang lalu. Sejak pukul 3 petang semalam saya asyik bercakap dan bertemu dengan mereka. Rasanya dalam tempoh 24 jam yang lepas saya masih berjumpa dan berbincang dengan mereka mengenai pelbagai perkara.

Saya juga meluangkan masa untuk mengemas kini beberapa perkara laman blog saya. Ia bukan perkara pertama yang terlintas di fikiran tapi kerana terlalu banyak perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian selepas dibebaskan semalam.

Saya juga berfikir apa yang akan saya buat sekarang, apa yang perlu saya tulis dalam blog saya. Semasa berada dalam di kem Kamunting saya sempat menulis 6 hingga 7 buah artikel dan saya akan menunggu masa yang sesuai untuk menerbitkannya dalam lawan web Malaysia Today.

SOALAN: Ditahan selama 52 hari di Kamunting di bawah ISA, apa bezanya kali ini?

RAJA PETRA: Tak banyak bezanya, saya diletakkan dalam keadaan orientasi dan saya keseorangan dalam sel berkenaan. Hanya saya seorang diletakkan di blok berkenaan. Setiap hari bermula pada pukul 7 pagi mereka (pegawai polis) buka sel saya dan biarkan berjalan dan duduk dalam blok berkenaan sahaja. Saya tidak dibenarkan ke mana selain berada di tempat tersebut.

Untuk menghabiskan masa terluang, saya banyak membaca ada buku pelbagai genre. Ada buku yang dapat saya habiskan dalam masa sehari, ada juga buku saya habiskan dalam dua hari… semuanya terpulang kepada ketebalan buku berkenaan.

Dan, apabila tiba pukul 7 malam saya dikunci dalam sel, dan begitulah pada hari-hari seterusnya. Cuma pada waktu malam saya sukar untuk membaca kerana lampu dalam sel tidak berapa terang.

SOALAN: Bagaimana dengan makanan yang disediakan ketika berada dalam tahanan?

RAJA PETRA: Saya tidak sentuh langsung makanan yang diberikan dalam kem berkenaan selama dua bulan ditahan. Saya hanya minum susu yang diberikan oleh isteri saya, Marina setiap hari. Saya hanya makan nasi sekali seminggu semasa keluarga melawat saya. Selalunya pada hari Sabtu. Begitulah rutin harian saya selama berada di kem Kamunting.

SOALAN: Apakah perbezaan bila ditahan kali pertama di bawah ISA (lima tahun lalu) dan penahanan kali ini?

RAJA PETRA: Semasa kali pertama ditahan saya banyak melaui sesi soal siasat bersama pihak polis. Namun ketika penahanan kali kedua saya dihantar ke kem Kamunting, saya diletakkan dalam sel. Selepas hari raya ada kira-kira empat hingga lima kali saya mendengar sesi ceramah agama. Ceramah agama itu disampaikan secara terbuka dan semua tahanan mendengarnya bersama-sama. Tiada sesi kaunseling khas diadakan ke atas saya.

SOALAN: Adakah pernah menyangka bahawa akan dibebaskan dengan segera seperti yang berlaku semalam?

RAJA PETRA: Semasa mereka (barisan peguamnya) memfailkan habeas corpus keyakinan saya untuk menang hanya sekitar 30 peratus. Tapi apabila saya lihat sendiri hujah-hujah yang dikemukakan oleh barisan peguam bela saya mula percaya bahawa peluang untuk menang kes ini ada, tapi peluangnya masih 50-50.

Saya rasa peguam saya telah menjalankan tugas mereka dengan baik. Mereka mengumukakan hujah-hujah yang kuat untuk menolak penahanan saya di bawah akta ini. Mereka buat kajian yang mendalam berkenaan dakwaan ke atas saya.

Namun apa yang jelas, saya dapat lihat hakim semalam telah membuat keputusan berdasarkan undang-undang tanpa dipengaruhi oleh mana-mana pihak. Dia juga tidak melihat kes saya dari sudut politik. Dia tidak takut untuk membuat keputusan yang tidak memihak kepada kerajaan dan dia yakin keputusan yang dibuatnya. Saya fikir (Perdana Menteri) Pak lah tidak campur tangan dan beliau serahkan kepada mahkamah untuk membuat keputusan membebaskannya. Saya juga yakin tidak ada campur tangan politik dalam pembebasan saya semalam. Semuanya diserahkan kepada mahkamah kerana itu saya dibebaskan.

SOALAN: Adakah anda percaya bahawa penahanan anda kali ini bertujuan melindungi kepentingan politik seseorang?

RAJA PETRA: Jika dilihat pada cara saya didakwa, bukti yang dikemukakan sangat tidak kukuh dan banyak kesilapan. Saya rasa Menteri (Dalam Negeri) berkenaan patut meminta nasihat Peguam Negara untuk memberi nasihat sebelum menandatangani surat dakwaan ke atas saya. Beliau sepatutnya meletakkan undang-undang lebih daripada kepentingan politik.

Membuat tuduhan mengatakan saya mengajak masyarakat Islam supaya tidak bersembahnyang, semuanya tidak masuk akal. Saya tidak pernah membuat kenyataan sedemikian. Apa yang saya maksudkan dalam artikel yang saya tulis adalah satu sindiran sinis kepada mereka yang membawa maksud sebaliknya daripada apa yang saya tulis. Semasa saya disoal siasat oleh pegawai polis (Cawangan Khas), saya telah menerangkan… barulah mereka faham. Masalahnya mereka tidak faham apa yang saya tulis, adakah itu salah saya apabila mereka tidak boleh mentafsir artikel bahasa Inggeris yang saya tulis. Jika bahasa Inggeris yang saya tulis mereka tidak faham adakah itu menjadi satu kesalahan? Dan, sebab itu saya perlu dihantar ke Kem Kamunting? Semua ini tidak masuk akal, saya tidak boleh menulis dalam bahasa Melayu dengan baik dan jika anda tidak faham dengan artikel yang saya tulis, anda tidak perlu baca. Itu lebih baik.

SOALAN: Ada dimaklumkan sebab penahanan anda di bawah ISA?

RAJA PETRA: Apa yang mereka (polis) beritahu adalah, saya ditahan kerana menghina Islam dan penyiaran artikel menghina Nabi Muhammad dan artikel Let’s sent the Altantuya murder to hell. Setelah saya jelaskan kepada mereka, mereka berjanji akan membuat satu laporan mengenai maksud sebenar artikel yang disiarkan dalam laman web saya. Namun keesokan harinya, mereka datang bukan membawa laporan tapi membawa surat penahanan, saya akan ditahan di Kem Kamunting. Pada masa itu saya terkejut dan tidak tahu mahu bercakap apa lagi dan hanya berserah. Mereka suruh saya tandatangan surat untuk menghantar saya ke Kem Kamunting… saya enggan berbuat semikian. Saya kata, saya tidak tahu permainan apa yang sedang berlaku.

SOALAN: Adakah anda ditahan kerana artikel Lets sent the Altantuya murder to hell?

RAJA PETRA: Ini salah satu sebabnya. Namun satu perkara yang agak pelik adalah saya didakwa dua kali atas satu kesalahan yang sama. Saya telah didakwa di bawah Akta Hasutan tapi pada masa yang sama saya ditahan di bawah ISA kerana menulis artikel berkenaan. Bagaimana saya boleh didakwa dua kali atas satu kesalahan yang sama? Ini satu perkara pelik. Mana satu yang mereka mahu.. hendak dakwa saya atau tahan saya? Saya tidak faham.

SOALAN: Bagaimana (hendak menghadapi) perjalanan kes di bawah Akta Hasutan kerana (dituduh) memfitnah isteri Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Leftenan Kolonel Aziz Buyong dan isterinya sebagai saksi yang menyaksikan pembunuhan wanita Mongolia Altantuya Shaariibbuu?

RAJA PETRA: Kes tersebut sedang berjalan dan akan disambung Isnin ini (esok). Saya akan hadir. Peguam saya, Gobind Singh juga akan bertanya soalan kepada pegawai penyiasat yang meyiasat kes pembunuhan tersebut. Saya serahkan kepada peguam saya untuk membuat apa yang mereka mampu lakukan saya tidak mahu campur tangan.

SOALAN: Bagaimana dengan kes pembunuhan Altantuya… adakah anda bersedia untuk menjadi saksi pada 10 November (Isnin ini), sebagaimana dilaporkan sebelum ini?

RAJA PETRA: Saya serahkan semuanya kepada peguam saya dengan peguam Sirul untuk berbincang. Mereka lebih arif mengenainya. Jika peguam saya merasakan saya perlu menjadi saksi kepada Sirul, saya akan ikut. Cuma kali ini tangan saya tidak lagi digari.

SOALAN: Pandangan anda tentang cadangan supaya ISA dimansuhkan?

RAJA PETRA: Ia bukan cadangan saya. Saya tidak mampu menghapuskannya seorang diri. Persatuan seperti Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA yang ditubuhkan oleh bekas Presiden PAS, Allahyarham Datuk Fadzil Noor telah melakukan pelbagai program dan saya memberi kerjasama yang baik dengan persatuan ini. Lebih baik saya menyokongnya. Hari ini saya lihat banyak pihak mahu ISA dimansuhkan kerana parti politik kerajaan seprti Gerakan dan MCA turut sama mahu ia dimansuhkan. Saya rasa ini petanda yang cukup baik kepada kerajaan untuk menghapuskannya.

SOALAN: Adakah penggunaan ISA menyekat kebebasan media di negara ini?

RAJA PETRA: Saya tidak tahu apa yang difikirkan oleh kerajaan. Jika ada kesalahan tertentu, tangkap mereka di bawah, tahan mereka di bawah ISA. Mereka patut lebih terbuka dalam menilai kesalahan sesuatu perkara.

SOALAN: Menjadi seorang penulis yang kontroversi dengan artikel-artikel yang ditulis dan dihebahkan melalui portal, apa yang diinginkan oleh anda?

RAJA PETRA: Bukan mudah menjadi penulis kontroversi seperti saya. Risikonya tetap ada. Mungkin ditahan di bawah ISA tapi mereka tidak akan dapat merasai apa yang saya rasa semasa ditahan di Kamunting. Masyarakat suka melihat sedikit pertelingkahan. Saya menentang kerajaan, masyarakat suka melihatnya, cuma yang perlu difikir balik adalah sejauh mana mereka komited untuk turut serta dalam apa yang diperkatakan.

Tidak ramai yang berani bersuara untuk menegakkan kebenaran. Laman web Malaysia Today memprovokasi masyarakat, namun ada perkara yang menyentuh sensitiviti tertentu, anda akan ditahan… ibarat menjolok sarang tebuan, kadang-kadang kita akan disengat. Tapi itu adalah cara untuk mengajak masyarakat untuk bersama-sama bersatu untuk membetulkan keadaaan.

Hakikatnya saya menulis untuk mengkritik agar masyarakat mempunyai kesedaran tentang isu-isu sejagat. Saya tidak hanya menghentam kerajaan, saya juga ada mengkritik PAS. Ini termasuklah artikel terbaru yang saya tulis semasa di Kamunting, saya ada tulis tentang Zulkifli Nordin (Ahli Parlimen Kulim-Bandar Baharu dan pemimpin PKR) biarpun dia kawan saya, saya tidak peduli siapa pun anda. Saya juga ada mengkritik PAS, orang Melayu, Cina dan India… saya mengkritik semua pihak jika saya rasa apa berlaku itu tidak betul.

Terlalu ramai yang mengkritik kerajaan tapi mereka ini hanya bercakap sahaja tanpa mengambil apa-apa tindakan. Bila ditanya siapa yang mereka undi, mereka kata mereka tidak mendaftar sebagai pengundi. Mereka yang mengkritik kerajaan paling banyak adalah mereka yang tidak mengundi pada pilihan raya umum yang lalu.

Apa yang penting saya mahu mereka turut serta dan turut serta dalam menyelesaikan masalah tersebut. Saya tidak mahu mereka menjadi penonton dan tahu mengkritik sahaja.

SOALAN: Apakah yang perubahan yang perlu dilakukan kepada negara?

RAJA PETRA: Kita perlu beri peluang yang lebih banyak kepada golongan muda untuk memerintah negara kerana mereka yang akan menjadi pemimpin masa hadapan. Saya suka melihat Umno sekarang, pemimpin-pemimpin muda seperti Khairy (Jamaluddin) dan Mukhriz (Mahathri), mereka perlu diberi peluang untuk ke depan.

Pemimpin yang berusia perlu bagi peluang kepada mereka ini. Saya tahu walaupun Khairy tidak suka dengan saya tapi dia menyokong untuk menghapuskan ISA. Ini satu perkara yang menjadi titik persamaan kebanyakan perubahan yang dimahukan oleh rakyat. Saya tidak kisah jika dia tidak suka saya. Saya bukan menyokong dia cuma apa yang perlu dilihat apa yang masyarakat mahukan.

Ada seorang pelancong bertanya kepada saya, jika Khairy dipilih sebagai Perdana Menteri, adakah anda akan menyokongnya, saya kata, ‘ya’. Saya akan sokong dia kerana dia seorang yang bijak. Saya tidak akan masuk Umno hanya kerana menyokong dia. Tapi saya akan tetap menentang dia, saya tidak benci dia. Kita perlu menjadi realistik dalam keadaan ini, mereka ini adalah pemipin masa hadapan.

Saya menyokong mereka kerana mereka ini golongan muda yang punya pendidikan tinggi. Mereka ini yang akan membawa kita lebih maju ke hadapan. Bukan hanya mereka sahaja, kita ada Puteri Reformasi, Nurul Izzah, Hanna Yeoh mereka ini boleh jadi pemimpin yang berwibawa dengan pendidikan dan kebolehan yang mereka miliki. Kita tidak boleh menoleh ke belakang Malaysia bukan lagi berada di zaman 1969 (peristiwa 13 Mei) yang hanya tahu bergaduh sesama sendiri. Masyarakat hari ini sudah bijak dan berfikiran terbuka.

RPK unfazed by ISA ‘sting’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin will not be cowed into ending his controversial writing.

“Malaysia Today is meant to provoke society, but when you touch on sensitive things, you will be detained …. It is like poking at a beehive, sometimes, you get stung.

“But that is the only way to invite society to be united and to correct what is wrong,” he said when interviewed by The Star’s online Malay news portal mstar yesterday.

On his release from ISA detention, Raja Petra, also known as RPK, said he believed that the judge had acted independently without any outside influence.

“I think Pak Lah (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) did not interfere and he left it to the court.

“I am also sure there was no political intervention to get me out. It was left solely to the court and that is why I was released,” he said.

On Friday, High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad freed Raja Petra after finding that his two-year detention order under the ISA was unlawful.

When asked if the police had informed him why he was detained, Raja Petra replied they told him it was because he had insulted Islam through an article which demeaned Prophet Muhammad and also because of another article entitled “Let’s send Altantuya’s murderer to hell.”

“The strange thing is, I am already being charged under the Sedition Act for the article on Altantuya, but I was also detained under the ISA for writing it.

“Do they want to charge me or do they want to detain me. I don’t understand.”

On the political winds of change sweeping through the country, he said young leaders needed to be given opportunities.

“I like what is happening in Umno now, where they have young leaders such as Khairy Jamaluddin and (Datuk) Mukhriz (Mahathir).

“Although Khairy does not like me, he agrees with the abolition of the ISA. This a common ground for change that the rakyat wants.

“I do not mind if he does not like me. A tourist asked me: if Khairy becomes prime minister, will I support him?

“I said yes. I will support him because he is smart. I will continue to attack him, but I do not hate him.

“We have to be realistic. They are future leaders, and they include (PKR MP and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter) Nurul Izzah Anwar and Subang Jaya assemblywoman Hannah Yeoh,” he said.

On what he had been doing after his release, Raja Petra said he met friends and relatives, as well as did some writing.

“During my detention in Kamunting, I managed to write about seven articles and I am waiting for the right time to publish them in my website,” he said.

Asked about his detention, he said he was placed in a solitary cell and allowed out from 7am to 7pm.

To pass time, he read books.

“I never touched any of the food they served. I only drank the milk brought by my wife, Marina, every day.

“I would only eat rice once a week when my family visited me, usually on Saturdays,’’ he said.

Raja Petra: The new Malaysian star

Written by Kazi Mahmood

Malaysia has a new star and he is a hero to many young and old citizens of the country. Raja Petra Kamaruddin is now enjoying the ‘super hero’ status given to him by millions of bloggers around the globe. His website Malaysia Today is one of the most popular in Malaysia too.

Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin with his wife Marina Lee Abdullah and children are all smiles after he was released from ISA detention by the Shah Alam High Court on Friday.

Caught in the wave of ‘reformasi’ in the 1998 arrest of Anwar Ibrahim, Raja Petra was one of the very first members of the Party Keadilaan Rakyat (PKR) with which he had a stormy relations. Very independent minded the man with royal lineage is today known as a ‘liberator’ and ‘saviour’ by a large following of young Malaysians, supported by their elders.

Anwar Ibrahim was the hero of the Malaysians (though a minority at that time) and it is his political path and his jailing that has turned Raja Petra into an icon of freedom in Malaysia.

The man himself is very down to earth and does not munch his words when it come to criticism. He has been in constant fights with PKR members who he says does not follow the original ideas of the party. This is what sent him on a mission against PKR MP for Bandar Baru Kulim, Zulkifli Nordin.

Nordin explains that RPK as Raja Petra is known is a nice person but can be very demanding and one sided in a way. His views are the most important ones and his website is his turf where he reign supreme. However, Raja Petra is now a larger than life figure with whom the Malaysian political landscape will have to live for a long, long time to come.

Knowing the resolve of RPK, we can say that he will not shut up and will not rest in peace until his ultimate mission is accomplished and this is the change of regime in Malaysia.

Nonetheless, Raja Petra is not a stubborn man who do not understand the needs of the country since on many occasions he wrote that if the Barisan National (BN) and the United Malays National Organization (Umno) were to change and adopt what the people want then things can still be better for the country.

It is evident that Raja Petra does not see many Malay-Muslims in the good eyes and has quarrels with them over their interpretations of Islam and religious practices and it is this difference in views that led to his second Internal Security Act (ISA) arrest.

Many of his supporters think Raja Petra must be in Parliament but he did say once that he is not cut to be an MP and to sit in the Parliament. His mission, as we udnerstand, will be accomplished when his views and thoughts are respected by all and sundry. This is almost impractical but no one can blame a hero of his stature to be very demanding, said one observer who spoke to WorldFutures on RPK.

On the other hand, many Muslims in the Malay society believe RPK must tone down on his criticism towards Muslims not for ‘sensitivities’ or for raising the ‘ire’ of the Muslims but for the sake of unity among Muslims. They add that harping on the differences in ‘Islam’ and the ‘ills and evils’ that might have taken place under Islamic rule across the world does not help the image of Islam.

“Such a mission, laudable and needed, must be carried out in private and RPK has to understand that it will be more fruitful if he does his ‘dakwa’ to change the mindset of Muslims with more care and love for the Muslims,” said M.I.S to WFOL.

Nevertheless, the Malaysian hero is back to his cosy home with his happy family. There has been serious strains on the nerves of the ‘nice and beautiful’ family of RPK as MP Zulkifli said and there is hope that things may be better for them in the future.

Free and defiant

By Shannon Teoh

MI
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 ~ Despite being unlawfully detained under the Internal Security Act for two months, Raja Petra Kamarudin is in a gracious mood.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insider just a day after his release was ordered by Shah Alam High Court Judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, he said that he -would like to sit with Khairy, have a drink and smoke some cigars- and -be honoured if Najib invited me for tea.-

Raja Petra is facing an ongoing charge of sedition for alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was involved in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and a further criminal defamation charge for accusing Najib”s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, of being present during Shaariibuu”s murder.

Khairy Jamaluddin, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi”s son-in-law, was extensively attacked in Malaysia Today, the portal which Raja Petra heads, in a 2005 series called -The Khairy Chronicles- which catapulted the website to infamy.

-I do not dislike him, in fact I like him,- he said of Najib.

-His father was one of the most famous MCKK alumni. Tun Razak was always the first name when listing out prominent old boys,- Raja Petra recalled of Malaysia”s second Prime Minister from his schooling days.

-I get along well with his brothers. In fact, I think Najib has charisma, but he”s Umno and I am anti-Umno.

-If he invites me for tea, I would be honoured,- he said earnestly.

-I suppose I don”t blame him but its my job to whack him. If not, I fail at my duty,- he said of the widely accepted understanding that his Sept 12 ISA detention resulted from his persistent attacks on

Najib ~ which Raja Petra insists are not -personal or spiteful- ~ rather than the stated claim that he was insulting Islam with his writings.

-Khairy seems intelligent,- he said of the Rembau MP.

-I have never met him face to face but I would like to sit with him, have a drink, smoke some cigars and tell him to go push for it and I will support,- he said of Khairy”s recent wish to meet the opposition to find a bipartisan solution to the ISA.

He said that he is friends with many figures whom he opposed politically, including former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

-I have written nasty things about Mahathir but now I go to his house to kiss his hand. When I was detained, he was concerned and called me to see how I was and if I would be held in jail,- he claimed.

-We need a level of maturity which is beginning to show but we are not there yet,- he added.

The 58-year-old blogger also insisted that he has tried to be fair to all: -I criticise DAP, PKR, Pas and even Zulkifli Noordin I have told off to leave the party,- he said of the PKR Kulim Bandar Baharu MP who has persistently taken an intolerant Islamic stance.

-Even Anwar felt I was too harsh on him but he has begun to accept that I shoot anything that moves,- he said, referring to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

On his release, he said that he was confident that his chances were better than 50-50 after his lawyers had shown him the case papers although he admitted at first it was a more pessimistic -30-70.-

Giving credit to his legal team, he also said that he had -a good feeling that Abdullah would not get involved.-

-He is going to hand over, how does it serve him to keep me in Kamunting? He has no reason to interfere, and he has said he will not interfere and I believe he means it,- Raja Petra said, referring to Abdullah”s imminent hand over of his Premiership to Najib after Umno”s March party polls.

He also spoke of his belief that the judiciary has begun its rehabilitation. Coupled with the failure of the prosecution to bring Anwar”s sodomy trial to the High Court, he said that the judiciary is showing that it can be independent again.

-With the ex-gratia, the government did not admit it was wrong or say sorry but this is almost like saying sorry, an unofficial apology,- he said of the monies paid out to the six Supreme Court judges sacked in the 1988 judicial crisis.

-This is already part of a rehabilitation process and now they can be independent again and know that they wont be transferred to Sabah or not get promoted for ruling based on the merits of a case,- he stated.

Raja Petra also agreed that the time is ripe for such changes as Malaysians are beginning to accept that an independent judiciary is a top priority.

-South Africa, with its apartheid and the detention of Nelson Mandela for 27 years, takes the cake as the country with the worst human rights record outside of genocide. But it abolished its own version of ISA and now has a Bill of Rights. What a U-turn,- Raja Petra exclaimed.

He also related how in India and Pakistan, violence such as bombings and shootings were rife but their judiciary systems -are the most respected in our region.-

-But our Special Branch says. “Yes we have ISA but we don”t shoot you middle of the night and dump you in a river. That is like saying I only rape you but don”t murder you,- Raja Petra reasoned.

-Can you imagine Dr Mohamed Osman Hamid, ran from Malaysia to the “safety of Myanmar?” That”s unbelievable. Can”t the government see?- he said incredulously, referring to the doctor who allegedly found no trace of anal penetration of Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Anwar”s sodomy accuser.

For the near future, he knows he is -not out of the woods yet- as he faces a sedition and a criminal defamation trial.

He also referred to Minister in the Prime Minister”s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz”s statement that the government may appeal the ISA ruling to a higher court.

-But if he appeals to a higher court, it might decide to rule on more points in our favour. So it is double or nothing. They might put me back in jail or it might open a Pandora”s Box and set a precedent for other detainess like the Hindraf 5 to be released,- he said with a hint of glee.

But he insisted that putting him back in Kamunting would not bury the matter of Altantuya for Najib.

–Malaysia Today will go on with or without me,- he said, explaining that there was already a full management team based overseas.

-For two months, articles were updated. People were wondering if it could really be me writing from Kamunting. I bet Bukit Aman would like to know.

-There were six to seven articles with my trademark. But it will remain a mystery for now, at least for as long as the present government remains in power. But of course, I was writing from Kamunting,- he claimed.

However, Raja Petra stressed that the only way Najib could clear his name was by ensuring the trial is conducted fairly.

He also talked about his time in Kamunting with candour, calling the physical discomfort terrible due to sleeping conditions, the stifling heat with no electric fan for relief and weight loss due to the quality of food.

-They don”t beat you up but the psychological aspect of being separated from my wife was the most unbearable part. We could only meet for 45 minutes a week and it went by so quickly and I would think, “Now I have to wait another week to see her?” –

Malaysia blogger’s joy at release

BBC

A prominent critic of the Malaysian government, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, has been freed from jail on the orders of a judge.

Mr Raja Petra, 58, editor of the website Malaysia Today, has been held without trial for eight weeks under a draconian security law, the ISA.

He had been accused of causing ethnic tensions by ridiculing Islam.

“I’m really glad it’s over,” a tearful, haggard Mr Raja Petra said as he hugged his family and greeted supporters.

“I’m really tired. The judge’s decision proves that there was no justification for my detention.

“We have to fight all-out and get the ISA abolished,” he told reporters, referring to the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without charge for an initial two years, with indefinite extensions possible.

Mr Raja Petra was garlanded by supporters and then driven home in a maroon Rolls Royce which one of them had provided, said one report from the scene.

Critical

Mr Raja Petra was freed from a notorious prison camp in northern Malaysia on the orders of the high court in Shah Alam city near Kuala Lumpur.

It ruled that Interior Minister Syed Hamid Albar had overstepped his authority when he ordered the detention.

Mr Raja Petra has increasingly angered the Malaysian authorities with his critical Malaysia Today website, the country’s best-known political blog.

He still faces charges of sedition for an article he published which linked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak to the 2006 murder of a Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Mr Najib, who has consistently denied any involvement, is widely expected to take over as prime minister when incumbent Abdullah Badawi agrees on a transition date.

‘Great day’

Raja Petra’s lawyer, Malik Imtiaz, described Friday’s ruling as “historic”, saying it was the first time a court had ordered the release of an ISA detainee since the government banned such rulings in 1989.

It was “definitely a wonderful step in terms of civil liberties in Malaysia”, he said.

His words were echoed by Malaysia’s human rights commissioner, Denison Jayasooria, who called it a “great day for human rights and fundamental liberties”, according to AFP news agency.

He called for the ISA to be used only “where there is a real threat to national security”.

Mr Raja Petra was arrested on 12 September under the ISA as part of a government clampdown on opposition voices.

He was arrested along with opposition deputy Teresa Kok and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, both of whom have since been released.

LIVE: Candlelight vigil in Seremban with RPK

Updates by anilnetto.com with live reporting from Rakyat@Work, now at the Dataran Seremban Park:

2139: “Come again, people, same time, same place” is the message that goes out as the vigil draws to a close. What a day… Good night and God bless Malaysia!

2137: RPK thanks the crowd for their support. “Now I am going back to rest, cos I’m a bit tired. Thank you for coming and rest well.” The crowd respond with similar words.

2124: Y L Chong leads the crowd in singing “We are the World”.

2122: The crowd chants, “No, no, ISA! We want change! No, no, ISA!”

2114: RPK joins the crowd in singing “Blowing in the Wind”.

2110: RPK has been addressing the crowd, says Rakyat@Work. Speaking on behalf of the other ISA detainees, RPK says that the people inside had actually asked him to send a message to the rakyat to ask us to support them in their ordeal. Under the ISA, the first thing they take away is your hope, explains RPK. That’s why the ISA is so detrimental. Even the Hindraf detainees, who have been there for only 11 months so far, are saying that that the world doesn’t care whether they live or die. “We can only depends on ourselves,” they say.

RPK adds that if they have committed any crime, the authorities should put them in court and let them know what they have done. The detainees don’t mind facing jail sentences if they are found guilty. But to put them under ISA without solid evidence is ridiculous. If there is evidence, they should be sent to court.

RPK’s whole speech basically asks us to think about the ISA detainees. The detainees are asking us to give them hope and to set them free. “Think of those who are still under ISA; we must give them hope.”

In the background, cries of “Hidup Petra!” ring out in the night air. A poem is recited in honour of RPK.

2108: Meanwhile, blogger Antares shares his thoughts with us:

I have been floating like a balloon since an SMS arrived this morning at 10,00am informing me RPK would be released by 4.00pm. At 3.00pm, I sat by the river, listening to the wind and it told me to have faith in Justice Komathy’s core of decency and professionalism. Double happiness on 7 November 2008!

2052: Raykat@Work is busy chatting with folks from Malacca. The crowd sings Lennon’s “Imagine”.  RPK arrives!

2049: The crowd swells to 150 people as more people arrive. They are eagerly awaiting RPK’s arrival.

2030: People are looking forward to RPK’s arrival. They expect him to be late after what has been an extraordinary day in KL.

Court frees ISA detainee Raja Petra

Hafiz Yatim | November 7, 2008

Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin was released from his Internal Security Act (ISA) detention at 3.20pm.

The editor of the popular Malaysia Today website was brought to the Shah Alam High Court just five minutes earlier.

Expressing surprise with the decision, Raja Petra said: “Not many people have challenged the act (ISA) so much and I did not have much high hopes (of being released).

“This application allowed under Section 8 is a special prize. I am tired.”

“This showed ISA cannot be used. I hope this is not a political decision. I don’t want to be the prime minister. I want Anwar to be the PM,” he said.

“We have to fight all-out and get the ISA abolished,” he told reporters.

Raja Petra was greeted by his wife Marina Lee Abdullah and two daughters. Some 50 supporters and friends clapped and cheered when the blogger appeared. He later left the courthouse with his family in a red Rolls-Royce.

Looking haggard and dressed in a brown T-shirt and jeans, Raja Petra was garlanded by dozens of supporters outside the court before stepping into the vehicle.

This morning, the Shah Alam High Court this ruled that the detention of Raja Petra under the ISA was illegal and ordered his immediate release.

Judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad said that Raja Petra’s detention was unconstitutional.

He said the home minister had not followed proper procedure under Section 8 of the ISA to issue the detention order against Raja Petra.

The judge also ordered that Raja Petra be produced in court by 4pm today after which he should be immediately released.

Raja Petra was being held at the Kamunting detention camp in Perak. “Now is about 10.30am, and I think there is enough time for Raja Petra to be released. I do not want this matter to be prolonged as the weekend starts tomorrow,” said the judge.

“I thank the prosecution for their cooperation in handling this case and require your assistance to ensure that the order would be carried out.”

Senior federal counsel Abdul Wahab Mohammad said he would make the necessary arrangements by 4pm.

The release comes more than a month after Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar signed the ISA detention order on September 23, although Raja Petra was initially arrested under the Act on September 12 at his house in Sungai Buloh.

Reasons for the detention

Raja Petra, 58, had named the home minister as the defendant in the habeas corpus application which sought among others for his immediate release and an order that his detention under the ISA was unlawful.

The minister had stated three reasons for Raja Petra’s detention:

• that he owns and operates the Malaysia Today website;

• publishing his articles and readers’ comments intentionally and recklessly which were critical and insulted Muslims, affecting the purity of the religion and the personality of Prophet Muhammad; and

• publishing articles deemed defamatory or false concerning Malaysia’s leaders, with the intention of undermining public confidence and inciting hatred against the government; the articles are alleged to be a threat to national security.

The articles in question were ‘Malays, the Enemy of Islam’, ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’, ‘I promise to be a good, non-hypocritical Muslim’ and ‘Not all Arabs are descendents of the Prophet’.

Raja Petra was represented by counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Azhar Azizan Harun, J Chandra and Ashok Kumar.

Upon hearing the judgment, Marina broke into tears and hugged her daughters.

Raja Petra’s supporters who were wearing black, yellow, green and orange t-shirts with the message ‘No ISA’ and ‘Free RPK’ had clapped when the decision was made.

A procedural non-compliance

Syed Ahmad Helmy in his judgment said the court looked into two factors, namely the constitutionality of the Act and whether the home minister acted correctly within his jurisdiction to issue the order.

He said Section 8(b) of the ISA indicated that those issued with the detention order by the minister might not be allowed for judicial review. However, the court could hear such an application if there were instances of possible abuse of powers.

“I agree the formulation of the ISA was to protect the security of the nation and is constitutional. However, the court can review the detention order if it finds instances where the minister could have acted beyond his jurisdiction to issue the two-year detention order.

Syed Ahmad Helmy said there was no relevance for the minister to issue the order against Raja Petra on the basis of ‘mala fide’ (bad faith).

“Following this, the court finds there is a procedural non-compliance as stated under Section 8(1) of the ISA based on the minister’s affidavit.

“Hence the court finds the minister had acted ‘ultra vires’ (beyond his powers) in issuing the detention order under the ISA section. For example, the minister cannot issue an order if a person has in bad faith decided to colour his hair red.

“Following this, the court is allowing the plaintiff’s application and orders for his release,” the judge said.

Raja Petra’s lawyer Malik (photo: second from right) said during submissions earlier that the court has jurisdiction to scrutinise the detention order and to determine if it was made in bad faith.

“This is not a situation like Jemaah Islamiyah or communists. This is just a man whom the government thinks can bring it down to its knees,” the counsel had argued.

Wife: A good sign

Marina, when met by reporters, said she had been hopeful but had not expected the decision. “This is a good sign that the country is changing and I hope that this change will continue,” she said.

“I am speechless and satisfied with the decision. I have not taken breakfast and will do so and wait for my husband’s return.”

Marina also thanked all her lawyers for their effort in securing her husband’s release. Their two daughters – Suraya, 34, and Sarah, 19 – were present as well.

Malik told AFP it was the first time a court has ordered the release of an ISA detainee since 1989, when courts were barred from interfering once a detention order has been signed by the home minister.

“It is certainly an historic ruling and a profound moment for civil liberties in this country,” he said, while adding that the government can appeal the decision.

This was the second time that Raja Petra has been arrested under the ISA.He was also detained in 2001 at the height of the reformasi movement triggered by the sacking and jailing of former deputy premier and now Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

However, Raja Petra was released after 53 days in police custody, without being sent to Kamunting.

http://www.malaysiakini.com

Court rules Raja Petra’s detention under ISA illegal; orders his release

The Sun

SHAH ALAM (Nov 7, 2008): The High Court here today ordered the release of web portal Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin from detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after allowing his application for a writ of habeas corpus.

Justice Datuk Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad held that the grounds for Raja Petra’s detention by Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar under section 8 of the ISA did not come within the scope of that section.

He then ordered that Raja Petra, 58, who has been held at the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping, Perak, since Sept 12, be brought before the court at 4pm for his release.

Raja Petra, 58, had applied for the writ of habeas corpus seeking his release on the grounds that his detention under the ISA was unlawful and unconstitutional. He named Syed Hamid as respondent.

Raja Petra’s wife, Mable @ Marina Lee, and their two daughters, Suraya, 34, dan Sarah, 19, and other family members cried and hugged each other after the judgment was delivered.

Meanwhile, his supporters in the gallery clapped and cheered.

Raja Petra was represented by counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Ashok Kandiah and
Azhar Azizan Harun, while senior federal counsel Abdul Wahab Mohamad appeared
for the prosecution.

He was detained on the same day as Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok
and Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, also under the ISA. Both have
since been released.  — BERNAMA

Suhakam welcomes Raja Petra’s release

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 7, 2008) — The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) welcomes the release of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin today from his Internal Security Act (ISA) detention, which the Shah Alam High Court ruled as illegal.

In a statement here, the commission said it respected the integrity and impartiality of the court in handling the case which also proved the court’s positive view in protecting human rights.

“Based on this decision, Suhakam further suggests that perhaps it is most appropriate if the respective ministry could determine all cases alike and release ISA detainees,” it added.

SUHAKAM also reiterated its stance that the ISA should be repealed and the detainees be released and tried in a court of law.

Raja Petra, 58, the editor of the Malaysia Today website, had named the home minister as the defendent in a habeas corpus application which sought his immediate release, and an order that his detention under the ISA was unlawful. — BERNAMA