Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin or better known as RPK, an Malaysian influential blogger is taken to jail after declining bail on sedition charge relating to his article "Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell" that he composed and posted in his Malaysia-Today.net site.
He is accused of publishing the article that alleged to have contained nine paragraphs of seditious words. Some of the paragraphs are personal ramblings of his and some are illustration made by others that he quoted.
When I read through the post, the following nine paragraphs could be:
1. "... Melayu babi, the whole lot of them". RPK is referring to the culprits and those who tried to cover up case evidences NOT all the Malays.
2. "... while the Altantuya murder trial is halfway through and long before we can see the end of what many consider a show-trial in a kangaroo court." Yes, Altantuya murder trial gain all the spotlights and some attempt by certain parties is making the trial into a circus.
3. "... the belief that there is some very damaging evidence in that Affidavit and which the government is trying to hide. ". High possibility unless the government reveal the real contents of the Affidavit to clear the air.
4. " Najib, Rosmah and Musa have also been implicated in this entire thing". For the time being, it a mere rambling speculation made by RPK.
5. "The Attorney-General made it appear like he knows the outcome of the trial even before the trail commenced?". Food for thought.
6. "The three accused deny killing Altantuya yet the police knew exactly where to go to look for the remains. How did the police know where to go when the three denied killing her?". Food for thought.
7. "It makes one wonder whether the police knew where to go because it is a ‘gazetted dumpsite’ where all ‘bumped off’ people are disposed. ". Another RPK rambling.
8. ".... were matters such as how Altantuya’s immigration records could be erased from the Immigration computers, the letters Najib wrote to the Malaysian embassy supporting Altantuya’s visa application, the photograph of Altantuya, Najib, Razak and Kalimullah taken during Altantuya’s birthday party in the Mandarin Hotel in Singapore, and much more.". The truth is out there.
9. "This is about the Prime Minister of Malaysia withholding crucial evidence in a murder trial.". RPK is making the old man pissed off.
RPK will be pull to court for sedition charges and Law of Sedition (i.e Malaysian version) can be very repressive and one-sided. This incident illustrates that RPK is very influential and the government really can't stand his rambling. Maybe some of his remark are true that the government want to silent him. This incident also show that RPK has many followers, that when he ask for donation to pay for his possible maximum fines of RM5,000, he received over RM30,000 within hours from fellow bloggers.
Malaysia Sedition Act
The Sedition Act in Malaysia is a law prohibiting discourse deemed as seditious. The act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities of British Malaya in 1948. The act criminalises speech with "seditious tendency", including that which would "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against" the government or engender "feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races".
The latter provision includes the questioning of certain portions of the Constitution of Malaysia, namely those pertaining to the Malaysian social contract, such as Article 153, which deals with special rights for the bumiputra (Malays and other indigenous peoples, who comprise over half the Malaysian population). More on Malaysia Sedition Act (Law)
Updated:
* Aug 28, 2008: How to access RPK MalaysiaToday blog
* Aug 26, 2008: Raja Petra Kamarudin's blog MalaysiaToday blocked by the government
Related posts:
* Tan Sri Dr Nordin Kardi wins the first battle (against RPK)
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Source: thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/7/nation/21167472&sec=nation (May 07, 2008)
Blogger Raja Petra taken to prison after declining bail on sedition charge
By M. MAGESWARI and MANJIT KAUR
PETALING JAYA: The editor of news portal Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, claimed trial in the Sessions Court here to publishing a seditious article in its website on April 25 while businessman Syed Akbar Ali claimed trial to posting a seditious comment.
Raja Petra, 58, became the first blogger to be charged under the Sedition Act, making it a test case.
He is accused of publishing the article “Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell” in the website www.malaysia-today.net. The article is alleged to have contained nine paragraphs of seditious words.
He is said to have committed the offence at his house in Jalan BRP 5/5 in Bukit Rahman Putra in Sungai Buloh that day.
When the interpreter read out to him the alleged seditious words, Judge Nurmala Salim interjected by asking her to pronounce the exact words as highlighted in the six pages of Appendix A.
The interpreter took 11 minutes to read out the allegedly seditious words to him.
Upon hearing the details of his charge from the interpreter at noon, Raja Petra, who clasped his hands behind his back, claimed trial.
Clad in a short-sleeved yellow shirt and blue jeans, Raja Petra was composed throughout the court proceedings.
If convicted, he can be fined a maximum of RM5,000 or jailed up to three years or both under Section 4(1)(c) of the Act.
At this juncture, lead counsel K. Balaguru raised a preliminary objection saying that the charge did not state the time of the alleged offence.
He said the prosecution should have classified which category of the Act that his client had allegedly infringed.
At that point, the court was adjourned for 10 minutes after Balaguru informed the judge that veteran lawyer Karpal Singh would also appear for his client.
When the court resumed, Balaguru withdrew his preliminary objection.
Queried on prosecution witnesses, Nordin said he would be calling 15 witnesses and would prefer a week for the trial.
Nurmala set five days from Oct 6 for trial. Raja Petra declined to post bail and was taken to Sg Buloh prison later.
In Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Duta Sessions Court, Syed Akbar Ali, 48, pleaded not guilty to posting the comment on Arabs and Islam with Raja Petra’s article titled “Malaysia’s organised crime syndicate: all roads lead to Putrajaya” on June 5 last year.
The former banker looked calm when the charge was read out to him.
The offence was allegedly committed at 2.59pm at Zeenath Begum Jewellers Sdn Bhd in Jalan Masjid India.
Judge S.M. Komathy Suppiah granted bail at RM3,000 and fixed June 10 for submissions on the charge.
He posted bail.
Source: thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/7/nation/21169075&sec=nation (May 07, 2008)
Website editor in celebratory mood
KUALA LUMPUR: Blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was celebrating – by smoking too much – a day before the Government charged him with sedition.
“I have been celebrating as finally the Government is charging me,” he said.
Asked if he had slept well, he laughed and said he had a bad cough due to too much smoking.
He said his defence team would prove there was no case against him and that it was a case of “political persecution”.
“They lost in the election because of the Internet war. Malaysia Today was one of the 'culprits',” said Raja Petra who turned up in the Jalan Duta court complex here at 9.06am.
Earlier, a large crowd comprising bloggers, MPs, lawyers and well-wishers gathered at the court lobby in Jalan Duta.
At about 10.30am, Raja Petra said he received a call from a policeman telling him to go to the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
He left the Jalan Duta complex five minutes later in a friend’s car.
After the court proceedings ended, his lead counsel K. Balaguru said his client did not have money to post the RM5,000 bail while Raja Petra’s wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said her husband wanted his online readers to contribute RM1 each for his bail.
“I tried to persuade him not to stay in the lock-up but he says that it is his stand. He is very stubborn,” added Marina.
His CIMB account number was posted on his website from morning. By 4pm, readers had contributed RM24,500 and US$3,283.61 (RM10,441.87). The donation campaign was called off at 5.30pm and the website stated that excess funds would be donated to a charitable home of Raja Petra’s choice.
Meanwhile, the Bar Council Malaysia called on the authorities to withdraw the charge against Raja Petra.
“The Sedition Act is a draconian, archaic and repressive legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it might ever have had,” it said in a press release.
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