Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Making Bloggers Pay

Raja Petra Kamaruddin was at the Dang Wangi police station for some 8 hours for questioning today following a police report lodged by Umno information chief Senator Muhammad Muhd Taib against Malaysia Today, a web portal he operates.
He stepped out of the police building at about 7.15pm.
His wife, Marina, had been waiting at the canteen of the police station throughout. She was in the company of friends and supporters of RPK.

Muhammad, on behalf of Umno, lodged the police report yesterday alleging that Malaysia Today had published sensitive comments on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Islam, and of a racial nature.
Muhammad said that the public comments carried on the portal on July 11 violated the law and insulted the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
"Such publication is deemed as likely to spark crime and incite racial and religious violence," he had said.

Well, I, do not, for a moment, believe that the contentious comments will incite racial and religious violence.
I think it was terribly wrong for Umno to resort to lodging the report because this is not the way to deal with irresponsible blogs. If that is what it aims to do.
Intimidation is not the way. (But then, it is the easiest way, no doubt.)
I do not consider MT to be an irresponsible web portal.
RPK did not write seditious remarks against the King and Islam as those were comments posted to MT.
Indeed, this is so worrying as it comes on the heels of the arrest and detention of blogger Nathaniel Tan of Parti Keadilan Rakyat under the Officials Secrets Act earlier this month.

Must be the blazing exposes of excesses and abuse in the administration that MT has been unremittingly publishing.
MT, and therefore, RPK are obviously a pain in some people's butt.
I suppose they can't get RPK on those little exposes, so they looked for something with which they could easily get him and wham, those little comments fit so nicely under the Sedition Act.
And they got Umno and Mike Tyson to do that dirty job.
It's a damn cliche but it makes me think that some people must really be afraid of their own shadows.
I think it is not irresponsible blogs and bloggers they are after but very responsible blogs and bloggers.

Malaysian bloggers who expose the excesses and abuse in government administration are not the enemies of the people nor of the State. They are the enemies of the corrupt and corrupted.

Your take on RPK would depend on which side of the fence you are sitting. But whatever take you have, you cannot deny that this guy has guts, gall and gumption.
More than I can say for some elected officials of the country.

So, what else and who's next? Certainly, not any of those real bad bloggers!

15 comments:

zaitgha said...

Nuraina,

I followed Nat and RPK saga quite closely...not sure what we are into nowadays...sometimes i wonder how some people can sleep at night...when i was working last time, when time i had to do performance appraisal(PA) for my staff i would have sleepless nights...i was so afraid i did not give them fair PA because their bonus and salary depend on the words i wrote in the sheet of papers....how i hope they really investigate those corrupted a#s@o#e...apology for the last word...geram

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

Zai,
Bloggers are the bogeymen of certain people in government today.
They're the bad guys who seem to be exposing this and that.
Not good at all.
They're so criminal and considered more deadly than the potential rapists, robbers and murderers that they have to be arrrested and questioned.

RPK, Rocky, AKJ and some serious socio-political bloggera are the target because they tell some stories that certain people prefer to be not told.
These bloggers are loyal citizens of the country who happend to be so appalled at some of the abuses they see that are happening under OUR very noses BUT nothing is being done to stop these excesses.
The combined effect of these bloggers -- who, unfortunately for some people, are not kucing kurap, neither are their budak2 bodoh -- are too much for certain people to handle.
First it was Rocky and Jeff Ooi being sued by NST and its executives. Perhaps some people feel that civil action is simply ineffective in dealing with "errant" bloggers (read: responsible bloggers who expose crap in government).
You know how deadly and powerful the ISA, OSA and Sedition Act are...so, what the hell...we'll use them if it is going to fix those damn bloggers.
who cares about justice, constitutional rights and fairplay?
We can dispense them in the interest of the greater good....whatever that is to these people. personal and private good, more likely.

zai, they're trying to pin RPK on comments that he published. Not about what he wrote.
my suspicion is that they do no understand blogs. they do not understand how to read blogs.
Sure, give me that argument that a webmaster/blogger is responsible for the comments he published.
But really.... is that what we want to waste our time on? getting a blogger on comments he published.
but that's the law, they say?
well, not yet. but we'd be wasting good prescious, time, manpower and money to prove something that really, will not being us any benefit, but simply to prove someone's point.

pure unadulterated intimidation; like they did on poor Nat.

this si not about protecting the country. this is about protecting the interest of individuals who have flouted the law.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

zai,
sorry...ada banyak typo and spelling errors.

one very glaring is the word "precious". i TERspelt it as "prescious".
apa kena I ni?
lagi satu -- towards the end -- it should be "will not BRING'..not will not "being".

sorry.

Unknown said...

Hi Nuraina

This is really not a comment/response to your blog but a request for help in getting pictures of KMM. Is it possible for me to write to your email or you write to mine at wai_chengwong@hotmail.com so I can explain to you in more detail.

Thanks, Wai Cheng

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

wai cheng,

ok... will see what i can do o help.

Anonymous said...

well said. the corrupts and the cronies are feling the heat from the expose. after nat and rpk, who's next? Jeff and rocky on the list? sure signs that the election is near.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

anon@3:03pm:
let's hope that does not happen.

Anonymous said...

"Malaysian bloggers who expose the excesses and abuse in government administration are not the enemies of the people nor of the State. They are the enemies of the corrupt and corrupted."

Well said...

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

anon@3:45pm:

unfortunately, not , according to some people.

meesh said...

Hey there Nuraina,

It's Michelle, from TELL. We've met briefly at NPC before... but never introduced. Hehe. But, I'm tagging you for Nizam Bashir's 50 posts to Merdeka. Sorry about jumping on you with it. But, I thought I'd drop by and introduce myself properly first.

I was number 6, and you will be number 5! You've now got one week, it's due 3rd August, next week. And you will have to tag someone too.

Thanks so much!

My blog address with the links to the other posts as well is,

http://meeshlet.wordpress.com

m

Anonymous said...

Ive just read RPK's response in MT. The very first comment was made by a Josh who wrote:
Out goes AAB...lolz...
Are we gonna see May 13 again??
====================
Isnt this justifying Tyson's report against RPK??

zaitgha said...

i read RPK's latest ordeal...gave me goose bump but at the same time it reflects the intelligent levels that these people have...the HP6 is so apt for them....

zaitgha said...

Nuraina,

did u receive my email? if not here is mine, zaitgha@gmail.com..do drop me a line soon...

Pak Zawi said...

Dear Nuraina,
The fear of exposure by RPK is ver real. He seems to be getting informations that were classified and never expect to see the light of day. Other peoples exposures are merely insinuations but his is supported by documents and facts. There is no way they can rebut his and he is willing to go all the way to court if challenged. In fact he is taunting them to take him to court over his allegations. That is why MT is feared.

It will be a sad day for Malaysia if they ever manage to shut down MT or sned RPK for safe keeping somewhere till the election.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

zawi,

when you have been doing bad bad things, then you'd be scared that people will find out, and scared shit that the truth will come out, and what the truth can do.
because it is not easy to shut people up these days, you'll then resort to desperate measures to silence your critics and detractors. what better way than to use the ISA.