Small Minds At Work
Small Minds At Work
I preempt my usual Wednesday excerpting of my book, Towards A Competitive Malaysia, this week for this special, indeed extraordinary, posting. Many have heard of the abominable news that Malaysia-Today.net editor Raja Petra Kamarudin was charged under the equally despicable Sedition Act. Equally incomprehensible was that the judge imposed a bail of RM 5000 instead of letting him out on his own recognizance while awaiting trial. Did the court think that Raja Petra would abscond?
More reason-defying was the decision to proceed with the charge in the first place. Did anyone in the police department, the public prosecutor’s office, and the Attorney-General’s office actually read the allegedly seditious piece by Raja Petra? Even allowing for the abysmal English competency of our public officials, they would not have found anything seditious or even offensive in the said article.
The only thing offensive was the behavior of our leaders as alluded to by Raja Petra in that article, and just in case we missed that point, they went ahead to demonstrate this fact by subsequently charging him!
Although friends and supporters of Raja Petra (and also himself) would have no difficulty in posting the bail, nonetheless he opted for a public donations campaign of a very minimal if not symbolic amount of not more than RM1.00 per person. In less than 24-hours, his family has posted a message on Malaysia-Today that they have secured enough to post bond and that the excess would be donated to charity. (See posting below.)
Additionally, I am posting below a piece by Din Merican (with permission) on the same matter.
I join thousands of Malaysians in denouncing this brute chimp-like behavior of the Abdullah administration in trying to intimidate this great Malaysian. For a man who had suffered with dignity for years under the ISA, this latest clumsy act by Abdullah will not in the least dint Raja Petra’s resolve or commitment to bringing greater freedom to Malaysians.
Raja Petra, I salute you. Give ‘dem bastards hell! M. Bakri Musa
Message from MT’s Team: 5.30pm 6th May 2008
We would like to CALL OFF the donation campaign as we already collected enough fund to at least bail out our dearest YM RPK. It is the matter of RPK principle, and collecting excess wouldn’t be appreciated by him. As stated aerlier, all excess will be given to charitable home/center, and RPK or his family will make known of the statement from time to time. Thank you MALAYSIAN for supporting MALAYSIA TODAY!
Thank You for Your Compassion and Generosity
Din Merican
It is tough on Puan Marina Lee Abdullah-Petra and her children when Raja Petra Kamarudin goes to jail in Sungei Buloh for refusing bail. This is because he felt that the whole episode leading to his incarceration was a set-up (see video by malaysiakini.tv) by certain elements in UMNO who were looking for a pretext to “get” him.
Those of us who are his friends and associates in the blogger community know that he is a rather uncompromising man on issues of principle. He wrote with such passion and conviction, without fear or favour. Yet few people know that Raja Petra comes from a proud aristocratic family in Selangor. His grandfather is the late Tun Raja Uda, former Governor of Penang and a distinguished civil servant with ties to the Selangor Royal Family.
His Royal Highness The Sultan of Selangor is, in fact, Raja Petra’s cousin. On that score alone, I would have expected that our master blogger would be treated with the usual courtesy and respect, befitting his status as a member of a very distinguished Royal Family. Not so, I am afraid.
The police’s treatment of him, on the other hand, is crass and raises serious concerns about proper manners and common courtesy. After all, he is innocent unless proven guilty. So we hope that while in Sungei Buloh he will be treated with dignity. He is a decent citizen who believes in the dignity of man, freedom and justice, someone who happens not to agree with certain leaders in the present government.
I am pleased — and so is the Raja Petra family — that Malaysians and sympathisers abroad responded with compassion and generosity to our hurriedly launched campaign for Raja Petra. The local component of the donation (of RM1.00 per person) totalled RM24,500. That means 24,500 Malaysians of goodwill at very short notice responded to our campaign. More people were forthcoming but Puan Marina decided to end the campaign.
For all that, I thank you for helping out at one of Raja Petra’s most trying times. Although he has been through many challenges including being an ISA alumnus in the past, he is proud to know that we Malaysians are supportive of his efforts to promote democracy, justice and free media.
Fellow Malaysians, you have shown that we are a caring people and as Malaysians we are ready for change. We have very low tolerance for encroachment of our fundamental liberties. There is, therefore, room for optimism, although a lot of hard work lies ahead, as we together try to rebuild our much maligned society.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:08 am
” Even allowing for the abysmal English competency of our public officials …”
I hope they don’t find this sentence seditious too?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:10 am
RPK has just got to see through the process of laws since he is challenging the integrity of the judiciary system. It’s a small price to pay for the test of will.
In my opinion he has gone beyond the laws on the wrong side many a time with impunity as much as his opponents so as to state his points on the upperhand.
Definitely he is not a Ghandi against human injustice, nor Hang Jebat against pariah feudal rules, nor a Hang Tuah for the small people.
RPK is just a social fighter in his luxury of time for his own destiny. But we must thank him for his endeavour.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:03 am
The guilty party or parties is scared of the truth. So they choose to silence RPK in the hopes that he will not expose or propogate the truth. In this case where is the seditious act by RPK. All he wrote in the article are already public info and public knowledge and published in the mainstream media. Calling someone guilty or other names does not amount to sedition. Perhaps RPK family should buy and donate a Webster Dictionary to the Royal Malaysia Police so they can look up and understand the meaning of Sedition.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:37 am
There is a difference between the state and the ministers that are members of the government. I am not too familar with the Seditions ACT, but reading from the quotes from the “Act”, I can see that the Act relates to actions & conduct that is likely to incite public disorder; and the Act does not relate to the libel or slander of Ministers & their spouses. I believe the Act is to actions & conduct that will lead to civil & public DISORDER of a kind as for example RIOTING & ARMED REBELLION.
The problem in Malaysia is that we practise the English Common Law and the present generation of Lawyers & Judges and practitioners of the law are not fluent with English. It is always a case of striking out blindly and hoping that there is a chance one blow will strike.
The expriences of lawyers who know the law and when he is confronted with this form of ignorance, it really blows his mind. However in Malaysia it does not matter whether the Judges act ethically or with knowledge of the law or not, THEY JUST DO IT, and worry about their total ignorance by cover up, no matter that injustice is perpetrated by their ignorance.
I know this experience because I am right in the middle of this shit ! This Judge [delete] so ignorant of the law that she DOES NOT EVEN KNOW THAT RESPONDENTS HAVE IN FACT PLEADED THEIR DEFENSE RIGHT IN THE VERY BEGINING OF MY WIFE’S CASE. I will go to KL and I will also do what Raja Petra K. is doing ONLY I HAD THOUGHT OF DOING THIS WAY BACK ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO. That was when I used the 4 letter word to refer to the Judge [delete].
The Judge thought she could consign our case BY ABUSING HER JUDICIAL POWERS; but I have other ideas and I do not worry to tell her what I intend to do. I will libel or more to her liking, I will give her enough cause to charge me with sedition if she can. I WANT HER TO BE THE COMPLAINENT so that I can put her on the witness stand. i WILL PROVE THAT SHE HAD ABUSED HER JUDICIAL POWERS TO HELP THE RESPONDENTS AND THAT SHE AIDED THEIR CRIMES AS A CO-CONSPIRATOR.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Who do you think is having a nightmare, Najib or Raja Petra?
I think the answer is obvious to most of us…..this will only make RPK stronger! Can’t wait to hear from him again.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:44 am
elle, both are having nightmare. One is afraid of seeing skeleton, another is afraid of not finding it la!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:15 am
To think that kamluddin, Khairy, IGP, PDRM has been written even more scandalous and contorversial articles on malaysia today, but yet this mere mention of najib in the article led to RPK being charged.
Hmm…. what does that say? How come those other ppl didnt charge RPK for sedition too?
So who’s the bad guy here you think….
May 9th, 2008 at 7:56 am
yeah sandy, that’s what i feel too. you see uncountable articles on the ministers and the PM even but rpk writes about najib and this joker is thrown in jail? hello. talk about selective prosecution. wake up people, this is probably just the tip of an iceberg. there’s bound to be more under waters. how come nobody is questioning?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:16 am
sandyow and phillix, didn’t i read somewhere you wanted Najib to be the next PM? Be careful of what you wish.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
The sedition act does not give much defece when a “small fish” is up against big sharks
So goverment has moved clinically using the seditious implication of the article ie that the Altantuya Murder either had acted on the conivance of Defece Minister and Cheif of Police or Under direct orders of either or both individual - this is seditious in this mind this and something along this is line is the case against Raja Petra - Now in light these people are no odinary people but “Goverment” - it is seditous suggesting that these people abused their privilaged position for personal intrest …
this is criminal charge
But If these people were real MAN then they should have charged Raja Petra with Defamation and let the civil courts take it from there
But Where is there Civilty in Malaysian government. It has always been selective prosecution .
The current Malaysian goverment reminds me of the 1982 Brazil vs Italy Soccer game which we had the refree and Italy players all playing against fair play and even When Zico ’s Jersey was torn by Claudio Gentile in the box- we had not even a foul - should have been red card to Claudio and Penalty to Brazil - needless to say it saw Socreteas, Zico and another Brazilian seriously injured and Italy winning the quater Final game despite Brazil virtually controlling the game with Many decisions going against Brazil…
Mark it - this is only the start - YB Manoharan is not going to released, Pakatan Goverment in 5 states are going be drained for funds systematically, YB of Selayang Beaten up During protest by PolisMan, YB Karpal will Be Charged, and offcourse the case we talk of here
Remember Brazil in 1982 , now that is Pakatan…now…and large measure of Peninsula Rakyat (in 5 states ) are with them..the others - they are scared shit about what BN would do them , that is reality
So How are you going with this Pakatan - there are many battle fronts and new ones being created by Barisan
Are you going to react , case by case like this Or Decide this is WAR and You take certain measure like what Abraham Lincon took along with Getting General Lee to take them on ( after having gone through 8 bad decision on Yankee general)
Seriously if Pakatan wants to Win this , they need to focus and win people support and now they need to win the other side (who did not vote for them) and they need to do this
1. Maintaing Order in the 5 states
2. Convincing civil service and other state machineries it is in their advantge to work with Pakatan
3. Systematically and legally challege individual big ticket cases like YB Manoharan , RPK Sediton , Karpal Seditoon (when it comes up)
4. keeping economy going , corruption minimal, efficient goverment
5. do something about education quality and food availbility and prices ( this is though but they will find with this they would have many people on their side - because BN does not really have an answer to this ) - clear diffrentiator
ANd REPORT Progress
put up WAR manifesto Website and report what is going onn
how do you win Against
Something that shows , the new battle front , progressive steps to date towards meeting successful outcome and
Pakatan there are many misslle coming at you in various direction this is similar to star wars - Rebel Alliance Weak , less people , Emporer and DarthVader (Badawi& Pak lah ) have the entire machinery at their disposal
Be Cheerful , march on with Sincererity in the heart have a systematic plan. Start a RM 1 dollar a Month contribution by Rakyat on volunterray Basis on a Pakatan Trust Fund for Basic Education and Poverty Resulution and use it transperently and even handedly across the five states - hit hard core poverty out of the system and watch what happens - you would see BN ‘ Death Star blow Away by the Luke Skywalkers u would create from Such a plan…….
May 12th, 2008 at 12:48 am
ME? wanting najib to be our next PM??
Oh ho…. no way………..! I was saying the person who OREDERED the police and AG to prosecute RPK, he is the bad guy in this case. (as to whom is anybody’s guess, but think between the lines)
Njb’s mere name even subtly being mentioned, we dont know whether the allegations by RPK was true or not. But with a reputation of being associated of murder, I dont think he is my right candidate for next PM…