malaysian government is against dissent and media freedom
from rocky bru’s blog:
Using the ISA on a blogger confirms that the Government of Malaysia tolerates neither dissent nor media freedom. We used to be able to say that the Malaysian Government did not censor the Internet, and therefore we enjoyed great media freedom (even though our more traditional Press are not as free). Now we can’t go around making that claim.
yes, yesterday, 23 sept. was a sad day when the home minister signed a detention order for raja petra kamaruddin (RPK) of malaysia today to be detained under ISA for two years. no, of course not only sad because RPK is in jail but sad also because, like what rocky said above we can’t make the claim that we have media freedom and as the president of bar council stated, this shows clearly that ISA is use to stifle dissent.
from malaysiakini:
"The act by the minister to sign the section 8 order yesterday is completely unacceptable," said Raja Petra’s lead lawyer Malik Imtiaz.
The legal team believes the minister’s decision was linked to a habeas corpus hearing in the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning, which had been filed by Raja Petra’s lawyers to secure his release.
(A writ of habeas corpus orders the authorities to produce detainees before a judge to determine whether the government has the right to continue holding them.)
Speaking to reporters later, Malik said “the arrest was issued last night to avoid the consequences of this habeas corpus”.
what a freaking coward our bodoh minister is!
"The detention is due to Raja Petra’s articles that ridiculed Islam which could arouse anger among Muslims.
ahh but RPK was only telling the truth. he dare to say what others wants to say but dare not say. well that’s malaysia for you… arrested and/or harrassed for speaking the truth, for being bold.
well that was what happened to a young smart creative man, wee chee meng, or better known as namewee (picture left) on the net.
i’m sure you all remember his negarakuku song last year, which raised a lot of hue and cry all over. he had since then apologised (after pressure i’m sure!) but strangely yesterday he was grilled by the police. why so long after a year, back to harrasing him? why when he had already apologised. oh i forgot, they were pushing for him to apologise and after he apologised, the cabinet refused to accept his apology! what gives eh? at least he has the decency and courage to apologise unlike that ah-mad is-mad umno guy. oh yeah and why was he being questioned by cops for possible seditious remarks when the police did not do that to the mad arrogant umno division chief? double standard!
i was amused to read that the cops had asked namewee to translate his rap song into bahasa. where had the cops been? obviously not net savvy. last year when his negarakuku first came out, people had been translating his song to english and bahasa already! hey i still have the english and bahasa version with me… wanna borrow it from me, cops?
i hope namewee will not be slapped with the sedition act. if they did, then i really don’t know what in the world is becoming of our country. i cry for RPK’s 2 years detention under ISA and will cry again if namewee is slapped with the sedition act.
btw, do visit the malaysian insider to see a nice informative time line event chart of the namewee negarkuku issue.
coming back to RPK, have you read what he wrote before he was arrested, in malaysia today? well that was re-posted by haris ibrahim. go read it. i really hope pakatan can take over the government and thus he will be free.
it’s so sad to see RPK in prison. i may not agree with all he wrote in his website but he is a human who has every right to defend himself. if the government felt he is guilty, he should be charged in court, not locked up somewhere without a chance for a trial. that’s why the ISA must go! it is a most evil dracornian act! it is a tool for the coward government to hide behind! ABOLISH ISA! aliran president, ramakrishnan rightly cried that the ISA is evil!! the ISA must go!
syed ibrahim syed noh (whom i had met before couple of times), the chairperson of gerakan mansuhkan ISA (GMI) said that the detention of RPK was aimed to frustrate RPK’s freedom bid. yes, ISA is evil! the home minister… the government is evil! ABOLISH ISA! FREE RPK!
this friday i’ll be at the dewan sri pinang to light a candle to pray for the abolishment of ISA. come join me if you are free.
btw, before i leave you, here is a chart taken from malaysiakini about ISA. oh you can read more about ISA and RPK’s detention at beritamalaysia here and mob’s crib).
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