I suppose there must be a good reason why the government would rather keep Malaysians stupid and lock me up so that I can’t continue in 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?
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?
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