PENAMPANG: A Sabah blogger was questioned by police here for an alleged offence under the Communications and Multimedia Act.
Ronnie Charles Klassen, who is currently the Sabah PKR’s information chief gave his statement to the police regarding a posting in his blog on Jan 14.
Klassen, 50, told reporters waiting at the district police station that he was being investigated under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act over his comment regarding a call by the president of Council of Justices of the PeaceClarence Bongkos Malakun for the Christian community to refrain from using the word 'Allah' to refer to their God.
Klassen's posting entitled 'Sabahans fed up, no more compromise' questioned Malakun's call to Sabahans to drop the use of the word Allah voluntarily.
Under Section 233, a person is liable to a fine RM50,000 and 12 months jail if found guilty of the offence of posting any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.
Klassen, who was accompanied by lawyers Ansari Abdullah and Jonathan Yassin, insisted that posting was not criminal in nature and described the investigation as "political intimidation".
He said Malakun should have taken him to court "if he (Malakun) thinks that he has in anyway humiliated him, instead of using the police" to intimidate him.
The social activist also questioned why the authorities were not going after controversial blogger, Raja Petra Kamaruddin since Malakun had in his police report also named the blogger for posting the same article in his Malaysia Today website. Raja Petra is believed to be currently living in self-imposed exile in Europe.
Klassen also took a swipe at Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia concept, citing a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz in mid January this year that the word Allah could be used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak as a paradox.
“What 1Malaysia is he (Najib) talking about if only Christians in Sabah and Sarawak are allowed to use the word Allah?” he asked.
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