Under section 3(1), those acts defined as having a seditious tendency are acts with a tendency:
| “ | (a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government; (b) to excite the subjects of the Ruler or the inhabitants of any territory governed by any government to attempt to procure in the territory of the Ruler or governed by the Government, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established; (c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State; (d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State; (e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; or (f) to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of part III of the Federal constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution. | ” |
(The Sun) PETALING JAYA (May 6, 2008): The Bar Council today expressed shocked and disappointment today over the government's decision to charge Malaysia Today webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin with sedition.
Calling the Sedition Act 1948 an "archaic legislation which should be repealed", its president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said the Act was incompatible with Malaysian society.
"The Sedition Act is a draconian, archaic and repressive piece of legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it may ever have had. It is incompatible with the progressive, open and democratic society that we had believed Malaysia was becoming," she said, adding that the use of such law was disconcerting and lends credence to the view that in fact the democratic space in Malaysia is still severely curtailed.
"The Sedition Act and other authoritarian laws represent a severe encroachment on the fundamental freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. These fundamental civil liberties are indisputable hallmarks of any democracy and must be safeguarded if Malaysia is to lay any claim to being a democratic nation."
She said the use of the Act was incompatible with the Home Ministry's recently-announced intention to loosen the annual licensing requirements for newspapers.
"The Bar Council had hoped that this signalled the first of many reforms that would herald a new era of openness and transparency."
She said the government should repeal the repressive legislation and focus instead on encouraging open discourse on issues of concern.
She said the council asked that the authorities immediately withdraw the charge against Raja Petra.
Intricate links of Altantuya, Raja Petra trials
Umno leadership drama...Opposition attacks...Official Secrets Act...practically all major aspects of Malaysian politics may be dragged in
Lim Kit Siang (in suit) and Raja Petra Kamaruddin surrounded by members of the press at the PJ Sesssions Court yesterday. — The Malaysian Insider picture by Choo Choy May
The second is the case which will begin on Oct 6 when webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin fights the charge of posting a seditious article titled "Let’s send the Altantutya murderers to hell." The report implicated Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the 2006 murder.
This trial may drag on past the 5 days allotted by Sessions Court judge Nurmala Salim and could be a potentially explosive and expensive one for the DPM and the Abdullah administration. Raja Petra and his team of lawyers, half of them Pakatan
Rakyat politicians, will revisit some of the contentious points of the Altantuya case and attempt to join the dots between Abdul Razak Baginda, the model and the DPM and his wife.
This approach will be heaven-sent for those seeking to upset the transition of power between Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib, and put the administration on the defensive. What more with trial beginning right in the middle of Umno divisional elections and a couple of months before the party’s main election.
Raja Petra has hinted that some disclosures could be made in court. He challenged the government to repeal the Official Secrets Act so that he could furnish the court with evidence to fight the charge of sedition.
"What makes you think I don’t have proof? What makes you think I don't have documents," he told reporters before he was charged in court on Tuesday. Fact is that it does not matter if he is only going to be armed with bluster and innuendos. When he gives evidence in October, he is going to have a platform to make more allegations and fire more missiles against Najib or anyone he chooses to implicate in the case.
In his corner will be Karpal Singh, who has been keeping a watching brief for the Altantuya family in the ongoing murder trial. This veteran criminal lawyer was involved in some of the more heated moments of the case when he attempted to put Najib in the same frame as the model.
Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, both members of the police Special Action Squad, are charged with the murder of Altantuya on Oct 20, 2006. Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda is charged with abetting them.
Both police personnel allege that they were acting on the orders of Abdul Razak, who was being pestered by the model with whom he had an affair with.
The political analyst – an advisor to Najib – has denied giving the two policemen instructions to kill Altantuya. The Opposition has viewed this case as Najib’s Achilles heel given his close ties to Abdul Razak, and has used every opportunity to tie him to the case by suggesting that he knew the model and that he was aware of her presence in Malaysia.
The DPM has publicly denied these allegations. But he expected the ferocity of the attacks to increase after he was marked out by his party members as most suitable candidate to take over as party president under the succession plan which will see Abdullah stepping down before the term is over.
He knows that the Opposition wants to shake him and damage his credibility among Malaysians, and create the perception that the Barisan Nasional government is on the verge of imploding.
Najib’s supporters also reasoned that there would be increased activity to link him to the Altantuya case after he made clear to intermediaries of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he was not interested in speaking out against Abdullah or challenging him for the number one position in Umno.
His position in Umno, though, remains strong thanks to two decades of cultivating a network of loyal division and branch chiefs. In nearly every closed-door session held since Election 2008, party members have identified him as the Umno leader who can help revitalise the party.
His supporters saw Raja Petra’s posting "Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell" as the first shot across the bow. Still, the jury is out on whether Najib did the right thing by responding officially through his press secretary to the website article.
Critics of this approach said that it only served to draw more attention to the report and put the DPM and his wife on the back foot while those in favour argued that if the DPM did not challenge allegations and innuendos about him and his wife, these assertions would soon be treated as facts.
But there appears a consensus that the police action was ill-timed. Raja Petra has been blogging for several years now and as he pointed out a few days ago, most of his articles would not pass the sedition or defamation test. So why did the police and Attorney-General’s Chambers decide to move on this report?
DAP’s Lim Kit Siang gave his take in Parliament yesterday. He said that the police action and subsequent prosecution appeared orchestrated. "They (Najib and Rosmah) reserve the right to clear their names through the laws. So why have they used the government facilities to take action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? This is the abuse of powers. There are other channels for the deputy prime minister and his family to take action against Raja Petra - to use civil action and litigation," he said, choosing his words well to score some points at Najib’s expense.
Najib can expect Pakatan Rakyat de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim to weigh in with his views now and when Raja Petra’s trial begins in October. For the Opposition and Najib’s critics, the game plan is simple: turn the sedition trial into the second Altantuya Shariibuu trial.
'What makes you think I don't have proof?'
by Erin
7 May, 2008
"What makes you think I don't have proof? What makes you think I don't have documents?
"If I do submit the proof behind my writing, they will arrest me under the OSA. You think I'm stupid?" he asked the assembled journalists.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin was a celebrity at the Jalan Duta court complex here yesterday.
His well-wishers read like a who's who of Pakatan Rakyat notables, including Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, Teluk Kemang MP Datuk Kamarul Bahrin Abbas, Batu MP Tian Chua, Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong, PAS Youth chief Salahudin Ayub and Pandamaran state assemblyman Ronnie Liu.
Defiant as ever, Raja Petra challenged the government to repeal the Official Secrets Act (OSA) so that he could reveal what he claimed was evidence against his charge of sedition.
"What makes you think I don't have proof? What makes you think I don't have documents?
"If I do submit the proof behind my writing, they will arrest me under the OSA. You think I'm stupid?" he asked the assembled journalists.
Declaring war on the government, Raja Petra said the government should be afraid of bloggers.
Clad in a yellow shirt and blue jeans, the Internet-based political commentator said he was not informed of the charge against him until the last minute.
When it was suggested that it seemed as if he was courting prosecution by his repeated run-ins with the law, he replied that he did not want to be charged but had been expecting it.
He refused to concede that his website's contents were seditious in nature, insisting that it was not wrong to incite the people against a "dishonest government".
Part of Raja Petra's disgruntlement was understandable. He was asked to be at court by 9.30am, but was not attended to until an hour later when he was told to go to the Petaling Jaya court instead.
Lim described the charge as harassment.
"I think this is a disgraceful and atrocious development," the opposition stalwart said.
Website editor in celebratory mood
(The Star) KUALA LUMPUR: Blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was celebrating – by smoking too much – a day before the Government charged him with sedition.
“I have been celebrating as finally the Government is charging me,” he said.
Asked if he had slept well, he laughed and said he had a bad cough due to too much smoking.
He said his defence team would prove there was no case against him and that it was a case of “political persecution”.
“They lost in the election because of the Internet war. Malaysia Today was one of the 'culprits',” said Raja Petra who turned up in the Jalan Duta court complex here at 9.06am.
Earlier, a large crowd comprising bloggers, MPs, lawyers and well-wishers gathered at the court lobby in Jalan Duta.
At about 10.30am, Raja Petra said he received a call from a policeman telling him to go to the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
He left the Jalan Duta complex five minutes later in a friend’s car.
After the court proceedings ended, his lead counsel K. Balaguru said his client did not have money to post the RM5,000 bail while Raja Petra’s wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said her husband wanted his online readers to contribute RM1 each for his bail.
“I tried to persuade him not to stay in the lock-up but he says that it is his stand. He is very stubborn,” added Marina.
His CIMB account number was posted on his website from morning. By 4pm, readers had contributed RM24,500 and US$3,283.61 (RM10,441.87). The donation campaign was called off at 5.30pm and the website stated that excess funds would be donated to a charitable home of Raja Petra’s choice.
Meanwhile, the Bar Council Malaysia called on the authorities to withdraw the charge against Raja Petra.
“The Sedition Act is a draconian, archaic and repressive legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it might ever have had,” it said in a press release.
Blogger Raja Petra charged with sedition
CRIMINAL CHARGE: Raja Petra's posting linked DPM Najib and his wife to the murder of a Mongolian woman. -- PHOTO: AFP He ends up behind bars after refusing to post bail; hearing to take place in early October
By Carolyn Hong, The Straits Times Malaysia Bureau Chief
PETALING JAYA - PROMINENT Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin was yesterday charged with sedition and later taken to jail when he refused to post RM5,000 ($2,100) bail.
In one of the first criminal cases against a blogger, the 58-year-old was charged over his posting about the killing of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. Government prosecutors say it contained seditious paragraphs.
The April 25 posting, headlined Let's Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell, implicated Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor in the killing.
Separately, businessman Syed Akbar Ali was also charged yesterday with sedition for posting a comment on Raja Petra's website on June 5 last year.
The ex-banker, 48, allegedly made seditious comments on Islam. He posted the RM3,000 bail set by the court.
In the Mongolian murder case, political analyst Razak Baginda, a close associate of Datuk Seri Najib's, is charged with abetting the killing by two policemen in 2006. The trial, which began in mid-June last year, is still under way.
Raja Petra, a member of the Selangor royal house, pleaded not guilty to the sedition charge.
'We bloggers have declared war on the government. We want to change the government,' he told reporters before he was formally charged.
The charge was lambasted by the opposition as an attempt to clamp down on blogs. About a dozen opposition Members of Parliament turned up at the courthouse in a show of support for Raja Petra.
Dozens of his supporters were also present, with some shouting 'Suara Petra, suara negara' (Petra's voice, the nation's voice), 'Daulat Tuanku' (Long live the King) and 'Reformasi'.
Raja Petra's blog, Malaysia Today, is one of the most controversial in the country because of his no-holds-barred postings.
While the charge has been criticised, the government appears intent on sending the message that it will no longer close an eye to damaging Internet insinuations.
Raja Petra was charged a week after an aide to Datuk Seri Najib wrote in to say the allegations against the Deputy Prime Minister were unfounded.
Police last week seized two computers from Raja Petra's house.
Yesterday, prosecutor Nordin Hasssan said in court that parts of Raja Petra's article suggested wrongdoing by the police, public prosecutors and the judiciary, and the government.
Under Malaysian laws, sedition includes inciting hatred or contempt towards the government and the administration of justice, and raising discontent among the people.
Hearing was fixed for the Oct 6 week.
Raja Petra, who was represented by seven lawyers, told his supporters that he will not post bail as he does not have the money. If he does not post bail, he would be in jail until the hearing starts.
His wife Marina Abdullah told The Straits Times that his supporters have donated more than RM24,000 since yesterday morning,
The donations are seen by observers as an astute move to galvanise a groundswell of support.
A legend in the makingCHAN KOK LEONG, MALAYSIAKINI
Highly controversial and largely influential blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin wrote himself into the annals of Malaysian history today when he became the first blogger to be charged under the Sedition Act 1948.After a three-hour delay and a switch of courts, Raja Petra finally heard for the first time what he was being accused of.
Clad in a light yellow shirt and blue jeans, the 58-year-old bald-headed writer was charged under Section 4 (1) (c) for nine paragraphs of a story which appeared in Malaysia Today on April 25.
The article allegedly implied that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife were involved in the killing of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Whether it was confusion or mere inefficiency, what took a just 30 minutes in court, after factoring in a 10-minute recess called by justice Nurmala Salim, the entire matter consumed more than three hours.
During the morning session at Jalan Duta, some 100 bloggers, well-wishers and press hounds were treated to hourly briefings of how he has been victimised by the government.
The flow of listeners were constant and instead of a day of sombre which is normally associated when friends or family have clashes with the law, the gathering in the morning carried an air of festivity.
Journalists had a field day collecting quotes and photographs of the notable people who had turned up to see him charged.
Among the wakil rakyat who turned up to see him were Nurul Izzah Anwar, Tian Chua, Lim Kit Siang, Sallahuddin Ayub, Liew Chin Tong and Wan Azizah Ismail, who showed up at Petaling Jaya later.
Other notables include human rights lawyers Haris Ibrahim, Malik Imtiaz, bloggers Bernard Khoo, YL Chong, Yassim Salleh, Ahiruddin Attan and Nuraina Samad.
Four other MPs - Karpal Singh, Gobind Singh, Lim Lip Eng and William Leong - made up his defence team alongside Jasvinderjit Singh, J Chandra and K Balaguru. The prosecution team only had Nordin Hassan.
'He believes in his innocence'
After more than one-and-a-half hours of waiting, as the case was neither registered there nor were there any charge sheets available yet, the crowd continued their session at the cafeteria.
At about 10.20am, one of Raja Petra's lawyers, Leong, informed everyone that the case had been moved to Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
What ensued was a convoy of cars, like those you see on the highway on their way to kenduris, headed towards the modest court in PJ State.
And if the authorities thought it would be over quickly, they must have been greatly disappointed. For the royal son of Selangor did not capitulate meekly. Instead of paying bail and keeping quiet until his trial date in October, Raja Petra chose the reverse.
In the courtroom, one of his lawyers had already told several reporters that his client would not pay bail because he believes in his innocence.
And as the news filtered out of the small Sessions Court in Petaling Jaya of his reluctance or inability to post bail, the crowd of well-wishers, bloggers and well-wishers gasped in astonishment at the thought that Raja Petra would be jailed until October.
If the authorities had expected to see him vilified and subdued, they were sorely mistaken. For instead of seeing him subjugated, the former businessman and ex-journalist is now a legend.
Clasped in handcuffs like a common criminal, photographers followed his every step as he was led in and out of the court after he did not post bail.
Well-wishers shocked
Meanwhile, outside the court room, Raja Petra's wife Marina Lee Abdullah said: "This is a statement he wants to make. He feels that he has done nothing wrong and we don't have the funds.
"If we do a campaign of RM1 a person and when we raise sufficient funds, we'll take him out as soon as possible."
During a quick lunch at a fast-food restaurant opposite the court, I watched and eavesdrop on several conversations around me. The well-wishers who were at the court moments earlier had converged here for the same reasons as I.
But more importantly was their conversations. As instead of focusing on the charge or the alleged sedition Raja Petra is accused of, their conversations understandably revolved around the injustice he has been meted out with.
Needless to say, more was made of the fact that he will now have to linger in jail for causing Barisan Nasional's defeat in Selangor and four states.
And more will be said about how he was targetted after an Umno Youth vice leader in Petaling Jaya Utara was said to have told a meeting that "we have to arrest Raja Petra".
And this is how legends are made.
(Malaysiakini) Malaysia Today's webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin, charged with sedition and remanded in Sungai Buloh prison for refusing to post bail, was a central figure in a spate of debate in the Parliament today.
Raja Petra, in his Internet posting entitled 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell', had implicated Najib and Rosmah in the high-profile murder case of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national.
Lim said the quick police action and subsequent prosecution smacked of an "orchestrated" effort and abuse of the laws and government machinery to punish Raja Petra.
"They (Najib and Rosmah) reserve the right to clear their names through the laws. So why have they used the government facilities to take action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? This is the abuse of powers," he said in his speech.
"There are other channels for the deputy prime minister and his family to take action against Raja Petra - to use civil action and litigation. Why choose sedition prosecution?" he asked.
"Why has the government machinery (in the form of the office of the) Attorney-General's Chambers been used for this purpose? This is abuse of power! That is why we have to criticise this action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin in the harshest terms," he added.
Barisan Nasional backbenchers, however, raised a ruckus and criticised the DAP veteran leader for making assumptions that Najib and Rosmah were behind the police action against Raja Petra.
"How sure are you that there was an abuse of power in the use of the Sedition Act against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? Do you have proof that the deputy prime minister had gotten the police take the action (against Raja Petra)?" asked Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak).
"Or perhaps this has nothing to do with what the deputy prime minister has done but is just an act by the authorities against someone who has done something in relation to the Sedition Act?" he added.
Lim rebutted by saying: "Perhaps the honourable member from Pasir Salak deems this is as a coincidence, but there are a lot of coincidences in Barisan Nasional."
Oxford graduate under fire
Dr Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat), meanwhile, called for Lim to be more "responsible" and refrain from speaking on a matter that was already in the purview of the court.
Puad also said it was right for action to be taken against Raja Petra as he had "incited" people against a senior government leader. "Do you believe in what was written by Raja Petra Kamaruddin?" he asked.
Lim, however, said he did not want to be drawn into the debate on the merits, or otherwise, of the contents of Raja Petra's article.
Other than urging Najib to initiate a civil suit to clear his name and that of his wife, Lim also called for a royal commission of inquiry to determine whether, and to what extent, government figures were involved in the said killing of Altantuya.
Citing Raja Petra's article, Lim said among the many questions to be answered was whether attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail overstepped his boundaries as an officer of the court.
"(The government) should set up a royal commission of inquiry to investigate this so-called high-profile murder to clear the good name of this nation," he said.
Lim earlier chastised Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) who questioned him on the repetition of Raja Petra's use of the word "hell".
"Do you not agree that the only one to determine whether a person will go to heaven or hell is God and not for us to determine," asked Khairy.
Lim, however, thundered back: "We are not talking of religion! This is an expression that those who murdered Altantuya should be punished to the full extent of the law! It's not about going to heaven or hell.
"If even this one cannot understand, what is the point of graduating from Oxford? This is a disgrace to the university," he said, upon which the whole house again descended into chaos as both sides went back to shouting at each other.
Journalists under probe
On a related issue, Lim questioned the police's summoning of TheSun's editors Terence Fernandez and R Nadeswaran to assist investigations into their reports on the Association of Wives of Assemblymen and Members of Parliament in Selangor (Balqis) controversy.
Fernandez and Nadeswaran had written a series of reports on the dissolution of Balqis - soon after the Pakatan Rakyat coalition won Selangor in the March 8 general election - and questions pertaining to the transfer of RM9.9 million of donations out of the association.
"Are they being investigated by the police? Is it because of their investigative journalism? We should be encouraging investigative journalism, not journalism that merely flatters," said Lim.
"The ones who should be investigated is former (Selangor) Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo and his wife... not Nadeswaran and Terence," he added.
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