Sunday November 9, 2008

RPK unfazed by ISA ‘sting’

By G. MANIMARAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin will not be cowed into ending his controversial writing.

“Malaysia Today is meant to provoke society, but when you touch on sensitive things, you will be detained .... It is like poking at a beehive, sometimes, you get stung.

Raja Petra: ‘I am also sure there was no political intervention to get me out’

“But that is the only way to invite society to be united and to correct what is wrong,” he said when interviewed by The Star’s online Malay news portal mstar yesterday.

On his release from ISA detention, Raja Petra, also known as RPK, said he believed that the judge had acted independently without any outside influence.

“I think Pak Lah (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) did not interfere and he left it to the court.

“I am also sure there was no political intervention to get me out. It was left solely to the court and that is why I was released,” he said.

On Friday, High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad freed Raja Petra after finding that his two-year detention order under the ISA was unlawful.

When asked if the police had informed him why he was detained, Raja Petra replied they told him it was because he had insulted Islam through an article which demeaned Prophet Muhammad and also because of another article entitled “Let’s send Altantuya’s murderer to hell.”

“The strange thing is, I am already being charged under the Sedition Act for the article on Altantuya, but I was also detained under the ISA for writing it.

“Do they want to charge me or do they want to detain me. I don’t understand.”

On the political winds of change sweeping through the country, he said young leaders needed to be given opportunities.

“I like what is happening in Umno now, where they have young leaders such as Khairy Jamaluddin and (Datuk) Mukhriz (Mahathir).

“Although Khairy does not like me, he agrees with the abolition of the ISA. This a common ground for change that the rakyat wants.

“I do not mind if he does not like me. A tourist asked me: if Khairy becomes prime minister, will I support him?

“I said yes. I will support him because he is smart. I will continue to attack him, but I do not hate him.

“We have to be realistic. They are future leaders, and they include (PKR MP and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter) Nurul Izzah Anwar and Subang Jaya assemblywoman Hannah Yeoh,” he said.

On what he had been doing after his release, Raja Petra said he met friends and relatives, as well as did some writing.

“During my detention in Kamunting, I managed to write about seven articles and I am waiting for the right time to publish them in my website,” he said.

Asked about his detention, he said he was placed in a solitary cell and allowed out from 7am to 7pm.

To pass time, he read books.

“I never touched any of the food they served. I only drank the milk brought by my wife, Marina, every day.

“I would only eat rice once a week when my family visited me, usually on Saturdays,’’ he said.