18 Nov, 2008
The legal brains may argue that a person can’t be punished twice for the same crime. This might be true but this did not stop them for punishing me twice for the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
1) You must answer all questions (you may of course reply by saying that you do not wish to reply to the question which is considered answering the question).
2) If you lie then the police can charge you.
3) If you tell the truth then what you say can be used to charge you.
In other words, if you refuse to open you mouth you die. If you lie, you also die. And if you tell the truth you also die. Either way you die. There is no escape.
According to the police, in September 2008, four people from JAKIM and the religious department made a police report against me. What was said in the police report and under which section of the law they are going to record my statement is not known yet and will only be told to me later today.
The last time they called me to the Sentul Police Station was when they wanted to record my statement on the Statutory Declaration that I signed in April. At that time they told me they were going to charge me for the crime of making a false declaration. So I took pains to prove to them that I did not make a false declaration but had in fact told the truth.
I of course did not realise then that this was merely a trap. They wanted me to make a statement that would incriminate me and after they got what they wanted they used my statement to charge me for the crime of criminal defamation instead of for the crime of making a false declaration. I mean, it’s like they accuse you of murder and then when you offer an alibi to prove that you were not at the scene of the crime but had in fact been sleeping over at your girlfriend’s house they charge you for kalwat (close proximity) instead. So, because of your airtight alibi, they are able to charge you for another crime.
The police report against me was made in September 2008. Based on this police report they detained me under Section 73 of the Internal Security Act on 12 September. From the 13th to the 22nd of September, they recorded my statement in a marathon interrogation session and one hour after my statement was completed they served a Section 8 detention order on me and the following morning packed me off to Kamunting.
They though that that was the end of the whole episode but on 7 November the Shah Alam court declared my detention unlawful and at 4.00pm I was released from detention. So it is now back to the drawing board and they are trying to get a second bite of the cherry. So my interrogation at 3.00pm today is merely an exercise to see how, since I am no longer under ISA detention, they can get me on a ‘legitimate’ charge.
They are of course also appealing the Shah Alam court decision. But if they lose the appeal they can still send me to jail. And if they win the appeal they have the benefit of two detentions that they can hold me with.
The legal brains may argue that a person can’t be punished twice for the same crime. This might be true but this did not stop them for punishing me twice for the article ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell’. Not only am I facing trial under the Sedition Act but one of the four charges for my ISA detention was this very same article. Therefore, apart from facing trial I was also detained without trial for the very same article. That is certainly being punished twice for the same crime.
It appears like they are all out to get me at whatever cost, even if they have to look silly for punishing me twice for each so-called crime. Maybe they feel that the more shots they take at me the better chance they have of at least one shot hitting it’s mark. I suppose when they use a machine gun they have more chance of at least one bullet striking me.
According to the police, the crime rate has doubled. The police has expressed concern that as the economy becomes worse in the coming year crime is going to get out of control. They are having their hands full trying to maintain law and order. Next year we may see an orgy of crime where Malaysians will no longer be safe even sleeping in their beds. With so much resources wasted on trying to send me to jail it makes one wonder whether the police has got its priorities right.
I wrote some time back that Umno blamed its 8 March 2008 general election debacle on the internet, in particular the blogs. Umno feels they it needs to put the blogs out of action if it wants to be able to silence its critics. The Permatang Pauh by-election again proved what damage blogs can do to Umno. So the focus today is not on how to reduce the spiralling crime rate but on how to put the bloggers behind bars where they can no longer do any damage to Umno.
And that is why I have to report to the Sentul Police Station at 3.00pm today. I am now a free man again, at least for the meantime. So they need to see how they can put me back behind bars so that Umno can be safe. It is all about Umno and how Umno can be protected from the bloggers. And they do not care how they do it as long as they can stifle criticism against Umno. The end justifies the means.
On another note, the police has warned the public not to question fatwahs (decrees) by the religious people. If the religious people issue a fatwah declaring that you are wrong then you are wrong. This can’t be questioned and if you do the government will take action against you.
On the Tuesday after Deepavali I was made to attend a religious class conducted by JAKIM. This was part of my religion rehabilitation class while in Kamunting. I stood up to say that, if go by to the many fatwahs issued, all of us in the room that day are infidels (kafir).
In January 2006 the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a fatwah declaring Shias as kafir. The Shias in turn issued a fatwah declaring the non-Shias as kafir. Malaysia too will detain any Malaysian who converts to Shiism, as what happened to a few university lecturers some years back. In short, going be the many fatwahs issued, all Muslims are kafir. None of us are Muslims.
The question would be: whose fatwah is the one we need to follow? And this raises another question of which religious scholar is the legitimate one to follow.
JAKIM has said that I have insulted Islam and must be put in jail. Other people, well-versed and equally knowledgeable in Islam, have contacted me to say that they can’t see in what way I have insulted Islam. They in fact feel that what I wrote was absolutely true. And these people are Arabs who speak the language of the Quran fluently and do not agree with the Malaysian government’s interpretation of Islam. In fact, they laugh at Islam Hadhari and regard it as utter rubbish.
So whose version of Islam is the correct version? The Malay version or the Arabic version? The Malays say I have insulted Islam. The Arabs tells me I have not insulted Islam and they think it is stupid of the government to say that I have.
Unfortunately, in Malaysia, it is what Umno says that carries weight and no Arab, however much he may support me, can change that. That is the reality of the situation.
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