“….//…You have been compellingly persuasive in arguing that RPK cannot be nailed but you have also provided a way out for these no-brainers in dealing with RPK. They might take you up on that for that is also what they do best. Bribe!!!…//…..- AhPek posted July 27th, 2007 at 00: 48.37

Hold your horses, I cannot, in the first place, provide a way for these ‘no brainers’ in what they know best, a forte which they have already elevated to a state of art..……

And as for RPK, I seriously doubt that he could so easily be bribed!

I would certainly not say it for all cases but in many cases, susceptibility to financial temptation is greater for those who have suffered financial pressure, when young, and had a financially disadvantaged background. [Check out on the background of our politicians and see if there’s a co-relation).

In this connection, RPK was born to privilege. Being of royal lineage – the current Sultan of Selangor is his cousin – he mixed with the royalties and in his younger years (in his own words) “had gone Ferrari-driving and horse-riding together” with the King! I don’t think money has ever been a problem to him and had it been his first consideration, he could have obtained many contracts due to his royal connections and won’t be upsetting the political establishment as he is doing now.

What about temperament? Let me first do a ‘RPK’ on RPK, repeat little bits of information or disinformation from the grapevine of ‘reliable sources’ though I have no first hand knowledge whether the following is true information or pure urban legend.

It seems that about 42 years ago he left elite MCKK and enrolled in form 4 in one of the top elite but very regimented schools in the country in KL – the Victoria Institution –, defied the strict discipline with which this school was then well known for, coming to the school in a flashy red motorbike, got whacked all the time by the school’s first Asian headmaster for long hair (Beatles was in fashion then) and, by character, had always been defiant of authority!

Not particularly a distinguished scholar, he however learned ‘streetwise’ ways of having to ‘bribe’, pay extortion money, cajole and interface with thugs and gangsters in Brickfields to protect his then girlfriend living in that vicinity from their harassments.

Now you understand his response of “see you at the gates of hell” to a certain ex-Menteri Besar who has two Muhamads is his name and who lodged the police report against malaysia Today ….and his talk of Anak Bugis honour and courage that can never be extinguished!

You would also understand why in spite of police insistence to find out the identities of his posters, he refused to divulge or talk about their comments and, in his own words, banged the table with my fist and shouted, “Charge me! Charge me now!” : see his article “Comedy of Errors on the going-on(s) during police interrogations. Or the other thing he said when asked by police how he knew about 25 UMNO cyber troopers parachuted into Malaysia Today, he explained “because I have received information from inside Umno,” and when asked by police officer “You have people planted in Umno?” he said, “Of course I do, and I bribe them to feed me information. I just slam RM1,000 onto the table and ask them to tell me everything and they sing like a canary. It is not that hard to buy information. The four police officers in the room smiled and shook their heads in disbelief”.

So we’re talking about a guy here who comes from a privilege and wealthy enough royal background, has always been defiant of authority, and having had experience dealing with thugs, is unafraid of authorities and talk to and of politicians as if they were gangsters. Do you think all these fit the psychological profile of a person susceptible to be easily bribed? I don’t think so.

There are however two or three aspects raised by his recount of what happened during interrogation in his article “Comedy of Errors” which are interesting.

The first relates to what AhPek said about we being deprived a “good source of information on these bunch monkeys consumed with power and greed” if RPK were otherwise compromised by my suggestion of “bribes” to shut him up.

RPK may in Undergrad2’s words be “a treasure trove of information” but how good, reliable and true is his “advance” and “insider” information?

Whilst many of us are grateful that we have a person like RPK with balls of brass to take on the Corrupt but in making his allegations on the Net, is he also supporting his allegations with documents and proof as Ezam or Gerak does?

By his own admission, “ I just slam RM1,000 onto the table and ask them to tell me everything and they sing like a canary”.

Do you think people who sell information for money would sell “reliable” information? Granted some information are true or others false, how do we sift and separate wheat from chaff?

Second thing is if the providers of information are motivated by money than a Cause, it raises serious questions whether RPK could be unwittingly manipulated by competing factions and sectarian interests within UMNO vying for power where one section could leak (through these sources selling information) to RPK for publication concocted false information of a political rival to defame that rival.…..

Thirdly, this thing about the “25 UMNO Cyber troopers” is alarming -RPK testified in his statement under Section 112 of Criminal Procedure Code (by which, in his own words, one “goes to jail if you make a false statement”), that : “the Umno cyber-troopers are the ones behind this racial and religious bashing in Malaysia Today. Then they make a police report alleging that Malaysia Today insults Islam and stirs racial sentiments.”

If RPK believes and has evidence of this, he should turn the table around and lodge a report against these people who in the process of trying to fix him have orchestrated their cyber troopers to disparage Islam or the King withjin the meaning of the Sedition Act and the Pernal Code!

What is alarming is what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. As much as authorities cannot get their hands on the Internet Protocols of RPK’s commenters stored in overseas servers, so it would be equally impossible for RPK and the rest of us to get our hands on the IPs of cyber troopers which are stored in servers in US or UK, as our corrupt politicians get more IT savvy.

This means they can plant any number of cyber troopers in any Blog, including this one, make a deluge of comments against race, religion or King which, if these comments escape moderation and deletion, would provide the lawful excuse to close down any blog and yet no proof can be obtained, as defence against the charges, about these troopers being planted as agent provocateurs because their IPs are equally stored in overseas servers!!

Think about the implications.

Dear Hanuman:

Re your posting July 30th, 2007 at 00: 01.02, I have never given any input or comment or contribution to Malaysia Today and know not what it is all about or who that Jeffrey was. :)