This has never happened before. I could not finish the blog “Speaking the truth is sedition and criminal defamation in Najib’s Malaysia” as I was just too tired to continue.
Had a series of very hectic days recently, not only with multiple issues but having to regularly triangulate three places, Petaling Jaya, Ipoh and Penang – not to mention having to cover Malacca and Bangkok as well.
Thought I would get a short nap before completing the blog. Instead I slept like a log of wood for nearly four hours.
There are already 24 comments on the unfinished blog. Instead of finishing it, I am writing a new blog.
What really surprised me is not that the police are investigating a police report lodged against me for sedition and criminal defamation, but that the police report was lodged by the police itself.
Chief Inspector Pang Meng Tuck lodged the police report against me because, as the police recording officer for the PKR Penanti by-election ceramah in Guar Perahu, Kubang Semang on Sunday, 24th May 2009, he was of the view that my speech defamed the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and was seditious.
If my speech is defamatory of Najib’s character and reputation, why is the Prime Minister not instituting civil legal proceedings to clear his name and secure just compensation from me?
When did the Police acquire the new task of protecting the reputation or lack of reputation of Barisan Nasional leaders in government?
I believe that the overwhelming majority of the people, in Perak and Malaysia, agree with what I said at the Guar Perahu ceramah – that Najib must bear the greatest responsibility for the protracted Perak political and constitutional crisis, set off by Najib’s unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak, which has now broadened into a larger national crisis of confidence of key national institutions, like police, election commission, MACC, civil service, judiciary, whose credibility, legitimacy and integrity have been compromised in serving Najib’s political agenda.
Are there enough court houses for the police to prosecute the overwhelming majority of Malaysians who think alike with me and are there enough prisons for them if they are convicted of the serious offences of sedition and criminal defamation of the Prime Minister?
On the morning’s events, read The Malaysian Insider’s “LKS quizzed for blaming Najib over Perak crisis” and Malaysiakin’s “Banned: First Altantuya, now Perak” and “Kit Siang, Gobala investigated by cops” below:
LKS quizzed for blaming Najib over Perak crisis By Lee Wei Lian | The Malaysian Insider
Kit Siang signs his statement after being interviewed by the police at his home this morning. Seated on the left is Guan Eng.
PENANG, May 30 — Police today questioned DAP leader Lim Kit Siang for alleged defamation and sedition in his Penanti by-election ceramahs where he blamed the Perak crisis on Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Kit Siang said Chief Inspector Pang Meng Tak, in charge of a ceramah last Sunday, had lodged the report over his remarks at the gathering that the Prime Minister was responsible for the Perak constitutional crisis.
The police arrived at Kit Siang’s Island Glade home at 11.30am to take his statement.
His son Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh arrived shortly after.
The Ipoh Timur MP’s statement was taken by investigating officer Norazizi Saad.
“The chief inspector felt I committed sedition and criminal defamation against the prime minister because according to the police report, I said that Najib is responsible for the Perak constitutional crisis, that he orchestrated the Perak constitutional crisis and the ensuing developments and that during the following three months, the public confidence in him has fallen to a new low because the various national institutions have been further compromised and made to serve the political agenda for the illegal power grab by the police, Election Commission, civil service, judiciary and others,” Kit Siang told reporters after the police questioning.
Asked what he told the police officer, Kit Siang replied: “Well, I just said, meet in court.”
Kit Siang added that it is “virtually a foregone conclusion” that action would be taken against him as the police report was lodged by the police themselves.
“The chief inspector consulted two senior officers and felt a report had to be lodged,” said Kit Siang who called the questioning an abuse of power.
“These abuses of power are among the reasons why the legitimacy, the credibility of Najib as prime minister has continued to come under great strain and doubt because he is not prepared to fulfil his own slogan of 1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now and be open and accountable,” he said.
The veteran politician, who appeared in good spirits despite the police questioning, could not resist comparing the situation with the era of Najib’s father’s Tun Abdul Razak, who was also Malaysia’s second prime minister.
“When his father was a prime minister, he never touched me for sedition, but he is doing what his father has never done,” he quipped.
Guan Eng, who is the DAP secretary-general, said the party strongly condemned the “harassment of top leaders.”
Kit Siang, flanked by Guan Eng (left) and Karpal, with supporters after his questioning by the police.
“We hope that the police can go and catch criminals as the crime situation in Malaysia is very bad instead of wasting time and money abusing the law and harassing Pakatan Rakyat leaders,” said Guan Eng. “The police appear to be bodyguards of Barisan Nasional instead of bodyguards of the people.”
Kit Siang had earlier said police officers came to a ceramah in Penanti last night where he was speaking to inform him that he would be questioned in connection with defamation and sedition in his campaign speeches.
“Apparently I’m wanted by police 4 sedition & criminal defamation of Najib + Malaysia,” Kit Siang posted in his Twitter account at about 1.30am.
“I told the police to come to my Penang house to question me. I don’t know what it’s about as I gave three speeches that night,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
In one of his speeches last Sunday at a ceramah in Bukit Mertajam, the veteran politician said Najib was the primary target in Penanti by-election as it was “a referendum on the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of Najib in his second month as Prime Minister”.
He accused Najib of allowing the police to conduct an unprecedented raid on the DAP national head office in Petaling Jaya,
He added Najib’s “1 Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan has been shredded and discredited with the Perak political crisis, abuse of police power in curbing political dissent, inequal distribution of scholarships and the delayed release of the audit on the Port Klang Free Zone.
He has been campaigning strongly in the Penanti by-election despite Barisan Nasional’s absence on the ballot paper. Polling day is tomorrow.
Kit Siang this morning noted the new government method to “fix” the opposition or dissent by using sedition and criminal defamation charges instead of the Internal Security Act (ISA) that provides detention without trial.
Karpal is already facing a sedition charge while rights activist Wong Chin Huat was held recently for alleged sedition.
Kit Siang and Karpal have previously been held under the ISA.
Controversial blogger and Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin has been slapped with criminal defamation and sedition charges apart from being previously held under the ISA for allegations linking Najib and his wife to the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu.
RPK, as he is popularly known, has skipped bail and is said to have left the country.
The Sedition Act is, however, perceived to be less oppressive than the ISA but yet drafted in such a way that it gives the government absolute power to make arrests on its political enemies.
According to section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act, a person is considered to have committed an offence under this law if he or she attempts to do, or make any preparation to do, or conspires with any person to do, any act which has or would, if done, have a seditious tendency.
It further read that any person is found to have committed an offence under this law if he or she utters any seditious words, prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes, or reproduces any seditious publications or imports any seditious publications.
Yet in all of this, there is no real and clear definitive guideline as to what constitutes sedition.
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Banned: First Altantuya, now Perak Athi Veeranggan | May 30, 09 4:38pm | Malaysiakini
It is clear that any mention of a possible link between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu can land a person into trouble.
PKR supreme council member and fiery orator Badrul Hisham Shaharin had to spend nearly five hours at the Central Seberang Perai police headquarters yesterday to answer questions over his by-election campaign speech in Penanti on Monday where he mentioned ‘Altantuya’.
Now, however, one cannot also link Najib to the four-month political impasse in Perak or you can be investigated for sedition and criminal defamation.
Senior DAP leader Lim Kit Siang found out about this after a report was made by the police and a statement was taken on the matter.
At a 3,000-strong by-election campaign rally in Guar Perahu, Penanti last Sunday, Lim accused Najib of engineering the Perak power grab.
The Ipoh Timur parliamentarian was quizzed by investigating officer ASP Norazizi Saad for nearly an hour from 11.30am today at his house in Island Park, Georgetown.
Lim said he was being investigated for sedition and criminal defamation in blaming Najib for the Perak political stalemate.
He added that he was being probed following a report lodged by an on-duty police officer at the Sunday rally.
“If I am charged and found guilty, I will be imprisoned … simple as that,” the DAP supremo told a press conference, flanked by his son and Penang Chief Minister Guan Eng, DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh and several DAP local leaders and assemblypersons.
Even Najib’s father did not do this
The senior Lim cautioned that the two-month-old Najib’s premiership was fast descending into a “police state” and into an “era of darkness”.
He cited police crackdowns on candlelight vigils, hunger strikes, wearing black, the raid on DAP headquarters, and the harassment of Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists to back his claim. Over 160 people have been arrested in the past three weeks.
“This is a serious violation of human rights and civil liberties,” said the veteran opposition leader, the only opposition parliamentarian who has faced off the country’s six prime ministers.
“I don’t blame the police. They are acting on the directives from a higher-up power,” he said, suggesting that the Barisan Nasional government was increasingly spooked by the rapid loss of public confidence.
Kit Siang recalled that even Najib’s late father, former premier Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman, had never investigated him for sedition or criminal defamation despite engaging in many political duels with him back in the 70s.
“We are facing a major political crisis at the same time when the country is facing its biggest economic crisis,” lamented the senior politician.
Guan Eng, meanwhile, criticised the police for wasting their resources on petty political issues, and ticked them off for increasingly acting like “bodyguards to BN rather than to the people.”
Like Chegu Bard, as Badrul Hisham is fondly known, Kit Siang was slapped with a police order yesterday under Section 111 of Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) requesting him to be present at the Central Seberang Perai police headquarters this morning.
However, the DAP leader had asked Norazizi to record his statement at his Penang home.
Karpal, who was also at the press conference after Kit Siang’s sesssion with the police, slammed the police for applying Section 111 on his DAP colleague.
The MP-cum-lawyer said that such an order could only be issued after a witness had failed to turn up at the designated police station to give a statement.
Karpal: Charge Khir Toyo instead
Karpal instead called on the attorney-general to press charges against former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo for taking part in an illegal Umno Youth rally in Waterfall, Penang on Feb 13.
The demonstration was to include a march from Waterfall to Karpal’s house nearby in Jalan Utama. However, it was called off after police warned Umno Youth members that severe action would be taken against them.
Mohd Khir and Permatang Pauh Umno Youth chief Mohd Zaidi was later escorted to the Georgeown police headquarters for their statements to be recorded. They were later released.
“It was an illegal assembly. Why none of them were charged?” asked Karpal, the Bukit Gelugor MP.
According to Kit Siang, he was approached by police officers at a Pakatan Rakyat rally in Berapit last night where he was informed about the investigation. At the same time, a police order was delivered to his house in Persiaran Besi, Island Park.
Police also served a separate notice to Chegu Bard at his homes in Seremban and Bangi on Thursday when he was in Perak.
During the Guar Perahu ceramah, Kit Siang had condemned the police raid on DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya as “a shameful incident”, and called on Penanti voters to teach Najib a political lesson.
Pakatan candidate Mansor Othman from PKR is up against three independent candidates – Aminah Abdullah, Kamarul Ramizu Idris and Nai Khan Ari, in Penanti by-election.
Campaigning will end at midnight and polling is tomorrow.
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Kit Siang, Gobala investigated by cops May 30, 09 2:22pm | Malaysiakini
Two opposition leaders are being investigated by the police in connection to the speeches they made while campaigning in the Penanti by-election.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang provided a statement to the police this morning at his house in Penang following a report lodged against him for “sedition and criminal defamation” of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
According to Lim, chief inspector Pang Meng Tuck had lodged a report against his speech in Guar Perahu, Penanti on May 24.
“In my speech, I blamed Najib (Abdul Razak) for the Perak power grab and for compromising the credibility of one national institution after another,” recalled Lim, who is Ipoh Timur parliamentarian, in this Twitter posting.
According to Lim, he also spoke of the Royal Malaysian Police, Election Commission, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the civil service and the judiciary being made to serve Najib’s political agenda.
“In Najib’s Malaysia, speaking the truth has become sedition and criminal defamation. Darkness is descending on Malaysia,” he said after his one-hour session with the police.
“Malaysians must not be cowed,” he adds.
The veteran opposition leader was accompanied by his son, Penang Chief Minister Guan Eng, and DAP MP-cum-lawyer Karpal Singh at his meeting with the police.
Lim said that a few police officers went to a DAP ceramah (photos above and right) at 11.40pm yesterday to inform him about the investigation.
However, Lim was on stage giving a speech at that time, and Guan Eng, who was also there, had to negotiate with the police to fix an appointment for a statement could be recorded on the matter.
Gobalakrishnan to go to police station
Meanwhile, Padang Serai parliamentarian N Gobalakrishnan has also been summoned by the Bukit Mertajam police over a speech where he mentioned Najib’s link to the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Accompanied by lawyer Ahmad Nizam Hamid, Gobalakrishnan arrived at Seberang Perai Tengah police districts headquarter at 3.30pm and was quizzed for about an hour.
“I was asked to come to police station because the police want to take statement regarding two reports lodged by police officers,” he said.
The two police reports were against Gobalakrishnan’s for three speeches on May 27 and 29, which he made as part of his campaign for PKR candidate Mansor Othman.
Gobalakrishnan said that the questions were mostly confined to whether he had spoke about Altantuya’s murder and about V Sivakumar being ousted as Perak speaker.
“It seems like Altantuya is haunting Najib and the Barisan Nasional government,” he said
Gobalakrishnan said he was being probed under the Sedition Act and Section 500 of the Penal Code for criminal defamation, adding that Najib was using the police to silence the opposition.
“The police has been used by Prime Minister Office’s to frighten us. They don’t want us to talk about Altantuya, Najib, Rosmah, and many other things,” he said.
However, he said this episode would not deter him for further unraveling the ‘truth’ on the murder.