The news is not picked up by the main media yet, but the blogosphere has been heated up with all sorts of discussions.

Whether the allegation is truth or not, I don’t know… in fact only very few people would know at the moment. RPK has shown his courage over the years, but frankly, sometimes he is abusing his influence to bully the politicians.

This is not the first time he is alleging that Najib was involved in Altantuya’s murder, but he has failed to produce any solid proofs besides empty talks so far. I hope the cops and authorities will take his statutory seriously… because if Najib is really guilty, I want him to face justice; if Najib is innocent, I would like to see RPK facing the song.

I always believe that everyone is innocent until proven not; that’s one of the basic cores of our constitution. It sucks to let go of a criminal, but the last thing I want to see is innocent people being punished.

Don’t bother reminding me how corrupted our government and the judicial system are, because it’s not the point I am trying to make here.

Lots of people don’t like Najib, I personally am not fond of this fella at all. However, that doesn’t mean that we should implicate that he (or his wife) is a murderer without having solid evidences or investigations.

It’s saddening thing to see some Malaysians having their logical minds being taken control by their senseless emotions, just go and read some comments on Malaysia-Today, LKS’ blog, Anwar’s blog ans Susan’s blog… and you would see so many Malaysians sentencing Najib to guilt as if they were right on the crime scene and saw everything.

Imagine how would your love ones feel if you are being wrongly investigated, charged or prosecuted for a murder that you never committed? Imagine how would you feel if your family member is being accused of doing things that they never did? It could be one of the worst things that you would want to happen in your life.

What we want to see is to have justice served; and as said earlier, I hope to see the authorities taking RPK’s declaration seriously… after all, it’s not fun to risk being sentenced to jail just to mock a person you really hate. But until then, Najib is not a murderer, and it’s unfair to accuse him of being so without knowing the facts.

Use your heart, use your mind, and not let your emotion taking control of your soul my fellow Malaysians. Show some mercy.

3 groups lodge reports against blogger (NST)

Three police reports were lodged against blogger Jeff Ooi for allegedly defaming the country, government and police force.

The reports were lodged by the Malaysian Islamic Consumers Association, Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress and Pertubuhan Seni Silat Ikatan Kalam Malaysia against a statement issued by Ooi to an Al Jazeera reporter. The statement was allegedly broadcast on YouTube following an illegal gathering on Nov 10 organised by a coalition of opposition parties and non-governmental organisations calling itself Bersih.

The police reports were lodged at the Sentul police headquarters yesterday about 4.30pm.

The complainants want Ooi to be investigated, alleging that the interview given to Al Jazeera not only tarnished the image of the country but was also seditious and caused racial tension.

Ooi is also alleged to have given inaccurate information to Al Jazeera in stating that the police used unnecessary force in dispersing the demonstrators.

[The videos in questions... video 1 & video 2]

Police report lodged against Malaysia Today, Raja Petra (Thestar)

A businessman has lodged a police report against web portal Malaysia Today and its owner Raja Petra Kamaruddin for an article in the site which he alleged could cause disunity.

Noor Hisham Yusoh, 33, lodged the report at the Brickfields police station at about 7.30pm yesterday accompanied by seven other friends urging the authorities to carry out investigations into the article.

He said the article headlined “What the eye does not see” by Raja Petra had elements of instigation.

“As a Malaysian citizen, I think that his accusations are serious and can convince a lot of people in Malaysia that the country is not peaceful anymore,” he said, adding that the article could make the situation worse.

Noor Hisham from Bukit Subang said he decided to lodge the report after having a discussion with his friends who agreed that the article could cause disunity in the country.

“We are living in a very prosperous country and we do not want such an article to cause any problem,” he said.

Responses from Jeff and Raja Petra…

Jeff: ZAM, Al-Jazeera & police reports against Jeff Ooi
Raja Petra: I am greatly offended

Thoughts from other bloggers (and commentors)…

Police report against Malaysia Today, again
3 lodge police report against Jeff Ooi
Police Report lodged against Jeff for Al-Jazeera Interview
Kimma Lodges Police Report Against Jeff Ooi
Another Frivolous Police Report Filed Against RPK and Malaysia Today
Jeff Ooi implicated for defamation & Sedition
Police reports lodged against 2 bloggers
RPK, Government and the Army

Isteri penulis artikel dalam Malaysian Today yang menghina Yang Dipertua dan agama Islam, diambil keterangan oleh polis untuk membantu siasatan, hari ini.

Since when did Raja Petra, the webmaster of Malaysia Today, has been found guilty of insulting the king and Islam? Amazing how papers are reporting news these days.

Screenshot from Harian Metro Online

Raja Petra Kamarudin’s wife, Marina Lee, has been summoned to the Dang Wangi Police Station, Jalan Stadium, at 11.00am, Wednesday, 8 August 2007, for interrogation related to the investigation under the Sedition Act launched against Raja Petra.

It is not known whether the police are trying to build up a case against Marina as well so that she can be jointly-charged with Raja Petra.

I don’t want to comment much until I am sure what is happening… I just hope it’s not another police-too-free-got-nothing-better-to-do incident.

Some thoughts from other bloggers…

CIJ Bangkit: Further persecution of online activists in Malaysia
Crankshaft: RPK’s Wife Interrogated
Ghostline: Police vs RPK and Marina Lee
MarinaM: Marina for Marina
Rocky: Ah, Marina Raja Petra
KJ Lim: Sedition act again

After a controversial police report by Mat Taib against Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), the webmaster of Malaysia Today (MT) on July 23, it seems like the government has up their ante in the battle against MT by blocking the accessibility of the website from Malaysian IPs.

I couldn’t access the website earlier on, and I thought that the website might be overloaded server or something… but I just realized that MT might be blocked by Malaysia ISP instead (Hat tip to Shadowfox and Kai).

I tried accessing MT from an anonymizer, and the site is working just fine. You can access MT using proxies – find one from this link.

The censoring is not 100% proven yet, as some people are not able to access MT with proxy as well [Hafiz]… but it is likely that the ban is on.

I am not a regular reader of MT so I guess I won’t be much affected, but I will be really disappointed if the government decided to impose internet censorship against their critics. It will be another blow to MSC’s Bill of Guarantees for ensuring no Internet censorship, and more importantly… it shows that Malaysia government is not ready to handle criticism.

Besides, it is easy to find another route to access the website; does government really think they can just shut down a website like that? This kind of cheap act will likely to create more retaliation against them instead… not the smartest move.

Update – MT is back online on 11pm… I guess I was a bit paranoia. I am not sure what was happening; I am guessing that RPK was migrating MT to a new server, and the DNS was resolved in a different pace with various ISP.

My apology regardless.

Update July 29 – MT’s explanation on the downtime

Umno has filed a police report against political website Malaysia Today for allegedly publishing disparaging remarks against the King and Islam.

From Thestar…

Umno has lodged a police report against MalaysiaToday for carrying a series of comments and remarks that it deemed as insulting the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, degrading Islam and as inciting hatred and violence in Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

Party information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib lodged the report at 12.57pm at Tun H.S. Lee police station here Monday. He said the comments and remarks, consisting of criminal elements and inciting religious and racial sentiments which could affect the country’s security, were carried by the blog on July 11.

The report was lodged under Section 121 (B) and Section 123 of the Penal Code, Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 263 and Section 266 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

First Nat Tan, now Raja Petra (webmaster of Malaysia Today)… the battle has just begun.

I am not a fan of absolute freedom of speech; I believe that bloggers (or whoever) have to take responsibilities on their articles… but the recent situation really irritates me, as it indicates that we have to be responsible for the comments posted on our blogs as well, and that is ridiculous.

It’s like asking the Prime Minister to be responsible for every wrong-doings of his UMNO members, parents to be responsible for their kids’ crime, and perhaps asking the king to be responsible for all their citizens’ improper acts… doesn’t make sense at all ain’t so?

Some thoughts from other bloggers…

Screenshots: Something brewing, RPK?
Lim Kit Siang: Axe coming down in Malaysian cyberspace
Susan Loone: Next victim: Malaysia-Today
Rauff: UMNO should take a more pro-active role in defeating scepticalism
Walski: Police report filed against Malaysia Today
Sagaladoola: Malaysia Today, What is 50th Merdeka?

Update July 25 – Raja Petra Kamarudin has been called to the Dang Wangi district police station in Jalan Tun HS Lee this morning regarding the police report filed by Umno information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib. [Malaysiakini]