Friday, September 12, 2008

RPK arrested under ISA


KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin was arrested Friday afternoon under the Internal Security Act.
Three Malaysian newspapers - Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan - were also issued show cause letters by the Home Ministry.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told The Star Raja Petra was detained under Section 73 (1) of the ISA as he was deemed a threat to security, peace and public order.
He said that under Section 73 (1) Raja Petra would be detained for 60 days.
“The police will do an assessment during this period and if they feel he should be held more than 60 days, the police will then refer to me,” he said.
Syed Hamid also confirmed that Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan were issued show cause letters.
"They have been given a week to reply," he added.
Raja Petra's wife Marina Lee Abdullah said the blogger was arrested at 1.10pm at their home in Sg Buloh by a team of 10 police officers.
She told The Star that Raja Petra was taken away from their house by the police about 1.50pm.
"But I don't know where they are taking him," she added.
She said that the police officers also took some tapes and a computer from her room.
PKR Information Chief Tian Chua told The Star before leaving for Taiwan that he was informed of Raja Petra’s arrest by party colleagues.
“RPK’s daughter sent a SMS to say that her father was arrested about 1.10pm (Friday),” he said when contacted before he boarded China Airlines flight CI 0656, which was scheduled to depart KLIA at 2.20pm Friday.
Raja Petra’s arrest comes a day after the Cabinet ordered the Multimedia and Communications Commission (MCMC) to re­instate access to all blocked websites, including the controversial Malaysia Today.
Energy, Water and Com­mu­nications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said on Thursday the order was made because there were other “harsher” laws in the country, under which authorities could take action against the owners of blogs and websites, instead of blocking it.
“The Cabinet has asked the ministry to direct MCMC to reinstate access to any blocked website with immediate effect.
“At the same time, it is asking MCMC to closely cooperate with the police, the Attorney-General’s Office and the Home Minister to monitor any website or blog to ensure that this does not contain seditious, racist or religiously insensitive remarks.
“Instead of blocking access to offensive websites, the Cabinet wants authorities to investigate and act quickly against the owners of these sites,” he said in Putrajaya.


tunku: very good action, he should be under ISA long time ago.

7 comments:

Kerel Bort said...

too much too late rite?
the damage has been done and a lot need to be taken to recover...

now please get your brain to think how to suppress the much talk about topic on the century? which has never been brought up this big in the early year of Malaysia except 13th Mei.

Anonymous said...

Bagus, orang2 macam ni kalau dibiarkan berkeliaran terlalu lama akan buat keadaan huru hara je. Memang ISA je tempat untuk orang macam ni.

Anonymous said...

This arrest has been too long overdue.
This guy has made a mockery of freedom of speech.

Anonymous said...

which is better?

blogs being closed down or blogs being closely monitored?

i rather pick closely monitored because shutting blog(s) doesnt necessarily end the lifespan of the blog.the closed blog still can operate undur mirror site the same thing Malaysia Today did.

concerning Raja Petra,i think we all have lost count on how many time he had been arrested.being arrested is not a big issue for RPK.

Anonymous said...

Orang macam Raja Petra tu memang patut ditahan bawah ISA. Lagi lama lagi bagus. Orang macam ni hanya menyusahkan orang. Tengok muka dia yang berlagak pun kita dah meluat.. Eloknya Anwar pun ditahan sekali bawah ISA di dalam sel yang sama... Baru dia rasa kena liwat dengan Anwar nanti...

Unknown said...

RPK pernah ditahan di bawah ISA pada tahun 2001.salah seorang yang pernah ditahan dibawah ISA bersama RPK ialah Hishamudin Rais.

ini merupakan kali kedua RPK ditahan di bawah ISA.

namun tempat RPK kini ditahan masih belum dapat dikenal pasti.RPK pernah berkata dalam salah satu artikel dia yang berkata dia akan "all-out".maknanya memang dia dah bersedia untuk sebarang tindakan undang-undang.

Anonymous said...

padan muka dgn raja petra gila ni. patut buang negara saja org mcm ni.