A
prominent blogger’s arrest underscores confusion as government
flirts with both media reform and crackdown
Haris
Ibrahim walked across Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Square on a clear
night and stopped at a stage in front of the Moroccan-style Sultan
Abdul Samad building. The 49-year-old lawyer, who also runs the blog
The People’s Parliament, took out a candle and lit it in
solidarity with the first Malaysian blogger to be charged for
sedition, Raja Petra Kamarudin of the Web site Malaysia Today.
That
was a mistake. The district police chief walked up to him and asked,
"What are you doing here?" He replied, "Holding a
candle." When the police chief told him to leave, Haris demanded
to know why. In the end, Haris was told that he was under arrest and
escorted to the police station for questioning, later to be released.
Haris
is the latest to face a brush with the law as the Malaysian
government, accustomed to a captive mainstream media owned by
compliant allies and political parties, grows increasingly irritated
with dissent. Earlier this week, R Nadeswaran, deputy editor of the
independent newspaper the Sun, and his colleague, Terence Fernandez,
were questioned by the police for an article that alleged that RM9.9
million (US$2.9 million) was illegally transferred out of the
Selangor state executive councilors' wives association by the wife of
the previous chief minister, Mohammad Khir Toyo.
Raja
Petra, however, whose blog sometimes gets a million hits a day, is by
far the most publicized. He was charged with seeking to overthrow the
government on Tuesday after police raided his home and confiscated
his laptop and other computer equipment. He was questioned at the
Commercial Crimes Investigation headquarters over an inflammatory
article carried on Malaysia Today that sought to implicate
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife in the murder of
Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu in October 2006. Defiant,
Raja Petra initially refused to post bail and chose jail till the
court hearing set for October. He then refused to see his wife and
went on a hunger strike that was later abandoned.
Raja
Petra's arrest has sparked a wave of public sympathy and solidarity
among bloggers. A large crowd, including prominent opposition
politicians like Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party and Wan
Azizah of the People's Justice Party, showed up in court. On
Wednesday, supporters gathered outside the jail located on the fringe
of Kuala Lumpur. The following day, about 50 bloggers and friends who
sought to hold the candlelight vigil were stopped by police who had
condoned off the main entrances to Merdeka Square. About 100
policemen guarded the empty square. Haris and two others were
detained briefly and subsequently released.
The
actions appear to reflect a growing realization that the Internet is
playing a far larger role as an independent news source in spreading
dissent than the government originally anticipated. Top officials of
the Barisan Nasional once scoffed at the power of the new medium but
that changed after the ruling coalition of ethnic political parties
lost the two-thirds parliamentary majority it has held since
independence in 1957. The government has been leaving its hands off
the Internet, largely because of a desire to turn Malaysia into a
high-tech investment hub. But surveys have shown that more people are
turning to the Internet for news and that online media is perceived
as more credible than traditional media; the first of the Malaysian
news sites, Malaysiakini.com, has won a worldwide reputation since it
was launched on a shoestring nearly a decade ago.
In
addition to the apparent crackdown by police, others have sought to
cope with the new media environment. The Barisan has reacted by
calling for members of the ruling political parties to start their
own blogs in an attempt to explain government actions to their
constituents. Even the venerable Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime
minister who gave up power in 2002, has started his own blog called
Chedet, using his onetime pen name as a journalist, in which he has
continued his impassioned attacks on the government of his successor,
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Some
Barisan leaders also have sought to institute media reforms. The new
Information Minister, Shabery Chik, offered an olive branch to a
small group of bloggers who attacked Abdullah Badawi and Najib. Chik
has met with bloggers and started a new 20-minute segment every
Sunday for bloggers on the national broadcasting station, Radio
Television Malaysia, in contrast to the previous minister, Zainuddin
Maidin, who locked horns with bloggers and even the
government-controlled media.
Other signs of a freer media have included reviewing annual licence
renewals for newspapers required under the Printing Presses and
Publications Act (PPPA) and granting a printing permit to an
opposition newspaper that was previously restricted to members. At
the same time, however, the government is seeking to revoke the
publishing license of The Herald, a Catholic newspaper in Kuala
Lumpur, for using the word “Allah” as a synonym for
“God.” On May 4, a high court judge ruled that the
Herald’s suit against the government could proceed. The Herald
publishes in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. The government
insists that its use of “Allah,” an Arabic word widely
used in many cultures to denote God, is an attempt by Christians to
confuse ethnic Malays into converting.
On
International Press Freedom Day, which was celebrated on May 3, a day
before the police raided Raja Petra's house, newspaper editors
reportedly asked for the eventual abolishment of the PPPA. Wong Chun
Wai, group chief editor of the largest English-language daily, the
Star, which is owned by the pro-government Malaysia Chinese
Association, has asked for the annual renewal to be waived. "Its
relevance should be questioned when one does not need a permit to
start a blog or website. We must change with the times. There are
enough laws to deal with the media,” he reportedly said.
Meanwhile,
Susan Loone, a blogger and former journalist, is dubious about any
real change under Badawi. "The recent arrest of Raja Petra
Kamaruddin looks bad on the government who tried to show it was
serious in reforming itself, but alas, the truth is out. Having a
new information minister who seemed to understand bloggers in the
beginning and seeing a trend of Barisan politicians becoming bloggers
belies the fact that the authorities still view bloggers
suspiciously," she said.
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