[…]On one side was Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) who, in his speech debating on the royal address, criticised Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor for “abusing the laws” in allegedly getting Raja Petra to be charged for sedition.
Raja Petra, in his Internet posting entitled ‘Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell‘, had implicated Najib and Rosmah in the high-profile murder case of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national.
Lim said the quick police action and subsequent prosecution smacked of an “orchestrated” effort and abuse of the laws and government machinery to punish Raja Petra.
“They (Najib and Rosmah) reserve the right to clear their names through the laws. So why have they used the government facilities to take action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? This is the abuse of powers,” he said in his speech.
“There are other channels for the deputy prime minister and his family to take action against Raja Petra – to use civil action and litigation. Why choose sedition prosecution?” he asked.
“Why has the government machinery (in the form of the office of the) Attorney-General’s Chambers been used for this purpose? This is abuse of power! That is why we have to criticise this action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin in the harshest terms,” he added.
Full Malaysiakini story here.
Lim Kit Siang, in this Malaysiakini news report, hit the nail on the head with his assessment of the speed and actions brought by the Attorney General’s office against Raja Petra.
Any fair minded Malaysian can obviously see that the government machinery has indeed been abused to punish Raja Petra. As I have written earlier, if the politicians and characters implicated, in this case Najib and Rosmah, in Raja Petra’s internet posting, then it is incumbent upon them to clear their name by suing Raja Petra in a civil court for defamation, if they feel they have a case against Raja Petra.
Instead the country is subjected to a spectacle of Raja Petra being handcuffed like a common criminal, and moved from one court house to another, and after the charge is read, detained and held at Sg Buloh Prison because he refused to post bail.
For what? Sedition? For exercising his right to free speech?
My, how high and mighty the people implicated by Raja Petra to have been involved in the brutal murder of Altantuya think of themselves! So high and so mighty that they think Raja Petra’s acts are seditious in nature! Makes me want to go puke!
Only in a third world country with a dictatorship in power are sedition charges arbitrarily used to shut down political dissent, and restrict personal freedoms.
Do we need another reason to once and for all get rid of the BN led government, with their excessive abuses of the law to protect their hold on power, in the next general elections?
I say No!
And one other thing. If only the Attorney General’s office and the police were as efficient, as they were acting against Raja Petra, in bringing to justice Nurin’s murderers and solving the cases of the still missing Sharlinie and Asmawie, and catching those involved in the syndicates using Malaysian women for drug trafficking!
Say, what? Those cases have nothing to do with attempts to sow discontent, disaffection and ill-will in the country?
Oh.