People's Hero BN's nightmare...

yes, Raja Petra is again in trouble...for being honest in his opinions.

Just visited Malaysia Today and we are being updated on the high profile case:

8.40 am - No police, FRU personnel nor their trucks in and around the court's complex.
8.58 am - 1 x Balai Polis Bergerak and 2 x Police Patrol Cars entering the complex
9.08 am - RPK and wife arrived, accompanied by Ronnie Liu, Tony and lots of Bloggers. Many MSM reporters were also seen entering the Complex
9.59am - About 200 supporters are now gathering at the lobby. Nurul, DSAI's daughter, made an appearance and left for the Parliament. Lim Kit Siang and a huge number of MPs from the opposition are giving support to RPK, including lawyers. Reporters from International News are also ready to capture the events
10.04 am - Crowd has increased to about 400
10.33 am - Case transfered to Session Court PJ!! Everyone is now going over to PJ
11.10 am - The main group has just reached the PJ's court house. About 200 supporters; while the rest are bloggers, lawyers and MPs
11.19 am - RPK and the rest are now waiting outside the session court, waiting to be called in. 'Could be a long wait.'
11.50 am - RPK waiting for the 'charge' paper. Session to begin soon.
12.11 pm - Court still in session. Mr Govin Deo just walked into the court room. Mr Karpal Singh just arrived and being assisted to enter the court room.
12.20 pm - Session started for 10 minutes. They went through the article
Today, we shall not be talking about politics. We shall also not be talking about race or religion. Today, we shall talk about doing the human thing. Today, let's discuss ... , 'Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell', Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell before a break.
12.28 pm - setting date for trial on 6-10 October 2008
12.30 pm - Bail set at RM5,000.00
12.42 pm - RPK refused to pay bail!!!!!
12.57 pm - Govin Deo's press statement - While bail is being raised from the public, RPK is going to Sg Buloh for detention.
Datin Sri Azizah was also present

This morning I visited Lim Kit Siang's blog where he posted the following:

i have been informed that Raja Petra Kamaruddin has been ordered to surrender himself at the Jalan Duta magistrate’s court at 9.30 am tomorrow to be charged with sedition.
I have not been able to contact RPK to get confirmation.

Among those who commented, Jeffrey stands out as one with the correct perspective, presumably because of his legal background:

Jeffrey Says: Today at 01: 16.53 (6 hours ago)

Under the Sedition Act, the intention of the person charged – whether he intended or attempted to be seditious is irrelevant. The offence of sedition will be made out if act, speech, word, publication has, in language of section 3(1) of the Act, a “seditious tendency”. There is a seditious tendency if it excites disaffection amongst the people and brings into hatred or contempt both the government and the country’s administration of justice…..

The case against RPK for his article “Let’s Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell” will most likely focus on that part of what he wrote, which is not part of public knowledge, still a rumour, unproven as to facts which (hint hint) begins with : “Rumour has it, and it remains just that, a rumour, is that all this ‘evidence’ has been given to….”

I don’t even dare to repeat it in fear of being also charged for sedition and I advise that you don’t too.

The only defence under the Act is if act, speech, word, publication is expressed to point out an error by the government or the system of administration of justice with a view to procure by lawful means the alteration, removal and rectification of that error….Phew this is not easy.

On conviction for first offence, the person will be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both, and, for a subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term not exceedingfive years!

So how to save the hero RPK?

But what makes anyone thinks he needs saving???Why do you think Cruise ships here sail to international waters to allow for the gambling that goes on in their casinos????Gambling in public place by public is an offence under the Common Gaming Act. That’s domestic law. Is it applicable in international waters???

Somebody once advised the police this : (quote) “Malaysia Today’s domain name is registered in the UK….When you click on the domain name malaysia-today.net you are sent to the server of the registered IP address in that domain name. Our server is in Singapore. But what you see is only the front page. Then you choose which item on the front page you want to read and you are sent to the blog. The blog sits in the US. When you post a comment it goes straight to the blog. For all intents and purposes, Malaysia Today is a foreign website and not a Malaysian website. We therefore do not come under Malaysian laws. Let me put it another way. Sodomy is a crime in Malaysia and you can get sent to jail for nine years for the crime of sodomy even if you are a Deputy Prime Minister. In England, men can marry men and you will even receive a congratulatory message from the British Prime Minister. So, sodomy is not a crime in the UK and you do not go to jail. In short the Sedition Act is valid only in Malaysia and not outside Malaysia. So you cannot impose Malaysia’s Sedition Act on Malaysia Today which resides outside Malaysia” (unquote).

That somebody is none other than the webmaster of news portal Malaysia Today, who will be charged tomorrow for sedition at the Magistrates’ Court in in Jalan Duta.

What authorities don’t seem to grasp is that they are not dealing with a simple sedition case by ordinary print…..What RPK is alleged to have committed is a cyber offence of using cyber space and blogosphere to write allegedly seditious postings. This has implication because it attracts vexed legal complications involving international versus domestic laws……

The first question/challenge to the Prosecution will be : is it the intent of Sedition Act 1948 extraterritorial in its application? Is it intended to apply to people allegedly making seditious postings under our Sedition Act in America???

This cannot be - because in US (the domain of MalaysiaToday) our narrow terms of what is sedition don’t apply. Internationally other countries may subscribe to the UN’s Convention of Human Rights so by international law and convention (by which Malaysia is also governed), Malaysia cannot impose her domestic laws on the international scene (the same reason by cruse ships operate their casinos in international waters).

For if every national member of the international community were to do so, there would be international chaos and conflicts which international law seeks to prevent….

Even big bully USA [which sent the marines in 1989 to Panama to arrest and whisk away General Manuel Antonio Noreiga to South Miami-Dade prison] generally recognise that US domestic laws do not apply out of the US other than very exceptional cases where the particular US legislations evince an explicit and affirmative intent to apply extraterritorially…If there were no such explicit and affirmative intent expressed in the particular domestic law, then it must be presumed to the contrary that it did not intend to risk “international discord” to apply extraterritorially…..

The same may be said of our Sedition Act. If this is correct, then Undergrad2 is free to post seditious statements here with impunity, immune from the long arm of Malaysian laws with dire consequences to Uncle Kit who hosts this blog unless this blog one like MalaysiaToday has its domain name registered in (say) Iceland, server in Barzil with the blog sitting in the US!

RPK is in fact spoiling for a legal battle to test and set legal precedents for cyber and international law.

These are complicated questions. I am not sure our prosecutors/lawyers are experts in this new field.

To fight this case (along the lines suggested above) will take 5 years at least, having regard to the complexities of the issues by which time Pakatan Rakyat might have by then formed the government….

And in the meanwhile, the complexities of the issue, of which local lawyers and prosecutors have not much knowledge or experience in, will justify RPK’s appointment of the real QCs (Queen Counsels) specializing in Cyber laws to argue the case here, raising the international profile of the Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder case and its proceedings so far (like the way Hindraf raised international profile of Tamil Indian plight here) – the last thing the Powers-That-be can afford.

They are ill advised to charge RPK : he is maneuvering them to an eventually unacceptable position, in my humble view.

Which is why, as I said before in my earlier posting, somebody is making a terribly big mistake, and I don’t think it is Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the webmaster of news portal Malaysia Today, who until now is still ahead in the game….

On ’saving’ RPK, I rest my case.

(6 out of 72 comments as at 8.18am)

From rocky’s bru:

Did you know?

... that the Sedition Act is 60 years old (two years older than Raja Petra Kamarudin), and that it was introduced by the British in 1948 with the intent of curbing opposition to colonial rule? And that Malaysiakini was shut down for a period in 2003 under the Act after it published a letter questioning Malay special rights and for equating a Malay party's youth wing to the KKK?Click h e r e to read more at Wiki.