My take on Mansor Puteh's take in Rocky's Bru

I wish to refer to Mansor Puteh’s letter ‘Defamation Suits - ISA of the Opposition?’ published in Rocky's Bru.

Mansor’s main point of contention is that he is against any form of action which stifles freedom of expression, which by his definition, should be absolute, otherwise there is no freedom of expression. In his own words:
‘Freedom of the press and of expression do not have their limits. If there are limits, then there is no such freedoms in the first place.’

Therefore, again in his own words,

“Suing anyone for RM30 million is serious business by any account. It is aimed to put the person who loses the case in permanent disability and castration much like the persons who are in detention under the ISA.

Therefore, by anyone’s rough calculations there is no difference in the ISA than filing a defamation suit.”

With due respect to Mansor Puteh, who wrote some very good articles, like the one on universities which I even keep for future reference, I cannot agree with him on this.

There is this public perception that Utusan Malaysia is a mouthpiece of Umno, much like The Star is that of MCA, regardless of how they deny it, as their actions time and again have proven.

I am glad, Mansor states that his letter is not in support of Utusan Malaysia, as there are enough evidence to suggest that the claims against Teresa were baseless and could be malicious, though some might disagree.

Assuming there is a concerted effort to discredit Teresa and to muster support along racist and religious lines, what avenue is there for Teresa to defend herself? Practically all the mainstream media are under BN’s control, not to mention the other authorities like police and judiciary, which are perceived to be less than independent. What are the chances of Teresa’s legal action against UM, under the circumstances? It would have been different if the government were to take action against oppositionists, like in Singapore, which effectively shut up some criticisms when they were made bankrupts. But in this case, it was Teresa against a corporation, shouldn’t we leave it to the courts to decide if she has a case against it?

Mansor should try and put himself in her situation, which for his sensitivity and creativity, it should not be too difficult.

As to "What if their party is able to form the federal government...", I think he has jumped the gun there.

I actually wrote a short comment in Rocky's Bru, referring to one of Mansor’s articles (subject of which I have forgotten) in Malaysia Today and that the resulting comments were fast and furious against him, so much so it was taken off by the editor soon after. I have looked through the list of comments in Rocky's blog but could not find mine. So much for freedom of expression, even if Rocky thought my comments were feeble.

What I was trying to suggest in that comment was that Mansor himself wrote something really ‘out of character’ which attracted so much fierce and unsavoury comments and the editor (Raja Petra?) took it off. So where was the freedom of expression then? Truth be told, I did not like some of the unsavoury comments which I found to be offensive then, but going by Mansor’s total freedom of expression which he expects, shouldn’t he face all the criticisms thrown at him then?

Excerpts of his letter:
rocky's bru
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2008
Not in support of Utusan Malaysia
Defamation Suits - ISA of the Opposition?A letter from Mansor Bin Puteh

"Where are they, the liberals and democrats amongst the Malaysia, especially those who have been vocal to the point of annoyance and who demand these freedoms?

And where is the National Union of Journalists or NUJ? When is its president, Norlida Daud going to ‘ambush’ Teresa Kok and Karpal Singh to demand that they withdraw their suits against anyone or to stop using the defamation suits as the ‘ISA’ of the opposition?

What if their party is able to form the federal government, don’t you think that they, too, would want to take such drastic and even ‘draconian’ actions against anyone who do not write or speak like them?

Suing anyone for RM30 million is serious business by any account. It is aimed to put the person who loses the case in permanent disability and castration much like the persons who are in detention under the ISA.

Therefore, by anyone’s rough calculations there is no difference in the ISA than filing a defamation suit.
Now it seems that the opposition only has the defamation suits to use and they are using them to their full advantage and to get wide publicity which they could otherwise not get, unless if they go around to put up road signs in Mandarin or Tamil, a habit that they decided to stop with the arrest of the three under the last ISA roundout.

But if they come to power and are able to introduce new laws will they not want to ban anyone from filing defamation suits since it is against the spirit of the freedom of the press and of expression?
Look at America or the United Kingdom and many other countries in the West, or for that matter, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, for instance; how many of the national leaders from both sides, have instituted defamation suits against anyone?

I was speechless again when I heard on television that there is one opposition member of parliament who said that freedom of the press has its limits! Was he serious?

There is no such thing. Freedom of the press and of expression do not have their limits. If there are limits, then there is no such freedoms in the first place.

They cannot say that and expect anyone else to respect them for their stand; it’s the weird form of the freedom of the press and of expression.

Let’s hope once they have cleared this that they would want to bring out their candles and light them outside of the Utusan office in Jalan Chan Sow Lin.

I do subscribe to the freedom of the press and of expression, especially those whose skins have become so thick that cutting them with razor blades would not hurt them at all.

In fact, they won’t even mind to show the scars, that they can get from the cuts as a ‘badge of honor’; the more scars they have the better their reputation is.

There is no such a thing as a bad or negative publicity.

If those who had lost in any elections including those in the party had any real ‘reputation’, they would not stayed in politics, having lost in the elections even once before.

Yet, with their ‘thick skin’ and being so shameless, they still pursued."