RAJA PETRA: MAHATHIR, SARAWAK REPORT TRYING TO SILENCE ME

Do your worst, he says after receiving legal notice demanding he remove articles about Rewcastle-Brown and Sarawak Report.

(FMT) – Raja Petra Kamarudin has accused Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and the anti-Najib forces around former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad of attempting to silence him for life through a court order and, at worst, commit him to jail.

He wrote today that he had been sent a legal notice from Sarawak Report to take down all articles about Clare Rewcastle-Brown and Sarawak Report published at Malaysia Today and to publish an apology drafted by them.

He vowed not to back down, and defiantly wrote: “Do your worst”.

Raja Petra said the anti-Najib forces around Dr Mahathir Mohamad were behind the attempt to gag him. He has previously described Rewcastle-Brown as being an agent of Dr Mahathir, and said a cabal of businessmen had funded an international campaign to force Najib Razak out of office.

Conversely, Raja Petra has rebutted many of the allegations against Najib and has himself published leaked information about the anti-Najib campaign. He has declared himself a supporter of Najib and stated that the prime minister would remain in office despite the efforts to dislodge him.

“After losing the battle in the court of public opinion, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the ANC, Clare Rewcastle-Brown and Sarawak Report now want to use the court system to silence me and to prevent me from writing,” Raja Petra wrote today.

The legal notice, details of which were not immediately available, stated that a court injunction would be obtained against him if he failed to comply. Raja Petra speculated that this would result in a committal order for contempt of court.

He noted that he had always in the past refused requests to remove articles from Malaysia Today resulting in him “being charged and/or sued. I have been sued so many times that I have lost count, not to mention the numerous times my house has been raided and my computers, files, documents, etc., confiscated.”

He said the people in the campaign knew that the take-down notice would not work and that they would need to obtain an injunction. A refusal to comply would result in committal for contempt of court.

“Further to that, they want me to publish an apology, which they will draft, and for me to give them a promise in writing that I will never publish any articles about Clare and Sarawak Report again. In short, I must agree to not only an apology but to a gag order for the rest of my life.”

For more than a year Sarawak Report has published leaked documents and emails regarding the affairs of 1Malaysia Development Bhd, including a leaked image of what was purportedly a charge sheet for criminal proceedings against Najib.

The government has blocked Malaysian Internet access to Sarawak Report, but the site remains online and its content is available through alternative channels.

Raja Petra said Sarawak Report and the anti-Najib forces wanted “the freedom to say what they like, whether what they say about Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Malaysia is true or not” but sought to refuse him the same freedom.

He said that, on principle, he would not bow to their demands calling them “absolutely unacceptable”.

Addressing Dr Mahathir, Rewcastle-Brown and Sarawak Report directly, Raja Petra said: “Do your worst. We have both now crossed the Rubicon and there is no longer any turning back.”