PKR lawmaker R Sivarasa spent almost six hours being questioned by police today over the fake Time Magazine cover which he shared on his Facebook account on Wednesday.
"They started recording my statement at 11.30am and I just got out of there (Dang Wangi police district headquarters). I've been kept the whole day. I just got out about 5.15pm," he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
The police are investigating him under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, he said.
This is over the fake Time Magazine cover he shared on Wednesday which featured a portrait of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak alongside text that, among others, reads 'Global corruption explained', and 'Number 2 on the most corrupt list'.
"They (the police) had a lot of questions to ask, although as far as I'm concerned, this is actually a straightforward matter," the Subang MP said.
The officers were very professional and civil, he said, and they were very detailed and thorough with their questioning, which was why it took so long.
The officers also wanted to take his phone initially, Sivarasa said, though after some negotiations with him and his lawyer M Puravalen, the authorities merely extracted data from the mobile and returned it to him.
He was allowed to go out for lunch, he added.
He said there were about nine officers in the team questioning him, most of whom are Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) officers.
‘Overblown response’
Describing the investigation as an "overreaction" and an "overblown response", he also said this was an abuse of the resources and power of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
This is especially so, he added, as the post had been deleted on the same day and he had since issued a corrective statement when he realised that it was not a real Time cover.
However, he noted that the "big fuss" over this has brought attention to the Time article titled 'These five facts explain the state of global corruption', in which Malaysia’s and Najib's corruption scandal appeared second.
"So, despite the fact that I have to lose my freedom for one day in the police station, at least the good result is that thousands of Malaysians have been made aware of the Time Magazine article," Sivarasa said. -Mkini
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