Why does IGP get to decide what’s seditious? Marina Mahathir asks after TMI 5 arrests

Marina called the sweep on the editors of news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and its owner 'a sad day for media freedom'. — Picture by K.E. OoiKUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Prominent social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir questioned today national police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s judgment in using the Sedition Act to arrest and detain four journalists from news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and their publisher over the publication of a dubious news report.

The daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called the sweep on the editors of news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and its owner, the group head of The Edge Media "a sad day for media freedom" and blasted the police for their "heavy-handedness" in dealing with the matter.

"Very sad day for media freedom, as limited as we already had. How come IGP gets to decide who is seditious and who is not?

"If the report is inaccurate, then there should be official statement on it. TMI would lose some credibility," Marina told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

The eldest child of Dr Mahathir also said that the arrest of the TMI editors will only serve to strengthen support for the news portal.

She further added that the manner in which the police are making the arrest — detaining them immediately despite having voluntarily turned up at the police station to have their statement recorded — would only deter the public from cooperating in the future.

"This heavy-handedness makes people sympathise with TMI, especially since it's the latest in a long line of arrests.

"If you arrest people for voluntarily coming forward to aid in investigations, what incentive is there ever to help the police?" she said.

Police have arrested four journalists from news portal TMI and their publisher for sedition in relation to a report citing an unnamed source as claiming that the Conference of Rulers had rejected proposed legal amendments that would allow hudud to be enforced.

This was later denied by the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, who also lodged a police report over the article.

Police will hold the chief executive of TMI and the head of The Edge Media group that owns the news portal for the maximum 24 hours following their arrest this morning, their lawyer confirmed today.

Jahabar Sadiq and Ho Kay Tat will be kept at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters overnight and presented for remand the next day.

Jahabar and Ho were arrested this morning when they arrived at Dang Wangi to give their statements to the police, who yesterday arrested three editors from the news portal — managing editor Lionel Morais, Bahasa Malaysia editor Amin Shah Iskandar andfeatures  analysis editor Zulkifli Sulong — for their investigation.

The trio arrested earlier will be released at 7pm today after police failed to secure an order to remand them further.

The five are the latest to be arrested in a sedition dragnet that kickstarted last month. Prior to the arrest of the TMI five, 95 activists and opposition leaders have been detained and charged for sedition.

The arrests drew immediate condemnation from opposition and rights and media groups.

- MalayMail

No matter how many journalists IGP arrests, it won't help to hide Najib's 'DIRTY LAUNDRY'

Indeed the arrests of the Malaysian online news portal, The Malaysian Insider’s journalists and publisher included, is raising serious concerns among many journalists here in Malaysia and elsewhere too. Even readers are waxed about the police raids and the ministry’s investigations.

There appears to be a general perception among the public that there is a form of press persecution taking form in the country parrarell with selective press freedom.

The issue, as the public is given to understand, is that the news portal ran a story implicating the Rulers about the hudud controversy.

And so the police reports were made against the news portal. And the efficient political-moitoring police swung into action. And accompanied by the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia, the premises of The Malaysian Insider were raided; equipments and / or documents seized; and first three and then another two, i.e. the Executive Director and the Publisher were carted away or detained by the police, respectively.

PM Najib

The court in finding the detention flawed, has freed three of them; the fate of the other two will also soon be known.

That too seems to be how the arrest, remand, or freeing drama is consistently unfurling these days and for some 100 odd count hauled up to date. Would the public be faulted for perceiving, “what a sheer waste of the courts’ time and the nation’s resources”?

Let us leave all the other counts out for the time being. Let us ask some mature and soul searching questions that can come commensurate with our national claims that we are ‘better then Singapore’ or ‘we are world class this and that’.

The media is in business and will always be so for as long as there is that cardinal rule that governs the media, i.e. the duty to inform for as long as humanity has the right to know.

Since the dawn of the Penny Press, the journalists have always been the ones who made that singular difference that eventually led politicians to fall to the pits or rise to meteoric heights. But in case we stop short, let us know too that journalism thrives not because of what the press spins but because the readers make a discerning interpretation and respond accordingly to the news in question.

So the lesson here is all the arrests and raids on the press is not going to make a politician shine. On the contrary, given the age old wisdom that the pen is mightier than the sword, and coupled with the speed of the networked, new age communication seen in online reporting, the media of today can be catastrophic to power brokers who think they can dwarf and muffle the press.

So, what should have been a greater wisdom is if the police have reason to believe that the media had a diabolic agenda to grind, then get the media to retract, apologize publicly and show proof that they are clean of guilt or as the case might be, to repent.

Why haul them up? Why carry out a raid? Why summon them to the station and nab them?

The lawman must not forget that in peace times and war, the journalist calls the shot. For as long as there are the public who have an unconditional need to know, the media will go to the ends of the world to get the reader the news.

That is what makes news.

Police, MCMC raid TMI office, detained three of their editors over hudud

Yes, press freedom cannot be compromised neither can it be abused. Yes journalists are no saints and media ethics do get compromised.

But then again, if all the media in Malaysia are dealt with in the same manner, speed and bully-like fashion, certainly public sympathy will not get into the way of the men in blue. But sadly, it is not.

Many readers are already questioning why a certain media can holler and scream racist statements almost every other day and yet it is not deemed as seditious. No raids take place. No arrests are in the works.

On another scale, yes Malaysia has a strong traditional piety about reverence to its Rulers. And if TMI had in any way tainted that revered respect that we all hold for our Rulers out of respect or fear, then by all means take them to court and let the media pay through its nose for the maliciousness.

Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar

Why noose the TMI fellows with the sedition charge? Did their published news unleash millions of Malaysians on to the street with nasty Molotov cocktails and grenades?

We must grow up as a nation. Not slide back and keep earning brickbats from the global community of respected guardians of civil society and media.

And shouting sedition all too often will not remedy to enrich the fabric of media ethics. On the contrary it will eventually affect to the contrary, i.e. make a mockery of our very laws and the law enforcers.

Pray sanity rules over the fears and fearful of politics in this growing up nation. It is too late in the day and times to see a Myanmar or a Pol Pot succeed in this country. This is the New Age where rules of the emerging, new media are yet to be crafted the world over. - MAILBAG

Polis menyamar banduan, pantau Anwar?

KUALA LUMPUR 31 MAC- Ahli Parlimen Sungai Petani, Datuk Johari Abdul mendedahkan wujudnya kemungkinan pihak polis membuat penyamaran sebagai banduan untuk memantau pergerakan Anwar di penjara.

Menurut sumber yang tidak didedahkannya, Johari menegaskan tindakan itu adalah tidak relevan sedangkan pemantauan terhadap Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh itu di penjara sudah memadai ketika ini.

"Kita menerima maklumat daripada sumber wujudnya penyamaran daripada pihak polis di penjara untuk memantau pergerakan Anwar.

"Saya tidak tahu sumber ini tepat atau tidak sebab kita belum ada maklumat secara terperinci mengenainya. Tapi saya akan bertanya perkara ini kepada menteri di Parlimen adakah benar melalui maklumat yang kita dapat ini," ujarnya.

Sementara itu, Naib Presiden KEADILAN, Shamsul Iskandar berkata, Anwar juga kini dikawal secara rapi melalui kawalan CCTV dan pengawal penjara.

"Di penjara sudah ada CCTV dan kawalan keselamatan yang lengkap daripada pegawai dan petugas penjara. Anwar sentiasa dikawal setiap15-20 minit. Sekarang beliau sudah dipenjara, kenapa perlu ada CCTV?

"Ini satu perkara di luar batas kemanusiaan apabila kehidupan kita dikawal dan dipantau setiap masa," tegasnya. -KD

GST: Negara kita saja belum sebab banyak kali tangguh

Posted by The Unspinners

Perubahan memang susah tapi perlu dilakukan.

Banyak negara dah lama guna sistem GST. Ini negara yang kurang maju pun boleh guna GST.

Baca sejarah GST.

Dah lama ditangguh dan banyak ruang masa diberi.

Anwar pun turut terlibat. Tak faham kenapa PKR tentang GST.

PANAS BERAPI! SPEAKER DUN PERAK WAJIB DIPECAT KERANA GAGAL MENGAWAL KEADAAN!

Kegagalan Speaker Negeri Perak Devamany untuk mengawal keadaan pagi tadi dan penghalangan media arus perdana dari memasuki dewan yang mulia rasa aku dah cukup untuk menukar Speaker yang baru, sebagai Speaker Devamany gagal mengawal keadaan.

Pagi tadi puak Pakatan datang ke dewan dengan memakai pakaian serba hitam. Sepertimana kita semua tahu pembangkang paing kurang ajar dalam Malaysia sememangnya dari negeri Perak yang diketuai DAP.

Pelik jugak, ketua DAP dan ketua PAS bergaduh dan Hadi semalam dah hamir pasti nak U TURN dan hari ini kita tengok pejuang Hudud PAS dan DAP sama-sama pakai HITAM dan tidak menghormati Tuanku Sultan kita. Mereka ni memang kurang ajar semua rakyat Malaysia tahu.

Tai aku pelik Devamany sebagai Speaker boleh biarkan saja benda ni, Speaker yang kalah di Parlimen Sg SIput ni sepatutnya bila melihat mereka memakai hitam dan mengadiri sidang DUN pembukaan dengan ucapan Titah Tuanku Sultan ni sepatutnya halau kesemua adun Pakatan ni keluar.

Bukan duduk dan biarkan mereka jadi kurang ajar macam ni, dah le media semua dia halang dari masuk ke dalam dewan yang mulia. Apa justifikasi Speaker menghalang media lain seperti Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian dan Perak Today dari memasuki dewan? Devamany ni dah kena beli dengan puak Pakatan ke?

Aku harap MB Perak akan tukar Speaker yang baru dan pecat Devamany dengan kadar segera. Ketidakcekapan beliau hari ini amat memalukan. Dan aku dapat tahu Tuanku sangat murkan dengan tindakan puak pembangkang ini. Speaker pulak gagal mengawal keadaan.

DEVAMANY WAJIB DIPECAT! SPEAKER PERAK TARAK TELOR!

Barefoot, handcuffed and a hero

Rafizi Ramli says pictures of himself in handcuffs have earned him greater support and increased the people’s hatred for the police.

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR’s Secretary-General, Rafizi Ramli, fresh out of police custody renewed his criticism of the Barisan Nasional government, claiming that the Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar was not fooling anyone with the tactics used to arrest him, and other Pakatan Rakyat leaders on the eve of the #KitaLawan rally.

Rafizi, in a media briefing, said he was told his arrest was to facilitate investigations on sedition for a circular he allegedly authored although he was convinced the real reason was to prevent him and others like him from attending Saturday’s rally in Kuala Lumpur.

“The series of arrests, especially of politicians and media practitioners only serve to confirm one thing – which is how out of touch Dato’ Seri Najib (Razak), Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the IGP are, when it comes to the latest and current feeling on the ground,” said Rafizi.

He claimed that his arrest coupled with photos of him barefoot and in handcuffs going viral, had elevated him and others who speak out on people’s issues, to “hero and celebrity” status while earning them even more support.

“When you speak and give voice to issues that are close to the hearts and minds of the public, obviously your unfair arrest will generate instant hatred of the ruling regime and ruling elite,” he said.

Rafizi known for his exposes on the first family’s jet purchases and 1MDB, claimed that the Umno-BN government’s failure to answer his accusations satisfactorily, had resulted in the police harassing and intimidating him, in hopes to silence him.

Efforts to silence someone by handcuffing them and taking away their slippers is something done by “school prefects” according to Rafizi and added, “You can do that in school, but not in the real world.”

He joked, “But they made a mistake, as when they locked me up for three and half days, they put me together with Hishamuddin Rais.

“Instead of silencing us, we were already plotting the next rally.”

Rafizi acknowledged that numerous lower ranking police officers were also victims of their politically motivated superiors, as some of them were taken away from real crime fighting and instructed to harass politicians “just for show”.

Some police officers were even subjected to disciplinary action for not using enough brute force against those arrested.

“They were just following instructions, although they didn’t want to be used as a political tool.”

“Next time, if (the) IGP wants to harass politicians, he can do it himself,” said Rafizi.

GST: It’s dire straits ahead for Malaysia

Malaysia’s economy is not ready to withstand the effects of GST and after paying so much in taxes, the revenue might not even reach national coffers.

COMMENT

By TK Chua

It looks like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will become a fait accompli tomorrow although many Malaysians have expressed their discontentment over it. However any group of citizens from any country would not willingly accept a new form of taxation easily. Protests and disagreements are expected.

What then is our next step? Unless the government changes its mind, which is most unlikely, what lies ahead really is for both the government and citizens to find a way to handle this new tax system the best way we can.

We have often quoted other countries that have implemented GST (or a variant of it) as a justification for us to do the same. Yes, it is true many countries have implemented it; but not every country that has, is doing well economically. Many, in fact, are in dire straits.

I think we must first look at the economic and social conditions of those countries that have successfully implemented GST. Take our immediate neighbour down south as an example – it has a very competitive market economy with decent average wages and an orderly business recording and bookkeeping system. Without these pre-requites, I think it is very difficult to implement GST successfully.

Right now we are supplementing our low income earners with BR1M which would suggest that our income level is not ready for GST yet.

If we want to implement GST successfully, we must have real productive jobs giving the people real decent incomes, certainly not through hand-outs like BR1M and other subsidies or welfare programmes.

With 40% of households being recipients of BRIM and when our civil service and GLCs have continued to expand despite privatisation, it does indicate that GST will be a bane. So, where are the productive and high income jobs? This is the nation’s top priority, I would like to reiterate.

If we want to implement GST successfully, we must also have a competitive market economy with an efficient business recording and bookkeeping system in place. Only a competitive economy will ensure fair pricing and no profiteering. There is no way the government could decree pricing or exercise control on prices and profit margins effectively in a market economy like Malaysia.

Enforcement would be terribly expensive and more often than not, it would lead to endemic corruption as businessmen seek to circumvent regulations and officials seek to enrich themselves.

Take for example as reported; the Customs Department alone needs 3,000 additional officers to implement GST (this is excluding all the consultancy, accounting and other incidental expenses incurred to put this system in place).

Three thousand officers with an average all-inclusive cost of RM3,000 (remember, it is not just salary, but perks, travel, office space, equipment, etc) per officer per month would come to nine million a month and $108 million a year. Can we see the point here?

I thought the beauty of GST was its “self-imposing” and “self-collecting” ability. If we need such a massive machinery to control, monitor and enforce compliance, there is definitely something not right.

I know many of the points mentioned here have been stated before. But it is worth repeating because unless we tackle these fundamental issues, the implementation of GST is going to be messy. It will cause the people to pay through their noses, but the money collected may not reach the national coffers.

TK Chua is an FMT reader