SHAH ALAM, 15 Oct 2009: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan hit out at a blogger for ridiculing the police for not being able to locate Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin and serve him a warrant of arrest.
Musa said it was not a weakness on the part of the police, but rather that Raja Petra chose to hide instead of seeking justice in court.
“Why does he hide? If what [Raja Petra] had posted on his blog was true, he should be brave enough to face the law.
“Since he chose to run away, then he knows what he is doing is wrong. Why should you say it is a police weakness?” he told reporters at the Selangor Police Contingent’s Aidilfitri and Deepavali open house here today.
Asked whether Raja Petra was still in the country, Musa said, “I don’t know.”
On Monday, the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court fixed 11 Nov as the final mention date to give the prosecution and the police a last chance to locate Raja Petra and serve him a warrant of arrest to bring him to court.
The warrant of arrest against Raja Petra was issued in April. Two mention dates on 22 May and 17 July were previously given to allow the police time to serve the warrant.
Raja Petra went missing after seven prosecution witnesses testified at his trial. — Bernama
mansor junus says
Many Malaysians no longer view the police as justice protectors but ball carriers. Their moral conduct is at the lowest ever, and nobody that I have talked to has something positive to say about them. They will take all the trouble to shoot the messenger if they don’t like the news. RPK’s eluding the police is only the most sensible thing to do.
siew eng says
Wow, who is this ultra-important blogger whose opinion can invoke a comment from the IGP to reporters when he has remained silent on the failings of the police elsewhere, from the increase in ‘petty’ crimes to the Penan rape cases and several unresolved high-profile murder cases? Why didn’t Bernama ask who the blogger is? How can Bernama leave us in suspense like this? How can subscribers stand for such substandard reporting from a national news agency?
Susan Loone says
Who’s this blogger?
Azizi Khan says
Everyone in Malaysia knows the quality of Malaysian court of law. Our “justice system” is infamous enough to be known all over the world.
Besides, our IGP should know that RPK is in trouble and he will never get justice from our courts. As soon as he is caught, [Hishammuddin] will issue him a one-way ticket to Kamunting. There will not be a second thought on [whether] what was written is true or false. It is merely a head-hunting [exercise].
lim Goh Tong says
Musa — why the police have not caught Raja Petra is a valid question … you must answer this question instead of [asking another] question. You cannot tell us that a robber and/or murderer chooses to hide because he is afraid of the police/law/court. Your job is to bring Raja Petra to court, and you have not done so despite so many months. It’s better for you to resign, [instead of] pointing fingers here and there.
raguel says
Depends on [one’s] perception of the justice system. If I perceived justice [as being] lopsided, I would do the same. RPK [should be] free to express his opinion. If detained, he [would be] no threat to police, but we [would lose] a sincere voice with frank opinions. Why should the government feel intimated by a law-abiding person with no political affiliation — just an analytical, bold blogger? Please leave him alone.
Gopal Raj Kumar says
The pretext of Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s whereabouts being unknown is as much a game for the IGP as it is for RPK and his groupies.
[…]
RPK is a coward and there are no two ways about that. Stand and deliver is the challenge rather than cut and run.
Gopal Raj Kumar says
The fact you are unable to verify the facts I choose to rely on in furtherance of my arguments is simply evidence of your inability to verify those facts.
That of itsef should not serve as reason for you to censor my post. I thought you girls would by now have come to grips with your cycle and not use your mood swings to destroy and act unreasonably.
Gopal
Editor’s note: When you make a claim, verify it please. I tried checking through those claims and could not find anything to substantiate them concretely. Again, if you can provide the evidence yourself for me to verify, I’d be happy to reinstate the edited sections. Do it line by line please. Mentioning the title of the article, where it appeared and what date, will suffice – but do not fabricate please.
It is easy to approve a comment when it is clear what the difference between a claim and an opinion is. When you make serious claims, then you can ensure successful submission of comments by verifying these serious claims. As for opinion – you can hold whatever opinion you want so long as you don’t pass it off as fact, and you write it in language that does not resort to personal attacks or abuse.
And for the record, I am a man. I do not understand your need to use menstruation as an example of discrediting The Nut Graph’s editorial policies, nor do I respect it.
Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor
KW Mak says
@ Gopal Raj Kumar
I have always found you insulting and mean spirited based on the comments you write, but that last comment of yours really pushed the boundary of decency.
Someone should really wash your mouth with soap, and that someone should ideally be a female member of your own household!
Azizi Khan says
Gopal Raj Kumar,
Poor form man, poor form. Just because you insult and offend people who are doing nothing but a good job – doesn’t mean you are arguing your case. In fact, to people who endure your comments, well, let’s just say the editors did us a favour.
Perhaps you could be kind enough to explain why you write in such demeaning fashion? I accept that you consider RPK to be a coward and according to you he should be brought to justice. But isn’t that the irony ? Will he be getting “justice” or just locked away at the sole discretion of the powers that be?
What about his claims? Will they be investigated? […] So in this case justice delayed is not justice denied.
Thanks to RPK we now see evidence of so much scandal. It’s backed by by paper trails which are published weekly. Without RPK, these documents will never see the light of day.
Perhaps if you got off your high horse and sniffed the Kopi-O things would make more sense to you rather than resorting to demeaning women. It’s just poor form.
AK
Siva says
How can the IGP say “I don’t know”? … What a joke he is.
Gopal Raj Kumar says
Mr Shah
Your infantile comments on the posting I have made on the RPK issue leaves a lot to be desired of you in your own right as a journalist (if that’s not stretching credibility too far) and of The Nut Graph if you aren’t acting on a frolic of your own.
I am glad to be the catalyst to make you and The Nut Graph ‘bring it on’ if that’s what it takes to get you to condescend less and stick to quality alternative media which you claim to be. And to achieve that objective you have to be prepared to accept alternative views and alternative means of presenting these.
I present my position and my writings in an alternative format. To suggest that what you do not know is somehow evidence of anything more than your ignorance on the issue and therefore a justification for a punitive requirement for me to adorn your pages with evidence which are the fruits of my own labour is absurd and cheap.
The Nut Graph’s biases are without parallel. It struggles to come to terms with the concept of impartiality when it is faced with balance and that’s not such an offence unless one seeks to justify the odium of falsehoods like The Nut Graph sometimes does. That occurs more often than not.
What’s perhaps best described as etiquette is the practice of a quiet note to the writer (if there is interest) seeking out further clarification like a minister of the Malaysian government requested through his lawyer recently following this article:
http://takemon.wordpress.com/
The assumption that your capability and research skills and the ensuing result is the standard everyone has to aspire to is somewhat self serving. It will only serve to bring us all a generic class which is unproductive, uncreative and not in keeping with The Nut Graph’s creed of ‘making sense of politics’ or of being vox populi.
I have difficulty going through what you suggest and accepting your ad hoc standards set on behalf of The Nut Graph.
I have even greater difficulty as would you in locating appropriate citations for blatant villification in quotes and notes The Nut Graph has carried and continues to in its articles chapter and verse.
Why should only I comply for your shortcommings. Why not ask his Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor for a comment or a confirmation of the “claim” I have made first for verification?
If there is difference between an opinion and fact you have not established it. Instead you have by virtue of what you have written here villified me by indirectly labelling me a liar. To that I do not only take offence, I also demand you make apology and retract what you have implied by your statements in my comments about the RPK matter. It is after all the appropriate thing to do for a journalist (if that’s what you are).
As to Mak’s remarks that follow yours, I do not know what is so insulting about my remarks referred to in Mak’s comments.
However it is interesting to note Mak like Shah and others like Surin have formed an opinion about me. “Mean spirited and insulting?” Where and when.
If you wish to publish, do so and do so with dignity and the confidence that you are quality journalists in an alternative medium.
What comes out of all of this public mud slinging is evidence of an immature bunch of pubescent school kids with crayons and lipstick (that includes Shah) who want to take their marbles and go to mummy each time someone rightfully knocks the credibility off their darling Anwar and Elizabeth Wong or the other heroes of their little plastic revolution.
I am not going to disappear so keep up the fight. As to my observations of moody women well take heart, feminism and womens liberation have more morbid fascinations like Sheryl Hite’s techniques of masturbation. A staple in feminst circles.
Editor’s note: I reiterate, when you make a claim, and a serious one at that, you must provide evidence. This is, after all, a public forum.
I still do not respect your need to liken us to kids or girls in order to discredit us. But this is your opinion (rather than a fact) so I’m going to allow it go to through 🙂
Thanks so much for continuing to read and support The Nut Graph.
Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor
elfin says
Is this ‘Gopal Raj Kumar’ an Umno stooge?
Andrew I says
That was quite good, Shanon. I get censored sometimes. Do you hear me bitch? I wouldn’t know how because I don’t get to enjoy that time of month.
=========================================================
@Andrew,
You suggesting that women get bitchy because of their periods? Hmm, I know lots of men who bitch and they don’t have the excuse of hormones for it.
Jacqueline.
Gopal Raj Kumar says
What’s your source and where is the relevant citation for what you claim to be a set of facts to produce such a story.
Blogger unnamed, blog unindentified and nothing about what RPK had posted on his blog. RPK has posted many an item on his blog that falls into the category of defamatory and criminally defamatory conduct. Much of it done unintentionally (his grammar hangs him most off the time), yet you fail to practice your own stadards demand of me as directed by Shah.
What are you conducting under the guise of this so called blog making sense of politics and popular culture?
Gopal Raj Kumar
Editor’s note: This is a story picked up from the Bernama newswire Bernama is the Malaysian National News Agency. http://bernama.com/bernama/v5/index.php
Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor
Andrew I says
Jacqueline, I stand slapped and corrected.
Gopal Raj Kumar says
At least we appear to have broken some ice here without that feigned outrage, fey and scandal from discussing things that are normal and not ‘filthy or indecent’.
As to Ms Surin’s comments, well that’s because you are women and we are men. Long may that difference reign.
Cheng says
@Gopal Raj Kumar:
Between your tirades here and your blog, never before have I seen so many words spent on saying absolutely nothing of worth.
siew eng says
Off-topic!
Having been in charge of letters to the editor in Malaysiakini, I can feel Shanon’s pain when it comes to dealing with pompous readers who have an overrated opinion of their verbose comments and think the whole editorial process has time to pander to their grievances about how their comments have been edited.
If Gopal were to write to the mainstream media, not only would he be censored (which is different from edited for purely editorial reasons), he would not even get an explanation from the editors for that violation of his right to free speech.
While I trust Shanon’s sense of fair comment (he has proven himself in interviewing people whose opinions he disagreed with and allowing their right of say), it was helpful indeed to have a full sample of Gopal’s comments so that I may judge for myself whether Shanon is doing other readers a favour in taking out irrelevant parts that may be inflammatory to marginalised groups.
So, thank you for trying to protect our sensibilities, Shanon. But in allowing Gopal his full say, readers will also learn for themselves what is objectionable about his views and can decide how to treat them accordingly – i.e. whether to engage or ignore him.
I think both approaches – editing for standards, followed by hands-off treatment – were helpful toward that end.
Awareness says
I find it interesting that many here want to slam Gopal with ease but we allow comments that a certain MP is this and that, PM is a murderer, without solid evidence. Where is justice and fair play? I learnt from wachting that it does not exist. PR or BN, it’s the same. Same old nonsense. We scream for justice but we are happy to make disparaging comments without proof. We show our maturity by name-calling (Mooyidin, Najis etc). I think there is no real difference … it’s a pathetic society we live in.