Showing posts with label Sedition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sedition. Show all posts

Friday, August 17, 2012

Article 114 A :A Storm In A Teacup

Hantu Laut

I agree the amendment of article 114A was hurriedly done and without giving much thoughts to its side effects.

However,  Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has agreed for his cabinet to review the controversial law and hopefully appropriate amendment will be made to replace it. 

It is only a matter of interpretation. The lawyers in this country are used to the "you are innocent until proven guilty", which in my personal opinion is a misplaced notion. You are always deemed guilty until you proved yourself innocent.

If you are deemed innocent at the time of your arrest, say in a murder case, why do they keep you in prison and bail not allowed. It can only mean they have presumptuously declared you guilty of the crime, otherwise, why the detention before the verdict?

It is still up to you to prove your innocent. If you are truly innocent and you can't prove it, too bad, you may have to go to the gallows or in countries where there is no capital punishment you are condemned to life behind bars.

Miscarriage of justice have sent many innocent men to the gallows. That's why I am against capital punishment. It is an archaic law that have no place in today's civil society and is cruel and irreversible.A verdict sending an innocent man to death is as cruel as murder itself. 

Coming back to Article 114A, the legal experts say it is a reversal of "innocent until proven guilty" which they say has become "guilty until proven innocent" unfair to those who are innocent. As I have said in a murder case, it's the same, your are considered guilty the day they charged you.

Under the law Internet users are automatically presumed guilty for any content posted through their registered networks, handheld devices, blogs and web portals.


Saying that providers of free Internet Wi-Fi for public use can be made responsible for any seditious, defamatory, or libelous article online does not hold water. Wi-Fi providers can ask clients to register before allowing them to log in to the service. Most computers have IP address and are traceable if the police do a good police work.

The most dangerous and more difficult to trace are hackers hacking into your website and posting such defamatory article on yours and other websites using your anonymous identity. The endeavour to prove your innocent can be financially draining and the trauma may be too much for those who do not have the will and money to fight back to prove their innocent. 


Remember, when cellular phones was first introduced to this country. When it was expensive, there was no problem because only the higher strata of society can afford to buy them. When it starts to become very cheap to own one and every riffraff in town can buy them, all hell broke lose.......it  became an instrument with destructive power,  which can be used to send nasty and threatening messages to people you don't like and nasty politicians knowing its 'cloak and dagger' potentials used it to spread lies,  slandering their political opponents.

In the early days of the cellphone there was no need to register your name if you buy a prepaid SIM card and no one can trace who sent those nasty messages.Now, you have to  register to buy a SIM card. The rest is history.

Initially, there were some protests from some morons but majority of the people agree it was the right thing to do.

Now, there are less evils spawning out of the cellphone.

Article 114A is a necessary evil, all it needs is some fine tuning.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Sleepless Night

Hantu Laut

Could not go to bed early so while cruising in cyberspace I came across this rather disturbing news report of multiple police reports made against a blogger who was alleged to have insulted Islam and questioned the rights of the Malay rulers.

Making police report is becoming fashionable nowadays.

The full story here.

You can read the blogger's piece here.

A bit overboard I would say.

Didn't know Raja Petra, whom many UMNO leaders claimed is a pauper, can afford to pay bloggers to pursue his war against the government.

Why would he needs to do that. His Malaysia Today is still available to Malaysians to read.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Raja Petra: Prisoner Of Conscience?

[Prisoner peering through wire screen]
Hantu Laut

Webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin was today charged under the Sedition Act over an article he wrote on his website.

He was allowed bail of RM5000, which he refused to post, deciding instead to stay in custody until the hearing which has been fixed on 6 to 10 Oct this year.

The popular blogger is represented by a team of 6 lawyers led by Karpal Singh.

What's the point? It is not RM5 million, only RM5000 unless he wants to be a "prisoner of conscience".

Not worth it, mate! Better be out, than out on a limb.

In 1945 the founder members of the United Nations approved theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 18.—
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion: this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom either alone or in company with others in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.—
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression:this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Raja Petra, does he truly believes what he is doing is for the greater good or is he just an anarchist and a demagogic blogger ?

He doesn't deserve that treatment.Let's wait and see whether he gets a fair trail.

THE TRAIL by PINK FLOYD

"The Trial"

Good morning Worm your honour
The crown will plainly show
The prisoner who now stands before you
Was caught red handed showing feelings
Showing feelings of an almost human nature
This will not do

CALL THE SCHOOLMASTER

I always said he'd come to no good
In the end your honour
If they'd let me have my way I could
Have flayed him into shape
But my hands were tied
The bleeding hearts and artists
Let him get away with murder
Let me hammer him today

Crazy toys in the attic I am crazy
Truly gone fishing
They must have taken my marbles away
Crazy toys in the attic he is crazy

You little shit, you're in it now
I hope they throw away the key
You should talked to me more often
Than you did, but no you had to
Go your own way. Have you broken any homes up lately?

"Just five minutes Worm your honour him and me alone"

Baaaaaabe
Come to mother baby let me hold you in my arms
M'Lord I never wanted him to get in any trouble
Why'd he ever have to leave me
Worm your honour let me take him home

Crazy over the rainbow I am crazy
Bars in the window
There must have been a door there in the wall
When I came in
Crazy over the rainbow he is crazy

The evidence before the court is
Incontrovertible, there's no need for
The jury to retire
In all my years of judging
I have never heard before of
Some one more deserving
The full penalty of law
The way you made them suffer
Your exquisite wife and mother
Fills me with an urge to defecate
Since my friend you have revealed your deepest fear
I sentence you to be expunged before your peers

Tear down the wall

Related stories:

IHT:Malaysian blogger charged with sedition
Asia Sentinel:
Malaysian Political Blogger Charged with Sedition
Malaysian Insider:Free speech is costly!