Political grandstanding or sinister policy shift? - M. Bakri Musa

Co-authored with Din Merican*

Our ‘reformed’ Royal Malaysian Police Force recently raided the home of Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of the website Malaysia Today and seized his computers. To malaysiakini readers, this is déjà vu.

The police routinely resorted to the Internal Security Act to raid the private residence of citizens. That is nothing new, and sadly, no longer shocking to Malaysians. This time however it is the home of a respected editor. After the public debacle over the raid on malaysiakini two years ago, we would have thought the police would be more circumspect. They never learn!

A benign take on this episode would be to assume that it is a case of political grandstanding ahead of the Umno general assembly on Thursday. Umno must regularly demonstrate its prowess against those who may challenge its obsession with Ketuanan Melayu (Malay hegemony) and the party’s role as ‘protector’ of the Malay sultans and their subjects.

A more sinister view would be that this action merely exposes the hollowness of the presumed liberal stance and attitude of the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Administration towards open discourse, especially in cyberspace, on matters of public interest.

The raid on malaysiakini made a mockery of the government’s oft-stated commitment to keep the Internet free of official censorship. Malaysia has yet to recover from that blow.

At that time Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad took the brunt of the heat for the actions of members of the xenophobic Umno Youth even though the action was initiated by the home ministry (as it was known), then under Abdullah’s stewardship.

We commented on the folly of the Umno Youth action and the immaturity of its leadership. Our hard-hitting commentary angered many in the movement including some who were our friends. Nonetheless, we did it because we believe that it is unhealthy to censor dissenting views and opinions. Such actions also damage Malaysia’s image.

Road maps for police

Robust public debate is the essence of democracy. Furthermore, clumsy and bumbling attempts at censorship and control are futile in this age of the Internet. You could no more control the flow of information than you could atmospheric flow.

The communist rulers of China and the mullahs in Iran have tried, and both failed. When the police closed the case against malaysiakini, we thought that there would be no more raids of this nature. We were sadly mistaken.

Raja Petra’s brand of analytical and aggressive investigative journalism is alien to Malaysia, where the reprinting of ministerial speeches and press releases constitutes ‘news-gathering’. It is no surprise then that uncensored and independent Internet news portals have been rapidly gaining readership at the expense of the mainstream media.

Two particularly hard-hitting series received wide readership and comments. The first was on alleged corruption in the Negri Sembilan royal family; and the second, the meteoric career of Khairy Jamaluddin, trusted advisor and son-in-law of Abdullah, now the prime minister. In both instances, Raja Petra cited names and specific instances to back his claims.

Both series are practically road maps for the police to investigate. Such exposés ahead of the Umno general assemby could have devastating political consequences. The police, therefore, took the more sycophantic approach by raiding Raja Petra’s home in an effort to please and appease the internal security ministry headed by Abdullah.

Kisssinger-Lite wannabe

It is well known that the ambitious Khairy is not popular among certain factions of Umno. He is feared not because of his talent, but rather for his being the prime minister’s son-in-law. In short, the old familiar Malaysian refrain of ‘know-who, not know-how’.

Khairy who did his thesis on Machiavelli at Oxford subcribes to the Florentine’s dictum that it is better for the Prince to “be feared than loved”. Interestingly that was (former US secretary of state) Henry Kissinger’s doctoral dissertation at Harvard. What we have here is a kampong version of a ‘Kissinger lite’.

The seizure of Raja Petra’s computers have barely interrupted Malaysia Today’s operations. News articles continue to be posted and readers are as eager as ever to register their views.

Raja Petra, like all prudent and responsible editors, web operators, and bloggers, must have taken the necessary precautions, like backing up files and having mirror servers elsewhere.

In the battle of ideas, the removal of hardware is a primitive and ineffective strategy. More productive and constructive would be to counter with superior ideas and respond frontally to the criticism.

Indeed later on the day of the police raid, Abdullah preached the same message in a speech to the Mass Media Conference organised by his own ministry.

In it, he chastised the mainstream media for their sensationalism and at the same time admonished government officials who cannot tolerate public criticism. He should have also warned his cabinet colleagues and fellow Barisan Nasional politicians.

Alas that was vintage Abdullah at his best - good only at preaching. He has been dispensing homilies ad nauseam ever since he took over the country’s leadership. He is, as one of my readers put it colourfully, a lebai pandai rati sajat (a rabbi good only at chanting).

If Abdullah had written that speech himself, then he should be the first to heed his own advice. If, as more likely, that it is Khairy’s handiwork, then he (Khairy) should be the first to heed his own message.

If this raid was merely political grandstanding, then we feel sorry for Raja Petra and his family who had to bear the terrible burden.

The only consolation is that this annual circus that is the Umno general assembly will be over by the end of the week. If this raid portends a sinister shift in public policy, then we feel sorry for the whole nation.