RPK is a littlle over-the-top at times, but his scathing article on his detention is a must-read.

The police informed me that my interrogation was not about my article of 11 July 2007. In fact, on 11 July 2007, I never wrote any article. I did on 8 July though and again on 13 July, but never on 11 July. According to what the newspapers reported, I was alleged to have insulted the Agong and Islam, so the purpose of the two shopping bags of books was to debate Islam and the Agong with those who were about to interrogate me. But they did not want to talk about any of my articles. They only wanted to talk about some of the comments in the blogs posted by Malaysia Today’s readers.

…

I want it on record that Umno is attacking Malaysia Today with 25 cyber-troopers and they are the ones who are posting racial statements. Sometimes they even masquerade as Chinese and whack the Malays and Islam. Then other cyber-troopers would respond and whack the Chinese. The Umno cyber-troopers are the ones behind this racial and religious bashing in Malaysia Today. Then they make a police report alleging that Malaysia Today insults Islam and stirs racial sentiments.

And I think they really need to include Internet literacy courses for the police force… do they really not understand the difference between blog posts and anonymous comments?

The only time Malaysia seems to get on Digg/Slashdot/Google News these days seems to be when people are shaking their heads at us, so it was a relief to see this piece from Reuters - Malaysia’s top court draws line after Islamic cases:

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia’s highest court has ruled that legal cases involving non-Muslims cannot be decided by sharia courts, drawing a line after a spate of high-profile cases that left many in legal limbo.

The Federal court, in a landmark judgement, held that disputes between a Muslim and a non-Muslim on family and Islamic matters should be settled in a civil court, the New Straits Times reported on Thursday.

“They (non-Muslims) can’t be present to defend themselves in the sharia courts,” Judge Abdul Hamid Mohamad was quoted by the daily as saying.

The ruling came amid a bitter debate on whether the mainly Muslim nation is an Islamic state. The polemic has exposed religious and racial faultlines ahead of a widely expected early general election.

Preventing a repeat of the Lina Joy and Revathi Massosai cases will be a huge step towards making sense of Malaysia.

The Malaysian government has hit out against the 20,000 unthreatening, unreliable, irresponsible, unregistered, unprofessional, unemployed female liars who are denying the rural people their news.

This time we are warned against insulting the King or Islam (also see LKS):

“The time for talk is over, now is the time to act.” With this warning shot, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government would be taking legal action against bloggers who flagrantly belittled Islam or the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

He told the Dewan Negara yesterday that three laws could be used against the bloggers: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code.

Section 121b deals with offences against the authority of the king, ruler or Yang DiPertua Negeri and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Speaking at the Malaysian Press Institute Press Awards Night here yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government was deeply troubled by the growth of “irresponsible” alternative media.

The first thing that came into my mind was Harry Potter, and how our government resembles the Ministry of Magic - issuing ridiculous decrees hunting down citizens to maintain their state of denial and to stay in power.

Seriously, how many times do you read about people insulting the King? If I had ten sen for every Malaysian who couldn’t even freaking name our past two D.Y.M.M.S.P.B.Y.D.P. Agongs (let alone insult them), I’d be a millionaire many times over. Maybe in the sixteenth century UMNO could have used the King as an effective excuse to accuse people of treason, but not in this day and age.

And the sudden fervour to defend Islam is another blatant attempt at catering to the lowest common denominator - early elections are a certainty, and the govt can’t buy their votes this time like in Ijok. This is the cheapest method in more ways than one. And how about when other religions get insulted?

The three laws mentioned: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code (which forbids insulting the King) may carry legal but not moral weight - and even then, if UMNO politicians can get away with waving the keris and calling for spilling of blood, I don’t think bloggers are the seditious ones.

The Sun and Malaysiakini have the news (and of course, LKS his opinion): Najib declares that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

The amazing thing is that this was a reply to a question asking if Malaysia was moving from a secular government to an Islamic state! I have to grudgingly admit that the man has guts; instead of giving the politically correct answer, he just gave it straight to us (that said, he might very well pull the “misquoted/misunderstood” card tomorrow so don’t hold me to this):

“Islam is the official religion and Malaysia is an Islamic state, an Islamic state that respects the rights of the non-Muslims and we protect them,” he said when asked to comment on concerns that Malaysia was moving from a secular government to an Islamic State and whether is Malaysia is one.

“I want to correct you (reporter), that we have never never been a secular state. Secular by Western definition means separation of the Islamic principles in the way we govern the country.

On one hand, this attitude does explain why MPs slaughter cows in Parliament, why deconverting from Islam is treason, and why this year the hottest story around the globe about Malaysia is Lina Joy. You have to pity the people over at the Sun who wrote that piece on “upholding our secular Constitution” some time back.

“”But as an Islamic state, it does not mean that we don’t respect the non-Muslims. The Muslims and the non-Muslims have their own rights”, quotes Malaysiakini. The question here is what on earth we infidels are supposed to make of all this, or did he think that we wouldn’t hear of it?

On the other hand, it could be that he just doesn’t know what “secular” means, or he could be just looking for brownie points - with all that’s been happening lately, no secularist is going to vote for BN anyway; might as well try to look (and sound) holy.

If you haven’t heard, then you’re probably not a blogger or only read the mainstream - the Star has only a few paragraphs on it and I can’t find it on NST. Malaysiakini has the in-depth coverage (wanna take this chance to plug Malaysiakini, subscribing to it costs you about 40sen a day and is worth every cent. Was the first thing I bought for myself out of my first salary).

Anyway, blogger and PKR information chief Nathaniel Tan was remanded by the authorities under the Official Secrets Act on Friday. For details see Elizabeth Wong and Polytikus, and Cheryl.

My opinion:

This move is going to backfire on the authorities. For one, the reason for his detention - an anonymous comment left on his blog - is ridiculous:

Tan’s lawyer Latheefa Koya told malaysiakini that the police were investigating a comment posted by an individual on the former’s blog.

The individual who posted the comment, re-published three paragraphs found in the anonymous website which implicated Johari and was the subject of the ACA investigation against him.

For another, the ridiculous way he was treated only underlines why we need to abolish the OSA and ISA. People are likening it to a kidnapping.

It solidifies what most people already know - the authorities are either hopelessly out of touch, or misusing their power to screw around with us (or both).

In one of Richard Dawkins’s books, he talks about the zeitgeist - a global shifting of morals that happens slowly over time. It attempts to describe the common change in human perceptions; why slavery was acceptable and a fact of life in the past, and why it is revolting to us now: because of the evolution of our morals - the change in the zeitgeist.

I’m seeing it happen slowly but surely here. Remember the government’s attempt to discredit bloggers and paint us all as unreliable/unprofessional/unemployed females/liars/traitors? It didn’t work. They didn’t realize how so many Malaysians have taken to blogging as an outlet not just for socializing, or self-expression, but as a way to voice out against the government. It’s not going to work now either. Thing have changed - and they really picked the wrong person to screw with this time; and they’re screwing all of us by doing so.

But at least Nathaniel Tan will be joining the illustrious ranks of Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Kua Kia Soong, Lim Guan Eng etc.

I’ll echo John Lee’s “call to vote” here, as well as quote a well known poem that I immediately thought of when first reading about this (that Jeff Ooi has also posted):

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Was on MSN today and saw Marv logged in with “12 more days” as his status message. I happened to have “13 more days” as my status message. After the ensuing conversation I realized my priorities may be backwards…

Me: 12 more days to what?
Marv: My gf coming back. You? 13 more days to what?
Me: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!