So Where is RPK…?
He was wise to have stayed away from those trials that would send him to prison under the ISA or the Sedition Act.
By Sim Kwang Yang
In a story on Sunday 24 May 2009, the Star reported the following news:
“Police have confirmed that online news portal Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin is in Brisbane.
“A police source said the former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee had contacts in Australia who had arranged accommodation for him and his wife Marina Lee Abdullah.”
Since the police source has not been named by the Star, we just have to treat this piece of news snippet for what it is, as yet to be confirmed officially by the Police.
Already, pro-BN bloggers are gloating and sneering at this bit of news, implying that RPK is a sort of coward to run to a foreign country, instead of appearing in court to bear responsibility of his words and actions.
What they still do not realise is that when faced with kangaroo courts trying to help enforce Draconian laws, self-exile is another form of civil disobedience.
Many revolutionary leaders had exiled themselves in the past, when staying put under persecution would have meant an end to their cause.
Dr. Sun Yet Sun was in exile all over the place, in London and Europe, and in various parts of South East Asia, often to raise funds for his revolution. If he had stayed back in China to be trialed by the Manchurian Mandarins, his head would certainly have been chopped off. That would be the end of his revolution. Eventually, his revolution succeeded and changed the history of modern China.
Ayatollah Khomeini spent 14 years in exile in Iraq, Turkey, and finally in Paris France when the Shah of Iran was after his head. He directed the revolution from overseas, especially in the last days of the Shah’s empire. He only returned to Iran in triumph after the Shah fled Teheran on January 16, 1979.
RPK is hardly a revolutionary leader in the mould of Dr. Sun Yet Sun or Khomeini. He has no political party and he does not seem to want to be the prime minister of Malaysia. He is just another ordinary Malaysian citizen trying to raise the political consciousness of Malaysians through the Internet and through social activism for justice and freedom for all Malaysians.
But his ceaseless opposition in fighting injustice has been seen as a threat to people sitting at the apex of the political food-chain of Malaysia. Those top dogs in Malaysian politics would stop at nothing to silence him, with or without the help of the apparatus of the Malaysian state.
He was wise to have stayed away from those trials that would send him to prison under the ISA or the Sedition Act. We have followed the proceedings so far, and knowing our courts, the chance of his escaping from the iron claws of those laws is slim. So he just twitted his nose at the entire judicial system and walked away into self exile in silent peaceful protest.
Now he is reported to be in Australia. How he got there is anybody’s guess; it could be made into a movie later on.
As far as I know, there is no bilateral arrangement between Australia and Malaysia to extradite wanted personnel between the two countries. Perhaps there are laws in Australia that would allow him the status of a political refugee.
As far as I know, in the USA and in England, you can apply for the status of a political refugee if upon your return to your home country, you are likely to be persecuted and harmed by your own government.
At the same time, there are a large number of Malaysian emigrants in Australia, so RPK would have no shortage of sympathetic company. The Malaysian Diasporas there could nourish him like water nourishes fish in the ocean.
You may think that RPK is living the high life in the beautiful country of Australia. You cannot be more wrong.
