On the sahabat karib thing again

ARCHIVES 2012

By MT Webmaster On Aug 16, 2012

In fact, it was my wife who asked me to stop whacking the Malays, Muslims and Rulers. At first I did not listen. The Malays hate me anyway, I replied. Then, during the Permatang Pauh and Kuala Terengganu by-elections, I found that many of the kampong Malays actually supported me. Thousands came out to meet me and to shake my hand. I thought they hated me so I was quite taken aback at the reception they gave me.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Many friends, mostly non-Malays, have been asking me about Malaysia Today’s readership. They tell me they have been discussing amongst themselves and they are of the opinion that Malaysia Today no longer gets as many visitors as it used to.

Well, I have published our Google Analytical statistics below so maybe you can have a look at the chart. I doubt Google will inflate these figures because the higher the figure the more they have to pay me. Hence it is to Google’s interest to not inflate the figure.

Those statistics are from 1st January 2010 to 31st July 2012. Our lowest figure was in February 2012, which was 434,820 unique visitors, and the highest was in July 2011, a figure of 926,790 unique visitors. On average our unique visitors are about 500,000 a month. I am, of course, assuming that Google’s figures are correct and that we are not being penalised with deductions, which can happen.

We have certainly lost some readers, that, I do not deny, but those readers who left us have been replaced by new readers. Hence we get about 82% returning readers and about 18% new readers with the sum total of the two being about the same in the end.

The other issue my friends raised was about the credibility issue facing me. They told me that the feedback they get from the ‘market’ is that I suffer from a serious credibility crisis and they feel that my credibility is currently at an all-time low.

That is certainly true and I acknowledge that fact. The ‘crisis’ first started in early 2009 when I left the country. Many readers felt I should not have left the country but should have stayed back in Malaysia to ‘face the music’. That was when they labelled me ‘From Hero to Zero’.

Both sides of the political divide called me that. I can understand the Umno boys calling me ‘From Hero to Zero’ but I was quite taken aback when Malaysia Today’s readers and the Pakatan Rakyat supporters also did the same.

These Malaysia Today readers and Pakatan Rakyat supporters are the same people who, whenever any opposition people or activist is arrested, scream ‘political persecution’ and say that the Malaysian judicial system is corrupt and serves Umno’s interest. Yet they demand that I stay back in Malaysia to ‘face the music’.

I admit I could not reconcile this very contradictory stand. On the one hand they say that the Malaysian judiciary cannot be trusted, is corrupt, and serves Umno’s interest. Also, on the one hand they scream mala fide and accuse the government of practicing political persecution. However, on the other hand, they whack me and call me ‘From Hero to Zero’ for leaving the country.

If they are of the opinion that the Malaysian judiciary cannot be trusted, is corrupt, and serves Umno’s interest, and if they know that this is all merely mala fide political persecution, would this not mean they should also be of the opinion that I am certainly going to be found guilty and will end up in jail if I stay back in Malaysia?

And what about the detention without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which is further to the trial I was facing? I left the country on a Saturday night and landed in Thailand on Sunday. On Monday, the police were outside my house with a new ISA detention order, which was the real reason I left the country. If I had not left on that Saturday night, less than 48 hours later I would have been back in Kamunting. And this is what all my critics wanted to see happen.

It was most puzzling that these people wanted to see that happen to me. And I must admit that I felt slighted that these people did not really care about my welfare but just wanted to see me back behind the bars so that they can capitalise on it and use it as political mileage. Hence I was the kambing hitam (sacrificial goat), as the Malays would say.

Even pro-opposition Blogs, websites and news portals were downright nasty towards me. They vilified me like there was no tomorrow. I was shocked and extremely perturbed. This was the last thing I would have expected from Malaysia Today’s readers and Pakatan Rakyat supporters.

One very glaring thing about the attitude of the Pakatan Rakyat people in the aftermath of the March 2008 general election was how suddenly I became a nonentity. In the run-up to the election I received all sorts of invitations to speak at ceramahs and to attend opposition functions and whatnot. Immediately after the elections I was totally forgotten.

The only person who still kept in touch with me and still had the time to have a drink with me was Ronnie Liu. As for the others, not even a phone call or a thank you. Even my phone calls went unanswered and for sure I need not have expected them to call me back. Mat Sabu, however still keeps in touch with me and even comes to my house to sleep whenever he is in the UK, as did Saari Sungib last year, who, together with Ronnie, was in court the day I was released from Kamunting.

To be fair to Ronnie, he did try to offer me a position in Selangor but I turned it down. That is why whenever people condemn Ronnie (his own DAP people included) I just tell them that Ronnie is my friend and whatever it may be I will stand by him as he did for me.

Anyway, I realise now that these are what I call rakan seperjuangan and not sahabat karib. And I will talk more about this in awhile.

Anyway, in 2007, during the Bersih rally, and in 2008, during the election, I made a lot of new friends, many friends, in fact. Most of these new friends were, of course, non-Malays. Most Malays who were my friends were already my friend years before that while those Malays who were my enemies were already my enemy years earlier. So there was not really much shift in friends and enemies amongst the Malays. It was the non-Malay friends that increased by leaps and bounds.

You see, Malaysia Today started in 2004 and in the beginning I used to attack the Malays, Muslims, Royalty, etc. If you can remember, back in 2004, the Police raided my house and confiscated my computer because I wrote articles attacking the Rulers. Furthermore, many police reports were made against me on allegations that I insulted Islam. In fact, I was detained under ISA on allegations that I had insulted Islam.

Hence many Malays regarded me as anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Monarchy, etc. So many Malays hated me since way back. These Malays considered me a traitor to my race and an enemy of Islam. Of course, the more liberal Malays had no problems with me and thought that I was doing a good job at educating the Muslims and waking up the Malays. But the conservative lot did not think so.

But it was not until 2007 that the non-Malays finally woke up and started to become really politically active. And that was when the number of non-Malay friends of mine increased drastically.

Now I have lost many of those friends, non-Malay friends, that is. They now regard me as the enemy. They vilify me and curse me and call me all sorts of names such as dog, pariah, traitor, turncoat, prostitute, frog, and much more. These, as I said, are the ‘new’ non-Malay friends I made since 2007 and 2008.

My wife is not perturbed about this whole matter, though. They were never really your friends in the first place, she tells me. Friends who will be your friends only when you serve their interest and turn on you when you no longer serve their interest are not real friends, she argued. Your real friends are still sticking with you until today. They stay your friend through thick and thin. Fair weather friends are not good to have as friends, said my wife.

“Who are those cursing you?” my wife asked me. “Are they not those who became your friend only recently since 2007 and are they not mostly non-Malays? So what does that tell you? When you criticise Umno, the Malays, the Muslims, the Rulers, the police, and whatnot, they become your friends. When you criticise the opposition they turn on you. Try whacking Islam, Prophet Muhammad, the Malays, or the Sultans, and see these so-called friends of yours hail you as a towering Malay and the greatest Malay.”

So I have accepted the fact that those who hate me now are mostly the non-Malays. The Malays who hate me already hated me long before 2008. And these non-Malays hate me because I no longer scold the Malays, Muslims or Rulers like I used to do prior to 2008.

“There you are,” my wife said. “I told you the Malays do not hate you but you won’t listen to me. You keep saying that the Malays hate you. I told you they do not and that you should stop whacking the Malays. It is only the Umno Malays who hate you. These thousands of Malays do not hate you. They are lining up to shake your hand.”

When PAS won the Kuala Terengganu by-election the kampong Malays came to look for me and they carried me on their shoulder and paraded around. I cried like a baby and from that day I resolved I would not be too harsh on the Malays any longer. But unfortunately, because I am no longer nasty towards the Malays, I have made many enemies amongst the non-Malays.

Should I get upset? I suppose it is quite natural to become upset when you feel betrayed. And I certainly do feel betrayed by these ‘new’ friends turned enemy who are very nasty towards me and curse me. I also feel used. I now realise that they found me very useful — a Malay from the Royal family whacking the Malays, Muslims and the Rulers. Now that I whack the opposition I am no longer useful and they demonstrate this displeasure by being downright nasty.

I suppose I was seen as serving the interest of the non-Malays. And who better to whack the Malays, Muslims and Rulers than a fellow Malay from the Royal Family? And I remember many non-Malays telling me that I am doing what the Chinese or Indians can never do — that is whack the Malays, Muslims and Rulers. I am doing what the non-Malays would love to do but dare not do. I am the sounding board for the non-Malays and am expressing the sentiments of the non-Malays.

So that is all I am to these ‘friends’ of mine. And unless I am prepared to continue doing that and not criticise the opposition then I will be vilified and treated as the enemy.

Well, at least I know where I stand. And I suppose if I am treated as the enemy then I better start acting like the enemy. And many Malays have come back to me to tell me that they are very happy to see me being subjected to all this. Now you understand why we are opposed to the non-Malays, they say. Last time you called us racists. When we try to explain to you, you will not listen. Now what do you think about the sincerity of the non-Malays?

I suppose I have no reply to that.