Enforce Official Secrets Act against Raja Petra, says newsmen

By MT Webmaster Last updated Mar 14, 2016

So there you have it. Najib is quite isolated and the Special Branch, MACC, etc., all support Dr Mahathir, the ANC and Pakatan Harapan and are against Najib. And they have successfully convinced Malaysians that they are opposed to Najib for only one reason (1MDB and the RM2.6 billion) and for no other reason other than that.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

‘Enforce Official Secrets Act against Raja Petra, says newsmen’. Actually, that was the headlines of The Malay Mail Online news report of the 1st of October 2010 (which you can read below). Yes, you got it right, the 1st of October 2010, more than five years ago.

At that time I had published various RAHSIA documents of the MACC investigation involving politicians from both sides of the political divide, Barisan Nasional as well as Pakatan Rakyat.

And the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) did not like it one bit and liked it even less that the government did not attempt to extradite me back to Malaysia to face charges under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). The NUJ even provoked the government to repeal the OSA if they are not able to enforce it on me.

The issue they raised is that documents marked RAHSIA are protected, and publishing them (or even just being in possession of them) is a crime under the OSA. And it does not matter if the documents that are published undermine the government or undermine the opposition. Both acts are a crime notwithstanding.

That was the stand the opposition took more than five years ago in 2010. And that was because even though I had published some documents that exposed Barisan Nasional or Umno politicians, I had also published documents that exposed Pakatan Rakyat or PKR politicians.

The issue here was: those documents are regarding the MACC investigation into allegations of corruption. So these documents are classified and are protected under the OSA. Hence being in possession of them (and worse if you publish them) is a crime.

And that was why they wanted the government to take action against me. The opposition felt that I should not have published documents that are marked RAHSIA and are protected under the OSA. And since I did then I should be arrested, charged and sent to jail.

Today, however, the opposition has taken the opposite stand (as they have taken the opposite stand on many other things as well — their stand regarding Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad included). Today, officers from the MACC are openly supporting the opposition (who make official visits to the MACC office and take photographs of this visit) and are openly handing over RAHSIA documents to the opposition.

Today, the MACC is a member of the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) and the MACC feeds the ANC with RAHSIA documents that can be used in their attempt to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. In fact, the MACC is more than a member of the ANC. It is a member of Pakatan Harapan.

One thing that I find most refreshing, though, is that the Special Branch is no longer supporting Umno and Barisan Nasional. So in that sense we are at least seeing some reforms.

In the past, pre-1998 as well as post-1998, the number one complaint of the opposition is that the Special Branch had deviated from what it was set up for. The Special Branch was set up to protect national security, especially with the Communist insurgency and the Emergency.

The Emergency, however, ended in 1989 (with the signing of the Hat Yai peace treaty) and since then the Special Branch served then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. This was even more visible in 1998 when Anwar Ibrahim tried to oust Dr Mahathir and the Special Branch was used to neutralise Anwar (which they very successfully did).

According to the ex-Deputy Director of the Special Branch, Abdul Hamid Bador, the Special Branch still serves Dr Mahathir until today. In fact, he openly announced that in the middle of last year, as you can see in the links below:

‘I’ll never turn against Tun Mahathir’ – Abdul Hamid Bador

From Special Branch top cop to ‘enemy of the state’

I’ll never defame Dr M, says ex-SB deputy director

So it is no secret. The Special Branch is very open and ‘honest’ about the fact they support Dr Mahathir and are opposed to Najib. And so is the MACC — the MACC is also very open and ‘honest’ about their support for the ANC and Pakatan Harapan.

I was told by one of the Deep Throats in the Special Branch that they no longer give Najib any information. So Najib is kept in the dark about political developments in Malaysia and most of the time the Prime Minister needs to depend on his own operatives for information (who are actually smarter than most of the Special Branch officers anyway).

My advice to Najib (since the Special Branch no longer advises him like they used to advise Dr Mahathir and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) is to remember that everyone is playing hardball. So Najib should stop playing softball and start playing hardball as well (like how Dr Mahathir used to, and is still doing).

And when playing hardball you do not take prisoners and you do not care what people have to say about you (like how Dr Mahathir used to do it when he was Prime Minister for 22 years). If you play hardball many will condemn you and will call you all sorts of names. But the important thing is you will win (like how Dr Mahathir did).

And later, once you retire, these people who now condemn you will forgive you and will say nice things about you and will invite you to lead anti-government movements and so on (just like what is happening to Dr Mahathir now). So the damage is only temporary. Later you will become a hero again (like how Dr Mahathir now is).

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ENFORCE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT AGAINST RAJA PETRA, SAYS NEWSMEN

(The Malay Mail, 1 October 2010) – The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Malaysia said it was “totally unacceptable” the Attorney-General Chambers and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had not acted against controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin for publishing documents classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) on the Internet.

NUJ president Hata Wahari said the Attorney General should ask for the repeal of the OSA if it was unable to enforce the law to ensure justice.

He said this in a statement emailed to The Malay Mail when asked for comments on the flagrant violations of the OSA by publication of classified documents mostly of the MACC on the blogger’s portal, Malaysia Today.

Both the AG and the MACC maintained silence on the veracity of the purported documents.

“NUJ Malaysia see the failure of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and MACC’s to act against Raja Petra as unacceptable.”

“Due to failure of the AGC and MACC, the NUJ is demanding no action against any Malaysian media for publishing these documents”.

Since Monday, Raja Petra better known as ‘RPK’ started publishing, among others, he claimed were official MACC documents and marked ‘Rahsia’ (classified).

The latest document is the alleged investigation papers into graft allegations against former Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo.

Raja Petra, who now lives in Manchester, claims to have in his possession “hundreds of official MACC documents, including investigation papers marked classified”.

He said he would publish them in his blog to “punish” MACC for its failure to investigate ex-Malaysia Airlines chairman Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli for his alleged role resulting in massive losses for the airlines.

The documents, he claimed, were handed to him by his informants.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed and its director of investigations Mustafar Ali were unavailable for comments at Press time.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK