Malaysia Today's webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin, charged with sedition and remanded in Sungai Buloh prison for refusing to post bail, was a central figure in a spate of debate in the Parliament today.
On one side was Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) who, in his speech debating on the royal address, criticised Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor for "abusing the laws" in allegedly getting Raja Petra to be charged for sedition.
Raja Petra, in his Internet posting entitled 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell', had implicated Najib and Rosmah in the high-profile murder case of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national.
Lim said the quick police action and subsequent prosecution smacked of an "orchestrated" effort and abuse of the laws and government machinery to punish Raja Petra.
"They (Najib and Rosmah) reserve the right to clear their names through the laws. So why have they used the government facilities to take action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? This is the abuse of powers," he said in his speech.
"There are other channels for the deputy prime minister and his family to take action against Raja Petra - to use civil action and litigation. Why choose sedition prosecution?" he asked.
"Why has the government machinery (in the form of the office of the) Attorney-General's Chambers been used for this purpose? This is abuse of power! That is why we have to criticise this action against Raja Petra Kamaruddin in the harshest terms," he added.
Barisan Nasional backbenchers, however, raised a ruckus and criticised the DAP veteran leader for making assumptions that Najib and Rosmah were behind the police action against Raja Petra.
"How sure are you that there was an abuse of power in the use of the Sedition Act against Raja Petra Kamaruddin? Do you have proof that the deputy prime minister had gotten the police take the action (against Raja Petra)?" asked Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak).
"Or perhaps this has nothing to do with what the deputy prime minister has done but is just an act by the authorities against someone who has done something in relation to the Sedition Act?" he added.
Lim rebutted by saying: "Perhaps the honourable member from Pasir Salak deems this is as a coincidence, but there are a lot of coincidences in Barisan Nasional."
Oxford graduate under fire
Dr Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat), meanwhile, called for Lim to be more "responsible" and refrain from speaking on a matter that was already in the purview of the court.
Puad also said it was right for action to be taken against Raja Petra as he had "incited" people against a senior government leader. "Do you believe in what was written by Raja Petra Kamaruddin?" he asked.
Lim, however, said he did not want to be drawn into the debate on the merits, or otherwise, of the contents of Raja Petra's article.
Other than urging Najib to initiate a civil suit to clear his name and that of his wife, Lim also called for a royal commission of inquiry to determine whether, and to what extent, government figures were involved in the said killing of Altantuya.
Citing Raja Petra's article, Lim said among the many questions to be answered was whether attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail overstepped his boundaries as an officer of the court.
"(The government) should set up a royal commission of inquiry to investigate this so-called high-profile murder to clear the good name of this nation," he said.
Lim earlier chastised Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) who questioned him on the repetition of Raja Petra's use of the word "hell".
"Do you not agree that the only one to determine whether a person will go to heaven or hell is God and not for us to determine," asked Khairy.
Lim, however, thundered back: "We are not talking of religion! This is an expression that those who murdered Altantuya should be punished to the full extent of the law! It's not about going to heaven or hell.
"If even this one cannot understand, what is the point of graduating from Oxford? This is a disgrace to the university," he said, upon which the whole house again descended into chaos as both sides went back to shouting at each other.
Journalists under probe
On a related issue, Lim questioned the police's summoning of TheSun's editors Terence Fernandez and R Nadeswaran to assist investigations into their reports on the Association of Wives of Assemblymen and Members of Parliament in Selangor (Balqis) controversy.
Fernandez and Nadeswaran had written a series of reports on the dissolution of Balqis - soon after the Pakatan Rakyat coalition won Selangor in the March 8 general election - and questions pertaining to the transfer of RM9.9 million of donations out of the association.
"Are they being investigated by the police? Is it because of their investigative journalism? We should be encouraging investigative journalism, not journalism that merely flatters," said Lim.
"The ones who should be investigated is former (Selangor) Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo and his wife... not Nadeswaran and Terence," he added.
Malaysiakini
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