The name Raja Petra Kamarudin — popularly known as RPK — is dreaded by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
His blog, Malaysia Today, Malaysia’s most popular blog (read here), has been a source of embarrassment to the ruling party because RPK reveals, mostly with documented evidence, the litany of abuses that UMNO is involved in. His biggest scalp thus far has been none other than current Prime Minister, Najib Razak. RPK has made a statutory declaration that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor (read here or watch the attached video), was at the scene of the crime of the murder of Altantunya Sharibu (read the account of the case here). Najib, despite vehemently denying any involvement, has not sued RPK for defamation nor did the police investigate his claims.
RPK is now in the United Kingdom, fleeing possible political persecution in Malaysia, after being released from detention under Malaysia’s draconian Internal Securities Act (read here). He is considered too hot even for the BBC’s hard-hitting socio-political programme, HARDTalk, which canceled at the last minute, a scheduled interview with him; reportedly under pressure from either the British or Malaysian government (read here and here).
With elections in Malaysia drawing near, RPK remains a threat to UMNO. His latest revelation, shows how Tajuddin Ramli, a Mahathir-Daim crony (read here), plundered nearly RM9 billion through control (purchase, operation and sale) of Malaysian Airlines (read here ). His website is now under attack. It has been shut down twice in recent days and now experiences low bandwidth (read here). Many believe this is the work of UMNO or their agents (read here and here).
RPK has broken more stories (e.g. scandals, controversial UMNO/BN government plans and conspiracy, etc) than any other media organisation. As long as RPK is free, Malaysians can be assured of continued breaking news of government shenanigans. This should keep UMNO, and other corrupt individuals linked to UMNO, marginally at least, on their toes.
Keeping RPK free would be the wish of everyone interested in seeing Malaysia mature as a democracy.
Those who are interested in fighting to continue the NEP is doing it for one purpose and that to help themselves to the spin-offs from the distribution of wealth to the cronies. 53 years of UNMO/Barisan/Alliance rule had shown us that the rakyat is being used as a tool for the perpetuation of the wealth of the UMNOputras and their cronies from BN “components”. Who are those who grace the foreign casinos, throw lavish parties and have drinking/wine splashing binge and secret bank accounts? Who are the 28 years old billionaires?
Where are the origins of their wealth?
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Obviously, this character –a polytheist, judging by his name– can only be a cats-paw of the Zionists.
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Wow! Fourteen thumbs down the first hour after posting this. In all seriousness, can somebody explain what they found so deeply offensive here?
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In case you do not notice “hanoi Paris..” The “thumbs down” are not for offensiveness, they are for ‘daftness’. It is a daft meter!
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@Hanoi Paris Hilton
That’s because you are talking rubbish. Of course if you are not Malaysian, you couldn’t really be blamed for not knowing who RPK is, but then of course, your presumption that he’s a polytheist based on his name and an agent of the Zionist clearly deserves a nice big smack down.
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Who is RPK? He seems as bold and free on parliamentary amnesty as the ones in Thailand ie giving hell to the power that be. Wonder a coup will do the trick in negara aku?
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Goodonyer RPK!!! Every country should have people like you…pity they often have to get out, though.
Another vdos in this series, “ISA & religious brainwashing,” is well worth watching. It’s an anecdote about his questioning of the Thought Police. The would-be interrogator flees.
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Including the indirect slapdowns, we’re pushing a hundred thumbs down now. That should get me onto double secret probation, alright! Interesting, though, that the original posting made it past moderation.
First off, I owe New Mandala’s readership both an apology and an explanation. The apology is for being too clever by half, as the Brits say; and I see that if one is going to be hyper-ironic in a blog posting, one better have more perfect familiarity with the subject.
Knowing that “Raja” is a given name amongst Hindus and Sikh, ‘though not ordinarily amongst Muslims, but not knowing that for Malays, “Raja” is an honorific for descendants of royalty (which appears to be the case with RPK), I was completely flat-footed on the “polytheist” bit… Sorry about that. I’ve only been to Malaysia as a tourist and what I know about that country is mostly what I see in the newspapers.
But I would have thought that with the blog handle “Hanoi Paris Hilton”, readers would have been clued in that the posting was not necessarily to be taken literally.
So let me state unequivocally that I don’t now, nor did I ever, believe that RPK is a “cats-paw of the Zionists”.
What I was alluding to there –obviously way too obliquely, and maybe fatally undercut by my evident ignorance– was that the “Z”-word, and discarding the Z figleaf, the “J”-word as well, figures appalingly large in the political discourse in Malaysia, and not just amongst marginalized figures.
E.g., here’s Anwar Ibrahim –the erstwhile golden boy in the North of Islamic moderation and reform (referring here, I believe, to the present Malaysian administration):
“How can our foreign policy have changed dramatically,” unless Jews were controlling Malaysian affairs for America’s benefit?…I have evidence proving that the government is backing the Jewish lobby in the U.S. and some parties inside Israel.”
[source: http://newledger.com/2010/04/the-reversal-of-anwar-ibrahim/
And to rehash the astonishing remarks of Dr. Mahathir, who seems to have been converted by James Cameron into a troofer:
“Speaking at the General Conference for the Support of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) here, Tun Dr Mahathir said killing as an excuse for war is not new to the US. He also argued that Israel was created to solve the ‘Jewish problem’ in Europe, saying the Holocaust had failed as a final solution against the community. ‘In September 2001, the World Trade Center was attacked allegedly by terrorists. I am not sure now that Muslim terrorists carried out these attacks. There is strong evidence that the attacks were staged. If they can make Avatar, they can make anything’…
The former premier said Israel was created after the Europeans failed to massacre the Jewish community. ‘The Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom. Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world’…”
[source: http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.php?action=printpage;topic=70757.0
Getting back on topic, while RPK asserts that he’s properly anti-Zionist (as he’s likewise, anti-Nazi and anti-imperialist), he does seem to be squishy-soft on the Zs and on the Js, saying,
“I am against Zionism. I am not against Jews or Israel…I would like to visit Israel if I were allowed to. But I can’t do that because Malaysians are banned from travelling to Israel. I oppose this policy…So, being a loyal Malaysian, I follow the rules although there are ways I can travel to Israel if I want to without the government finding out. This is the issue. The issue is not that we hate Jews or Israel.
In fact, I love Jews. I think the Jews are the most talented people in the world. My favourite singers/entertainers, song writers/composers, actors/actresses, movie producers/directors, writers/authors, thinkers/philosophers, doctors/scientists, and whatnot, are Jews. Hey, almost all the Prophets of the People of the Book were Jews. Abraham, Moses, Jesus and many more were Jews. So how can I hate Jews?”
[source: http://www.malaysia-today.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31087:judaism-israel-and-zionism&catid=22:the-corridors-of-power&Itemid=100085
So is there anybody out there who really thinks that when push comes to shove, the Z and J cards won’t be played mighty harsh onto RPK? The situation regarding alleged UMNO-links to the exploded corpse of the unfortunate Ms. Altantunya seems to be getting quite ugly already.
Indeed, with the “most talented people” bit (above), he’s made himself quite the target for just such a smear. But, no, the “polytheist” angle won’t be in there.
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I sure hope RPK doesn’t get into the amount of trouble he should be in (considering how unjust UMNO can be towards their oppositions). There are so many lies and conspiracies being propagated by the local newpapers and the news stations under the influence of UMNO and the government that Malaysians are finding it hard to tell true from false. It is refreshing to have a voice brave enough to defy all for the sake of the greater good.
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hai yileen, please do not mistake the politically own publications as “newspapers”. They are works of fiction – mostly – except for dry business or small neighbourhood events.
The “papers” can publish outright lies and when exposed, do not even have to offer an apology.
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In reply to Neptunian:-
Thank you for pointing out the possibility of that confusion for the others. However, I was not referring to the UMNO website articles as mentioned during the video as ‘newspapers’. I regarded ‘newspapers’ as every day newsprints such as ‘New Straits Times’, ‘The Star’, ‘Utusan Malaysia’ and so on. If you did not know, local newspapers are pressured to conceal flaws of the Malaysian government, if not make them look good.
Here are a few websites on how journalists and chief-editors got themselves into trouble for trying to have an honest opinion about the government (which is, mainly influenced by UMNO) :
http://www.pressreference.com/Ky-Ma/Malaysia.html
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/1795
These are the happenings that do get published. We do not truly know how many have suffered the cost of reporting truths or simply by voicing out.
And here is a website on how imposing the government is on Malaysian journalists:
http://www.seapabkk.org/alerts/2-alerts/100352-media-group-criticizes-malaysian-government-agencys-interrogation-of-journalists.html
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I can’t access to malaysia today. Why?
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Try this link Satguna:
http://www.malaysia-today.net/
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