Raja Petra's charge: What double standard is this?

Raja Petra's charge: What double standard is this? Hamdan Ibrahim May 7, 2008 I refer to the Malaysiakini report Raja Petra charged, chooses jail over bail. Our own version of Mahatma Ghandi, Raja Petra who chooses jail rather than bail on his sedition charges had won the respect of the public for his steadfast principle to stick to his guns come what may. By going to jail, he will put the government in the spot as public sentiment will be on his side. What a brilliant strategy on Raja Petra’s side to put the government on the defensive. Selective persecution seem to be the weapon of choice of the authorities to stop bloggers from giving their two sen of opinion on the Internet. One wonder if the present regime is trying to silence dissenting voices from reaching the public by charging a well-known blogger. Raja Petra’s well-written and hardhitting articles on the high-profile Mongolian murder case have hit a raw nerve among those top guns whom names he mentions in his blog. Presently there are a lot of corruption cases among the ruling elite, cases which seem to gather dust in the public prosecutor’s office. But once the cases involve the opposition members, just a trivial thing can land the individuals in jail. What double standard is this? Raja Petra might not be the first person to face the wrath of the law by publishing interesting articles which ridicule corrupt politicians on their misdeeds but now other bloggers too must watch their backs as what they post on the Internet might make them to be on the ‘wrong side’ of the law and they will have to face the music as well. When will the government ever learn that you cannot control information from reaching out to the public in this global world that we live in. The mainstream media is not the choice of the reading public what with their stale news. We cannot prevent people from reading the alternative medias and blogs for information on the wheelings and dealings of the ruling elite as they empty public coffers. More often than not, their articles are true as compared to mainstream news media controlled by the government. Our freedom of speech is under assault today with the jailing of Raja Petra and one can only hope that other brave souls who dare to expose the misdeeds of the ruling elite will not be cowed by this unfortunate incident and will continue to report the truth about what is wrong with this country. This despite that it might expose the high and mighty’s lack of integrity while they are in power. Raja Petra is a torchbearer of the good against evil in this country. Let us all decent Malaysians pray and at the same time donate some token sum to his defence team. May his ultimate sacrifice in going to jail galvanise other decent people to speak out loud and clear on what is wrong in this country. We cannot allow corrupt politicians to have it their way by intimidating and jailing those who expose public officials misdeeds in public. Only tyrants with their vain ego still thinks that they can control the people with government apparatus and stop dissenting voices from being heard. Let us hope our strong opposition in Parliament will bring up Raja Petra’s case which is seen as nothing but political persecution by all right-thinking members of the public. Malaysiakini - Letters