A storm’s brewing once again in the land I call home….
One of Malaysia’s most prominent political blogger, credited as being a big resounding influence on the recent elections is currently in jail for sedition of one of his blog post. This is THE man that regular citizens have looked up to for his courage and fearlessness in revealing injustice and defying opression by the same people that has been trusted to run the country. Making a stand, RPK has refused bail and visitors. His wife started a campaign to raise his bail money (a measly RM5000, less than USD 2000) – hoping that 5000 Malaysians will donate RM1 each. After 6 hours the total is about RM24,000 in bank transfers and USD 4,000 via pay pal. Being at work, I completely missed the whole donation drive and by the time I came back it had been suspended due to the generosity from people donating a few hundred RMs at a time instead of the requested RM1. Regular citizens just wanting to do their part to help this man who is quick acquiring folk hero status.
His wife, who had personally witnessed him beaten up by the cops when he was arrested in 2000, is pleading that all Malaysians do their part, and petition their MP to boycott Parliament. Hopefully with enough protests, the powers to be will realize that RPK is not alone, and the Malaysian public that was responsible for the political tsunami will again show their support for one of the very few who are brave enough to stand up against the limp government.
The reason I am blogging this because I am advocating democratic free speech – media or otherwise. RPK, as a highly articulate journalist and a member of the royal family is now in jail for a blog post. Is there any hope for the rest of us – the regular citizens? You’ve voted for change – please continue to support those who advocated change and woke the rest of us up to the non democratic government.
If anything happens to RPK whilst he is in jail, I have no doubt that a turbulent upheaval will occur in Malaysia….
UPDATED 8th May: Bail have been posted and RPK will be released tomorrow. There will be a candlelight vigil at Dataran Merdeka at 8pm tonight.
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Once he mentioned in media that he can show that royal families are not useless leeches. This also will show we can fight for a better country. Free RPK!
Comment by Mandy 05.08.08 @ 8:30 amLeave a comment