The punishment does not fit the crime

May 9, 2008

You’d think that the idiots at Umno would have learned from their mistakes that cost them the two-thirds majority during the General Elections.

Unspun thinks RPK does rant and rail a bit but sedition? The punishment, as Gilbert and Sullivan would say, does not ft the crime.

Sue him for heaven’s sake but not sedition. Its like using a hammer to kill a fly and people don’t like hammerheads.

clipped from chunwai08.blogspot.com

RPK case – the political cause and cost

Perception is everything in politics. For the Barisan Nasional, the public perception against the government is that the sedition charge is a form of persecution against blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin for his daring comments. He is a hero who dare to face the might of the government, even at the risk of being jailed. Fresh from the heavy electoral defeats in five states, the public opinion against the BN can be politically costly. In fact, it can ill afford such sentiments at this point. RPK has the public on his side.
It would be more appropriate, even more effective, for the aggrieved parties to file civil suits against RPK. Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to slander or libel, his detractors are saying. Sue him for defamation and libel then. It is more difficult to prove the sedition charges against him, in fact.

unspun

4 responses to “The punishment does not fit the crime”

michael chick

May 9, 2008 at 6:44 am

LikeLike

Reply
Rob

May 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm

I do not really know Malaysian law all that well however I would have thought that in a common law setting that defamation and libel laws would be in place.

I agree that the freedoms that so often are espoused in cyber land here are absolute. The idea of an absolute freedom of the press and an absolute freedom of expression would mean that defamation and libel would be obsolete!

Sedition seems a bit harsh in this case, particularly so if it is as you say much harder to prove than defamation and libel, some might even say that the application of sedition laws is draconian in every sense of the word!

It is overkill and the analogy of the fly and the hammer seems an apt one.

Have a good weekend!

LikeLike

Reply
Lamandau

May 10, 2008 at 10:04 am

Just a bit of correction. BN failed to achieve 2/3 majority in Parliment , not Umno!! Well , in th RPK’s case, I doubt very much it was initiated by DS Najib. As mentioned by his press Sec in his letter to RPK “Since the allegations are serious and damaging in nature, the DPM will not hesitate to seek legal redress on the matter.” strengthened my belief.

I feel that there is another hand giving instruction to PDRM to prosecute RPK using his posting “Let’s Send the Altantuya Murderers to Hell ” which I feel rather inappropriate to link to Sedition Acts. There are other postings by RPK that pit well with the Act. This goes to show that someone wants to keep the allegation against DS Najib involvement in Altantuya’s case , going. However it is quite sad to notice that DS Najib himself did nothing to quell the perceptions that he was behind RPK’ being charged!!!!

LikeLike

Reply
mira ismalanti

December 8, 2009 at 11:19 am

hi jason, bisa kita ketemu ?
bisa kita kenalan sebentar
and untuk lebih jauh ?

jason, love you….

LikeLike

Reply