PRESENT POINT POWER

ABOVE: RPK speaking to reporters after his release from the 8-hr Interview with Police and BELOW: DAP Ronnie Liu with his wife Marina Lee Abdullah keeping vigil during the interview

ABOVE & BELOW: Malaysiakini late evening Update of the release of Raja Petra Kamaruddin, details H E R E for Subscribers

Raja Petra defiant after eight-hour grilling

Charles Ramendran; SUN; Updated: 01:44AM Thu, 26 Jul 2007

KUALA LUMPUR (July 26, 2007): Malaysia-today.net webmaster Raja Petra Kamarudin, who is being investigated for alleged sedition, emerged defiant as ever yesterday after spending eight hours at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters. He was summoned for questioning following a report lodged by Umno on Monday alleging the blogger had insulted the King and Islam in his website. The 57-year-old blogger arrived about 11am, accompanied by his wife Marina Abdullah, 50, and friends. He was believed to have given a statement and met district police chief ACP Mohd Zulkarnian Abdul Rahman.

He emerged at 7.15pm to be greeted by about 30 reporters.

BELOW: ACP Mohd Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman, CPO Dang Wangi said RPK was aksed to give a statement.

Mohd Zulkarnian(ABOVE) said earlier that Raja Petra was being investigated under the Sedition Act. Marina said it was the second time her husband had been called in for questioning over postings in his weblog. Last year, he was questioned over a posting which alleged the sale of state titles in Negri Sembilan. No action was taken against him.

In 2001, Raja Petra was detained under the Internal Security Act. mno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib lodged a police report against Raja Petra over postings which allegedly condemned the King and Islam. Raja Petra responded via a long posting criticising Muhammad and also made certain allegations against the former Selangor mentri besar.

ABOVE: RPK Talking to reporters about his almost 8 hrs ordeal.

He told reporters waiting outside the Dang Wangi station: "I came here to defend myself of the allegations and brought my Quran with me and asked them where I went wrong. I demanded they tell me where I had insulted the King and Islam in the website. They made me sign about 30 or 40 papers and I protested when they asked me to reveal the bloggers who posted comments on Malaysia-Today.net.

"How am I to know who? We have 20,000 news items and five million comments from bloggers coming from 146 countries. Although 70% of these are comments from Malaysians, how are we to know who they are. I don't know who they are and neither do I want to know." He alleged that Umno was behind such postings in his website."These people are Umno 'cybertroopers', there are about 25 of them paid RM2,750 a month to raid and invade malaysia-today.net. They flood my website with about 500 to 600 unwanted and sensitive comments daily and I lose sleep every night cleaning this mess up by deleting them from my site," he said. However, he admitted that such comments were open to viewing for hours until they were removed.

Raja Petra said there was an agenda to clamp down on blogs before the coming general election in a move to black out news. When asked about the allegations made by Muhammad that malaysia-today.net had carried comments which insulted the King, Raja Petra said:

"Where, where is that particular posting he is referring to? If I smoke a cigar with the Sultan of Selangor (Raja Petra's cousin), does that mean I disrespect him? The police asked me about a comment on my website which read 'Why fight, we are Malaysians, let us live peacefully and be happy'. This is a positive comment but I was questioned about what it meant." He said finally the police asked him what was the purpose of the website and he said he told them "malaysia-today.net was to teach Malaysians to debate in an intelligent and mature manner. Whether it be agreed upon or not, it must be allowed".= = == = =

= = == =Bernama at July 25, 2007 21:44 PM Police Quiz Malaysia Today's Blogger

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Bernama) -- Police today interviewed Malaysia Today's blogger, Raja Petra Kamaruddin following a report lodged on Monday by Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib who claimed that the blog had churned out sensitive remarks. Accompanied by his wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, 51, and Parti Keadilan Rakyat information chief Tian Chua and several supporters, Raja Petra, 57, showed up at Dang Wangi Police District headquarters at about 11am. Raja Petra who was led into the police headquarters by a policeman gave his statement at 12.15pm and until 6pm he had yet to leave the station. According to Marina, Raja Petra received a call from a police officer with the rank of an ASP at 8am asking him to give a statement at the police station.

Dang Wangi District Police Chief ACP Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman confirmed that Raja Petra was summoned to give his statement over his article in Malaysia Today's blog on July 11 which was said to delve on religious and racial sentiments. This is the second time Raja Petra was summoned by police to give a statement over his article posted in the blog which started in August 2004. He had given a police statement last year.= = = == = == = = == = =

As of Press time at 7.00 pm he was still inside. Meanwhile his wife and other supporters like PKR Tian Chua and DAP Ronnie Liu were there outside.

ABOVE & BELOW: RPK arriving at the Dang Wangi Police Station. He was escorted there by his wife. He seems to have better treatment than what happened to Nathaniel Tan of PKR