The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) today lambasted the BN for spinning a two-month-old interview TV3 conducted with blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who is widely referred to as RPK.
In throwing its full support behind RPK, MCLM president Haris Ibrahim said the timing and "spin-doctoring" by the mainstream media clearly showed that the BN was using any means it could to stop Pakatan Rakyat's advance in the Sarawak polls.
Haris accused the mainstream media of having presented Raja Petra's interview completely out of context, describing it as a bid to "distract" voters from the key issue of "bringing change in Sarawak".
"This interview was done in February. RPK just told me that this morning," Haris told a press conference at the MCLM office in Kuala Lumpur.
“Why put up the interview only now? I understand that the entire interview was slightly over an hour long, but they only put on about 10 minutes of footage.
“I challenge TV3 to put up the full, unedited video of the interview on
YouTube
or whatever medium (on the Internet),” Haris
(left)
said.
Haris admitted that no one in MCLM was aware that RPK had done the interview, nor could he give a definite answer on the latter’s motives for agreeing to speak with TV3.
Haris, however, rubbished talk that Raja Petra, who is also MCLM chairperson, had been “coerced”, pointing out that it never even crossed his mind to ask the influential blogger-in-exile if he had been made to agree to the TV3 interview.
“The question of coercion never came into our conversations, because I don’t believe anyone can coerce him,” Haris said, referring to two brief phone conversations he had with Raja Petra over the past three days.
Haris also brushed aside claims that Raja Petra was paid to do the TV3 interview, calling it a “result of massive spin-doctoring by Umno and BN”.
“Show me an iota of evidence, and I will move an EGM (extraordinary general meeting) to have him (Raja Petra) removed (from MCLM)... But I do not believe he is on the take.”
Mainstream media public’s ‘worst enemy’
Haris took exception to the way the mainstream media allegedly spun Raja Petra’s statements made during the TV3 interview, going so far as to call them the public’s “worst enemy”.
Haris pointed out that headlines on the front pages of pro-government publications yesterday and today had “distorted” what Raja Petra meant when he referred to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s involvement in the gruesome murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Re-playing the first of a two part news report aired on TV3 last Wednesday, Haris said those who “understand Bahasa Malaysia” would understand that Raja Petra had in no way absolved the premier couple of their alleged involvement in the murder.
“If you listen carefully, Raja Petra said, ‘ Saya tidak lagi terima cerita itu, sebab saya rasa mungkin mustahil kut ’. He is saying that ‘I do not yet believe this story, because it’s quite incredible’.
“When you read the Star , they quoted him as saying, ‘I no longer accept the story. I think it’s quite impossible’. The mainstream media has distorted (his statement),” Haris said.
Haris added that the mainstream media had insinuated that Raja Petra drew the information that he put down on his statutory declaration in 2008 from several sources, when in fact it only came from one source - Nik Azmi Nik Daud, a former aide to Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
Haris said Raja Petra had then contacted blogger Din Merican to check with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Nik Azmi’s reliability as a source, and at the same time with Razaleigh’s then-aide John Pang for the same reason.
“But what is being spun is that Datuk Seri Anwar’s aides had fed the information to Raja Petra. This is media spin... Part of this is to feed misinformation to the rakyat in longhouses in Sarawak.”
Najib not off the hook
Haris said that while there is no denying Raja Petra had been critical of Anwar and the opposition in the TV3 interview, he stressed that it is nothing that the outspoken blogger hasn’t said before.
He swatted aside media claims that Raja Petra had said Anwar has lost all credibility, rapping the BN and its network of media operatives for making an about-turn when they have been calling the London-based blogger a liar all this while.
“They spun this story and now they have to lend him credence and say, ‘Ah, now he’s telling the truth’.”
Haris said claims of a breakdown in relations between Raja Petra and the opposition are easily dispelled, as not long after Raja Petra’s interview in February he had invited Lembah Pantai MP and Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah, for a joint speaking tour in Australia.
The pair had also met with the foreign relations committee of the Australian government to highlight the alleged injustice Anwar faces in his second sodomy trial, and also requested that they send a team of independent observers to monitor potential election fraud in the Sarawak state elections, Haris added.
He also lambasted Najib for claiming that the Altantuya murder case is closed following Raja Petra’s alleged “confession”, saying that there are too many questions left unanswered for it to be done and over with.
“The public have lost faith in our judiciary. Razak Baginda was acquitted, and the public believe that the two convicted are just scapegoats.
“Nobody understands why these two lowly police officers, of their own volition, blew this woman to smithereens?
“It (the case) may be closed in the PM’s mind, (but) it is not closed in the court of public opinion. That is what counts,” Haris said.
