I just got back from there. When I left, his trial for sedition was in full swing.
RPK was brought down from Kamunting this morning at about 8.30am. He looked down in spirits. Looks like the psy-ops might be working. :(
There were only two witnesses brought in today. The judge appeared indignant. "The court has been booked for the entire day, and all you have is two witnesses??" she demanded from prosecution.
Of course, it was all the more amusing that our "expert" witness from SKMM had some trouble defining what a website was. Some sources claim that he couldn't quite remember the Malaysia Today website address!
Guess he's not an avid reader. :) Obviously not big on homework, either!
The turn-out was a little bigger than I'd personally expected. The usual suspects were there - Haris Ibrahim, Zorro, Shanghai Fish and Lulu. I also met The Whisperer who introduced himself upon hearing I was the bad-ass C!
Lulu was such an angel. She'd baked toblerone cupcakes which tasted just heavenly. I hadn't had my breakfast yet, so it was a much appreciated gesture. Love ya, girl!
A bunch of Australians were covering the trial, if I'm not mistaken, it was ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corp.
I heard from the grapevine that this trial is going to last for the next 3 days, so people, please show up and lend your support. Seriously, I can't make it everyday. I work in Cyberjaya.
It cost me RM9.50 using the ERL and then RM1.60 connecting from KL Sentral to Taman Jaya station, so both ways had me poorer by almost RM25.
But if YOU live thereabouts of PJ, please try and make time to make your presence felt. We need to make a statement, and no time like the present.
UPDATE: Haris has a whole bunch of photos.
23 comments:
Ah, Crankster.
I've been waiting and waiting in front of my computer screen for someone to post SOMETHING on the trial today. Boy, are you quick!
Thanks for the bite-size info!
Cheers
That's because I left halfway. The rest are still waiting faithfully outside the sessions cout.
It was a really hot morning but as I left, it was threatening to rain.
Keep it to yourself, but Haris might sit on the bar tomorrow. No real action though, just formalities.
i have an idea, which i hope RPK could b told n would consider...
RPK should NOT employ any lawyer to represent him, (can say he's bankrupt or something), n then say that he CANNOT go on with the trial BCOS THEY FUCKING LOCK HIM UP IN THE ISA CAMP!!
bcos if he's NOT allowed to b out n about to find his witnesses or do the necessary stuff to bring evidence to court - AND he's got NO lawyer to help him do that - how can they just go on with the trial? it's not fair, isnt it??
at least, this could delay the matter for a long time...??
what do u think??
If RPK has no lawyer, the court will appoint one for him. Probably one so bad that no insurance company will cover for malpractice.
And frankly, they want to drag and delay the trial for as long as possible so no dirty news will escape.
Crank,
I didn't say you were a bad ass.. not even close to that.
It's how you wrote your piece of mind that caught my attention.
Nothing else really matter. Nice to finally get to know you.
Lunch break was delayed till after 1.30pm.
I managed to get into the courtroom and Pete was there having discussion with his lawyers with his family members, friends and supporters surrounding him, only to be barricade by the dock.
His spirit was higher than those in the morning when he was taken out from the van into the courtroom.
Other than than, nothing much to shout about. Just the prosecutors questioning on the technicalities of internet. 5 more questions for the afternoon session which is suppose to start at 2.30pm.
Like you said, we need more moral supporters for Pete. Be there if any of you can make it.
Just a manner of speech, Whisperer... but good to know you don't think I'm a bad-ass! ;-)
Ach, wish I could have stayed a little longer, but I don't think I could have pulled it off though.
And I gotta get back to work.
I guess this is what makes trying to prosecute someone under the Sedition Act so difficult. There are so many technicalities and loopholes that even if the person was actually guilty, he could be let off scot free.
In this instance, it looks like RPK has no actual defence, just his lawyers trying to get him off based on technicalities.
So remember guys, you can really say anything you want just make sure you've prepared for some technicality or other so that in case they sue you for slander, you won't be charged. Pretty good, actually, no?
“Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did the leader of the Opposition.”
good crowd this morning… lets keep it up… keep the courtroom full all sessions.
get organised, take shifts…
Feed RPK our love & support
!!!PEOPLE POWER!!!
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http://delcapo.wordpress.com/
i just got back from there too. How come no one? sigh, and i thought i could preside and dispense. ;P
Walla,where is Anwar Ibrahim? What is his stand on RPK’s detention? RPK gave his life, metaphorically speaking, to uphold Anwar’s “ideals.” RPK bet the ranch on Anwar becoming PM on 916 and came out a loser, a pathetic flat broke loser. Has Anwar and gang even addressed the RPK ISA issue? Indeed, his silence is deafening. What about Lim Kit Siang? Once Teresa Kok and the Sin Chew reporter got out, Unker Kit Siang has disappeared as well. What about PAS? Do you think either the old ulamas or the younger Islamist cadres have anything in common with RPK? Do you think they like RPK? Did RPK and his MT junkies pushed for the release of Nik Adli, Tuan Guru Nik Aziz’s son, who was under ISA detention for many years? I don't recall any Ah Sohs, Ah Mois, Leng Chais and Uncles bearing "Free Nik Adli" t-shirts in front of the Kamunting camp. Actually, you MT junkies would not recognize Nik Adli even if he walked right past your smug faces. And you expect PAS to sympathise with RPK? You expect PAS to fight for RPK amidst Malaysia Today’s anti-Islamic postings and its readers’ rabid rantings against Islam?
In a nutshell, do you think the Pakatan Rakyat gives a hoot about RPK? No. He was a useful tool. But he was also a disposable tool. RPK is no use to them now. Indeed, he is now a distraction . They want to govern the nation. They have no time for this old chap. To them, RPK is just a lost soul who threw too many dices in his own little crapshoot. Their focus is on 27.5 million men and women. Not one guy who spoke and wrote too much. And they won’t glorify, deify or make a martyr out of RPK either. That’s already reserved for one man.
Marina, you owe it to RPK to close down Malaysia Today. Your “struggle” is for nothing. These sly political opportunists and selfish cyber-parasites don't deserve your sacrifice. There are hardly a few thousand legitimate signatures in your Free RPK petition. Only a few hundred turned up in candlelight vigils and at the Hari Raya assembly at the gate of Kamunting. What does that tell you? There is no avalanche of support for RPK. There never was. The “millions of supporters” are just but a mirage spawned by delusions of grandiosity that snowballed in the Malaysia Today cyber-habitat over the years.
Let this be a lesson to other bloggers. Do not get caught in your own demagoguery, in a propensity to over-fantasize your relevance to the political process and role as some sort of a “peoples’ hero” based on the digits of your blog’s Hit Counter and a bucketful of readers’ comments.
To answer your question, Anwar is in the other court at jalan duta today as i write this. I am sure you would also have thought it out that any outward support by Anwar et al would be a kiss of death onto our old friend for that is as sure to be taken by the powerites as a culpable connection, innit? And, also, if you're PAS' Hadi, would you risk censure, fire and brimstone from your own members if you turn up to support the very man whose writings had raised questions on how the faith has been applied in this country? By the same token and on the flip side, anyone else to clamour for the release of PAS detainees.
Look, this country's a rojak. It's a rojak of peoples, policies, processes and policing. So who's anyone to moralize that his standards of indignation suffice for the righting of wrongs? Six years back no one would have known what a blog is. Even today, the judiciary system that we seem to have is no better, especially at Lorong Sultan, PJ. They're still trying to frame questions about the internet when the rest of the world has already gone past web2.0 and 4G.
Only a handful of people blog and comment as central to their existence. For the most, they just come together as and when they can to write something that has been subterranean for too long. And the reason why they do so is because they have no other means to speak their mind. The aduns? You just have one whose mykad has been phished. The media? good for giving you such slants that black mondays can creep in and you would still think it's christmas season. The political parties? uhuh..what the f have we all been writing about? Perhaps, judas? But s/he ain't that bad, becuz the latest theory is that he was actually acting on the Orders of Him.
If you're so indignant that the world does come up to your standard of showing righteousness about things, why don't you show RPK's wife that you can walk the talk, and rustle up those millions that haven't turned up for his vigil? Or, have you forgotten how many had turned up at other rallies now past? If all is hunky dory, what gives such displays of ire, water cannons notwithstanding?
We all do what we can with what we have. Some of us, already too much. RPK, for instance, may be labelled a crapshooter but did anyone ask whether that is what is necessary in order to move the mountain of inertia that has engulfed the populace for too long? Even if only five percent of what he has written is right, that is leverage you can't buy in any other media or for that matter, by any other person in living memory. Innit? Well, innit?
i actually went there today in the hope of lending some form of solidarity to RPK (and, hopefully, to meet one buxomic woman). i would have gone there wearing my striped pyjamas to denote a fellow prison bird but they would then have invited me in to sit in the cage, and then i would not be here writing this for the edification of an expired can of melaminized beans.
and if you've been paid to write, how much, i wanna know too. I don't have any money to buy you a cuppa to toast your sense of indignation.
that's also why i walked there and am hot now.
i, forget this at your peril, am, walla.
Yep, Walla is right, even if Anwar Ibrahim was not being tried today, it would probably look too politically motivated.
Yesterday, I saw Ronnie Liu and Lim Kit Siang with my own two eyes, so what are you referring to Judas?
I didn't see anything remotely anti-Islamic in RPK's writings. If anything, he brought people of all races and religions together. RPK reminded us that we're all human and thus, fallible.
The “millions of supporters” are just Malaysian. A lot of talk and no action. Pretty much like yourself, Judas.
wow... u dont need to work?
Actually :) dont you guys work ? And walla is right you know ,Judas was actually following the Boss's Orders. Chill Guys .
Zewt and Knights Templar, I'm a blogger, so naturally I'm female and unemployed according to our ministers, remember? :)
But honestly, I took some time off work. Had to stay back until night to make up for it.
It's a sacrifice, but I believe in making a statement, not just typing out rhetoric on my blog.
You're Female ? ... i could have sworn you were a Guy.
Have a nice day Lady :)
be assured, she's very female, form and substance. ;P
Hahaha, very funny, Knights. Have a great day (or night).
Good you were there to support RPK, crankster. I would be there too, if I could. I just feel so sorry for this guy.
To look at the optimistic side, prison life seems to suit him - he looks leaner (he was getting a belly, no?) and I read he ploughed thru NINE books!
Anwar won't be caught near RPK - he still needs the Muslim votes to realise his dream of becoming PM. What is one fallen soldier?
It's up to people like us - people who saw it coming and warned without effect - to pick up what is left of poor RPK and lend him our fullest support. Afterall, we all know what it's like to love somebody.
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"Let this be a lesson to other bloggers. Do not get caught in your own demagoguery, in a propensity to over-fantasize your relevance to the political process and role as some sort of a “peoples’ hero” based on the digits of your blog’s Hit Counter and a bucketful of readers’ comments."
Anon 10:52. As I don't have a hit counter to get high on nor a bucketful of comments to fan my vanity, I think I've the right to correct your perception of us.
Most of us blog simply because we love our country too much to stay silent. Unlike you, we haven't given it up yet.
And noone can say put it better than Walla, "Only a handful of people blog and comment as central to their existence. For the most, they just come together as and when they can to write something that has been subterranean for too long. And the reason why they do so is because they have no other means to speak their mind."
So Anon, most of us don't think of ourselves as "heroes". We are just like you, only with more heart and hope.
Hey Rox. :) I've missed ya.
As for RPK, I don't really feel sorry for him. He knew the consequences of his actions, and still went ahead.
Whether he got a raw deal, I can't decide. The fight has only just begun. And for what it's worth, he inspires me.
Ma'am, I salute you.
His trial started a few days after I left Malaysia, else you bet your lovely-bad-ass-self that I would have been there.
I am pissed off at Malaysians. They would rather kiss the robber Bodowi's arse and stuff themselves full of leftover satay in his open house than to face the heat for a man of principle, fighting for their children's future. *Puke*
We need a million more people like you, Haris, Lulu, and Zorro to shame our people into action.
I read your post, Tzarina. Was a little too intimidated to comment. You sure know how to pack a punch. :)
But yes, it's quite disturbing how Malaysians can wax lyrical but do diddly squat.
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