Rahmat the Rebel

It is not only the artists who should change the country and the world that they live in. It is everybody’s responsibility. The first step is to open up imagination.

Controversial poet (and artist and rebel!) Rahman Harun responds to Bissme's searching questions in the Sun and along the way talks about (among much else) the ISA, the environment, the state of the country, and how he marched to Putrajaya with others to hand the PM a pillow.

You can watch Rahmat performing his most famous poem, Keranamu Malaysia, a liturgy of Malaysian slogans on YouTube, here.

Censorship in Malaysia

If you missed veteran journalist and playwright Kee Thuan Chye, dramatist and actress Jo Kukathas, Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin talking to Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera about press freedom and censorship of the arts - well, here it is again thanks to the miracle of YouTube!

RPK Freed

The court decision today has made it very clear that ISA cannot be used for political reasons. I am not a terrorist. I am not a dangerous person. I am just a writer.

Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was released from his two-year detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) yesterday following his successful habeus corpus application.

Those Arrests

It's no good. It's too big to be ignored. Forgive the off-topicness.

This blogger vehemently protests the arrest and detention without trial of Raja Petra, MP Theresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act. I add my voice to those demanding their immediate release.

More here on The Malaysian Insider ... which also says that intelligence sources said more arrests are likely ... making us wonder if this is this a repeat of the infamous Operation Lalang of 1987?

Three newspapers have also been issued show-cause letters.

Certainly these measures smack of desperation and are taken by a government which has clearly lost the plot.

Tan's arrest (for, hello, simply doing her job as a reporter!) has sent shockwaves through those working in the media. On Rocky's blog, Norlia Daud of the National Union of Journalists is quoted as saying :

This is a gravely serious matter. For the first time in 21 years, a journalist has been detained under the ISA. A reporter has been detained under ISA for doing her job, for reporting. The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, only recently told media practioners to be brave in reporting the truth [read the Star's Uphold the truth, 4/9], and now the Government has taken an action designed to intimidate these media practitioners. Sin Chew has been issued with a show-cause letter by the Government over the Ahmad Ismail report, so why invoke the ISA when before letting the newspaper editors respond to the show-cause? Also, I am very disappointed that the editors have not been hauled up. In any newspaper company, it is the Editor who is accountable. The NUJ will monitor the developments very closely.

I'm not very good at writing of matters political so please let me pass you on to other bloggers who talk a lot of sense. Here's some to start with : Kickdefella, Marina Mahathir, KTemoc, Lulu, Patrick Teoh, Jeff Ooi, Eli Wong.

(The badge, which I also picked up from Rocky's blog, is designed by Mr. Smith and I wish I had a real life version to wear.)