The Malaysian Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali has lodged a police report against Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) (pic) over the blogger’s recent articles accusing the AG of corruption.
“I am seriously going to sue and am consulting my lawyer friends in the United Kingdom. This is nothing but fake news done with evil intention,” the AG had said on Oct 22.
Apandi Ali is furious and has started the proceedings to sue the blogger who was once a prominent opposition figure but has since then allied to the BN camp.
“It is all rubbish and highly defamatory. I intend to sue the writer till kingdom come,” the top prosecutor said in the article entitled Strong Rumours Surrounding the AG: Part 1 published in Raja Petra’s blog on Friday.
The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has called his coalition and the people surrounding him as the ‘family’, and this would include the people defending him on all grounds, bloggers, and officers alike.
But as time passes, the more divisions is seen splitting the ‘family’ right in the middle.
Apandi and Raja Petra were seen as defenders of Najib in the deeply troubling 1MDB case, a case both claimed were settled.
But Raja Petra is not in his first outburst against someone from Najib’s power play. He ranted against officials of the Ministry of Finance, indicating there was a gaping wound in the blind support to Najib.
Malay Hydra
Then came the Asia Sentinel article claiming that Najib’s pandora’s box is now open, with a Malay Hydra unleashed. One that Najib cannot control, it said.
And the award-winning portal (blocked in Malaysia) was referring to the Sultans of Malaysia, who may have broken open that pandora’s box, in their expression of concerns against the rise of ‘Islamic’ extremism in the country – remember the ‘dirty Chinese laundry’ episode.
Asia Sentinel claims there is now a growing rivalry between the country’s nine religiously moderate sultans and its conservative mullahs – Islamists who have joined the ruling Umno – vying for the attention of ethnic Malay Muslims.
Political and social observers believe that if the controversy is left unchecked, it could undermine the position of the corruption-scarred prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak, said the Sentinel.
“Anyone who thinks that this battle royal is just another religious incident that will soon blow over is wrong.”
“Najib knows that clipping the religious preachers’ wings would seriously erode his powerbase, but he is caught in a dilemma of his own making.”
“Rural, feudal Malays are making it crucial that Najib’s political future be determined by his ability to conciliate the royal households and the demands of the power-hungry, conservative Islamic clerics whom he has fostered. Najib has unleashed a hydra which he may be unable to control,” wrote the Sentinel.
PAS with high flying hopes
But it is the PAS anxiety that its prized ‘Hudud’ look-alike bill. Known as “Hadi’s Bill” (Hadi Awang is the leader of the PAS), it is also known as “RUU355”.
It is aimed at amending the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, or Act 355.
The PAS is not sure whether the bill will be put to vote in the current session of the Parliament. This session seems exclusively oriented towards urgent government matters, and of course, the Budget 2018.
Sources told TISG the bill will not be read in the current session and that it will have to wait after the general elections next year.