‘They call me a cyber terrorist’

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sweeping by-election victory takes him one step closer to power. Raja Petra Kamarudin is one of his most vociferous supporters and the man behind the Malaysia Today news website.

To ordinary Malaysians, Raja Petra is something like a rock star. As publisher and editor of Malaysia Today, the self-confessed hippie has delighted his fans by turning up the heat on the nation's troubled politicians, who vainly attempt to rebuke him or feign indifference whenever his name is mentioned.

"They call me a cyber terrorist," he says with a smile and a slight sense of bewilderment.

Politicians try to dismiss him as a mere blogger, which in Malaysian parlance is a term with its own nuances as the country's leaders eagerly attempt to relegate their critics to the status of second-class citizens because they communicate through the Internet as opposed to the mainstream media.

Former Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin referred to Raja Petra and other bloggers as off-key karaoke singers who like the sound of their own voices, but lack real public influence. Azril Amin, vice-president of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, once wrote that Raja Petra had failed to meet his responsibilities by defaming Islamic organisations. He also said Raja Petra had a confused misunderstanding of Islam and was appalled by his "vulgar-languaged polemic".

Such attacks might hold some credibility if the very popular Malaysia Today was a flop. Instead the website has become a target for hackers — many suspect supporters of the Barisan Nasional — since it scored a massive five million hits over two days in July last year as Raja Petra was summoned to a police station to respond to defamation charges.

He is now facing four charges of sedition and a further three charges of criminal defamation for alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was linked to the brutal 2006 murder of a beautiful Mongolian model, Altantuya Shaaribuu, a crime that has captured the attention of the nation.

Najib has denied the allegations and gone so far as to swear in a mosque that he never met or had anything to do with the dead woman.

Raja Petra is also being investigated after casting doubt on the validity of a second sodomy charge, a crime in mostly Muslim Malaysia, being brought against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

"They're charging me with everything except spitting on the street," says Raja Petra.

We're sitting on the veranda of a modest restaurant in the middle-class suburb of Bangsar, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Raja Petra's wife, Marina, is nearby, and the patrons, waiters and people walking past are acutely aware of Raja Petra — who is vainly attempting to light a pipe — and what he stands for. Friends call him "RPK" or "Pete".

At the heart of Malaysia Today remains what is cherished most by Raja Petra; honesty, transparency and accountability. But the recipe for success is much less noble; an old-fashioned racy mix of corruption and politics, laced with sex and murder.

And there's no shortage of material, fuelled by scandal-prone politicians who have felt the wrath of voters at the ballot box and risk being thrown out of government by Anwar, who is also Raja Petra’s politician of choice.

"I think he'll be the next prime minister," he said.

That choice was a long time coming.

Raja Petra first met Anwar as a teenager. Born in England to Selangor royalty through his father and with a Welsh mother, he was later educated at one of Malaysia's top boarding schools, the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK), known then as the "Eton of the East", where Anwar was three years his senior, a prefect and unloved. "I never shared his political sentiments, he represented everything I was against," he said of Anwar, whose political career dates back to his school days. "There was certainly no love for him then."

Nothing personal, Anwar — it was the 1960s. Politicians and the Establishment were out of favour and even the school's old boys were railing against their British roots, referring to Eton as the "MCKK of the West".

"I didn't like politics, nor Anwar so much, it was what he represented," Raja Petra said.

"I became a biker, so did my wife, I was 17 and she was young and we became part of the Malay chapter of Hell's Angels.

"We were anti-establishment, anti-Vietnam War, I wanted marijuana legalised, I was a hippy and into Woodstock. We grew our hair long when everyone else wore their hair short. When people grew their hair long we shaved — maybe we just never grew out of that, going against the system."

Those sentiments changed only slightly over the next 30 years as the first of five children arrived.

At home, the television channel was changed every time Anwar's face popped up on the screen.

But in 1998, Anwar was sacked by then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, almost beaten to death and jailed for six years on corruption and sodomy charges, although the sodomy charge was later dropped.

"When he was first sacked, my initial reaction was 'Serves you bloody right'. Then he was beaten and a lot of people sympathised with him overnight.

"This is just wrong; a government cannot do that, he was sacked for political reasons, nothing else, and now no one believes in this second sodomy charge," he said.

And perhaps there is a touch of the Old Etonian about Raja Petra. He says it's all about respect for authority, position and age, a healthy respect that he reserves even for Dr Mahathir, who he partially blames for eroding the importance of their alma mater.

"When Mahathir came to power he held Cabinet meetings on Wednesdays, the same day that old boys would wear their school ties. Half the Cabinet turned up with the same tie on, and Mahathir asked why so many people were wearing the same tie. The habit abruptly stopped," he said.

"However, Mahathir still gets my respect. I kiss his hand when we meet and people ask me why? It's a Malay sign of respect. He is an older man and that is the way we respect our elders. We may not agree with you but you are an ex-prime minister and in your eighties," he said. "The same goes for Anwar. You can't beat up a former deputy PM, beat him and nearly kill him."

It was at that point the former motorcycle dealer and rice distributor became involved in politics. He helped establish a new party that over 10 years has evolved into the multiracial Parti Keadilan Rakyat — Anwar's main political vehicle in his attempt to oust the government — and established Malaysia Today.

Raja Petra is delighted to list his proudest moments; the stories that linked senior police officers with senior underworld figures, the government's involvement with the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal in Iraq and lurid tales of lavish gifts involving Malaysian leaders and their extra-marital affairs.

The accuracy of his reports has left many wondering who his sources are, especially when he can detail an alleged meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Najib and Saiful Bukhari Azlan who made the second sodomy allegation against Anwar shortly after Anwar announced he would garner enough defections to form a new government after the Barisan Nasional's abysmal showing in the March general election.

At that poll, the BN coalition led by Umno lost the two-thirds majority it had held in Parliament since independence in 1957. Prime Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has since announced he will hand over power to his troubled deputy, Najib, in mid-2010.

Raja Petra also uncovered another alleged meeting in Room 619 of the Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur between Saiful and a police officer named Mohammad Rodwan Mohammad Yousef, just one day before the sodomy allegedly took place. Rodwan was also involved with the initial charges of sodomy against Anwar made 10 years earlier.

His doubts also extend to the current trial of two police officers for the murder of Altantuya. "They wouldn't know the difference between C4 and Plasticine," he says with a touch of mirth, referring to the way the model's body was disposed of — by being blown up by explosives.

Is he wrong?

Raja Petra is quick to point out that nobody has refuted any of the claims made on Malaysia Today, instead he is dismissed as a "blogger".

"They won't deny it," he says.

Initially, charges of making a false statement, which would require proof, were brought against him but later dropped. Instead he was charged with sedition and criminal defamation, where truth is not a defence.

"And I'm told I'm the first person ever to be charged under this law (criminal defamation)."

Raja Petra is left despondent by the tactics. He sighs and finally lights his pipe.

And who are his sources?

But that's one subject he won't discuss. — Bangkok Post