Summary: Raja Petra
Kamarudin is Malaysian blogger known for his racist remarks inciting has
insulted Senior police officer Commissioner Datuk Seri Amar Singh turban in his
blog. He mentioned that “Amar Singh’s Turban Must Too Tight. Amar Singh, at
that time handling Najib’s case in regards to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad
(1MDB) financial scandal challenge RPK to produce evidence on the accusation upon
PDRM sweeping off RM40mil but eventually statement was retracted. Police
commissioner further stressed that the racist remark used as weapon was weak amplifying
the level of hatred with minimum reasoning. PRK then continues to bring on the
1MDB issue and Amar Singh having his justification clear cut. He said that the
idea of RM43.3million that was allocated into 15 bags with no monitoring of the
circuit was certainly impossible and hard to escape from the media’s spotlight.
Action: RPK apologies
to Amar Singh and the Sikh community and was made aware of the sacred faith of
the turbans. He further mentioned that what he intended was not matter but what
was received by the public of how I said mattered. He posted his apologies on
blog whilst Majlis Gurdwara Malaysia issued a statement against RPK for his derogatory
and racial remark. His apologies not only reached out to the Sikh community but
also the Minister of Communication Gobind Singh Deo and Amarjit Sidhu, the
lawyer. He claimed and owed his gratitude to Manjeet Singh and Karpal Singh who
was his lawyers during his trials, ISA detention and settling in UK after
leaving Malaysia in 2009.
Review: the article has
mixed up racial and political issue which is branching out into two different discussions.
Initially the article was talking about the plaintiff’s turban and the
defendant brings in the political issue related to 1MDB financial scandal.
Though the plaintiff attack was on the turban, it makes no sense to talk about
the financial scandal. The initial issue strike with the latter statements
about 1MDB shows no connection to the actual title of the article. However, the
article title with the relevant articles to it brings about awareness about the
boundaries of freedom of speech. Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind
Singh Deo urges the importance to regulate hate speech laws by using the above
as an example. He intends to strengthen such law across the nation’s
territorial to ensure strict prosecution of individuals committing to such
crime across borders. The necessary act that could be placed upon the racial issue case is Section 211 and 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, Section 499 and Section 298A. The above case can be further supported with Matteo
Salvini sues black MEP for defamation in racism row (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/19/matteo-salvini-sues-mep-cecile-kyenge-for-defamation-in-racism-row)
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