PKR webmaster Nathaniel Tan claims that his four-day remand experience indicated that the police were unequipped to handle Internet crime.

At a press conference today, Tan said questions posed by several police personnel who interrogated him gave him the impression that they were facing "severe and almost criminally negligent inaptitude."

"They don't understand what is the Internet, what is a blog posting, blog comment and comment moderation... if they don't understand simple things like this, how can they investigate Internet fraud?

"That's the reason why they arrested me... they didn't do enough investigations on how the Internet works," he claimed.

Tan was arrested last Friday in connection with an anonymous comment left on his blog which touched on the allegations of corruption against Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohd Johari Baharom. Johari was cleared of the allegations last week.

The police claimed that Tan was 'wrongfully communicating state secrets', an offence under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act 1972 which carries a one to 10-year jail penalty.

Subsequently, the police obtained a four-day remand order against Tan on Saturday. He was freed on Tuesday.

Other websites?

According to Tan, he was posed, among others, the following questions:

Do you have the secret document?
Does the blog belong to you?
Did someone make you do this?
Did Tian Chua (PKR information chief) make you write this?

To a question, Tan said he was never quizzed about other websites and blogs.

"They did not discuss with me at length on the state of Internet affairs in Malaysia," he said.

Johari sparked off speculation that the government was on a witch hunt against bloggers when he announced that he had ordered the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) to nab those who spread "lies" on the Internet.

Tan has been dubbed as the first victim of this order. He was investigated by the Cyber Crimes Unit under the CCID.

On his experience in police detention, Tan said that he spent a lot of time talking with police officers and detainees at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

He said that he felt even more motivated after the whole ordeal and urged other young activists not to be afraid of possible repercussions.

"I didn't spend four days inside there to give up an inch of ground," added Tan.

His father, Bob (photo), who also attended the press conference, said it was important that individuals realise that they can make a difference.

Asked if he would support his son all the way, he jokingly replied: "What to do?"

To read Tan's full statement on his four day detention, click on this link.