Harassing Haris and snuffing candles

Is it a crime to light a candle in Dataran Merdeka?

Last Thursday, lawyer-blogger Haris Ibrahim and his friend were seated on the steps fronting the flagpole, observing a candlelight vigil for Raja Petra Kamarudin. At 8.25pm, five police officers approached them. They took Haris away to the Dang Wangi police headquarters where he was questioned for almost an hour but released without charge.

When I told a friend about the incident, he said thank God it was not a menorah (seven-branched candelabrum) that Haris had with him. I suppose if Haris had carried a menorah, he’d be seven times as guilty of Thoughtcrime.

Holding a candle in a public square is not an illegal activity according to the statute books. So why was Haris hauled away in a police car?

On May 8, Haris had written in his blog The People’s Parliament: “I will also be joining others to light a candle tonight at Dataran Merdeka”. From the phrasing of his announcement, it’s clear enough that Haris did not himself organise any illegal assembly. And unless they are pyromaniacs, how is a group of citizens with candles construed as anything other than pacifists?

An eyewitness stated that that night, every section facing the Dataran was cordoned off. Another eyewitness estimated about 200 armed personnel present, including FRU. Special Branch in plainclothes was also there. The heavy presence of the security forces was double the turnout by Raja Petra’s supporters.

It seems logical enough to deduce that the police were waiting at Dataran to nab Haris, and his detention the second salvo fired at blogosphere, after Raja Petra’s sedition charge earlier.

Haris should just play a prank and blog that he’ll hold a candle next for Karpal Singh at KLCC. The authorities might decide once again to deploy their FRU/Strike Force trucks, patrol cars and water cannons, this time to Malaysia’s premier shopping district and make the occasion a unique event on the international tourism calendar.

Creating a climate of fear

Upon hearing of Haris’ arrest, the immediate thoughts of Malik Imtiaz Sarwar – president of Hakam, the national human rights society – largely centred on the possibility of his colleague being held for sedition or under ISA.

In relation to this, Imtiaz says that the administration has nurtured an environment that keeps Malaysians in a constant state of tension and anxiety, and that it is an element in the methodology of fear to keep civil society in check.

The Star reported that Haris was taken to police HQ to be “checked for his particulars” (Note however that this brief coverage was in the paper’s print version only and omitted from Star Online).

What details could be obtained from Haris on Thursday night which police do not already know? Haris states that his detention was harassment; we at People’s Parliament further believe it was an act of intimidation to put fear into blogosphere.

In Penang on May 11, seven people protesting the ISA were detained by police, two of them overnight. BK Ong, who also blogs, described his detention as ‘more of harassment’, saying: “Perhaps the police wanted to instil fear in anti-ISA activists.” So too, charging a commentator in Raja Petra’s website for sedition was similarly propagating this psychology of fear.

But in a way, I do see a positive side to Haris’ arrest, though of course this is not a notion his wife or family would support. For one thing, it’s made us Netizens confront the possibilities of police action, and rethink our engagement in public space.

Blogosphere comprises people who read blogs, who comment in them and who write the postings, moderate and administer blogs – and this, in all, is a large constituency. Because People’s Parliament is a cyber advocacy, I’d also refer to those who log on to Haris’ website as ‘participants’ because we take our projects offline, or to the ground.

Is blogosphere a threat to the establishment? The powers-that-be and its satellites clearly see the necessity of co-opting it. The coming online of ‘new kids on the blog’ such as Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, Muhammad Muhammad Taib, Dr Chua Soi Lek and Wong Chun Wai, as well as old Press hands into New Media is rendering the Web more mainstream in nature now.

Cyber repository of ideas

Last week, People’s Parliament breached one-million hits. This benchmark is gauge of a blogger’s influence as cyber opinion-shaper, though Haris would insist he’s “irrelevant” (hence MSM generally not reporting on his detention).

Speaking at the BUM 2008 bloggers forum last fortnight, Haris said members of the Fourth Estate or MSM have failed civil society and “sold their souls”. He added the Fifth Estate should not allow itself to take the same course.

Since Haris and I are both in the ‘Boycott the Newspapers!’ Hartal committee, I’m adding my views to his. I believe MSM deliberately keep readers in the dark to make Malaysians afraid of shadows.

However, the Internet is now an avenue to get the truth out. Take for instance the May 9 police standoff with residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras (BMC). Members of the public were digitally recording the unfolding drama on their cellphones, and these images can easily be transmitted as MMS, the multimedia messaging service or uploaded online for everyone to view. This upshot of ICT is that MSM no longer has a monopoly on news dissemination.

On YouTube, it looked like Opposition MP Lim Lip Eng – who had been legal advisor to the BMC Open Road committee – was pepper sprayed. The video clip also showed a man being pushed into a police car and heard yelling “Jangan tendang!” Presumably it was police who were kicking him.

Internet is challenging the official versions of stories told by MSM. Haris has written an own account of his brush with police, here. If previously, someone detained by police was automatically stigmatised as a ‘bad guy’, I don’t believe this to be necessarily true anymore.

On the other hand, MSM are giving just themselves Sun-stroke. The National Union of Journalists made a bizarre decision to invite Khairy Jamaluddin to be keynote speaker at its recent forum on World Press Freedom Day.

Khairy said the Printing Presses and Publications Act should be repealed as otherwise MSM may not be able to stem their crisis of credibility. (And if MSM has no credibility left, they’d not be much use as BN mouthpieces, would they?)

Nonetheless, when Khairy expanded on this thought in his maiden parliamentary address, he proposed that bloggers be given the same professional training as MSM journalists.

Nice one, KJ! If any ‘system’ requires an overhaul, the need is more pressing in the Fourth than the Fifth Estate. It is the MSM brand names – crafted through paid marketing consultants – that are losing currency, despite the financial resources thrown at them.

If Khairy’s suggestion that bloggers be given “the same professional training as MSM journalists” were taken up, then what we’d get is soulless writing in blogosphere. The reason for this being (like Haris said) many practicing MSM reporters have sold their souls.

Blogosphere is better off as it is now without a surfeit of the Boleh brand of journalism ‘professionalism’.