Suara Keadilan editor Zulkarnain Taib was questioned at Putrajaya district police headquarters earlier today, over allegations that the PKR organ went into print without a permit and published classified information.

suara keadilan editor investigated 060110 dzulkarnain taib right and ranjit singh “They just took my statement. They are investigating us under the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) and the Official Secrets Act (OSA),” said Zulkarnian ( right in photo ) when contacted by Malaysiakini.

                    

This followed the Home Ministry’s two July 12 police reports, one alleging publication of secret documents on the front page of the Keadilan newspaper circulated by the opposition party in lieu of its regular mouthpiece Suara Keadilan and the other for allegedly publishing with an expired permit.

This, despite the party taking advantage of a loop hole in the PPPA which allowed for one-off non-serialised publications to be printed without a permit, implying that the publication must have a unique name each time.

 

Suara Keadilan ’s publication permit expired on July 7, and the ministry had put off renewing the permit pending four show cause letters that it demanded the publication to answer, and subsequently claiming that the ministry was dissatisfied with all the replies.

Ministry ‘overzealous’

Zulkarnain related how during the hour long session, an ASP recorded his statement on the alleged publication of an OSA protected document in the non-serialised Keadilan .

“They also wanted to know about the publication of Keadilan , who was involved, when and how,” he said.

NONE Asked why the editor of the party organ was questioned instead of the publishers of the Keadilan newspaper - the party’s youth wing, more known by its Malay acronym AMK - Zulkarnain speculated that the ministry was overzealous.

“Zaitun (the Home Ministry publication and Quranic text control division director) already said that (whether) it’s Keadilan or Suara Keadilan , she is still going to investigate us,” he said.

Zulkarnian added that the police was silent on whether they intend to charge him or Suara Keadilan in court, or if he would be recalled again.

“They just recorded my statement. But they reserved the right to recall us. However they seem eager to get it over and done with. They already got the statement from the home ministry officer who made the report.“

‘Waste of time’

hindraf probed by police 141008 latheefa koya PKR information chief Latheefa Koya ( left ), who is also a lawyer, accompanied Zulkarnian during his questioning.

“This is a nuisance and a waste of time. It is an attempt to pressure Suara Keadilan by harassing its editor,” Latheefa told reporters outside the district police headquarters.

"How does one classify a document? What considerations are taken? Surely it cannot merely be by printing the word 'sulit', and in this particular document - it was a show cause letter sent to Suara Keadilan - how then can it be classified anymore?" said the lawyer.

The PKR organ entangled itself with the Home Ministry when its  front page report in the June 21-29 edition claimed that the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) was bankrupt.

Felda hit the glare of public attention when Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Ahmad Maslan admitted in Parliament in June that Felda’s cash reserves had dipped by almost RM3 billion in five years.

PAS central committee member Husam Musa then speculated that the figure could be triple that admitted by the government, following which links were alleged between between Felda development projects and an Umno-connected company.

Former deputy minister Tan Kee Kwong who in 2004 was in charge of Felda matters, then issued an open letter to allege that government meddling was responsible for the dip in Felda’s reserves, citing amongst others, an example of the building costs of the new headquarters amounting to RM662 million from its original proposed RM220 million.