One year after the police carted away 19 computers from malaysiakini office, the independent online daily has resolved not to take legal action to recover the last two computers still being held by the police.

As a gesture of goodwill, malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran said today that the computers would be considered as a 'donation' to the police force.

"Instead of taking the case to court to recover the computers, we have decided to end the matter by contributing the machines to the police. They are free to use them," said Chandran.

"Hopefully, they will be put to good use and help improve the efficiency of the police."

The police raided malaysiakini following a police report made by Umno Youth information chief Azimi Daim alleging that a letter published in the online daily questioned Malay special privileges and contained allegations that the government was unfair to other races.

In addition, Azimi said the letter - which was written under the pseudonym Petrof - had liken Umno Youth to white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan in the United States.

Three days after the report was lodged, the police raided malaysiakini under the provisions of the Sedition Act to search of Petrof's real identity.

After being informed that malaysiakini would not divulge the identity of its letter writers, the police confiscated 19 computers and servers for "forensic examination", thus effectively shutting down the online publication.

However, malaysiakini was able to bring the website back up 10 hours after the raid with the help of computers on loan from readers.

Since the Jan 20, 2003 raid, the police have returned 17 out of the 19 computers.

No charges laid

In October last year, Home Ministry parliamentary secretary Abu Zahar Isnin told Parliament that the police had completed their investigation and any legal action would be up to the Attorney-General's Chambers.

To date, no charges have been laid against the website. It is also not known whether the police have succeeded in unearthing the individual behind the Petrof pseudonym.

Under the Sedition Act, those found guilty are punishable with a RM5,000 fine or a maximum of three years jail, or both.

The police, through the court, may also order the suspension of the offending publication for up to a year and prevent its senior editorial staff from being engaged in newspaper work in every way for up to a year.

Observers believe that one of the reasons why no action has yet been taken against malaysiakini was the public support the website received following the raid.

"We were truly stunned by the outpouring of support from our readers and supporters, both in Malaysia and around the world," said editor-in-chief Steven Gan.

Three hours after the police raid, 200 malaysiakini supporters who had heard about the raid through mobile phones, SMS and e-mails gathered in front of the website's office in Bangsar Utama to hold a candlelight vigil.

Gan said that the response was indicative of the public demand for independent press in Malaysia.

"There is no doubt that Malaysians want an independent media. This is why we have decided to take our struggle further by applying for a publication licence."

According to Gan, the application for a print weekly was made in September 2002 but so far there has been no news from the ministry.

"A decision is long overdue. We urge the Home Ministry to immediately approve our application," he added.

Speaking on developments since the raid, Premesh said that malaysiakini is now better prepared for such raids.

"The raid prompted us to re-examine our operations. Since then, we have developed a series of back-up plans in case of another raid, " said Premesh.