Has the Malaysian Parliament become the world's No 1 anti-bloggers Parliament?

This question was posed by Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang following a minister's warning that legal action would be taken against bloggers who belittle Islam and the King.

He also questioned the contradiction in the statements by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

On Monday, Najib said the government has not made a 'special decision' to clamp down on bloggers. Yesterday, Nazri, who is also de facto law minister, told the Dewan Negara that the time has come for action.

Nazri said errant bloggers could face action under the Internal Security Act, Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code.

The government was also looking at formulating new laws allowing it to monitor and act against offending bloggers in areas not provided by these legislation, he added.

Commenting on this, Lim, a blogger himself, said: "It is sad that the Senate yesterday was turned into an anti-bloggers forum."

"Why was there not a single senator to stand up to caution restraint, moderation, reason and sanity instead of allowing the blogger bashing to run full steam. Has the Malaysian Parliament become the world's No 1 anti-bloggers Parliament?" he added.

On Monday, Umno Information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib filed a police report against Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the webmaster of Malaysia Today , for publishing remarks which allegedly insulted the King and Islam.

"Apart from taking action against bloggers for flagrantly belittling Islam or the King, what are the other 'offences' which would be regarded as fair play for the blogging clampdown?" asked Lim.

Ulterior motive?

He also said the anti-bloggers invectives by Umno leaders suffered from a serious credibility problem as to their real motives.

"Firstly, there is the question whether there is any basis for Taib's police report that Malaysia Today had been guilty of belittling Islam and the King.

"Secondly, whether this was just an excuse for Umno leaders to launch a crackdown against Raja Petra and Malaysia Today because of the series of exposes of abuses of power and corruption implicating high-level leaders in Umno, Barisan Nasional, the police and the public service," he added.

Lim called on the powers-that-be to answer "the grave credibility question about the ulterior motive and real agenda" of the crackdown on Raja Petra and Malaysia Today.

He said this is the first question Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi must answer on his return to from his private holidays in Australia on Friday.

Chilling effect

Meanwhile, human rights group Suaram called on Taib to disclose to the public which articles or postings in Malaysia Today were allegedly disrespectful of Islam and the King.

"It is regrettable that Taib refused to pinpoint the alleged article or posting on the excuse of the sensitiveness of the issue," said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng in a statement today.

"The excuse raises doubts whether Taib could actually substantiate his claims with concrete evidence or merely using it to silent the website who has been very vocal in exposing allegations of corruptions and abuse of powers by the ruling parties and its leaders," added Yap.

Yap also said that the Raja Petra incident will undoubtedly have a further chilling effect on the freedom of speech in the cyber space.

"We are seeing a trend of the government becoming less and less tolerant to criticism of cyber dissidents in the Internet."