Blogger Lillian Chan has expressed utter disappointment that after eight months, she is still being investigated over her tweet allegedly asking Christians to participate in the Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur.

citizen journalist 010510 lilian Chan ( left ) is being probed for her involvement and for tweeting seditious words related to Bersih 2.0 although her tweet did not mention the event nor had she participated in the rally which was held on July 9, last year.

Chan, a former Malaysiakini citizen journalist, said she is hopeful for a closure as she is “innocent”, urging the police to either charge her or close her file, especially when many who were probed for the rally had been set free.

She lamented the loss of her 27-inch iMac and a modem to the police cybercrime unit last year, saying she has made all attempts to reclaim her computer but to no avail.

According to the mother of four, her computer and modem were taken to the Mines, Sunway, and later returned to Brickfields police last year, nevertheless, she thanked the police for being helpful to her.

Although many have told her that she may not get her Mac back, she says she still has faith in the law, justice and the professionalism of the police.

 

“What is mine, must be returned to me. I can afford to buy another Mac but the crux of the matter is I am wrongly accused of doing something I did not do. I demand to be cleared of this case, even if I have to go to court over it,” she said.

Living in anxiety

She is being investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act and Section 27 (5) of the Police Act for participating in an illegal assembly.

If convicted, Chan faces a jail term of up to three years, a fine of not more than RM5,000 or both.

“Until today, I still have to brief and remind my children what to do in case the police come knocking at the gate. I have phone numbers they can contact and the people they can call,” she told Malaysiakini .

When contacted, ASP Ridzuan Ismail from the Brickfields police station said that he has yet to receive any information regarding her case although a report has been submitted already.

iMac computer seized lillian chan tweet twitter penang front Ridzuan, known by his nick-name Robin, had visited Chan’s home in Penang to seize her computers and take her statement in July last year.

Chan’s iMac and modem is still in the custody of the cybercrime unit, he added, and that he will check on that soon.

“I need to follow up on the case. I will be contacting Ms Chan soon. I need to ask her to write a letter to the police to request for the return of her computer and modem,” he told Malaysiakini .

Chan currently works as a videographer in the chief minister’s information department in Komtar. She has four boys, aged between nine and 22 years.

NONE She also writes for the state government’s forthnightly information sheet, Buletin Mutiara .

About 10 days before the Bersih 2.0 rally, Chan had sent out a tweet suggesting that Christians march to protest their “persecution”.

This resulted in a police report being lodged against her by Blog House secretary Tony Yew.

According to its website, Blog House, whose patron is former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamed, aims to provide its members with information to prevent cases of bloggers being investigated or charged by the police.

No fear of police action

However, in his report, Yew alleged that Chan’s tweet contained “seditious elements”, which directly incited Christians to go against the government.

Yew, who was one of Chan’s 900 members in her Twitter account, said that as a Christian, he believed the tweet message has “the ability to threaten the security of the nation”.

Meanwhile, Chan says she remains fearless and is not affected by the threat of police action against her by a fellow Christian.

However, she admitted feeling “very helpless” on two occasions.

NONE “Once, it was in church when my parish priest prayed over me and asked me to forgive Tony Yew ( right ).

"That's when all my feelings of anger, sense of injustice and violation were stripped off me. I walked out of church feeling a heavy burden being lifted off my shoulder,” she said calmly.

“The other time was when I pleaded with the investigating officer at the height of my case to please give me ample notice if the police are coming again to raid my home,” she added.

“I told him he is free to take me to the police station or whatever but please do not traumatise my small children (who at that time were) aged 8 and 14 years old,” she stressed.

Would she be suing Yew for defamation? Many have reminded her that what Yew did to her was wrong - accusing her of mixing politics with religion and refusing to respond to her query which of her tweet included politics.

Chan has also been advised by her lawyer that she has the right to  initiate legal action against the police for keeping her belongings.

But Chan says she has no plans to sue Yew for allegedly defaming her as he has a wife and children, too.

“When he went through a bad patch, he had pleaded with bloggers to help highlight the case of his wife’s unfair dimissal (from an airline company) in their blogs, and they gave him a place in our websites,” she said.

“I do not want to subject his family to go through the trauma of facing a court case, I have young children too, I understand how it feels,” she added.

“I had left the burden of anger and injustice at the Lord’s altar and I shall remember Jesus’s important words, that we must forgive our brothers and sisters,” she stressed.