Raja Petra Kamarudin has expressed his 'thanks' to Umno for the millions of hits that his website Malaysia Today has received over the past two days.

The webmaster made this cheeky comment this morning outside the Dang Wangi district police station in Jalan Tun HS Lee, when he reported for questioning over a police report filed by Umno information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib.

"Thanks should also be given to Umno the ruling party [...] my meagre 2.2 to 2.4 million hits are now 5 million because of the police report," he told the BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur.

"If it's not the most popular website then, it certainly is now today by virtue of Umno's contribution."

On Monday, Taib told reporters that the postings and articles on the website were disrespectful to the King and Islam, and that Raja Petra had incited racial hatred through his blog.

Raja Petra also said he would be giving the police officers "a hell of a tough time" in responding to questions at the police station, where he has been since 12.15pm today.

"I don't know how much experience this ASP has in interrogating people, but I assure you that he's gonna get a whole new experience with me today," he asserted.

Hard evidence

Asked what he might have done to make the government angry, he said he has been revealing abuses by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and corruption involving cabinet ministers.

"I've produced hard evidence by way of documents, agreements and letters and so on and all this [...] has never been rebutted, never been denied," he explained.

"They've never made a police report on the documents on any of those reports I've made or any of the documents I've revealed."

He stressed that as much as the documents are under the Official Secrets Act, these ministers do not dare to "take him to task thereby proving (the documents) correct".

"And the only thing they want to do now is spin me on some flimsy allegation that I've insulted the King," he remarked.

The former political detainee pointed out the irony of going to the police station that is located opposite Stadium Merdeka, purpose-built for the ceremony to declare the nation's independence in 1957.

"I am going to walk across the road from here to probably to lose my independence in a few minutes from now," he quipped.

Yesterday Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said the government would not hesitate to use existing laws against errant bloggers.

These include the Internal Security Act - which allows detention without trial - the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 121b of the Penal Code.

According to Nazri, the government has been patient for a long time and now is the time for it to act.

"I want to issue a warning that the time has come for us to take action against them (bloggers who make disparaging statements). We have the right and we will do it. We have been very patient," he was quoted as saying by Bernama when winding up debate on the Electronic Government Activities Bill 2007 in the Dewan Negara.