Raja Petra: An Enemy and a Patriot

I would like to pay tribute to Raja Petra Kamarudin – an enemy, but also a person I consider a patriot.

In the sunset of my life I hold no grudge, revenge or dengki against anyone. My spirituality has taught me to let Allah alone judge whether a person deserves salvation or not.

For me, I consider all the people I know to be good for certain things they have done, but maybe not so good for others. I have a problem with the not so good deeds, actions, and statements of these people, but I do let such things be the cause of my judgment of their person as a whole. It would be scientifically or spiritually impossible to label someone as a completely good or bad person.

I remember Raja Petra because he did great things during the Reformasi era. However, he also did bad things as a political mercenary to dethrone those I consider good people in the current government.

About two weeks ago, a funny thing happened when I came across a video on YouTube in which Raja Petra commented on the Muhyiddin Yassin sedition issue.

I never liked reading or watching messages from Raja Petra or his statements that appear in my WhatsApp chat groups. For me he had gone to the dark side and I was done with him.

Nevertheless, I listened to the man and found what he had to say meaningful. Then I looked at another posting and that was the last one.

According to Iswardy Morni, it was Raja Petra who was at the centre of the Dubai Move, and that was his worst mistake.

I also once came across Raja Petra who referred to me as “Professor Kangkung” because of some of my writings. I smiled softly when I read his piece. I even felt proud to be mentioned by a legendary blogger like him. It meant that my writings and media reports were important enough to bother the great man. Good! I bore no grudge against his attacks and so I never responded to his criticism of me.

I had peace with Raja Petra because I knew he had lived a hard life during the Reformasi days which many people in their 40s today would not know. If Raja Petra has had a good life in the UK for the past 12 years or so, I thank God he has been rewarded for his great act of standing up to Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Barisan Nasional.

Raja Petra was a lone warrior like Moses who stood up to the might of Pharaoh and his vast army and empire. For his great sacrifice in setting up Malaysia Today and the Maha Zalim websites, we all owe the man a great tribute.

If I had to name three personalities who fuelled Reformasi, gave hope to citizens like me and showed that with perseverance and courage the mighty can fall, they would be Ahmad Lutfi of Harakah, Steven Gan of Malaysiakini and Raja Petra of Malaysia Today.

Among the darkest days of Malaysia since 13 May 1969, the beating and imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim is beyond comparison. Although the power of the BN-led government was concentrated in the hands of one man, it showed me how the administrative machinery, the institutions of higher learning, the religious institutions, the police and even the sacred judiciary were deeply compromised. I was living in a literal “mafia state”.

Young people today cannot imagine the helplessness of watching a man being ushered in and out of a courtroom carrying mattresses as evidence.

The low point for our nation was in the dark days of Reformasi. Many Malaysians who are now attacking Anwar have not an ounce of conscience or sympathy for him because he was seen as the Malaysian leader who brought the policy of Islamization to Malaysia. That is not true. Malaysia would have been Islamized with or without Anwar.

With the country in the grip of an iron fist, the streets were filled with protests by a mainly Malay-Muslim crowd. Meanwhile, most non-Malays were too busy to care, and eventually voted for the BN government and kept it in power in the 1999 and 2004 general elections. So please don’t cry wolf now.

It was Raja Petra who stood alone against the onslaught of dignity and civil liberty. He kept his websites Malaysia Today and Maha Zalim alive and wreaked havoc on a vast empire. For his actions, Raja Petra was pursued by the police. His family members were not spared. It is a low blow to use our children against us to silence dissent.

I remember Raja Petra in the cell refusing to eat anything until he was released. I heard his wife had to sell nasi lemak to make ends meet.

I only met Raja Petra once at an event where he was supposed to speak. We sat on stage and talked for 10 minutes. My view of Raja Petra is all cyberspace and just that 10 minutes of facetime.

For me, Raja Petra will always be a hero and a patriot. Whatever he did for money as a political mercenary, it is simply a product of the fact that our country’s institutions are in danger. We must never let that happen again.

So let us honor the memory of Raja Petra Kamarudin, a patriot and a hero of Malaysia. Al-Fatihah.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.