Raja Petra's morning run around at the courts

Raja Petra Kamarudin, better known as RPK was charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions court on Tuesday, 6th of May 2008. He was earlier asked to present himself at the Kuala Lumpur court complex, and he arrived at around 8.50am. Seen at the car park was lawyer Haris Ibrahim, and his wife, Marina. Other notable bloggers who was also there to meet him was Zorro.
At 8.50am RPK was yet to be made known of the charges that he was to face.
On entering the court outer perimeter, a throng of reporters and photographers were there to greet him. He entered the court building around 9.05am. Surrounded by supporters as well as Pakatan Rakyat's Members of Parliament, and bloggers as well as supporters, RPK had to wait to 10.30am before he was further told that his charges was to be read out in the PJ sessions court.
He eventually arrived in the PJ Sessions court at around 11.00am and proceeded to the waiting room. It was at around 11.55am when YB Gobind Deo and YB Karpal Singh arrived and acted as hid co counsel. Other lawyers in his initial team are YB Lim Lip Eng, YB William Leong, K.Balaguru. RPK was subsequently charged under the Sedition Act, and was granted bail of RM5,000.00. However, he could not raise bail and Balaguru issued a statement that appealed to his supporters to help him by contributing RM1 each to his bail. (a total of about RM30,000 was raised through a designated CIMB account as well as through paypal).
RPK was brought to the Sungai Buluh Prison for remand due to his inability to post bail.
(As of 4.00pm on 7th May 2008, RPK has yet to post bail, and reliable sources informed that he has declined to meet visitors, including his wife. However, he did receive a pair of glasses that was handed over to prison officers. The Star newspaper also provided the same update)
Video report attached.

Blogger 'King' RPK summoned for questioning by Police

Blogger RPK of Malaysia Today received a morning call on the 2nd of May 2008 by seven police personnel, arriving in two cars and three motorcycles. The officers who were in plain clothes proceeded to remove a computer and a laptop from his home. Speaking to Marina, his wife, we were also told of the Police's intention to question him and his interview was originally planned on the 3rd of May at 11.00am. However, he was later told to present himself on the afternoon at 4.00pm through a phone call received at about 3.00pm. Under advice, he could have declined the time, however RPK chose to meet the police to assist them in their investigation, wanting to get it over with. Arriving at the Bukit Perdana commercial crimes division, he went in around 3.50pm accompanied by YB William Leong of Selayang who is also a lawyer. RPK emerged from his Police interview some two and a half hours later. Welcoming him at the entrance of the police complex was his wife Marina, and some blogger friends, including Rockybru, Nuraina Samad, Zorro, Shanghai Fish, and some supporters too.
YB Wee Choo Keong, MP for Wangsa Maju attempted to meet RPK during the interview as his lawyer but was denied entry by the Police. It was understood that the Police were questioning RPK based on a report on RPK's posting on Altantunya, titled "let's send the murderers of Altantunya to hell". In the course of the interview, the Police even threatened to charge RPK for his refusal to answer any questions, and his refusal to make a statement. Eventually, RPK emerged 'victorious' giving an interview to pressmen at around 6.50pm. Read other eyewitness accounts here, here and here.

Malaysian Blogggers in Singapore Round Table

What was the role of Internet and bloggers in the recent 12th Malaysian general Election?
That seemed to be the flavour of the day, when the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew school of Public Policy invited Malaysian bloggers to their facilities in a roundtable discussion with policymakers and bloggers as well as government officials of the Singapore Government past April9th 2008.
The impact of ICT in the General Elections- A lesson for Singapore, was to see Malaysian bloggers Media Consultant RockyBru, Blogger turned Parliamentarian Jeff Ooi, Lawyer and Blogger Haris Ibrahim, Webmaster and Blogger Nat Tan as well as Chief Editor of Malaysiakini Steven Gan engage the IPS invitees in a closed door session.
As agreed between the bloggers and the host, only the points shared by the bloggers was to allowed to be posted. Not surprisingly to us, seeing as our friends across the causeway was bent on keeping whats out, in!
As such the video coverage that was to have been, did not. We do apologise for the low quality content relied on notes taken. Let's hope that next time round, our host will be more eager to share with others what they would have learnt, if any.