Saman senjata pertama atau terakhir?

Dua rakan blogger, Jeff dan Ahiruddin, telah disaman oleh gergasi media, NST dan Sdr Kalimullah, tangan yang dikira berkuasa di situ.

Saya pohon maaf kepada rakan bloggers yang lain kerana tidak dapat menyertai pertemuan solidarity bloggers ekoran saman itu kerana kesibukan yang tak dapat dielakkan, tetapi saya mengikuti perkembangan mereka.

Hari ini, laman yang didedikasikan khas untuk memperjuangkan kebebasan dan hak bloggers, Walk With Us, menyiarkan satu pandangan menarik, di mana nama saya turut disentuh. Saya menyiarkan semula seperti di bawah, untuk tatapan pembaca.

"Injunksi demi injunksi: Kalimullah menyalahgunakan undang-undang untuk mendiamkan kritikan", tajuk rencana ini.

Saya yang pertama mendapat injunksi dari Kali mengenai isu saham Khairy dalam ECM-Libra, diikuti oleh Mathias Chang, Jeff dan Ahiruddin. Bagi dua yang terakhir, mereka disaman kerana tulisan di alam maya.

Soalnya, kenapa begitu banyak injunksi diperlukan untuk Kali mempertahankan dirinya? Adakah Kali seorang sentiasa benar sehingga semua pengkritik salah belaka? Berapa ramai lagi yang akan mendapat saman dan perentah injunksi dari tokoh kesayangan Perdana Menteri ini?

Adakah injunksi dan saman malu adalah senjata terakhir atau senjata pertama dalam spektrum perbahasan yang bebas, sihat dan beretika?

Bukankah Kali mempunyai saluran media berpengaruh untuk menguji kemantapannya berhujah dan hujahlah sepatutnya menjadi senjata yang paling utama. Jika serangan pengkritik adalah bohong, tidak berasas dan salah fakta, gunakanlah ruang pertukaran hujah untuk membuktikan hal itu dan mendiamkan pengkritik. Tidak ada pengkritik mampu berhadapan dengan fakta dan hujah yang kemas dan benar.

Fakulti akal, dan bukan undang-undang, yang harus dijadikan alat mencari kebenaran dan menjadi medan tempur. Jika Kali fikir blog Jeff dan Ahiruddin mencapai capaian pembaca global di alam maya, Kali atau Hishamuddin atau Brendan, boleh saja menulis balas mematahkan sebarang dakwaan dan dihantar untuk disiarkan oleh kedua-dua blogger tersebut. Saya penuh yakin, kedua mereka akan menyiarkan sepenuhnya kerana bloggers pada asasnya, orang yang sukakan kebebasan untuk menikmati kebenaran.

Undang-undang? Sekiranya kita tidak mempunyai ruang untuk mempertahankan diri lagi, baik di dada akhbar atau di alam maya, barulah kita beralih kepada undang-undang. Lazimnya, pengamal media, menggunakan media, bukan mahkamah kerana mereka sepatutnya terbuka kepada kritikan dan bersedia untuk bertempur dengan pena.

Jika pengamal media tidak percaya kepada kebebasan media dan pertukaran hujah melalui media, sempitlah dada pemikiran bangsa kita.

Tetapi undang-undang boleh juga digunakan untuk berlindung dari serangan yang akan mendedahkan kepincangan kita. Bukan untuk menunjukkan kita benar tetapi untuk mendiamkan kritikan. Tetapi itu, adalah bacul, sepatah memetik kata-kata Perdana Menteri.

Perdana Menteri, sepanjang komen beliau, nampaknya menyebelahi penyaman dan seakan berfikir bloggers adalah manusia yang tidak bertanggungjawab dan menggunakan kebebasan alam maya untuk memburukkan orang lain sahaja.

Tidak bertanggungjawab ada di mana-mana, tidak semestinya di alam maya. Di alam nyata, tindakan Timbalan Perdana Menteri melayangkan surat yang kononnya ditulis oleh saya berkaitan pilihanraya Batu Talam, 100% fitnah dan dengan itu, tidak bertanggungjawab. Ia dilakukan oleh Timbalan Perdana Menteri sendiri dan media cetak arus perdana yang dikatakan lebih bertanggungjawab, menyiarkannya secara besar-besaran. Kenapa Abdullah tidak menegur Timbalannya dan media cetak?

Penjelasan Perdana Menteri sendiri mengenai jet mewah, tidak dalam semangat ketelusan yang sejati dan dengan itu, disangsikan bertanggungjawab sepenuhnya. Ia sekadar untuk menutup malu dengan alasan tidak masuk akal.

Berhenti disitu dulu dan nikmati tulisan rakan kita seperti petikan di bawah;

Injunction after injunctions: How Kalimullah abused law to silence critics
Posted by Clerk-of-Works under Campaigns & Events , Global Opinions

A reader by the name of A Voice wrote a thought-provoking piece in response to the AFP story: Bloggers undeterred by lawsuit. His thoughts deserve a prominent space for further in-depth discussions.

EXCERPTS:

We saw Kalimullah Hassan was successful to initially silence Husam Musa and Harakahdaily on the ECM-Avenue merger issue.

That was when the guerilla web/blog started to takeover and dessiminate online. It was heard that this sparked a minority challenge to the merger at the Avenue EGM. But it died down.

Matthias Chang attempted to garner attention but he went overboard with the accusation of corruption. Kali sued him and achieved the same “ceasefire”.

Finally, it was within the UMNO Penerangan Negeri sessions at FT, Selangor and Penang that they could not stop the issue anymore from the floor. Even when they had a Parliamentary PAC, it was hot for only 2 sessions and then, quiet.


A VOICE’S COMMENT IN FULL

The ideal living space for these scumbag of the journalism world is Singapore, where they can sue and turn the other poor fellow bankrupt. However, the process of law in Malaysia has yet to meet the swiftness and brutality of Singapore’s.

For Kalimullah, the primary objective is to silence critiques and remove the critical issues from public eyes.

We saw he was successful to initially silence Husam & Harakahdaily on the ECM-Avenue merger issue. That was when the guerilla web/blog start to takeover and dessiminate online. It was heard that this spark a minority challenge to the merger at the Avenue EGM. But it died down. Mathias Chang attempt to garner attention but he gone overboard with corruption accusation and Kali sued him and achieve the same “ceasefire”. Finally it was within the UMNO Penerangan Negeri sessions at FT, Selangor and Penang that they could not stop the issue anymore from the floor. Even when they had a parlimentary PAC, it was hot for only 2 session and than quiet.

SO the lesson from the ECM-Avenue merger episode are that there must be a wide and broad strategy, tactic and initiative to make an issue heard and the other side react. So, I wish to suggest several things below:

1. We need to make available those questionable issues. For Rocky & Jeff lawsuit case, we need to issues to be discussed and widely available and not lost under injunction. Yes this is contempt of court. And that is why we need sniper (penembak curi) or guerilla bloggers.

2. Promote an active blogging discussion and let blogging proliferate. This is make those in power to take notice that “citizen journalism” cannot be stiffle. They cannot be dismiss as rubbish and their watchdog could anywhere, even in their homes, neiughbourhood, office, and such. Believe me in many office at PWTC, near Lake Garden, Putrajaya, and etc etc etc are takign notice, positively or negatively.

3. Part of being heard would be a for a “Petaling Street Project”-like blog aggregator dedicated to socio-political and public interest issue. This way we have a main blog referral for serious news and discussion of citizen interest. We have a place to inform of new blog coming on stream. We have a place for archiving and searching for research from, blog material.

4. We need to make sure a way is created to ensure certain issue remain hot and updated. Off hand, I can think of individual initiative dedicated to a certain specific issue and this is the blog reference authority on it. Walk with us is a good example to dedicate for strictly this blogger sued issue. Perhaps will proliferate an ECM-Avenue watchdog blog or PM Indulgence Watch dedicated to monitor his poem damai abadi declaration is abide ..heheh

5. We need to compliment the online information dissemination effort with many citizen action initiative like Blogger United, Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group, etc. The example was the few shareholders that rose to grill the Directors and Corporate Advisors at the Avenue EGM. Maybe demonstration but I pesonally do not quite like this course of action.

6. Please please please … no partisan politics. Issues easily gets muddled and lost when political parties start barging in for branding. Notice when an issue is stolen by opposition political party into an UMNO bashing exercise, UMNO’s rank would automatically unite, turn into defensive, likely to retaliate & spin the issue, and issue lost in the BN-Opposition lock. As my ECM Lbra example has shown, issues is off concern by public, opposition and even UMNO people.

Ok thats all this early morning off hand thoughts.