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This morning I arrived at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court for the RPK sedition trial. However, the case was postponed to 11 and 12 November. This is my second time there. I was not there to cover his case as a journalist but to show my support for RPK, his wife Marina and his family and to stand alongside all those who believe in the cause of justice.
I do not know RPK or Marina personally until some months ago when I met them together with three Christian bloggers for an extended lunch. But this much I know about them. They are both truly bold and courageous. RPK cannot be half the man he is without the rock solid support that Marina is to him. RPK, of course, is blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin. There were not many people there 30, maybe 40, maybe 60. The size of the crowd did not matter one bit as it was the quality of it that was important. All there were true-blue supporters, bloggers, lawyers, activists, politicians, home makers, NGO leaders and the like. It was not a crowd but a fraternity. An editor friend of mine called out to me the moment he spotted me. He was also there the last time I was at the court. He had brought along his two grown children and introduced them to me. "You're in familiar company," I told them, and he smiled, proud to be the father inducting his charges to the cause of justice, truth and freedom. Others were milling around either selling or buying: I-Am-With- RPK ISA tee-shirts. The last time, I saw a foreigner with his little baby buying a T-shirt too. "I am doing my bit for human rights in Malaysia," he told me. It took a little while for RPK to be driven out in a heavily-tinted van. He could see us, but all we saw was black-plated windows. I peered into one and I saw RPK seated handcuffed in both hands like a dog. What injustice! He has already been slapped with criminal defamation charges and presently defending himself in a sedition trial for an article allegedly written by him about the murder of a Mongolian which implicated many people in high places. Not happy with that, the Home Ministry has thrown him into the slammer for two years (subject to extensions) under the Internal Security Act without trial. Now he steps in the boxing ring fighting for his life with both hands tied at his back. You call this justice? Bah! Why was I there? I am reminded of the book "For Whom The Bell Tolls"written Ernest Hemingway in 1941 from his experiences in covering the Spanish Civil War as a journalist. Ironically, his book was banned in the U.S. then when it was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The title was actually taken from a line by the 17th century Welsh poet-priest John Donne' s "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, MeditationXVII" published in 1623: "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Despite his great education and poetic talents he lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and, in 1621, was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. RPK is no poet nor priest. But when they try to silence him, the peal of freedom, of truth, and of justice, begins to fade quickly into the dungeon of our collective darkness. "Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." My prayer and my hope is with and for RPK and Marina and their family. May this be your prayer too. (By BOB TEOH/ MySinchew)
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