By Leslie Lau, The Malaysian Insider
Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin said tonight that 99% of the rumours he reports on his website eventually turn out to be true.
Defending himself from a caller on a special interview with Riz Khan on satellite television station Al Jazeera who asked why he persisted in writing about rumours, he said time and time again he had been proven right with his stories. “I have always been told that two things sell and that is sex and politics. And sex involving politics sells even more,” he quipped. He also denied the perception that Malaysia Today was an opposition mouthpiece, pointing out that he had been critical of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as well. Raja Petra added that he would also not consider playing a role in government if PR succeeded in toppling Barisan Nasional (BN). “I do not wish to be in government. I wish to be in a pressure group. I have joked that if Pakatan forms the government I will then join Umno,” he said. Besides Raja Petra, the other guests on the show were playwright Jo Kukathas and journalist Kee Thuan Chye. All three guests offered their respective views on a gamut of issues from censorship and the media to the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA). Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar also joined the discussion by telephone and made a stout defence of the ISA. Offering the government’s condolences to the people of India over the recent Mumbai attacks, he justified the continued existence of the ISA by saying the law was the reason why Malaysia had not suffered any major terrorist attacks. He also contended that it was only what he described as a vocal minority of Malaysians who were against the ISA while the majority wanted safety and order in society. Kukathas responded, however, to the minister’s arguments by pointing out that most of those who were ever arrested under the ISA were not terrorists.
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