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UPDATE on Malaysiakini video: Response to Nathaniel Tan’s detention

Read more prominent political blogger and Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s webmaster, Nathaniel Tan’s detention.

According to The Star, Nathaniel has been remanded under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly holding documents linking Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in a corruption scandal.

NEW UPDATE: English transcript of video

Tian Chua: All four of us representatives from PKR have met with a representative from the SB (Special Branch of the Malaysian Police Force), his name is… Superintendent Nasir. He has informed us that the SB do not know where Nathaniel is being held. However, he has agreed to do a bit of a search within the police force. In the end, we were unclear as to why Nat (Nathaniel) was arrested, but managed to get a bit of information, and it seems that he was not arrested by the SB.

In fact, according to Mr. Nasir he was arrested by police from the Cyber/commercial crime branch. Which means that he is not being held here, at Bukit Aman, if the information is correct. The arrest is also based on a report marked 7276/07 at Dang Wangi Station.

We don’t know what the contents of the police report are, but according to them, this is a cyber-crime…though we do not know what the definition of a ‘cyber-crime’ is.. We do not have any further information. We feel very disappointed with the actions of the police which may be under orders by the governmenr, but we can’t be sure for now with an arrest that does not paint a very clear picture of the procedures involved in it.

We do not know what the true intention behind this arrest is. Although this hasn’t been carried out on a larger scale, we see this as an action to suppress our freedom of speech. And we are still very confused as to the true reason behind this arrest. I shall hand it over to Shamsul Iskandar to give his opinion.

Shamsul Iskandar: Good evening. On behalf of the PKR youth, I would like to say we strongly oppose the arrest of Nathaniel Tan and we see this as a way for the authorities, especially the police to harass the younger generation which use the cyberspace to disseminate information. And early information obtained from Spt Nasir shows that he was held for cyber-crimes.

We do not know what the definition for cyber-crime is and as far as I know, Malaysia practices an open-policy on the internet, and it seems that the information disseminated through these means have a significant effect in swaying the votes of the younger generation, such as Nathaniel and his young friends.

They (the authorities) have seen the impact this information has on the younger generation and now they have resorted to such means (the arrest).

I am appalled at the actions of the authorities and I demand that Nathaniel is released immediately. At the same time, I find the arrest improper and not according to procedure. Can you imagine, at 10.30 pm, just now, only then did we know where he is and who arrested him and why. From 4.30 to 10.30… we needed 6 hours to locate where he is.

As a country that practices democracy, I see this as an uncivilized action. At the time of the arrest, it should have been stated why he was arrested, on what charges who is the arresting officer and where he is being held. All that information should have been given to his close friends or family members as soon as possible. That is why I am making my stand here that the police should resolve this matter. Tomorrow the PKR youth shall make a police report at the Dang Wangi police station at 11 in the morning and if Nathaniel is still not released, we shall pay a visit to the Commercial Crime branch on Jalan Dato’Onn tomorrow.

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