Bukit Aman CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said in a statement yesterday that Police have obtained an arrest warrant for Sarawak Report founder and editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and the arrest warrant issued by a Kuala Lumpur court was for activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy under Section 124B and 124I of the Penal Code.
Section 124I deals with publication of false reports or makes false statements likely to cause public alarm via newspapers, periodicals or other printed publication or electronic means.
When the government decided to block Sarawak Report last month, the most basic and important question that was asked is– if Sarawak Report has fabricated lies, why can’t the government take legal action against it instead of blocking it?
From the response of the netizens, it is just so clear that the blocking move had given rise to impression and allegation that the government had resorted to the desperate move because it cannot rebut the articles in the Sarawak Report.
Till today, the government has not been able to explain at all why it cannot take the necessary legal if Sarawak Report ahs fabricated lies.
Again, the same question that must be asked today is why the arrest warrant for Clare Rewcastle-Brown and not the legal action against her if Sarawak Report has published false reports and statements?
Malaysians are also asking now whether the government has become so desperate or it simply just does not care anymore about what Malaysians and the world community think.
In her response, Rewcastle has said that if the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib has nothing to hide in the 1 MDB related allegations and if the reports were false, he could simply have issued libel proceedings or he could have produced evidence (e.g. correct bank statements and transfer documents) that would have shown her reports to be untrue.
Can any Cabinet member convincingly rebut Rewcastle’s argument?
The Prime Minister should know that blocking Sarawak Report and the subsequent application of arrest warrant by the Police for Rewcastle are not in his best interest as they will not solve his woes over the 1 MDB related allegations.