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Standpoints

If casino report is false, demand correction

There is no need to remand Chegubard for quoting the Bloomberg report about a proposal to build a casino in Forest City.

Charles Hector
1 minute read
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The draconian Sedition Act and Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act, which ought to have been repealed, has been used again, and this time the victim is opposition activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard. 

Apparently, the arrest and remand of Badrul was about comments over a post on Facebook where he quoted Bloomberg and Singapore media on reports claiming that a casino would be established in Forest City, Johor. 

Bloomberg had a report entitled "Malaysia in talks with tycoons on casino to revive $100 billion Forest City".

Badrul was commenting based on information from media reports. One wonders whether the Malaysian government has to date taken any action against Bloomberg. 

If there is anything false in the reports, the government and relevant parties could always provide information and demand a correction. 

There is no reason for Badrul to be remanded for the purpose of investigation in a case like this. He could be released and asked to present himself to the police at a particular time.

In the case of convicted former prime minister Najib Razak, he was never remanded or forced to spend time in police lock-up with other detainees.

In the case of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, he was merely asked to to appear on stipulated times for the purpose of investigations.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.