Blogger Nat Tan was missing for six hours. He was ‘illegally detained’ and police ‘lied’ about his whereabouts. Can he counter sue for ‘attempted kidnap’? He was even spotted being handcuffed! Or is he a convenient scapegoat and sacrificial lamb as howsy puts it?
UPDATE (4.47pm, July 14): NAT REMANDED FOR 4 DAYS (police asked for 14 days) under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act 1972. The law relates to “wrongful communication, etc of official secret”. If convicted, Tan may be sentenced to a jail term not less than one year but not exceeding seven years. Police sources indicate that Tan was being investigated for a comment in his blog in connection to an Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigation against Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom. (Malaysiakini).
READ ELI WONG’s on WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FREE NAT TAN and see BOBJOTS WHO HAS PIXS ON THE FREE NAT CAMPAIGN. READ ALSO HIS SWEETIE’S BLOG @ POLYTIKUS, for more updates.
Update: OSA probe: Police detains PKR webmaster
Blogger Nat Tan @ Jelas.info was taken away from his office today (about 4.30pm) by 3 police officers to Bukit Aman. REASON – “nak cakap tentang internet” (talk about the internet). Watch out at Elizabeth Wong’s blog for more details. We are told that it is for an Official Secrets Act probe as he is PKR’s webmaster. Nak cakap apa? Baca sajelah internet! (What is there to talk? Just read the internet!).
Poster (on left) by MOB’s CRIB.
Over @ Malaysiakini earlier:
They said the police entered the office at about 4.45pm and requested for Tan to follow them to the Bukit Aman police headquarters for questioning. he policemen also requested that Tan bring his notebook computer with him. It is believed that he is being questioned on matters relating to certain postings on the Internet. an has been involved in the maintenance of the opposition party website.
As at 29/6/07 – Nat started working with KeADILan in March of 2003 with Tian Chua, and as of June 2007, branched out on his own to set up an organisation called JustNetworks to take on an ambitious number of projects.
AS AT TODAY, WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR NAT TO BE FREED!
ENTER THE FREE SPEECH ZONE 3 HERE
*SUSAN LOONE's Blog* 
Malaysia was a police state then, is a police state now and will always be a police state!
Kudos to Nat! Earning his stripes!
hey gua bay song, so did u, i think!
A VIP state goes together with a police state. It can’t exists otherwise.
[…] Malaysian police/special branch nabs blogger/ opposition staff (by Susan […]
Kofi Assnan? He was a top UNshameful rogue enabler and clueless idiotarian speaking platitudinal words of politically correct crap.
Kofi Assnan n AAB`s family both involved in oil for food scandal.
AAB until today hasn’t proved his non-involvement except to merely deny that.
Let me register my support for the immediate release of Nat Tan. Nat and I have not and do not see eye to political eye, but I abhor the totally unjustified detention of him by the police, even for questioning – why the hell can’t the police, if they need to do any questioning, do so at Nat’s office?
I don’t understand .. why they need to take him?
I thought policemen short of men power, but they get three special branch people to take him.
What had he done? I don’t get it.
He should be release. IMMEDIATELY!!
“..why the hell can’t the police, if they need to do any questioning, do so at Nat’s office?”
In fact they don’t usually pay a witness a visit. Normally what they do is phone him and ask that he appears at their office in Bkt. Aman (Hill of Tranquility. Most who sample the ambiance at the Hill get the message that they are under investigation and would be more than willing to cooperate). Sometimes they ask one of their own to drop by to make that request. That would deliver the message to all around you that you are needed to help the police in their investigation of you!
It is just one short step from being a witness to being an accused in any case.
If they feel that you should be detained under the ISA, your appearance at the Hill of Tranquility will not be so tranquil. You will not be told what you did wrong – just that you did wrong. You will not be given the benefit of counsel because even your counsel would be at wit’s end to figure out what you did that is wrong! All they know is you did wrong in the eyes of their superior officers and as a result of your service to king and country you are now provided with free lodging and a steady diet of roti canai and curry fish at the pleasure of his Majesty’s government – an offer you are not allowed to turn down.
i tot they gonna ask about tian chua doctoring photos. Tian chua needs to get kicked out off Keadilan.
Election closing in and he pulls a stupid stunt like this.
Raja, you’re right about the modus operandi. A journalist in the Star was called up and asked to report to Bkt Aman. Rehman Rashid documented the same thing in his book, “A Malaysian Journey” (oy, Susan – sudah bacakah?).
Am worried.
i hope nat will be released soon. i had met him at the BUM bloggers gathering (in fact he was in the organising committee, like me). found him to be nice and friendly.
this is getting worrying. police arresting people, esp. the opposition (and bloggers!) to their suka-suka.
hope nat will be all right.
I.P.C.M.C. What is the outcome to the graveious need of it ?
Why we need it urgently ?
I give thereof my utmost testimony to support my say.
1) I was robbed at knife-point at my residency
as to my polis reports in statement.
Somehow, it has and had, been neutralize
into an arm-robbery that happens to me
along the the road.
2) The polis has tender in a very false and
misleading “Material Evidence In Statement’
as material evidence for the Adminstration
of Justice for the following “kawad-cam”.
3) I recovered 2 of my MBB cheque that was
stamp with another co.name to cheat the
public. The following robbery wasn’t charge
for the said attempt.
4) Not n only was i robbed, the so-call
Investigation Office team up with the friends
or the robber to put fear into me, to release
my car into I.O. ownership.
Many polis had been made including submitting to the A.G.’s department, but till late nothing has being made.
If … as seen thereof … one polis officer has in his power to outline true justice …. as hi wish, what can we expect of a true and clean Justice in Malaysia.
Isn’t it about time … that IPCMC (like that of the ICAC in Hong Kong) be impleament as soon as possible.
Talk about internet????
Maybe they want to ask on how to download the latest songs…
http://squidoo.com/searchranking/
[…] Malaysian police/special branch nabs blogger/ opposition staff (by Susan […]
DEAR FRIENDS,
Personally, I tot
THIS IS ONLY AN INTIMIDATION TACTIC OF ABDULLAH BADAWI’s FOR US!
ALL BLOGGERS, PLEASE BE KEEP IN SOLID!
Dear Alvin Loh,
I posted my ‘experience’ with the Malaysian Gestapo not long in susan’s Blog.
I felf at best to be colonised by the Brits again. And no ‘Gandhi’ melodrama please.
If Badawi is really serious as he promised to be in
the formation of IPCMC (initial hope until proven true hope), many police would be charged of collusion, corruption, and other related felonies.
But since “Mr. Clean” is nothing but a true charlatan, so “PREPARE FOR NIGHTMARE ON
ANY STREETS”
*To Alvin-you have e-mail? We should confer.
i got information, they just released him around 1am.
[…] Elizabeth Wong The Sensintrovert Reduces and Recycled Lucia Lai Rocky’s Bru S.K.Thew Susan Loone Share […]
Adolf Hitler has congratulated Umno Youth for their diligence in helping arrest Nan. Malaysia has now officially joined the ranks of Nazism, Fascism and are soul brothers of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini.
Arif, no, he’s sleeping in the lockup at Dang Wangi IPD.
Well, Siew Eng, I was myself asked to appear for a S.112 statement once upon a time.
A police patrol car stopped by my house to ‘invite’ me over. Believe it or not! In not too many words in my case he asked that I phoned the IO and in not too many gestures he gave me his name and a number to call. I called. Surprised I asked, “How do you know where to find me” to which he replied, “That’s our job.”
Later I made my way to the Hill of Tranquility otherwise known as Bukit Aman. He greeted me and showed me some documents and asked a few questions watching my demeanor as he did so and after which he smilingly said ‘You have been had” or words to that effect.
We sat at opposite sides of a table and he started asking me questions as he worked on his typewriter. Yes, it was quite a while ago.
I occasionally glanced at an individual not too far away. He didn’t look like a policeman but more like a cross between a small time drug dealer and a pimp. He was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and had an impressive looking gold chain around his neck and an enormous gold ring around his middle finger. He realized I was looking at him and instinctively he covered his face with the newspaper he was reading. That’s the end of that.
I answered all the IO’s questions as he worked his old typewriter. It was lunch and he invited me to the cafeteria full of plainclothes and uniformed policemen and women where I had teh tarek at His Majesty’s pleasure. I guessed.
Then we made our way back to his room. Hours went by and when he finished typing he asked that I read my statement. Obviously he had my statement reduced to writing. He asked me if I wanted to make corrections. I did and he asked me to initial the corrections. I did.
It was by then 4.30 pm and he was kind to give me a ride in his old bone shaker – can’t remember what make. A plain clothes officer is not supposed to be seen driving around in a car less than 10 years old. I suppose.
That was that. I never heard from him again.
No, this is not out of a Grisham novel. This is for real.
Thanks Raja as usual for your clarification.
I get the uncomfy feeling that Nat has become a sacrificial lamb in the current IGP – Joharu Baharum confrontation.
Thanks for mentioning me on your blog – an unexpected honor!
More such intimidations to come. Only the organized-crime criminals can sleep well in bodohland.
Is he realeased? Somebody update please. We are still far away from speech freedom and human right. What’s wrong when a person give his opinion according to his judgement.
Official Secrets Act 1972 (Amended 1986).
The 1986 amendment championed by Dr. Mahathir himself added considerable sting to the legislation.
First it gave complete and unchallengeable power to the Home Affairs Minister to determine what information comprises an official secret. The determination cannot be challenged in a court of law. That transformed a legislation meant to protect national security secrets into a Catch-All legislation to suppress any and all government documents.
The other sting added was the mandatory minimum sentence if found guilty – 1 year’s jail. Maximum penalty life imprisonment.
If its any consolation, very few people have actually been tried and found guilty under the OSA. Its primarily used a threat to the regime’s critic.
Support Nat Tan
Checked Eli’s blog. Man….I mean Woman….she is really pissed off to the max!
My support to Nat!
Could it have anything to do with TC ‘s doctored photo or GE is coming?
I hope this gomen do not initiate another Ops Lalang considering the citizens is very dissatisfied on the country situation.
Bamboo – the police said they are holding him over a comment left on his blog, which has a link to the website that exposed the Johari Bahrum ‘fee-for freedom’ scandal.
they brought him to Duta Court…. go check eli’s blog
Tian met the SB chief and was in Dang Wangi IPD for an extended time. NO one wanted to arrest him.
OSA = Official Shits Archive
freedom………
Cheh! Took three burly guys to arrest a skinny man who isn’t about to show any signs of resisting an invitation? You guys are correct. For minor complaints, an invitation is the norm. I’ve experienced one too, years ago.
We will conti9nue to fight agains lies, treachery, racism, thuggery, stupidity. we shall never give up, you brutes, you thugs, you morons, you uneducated worse than senseless things. You bastards. we will never give up. to strive, to seek and not yield.
It is in the very culture of the Malay Sultanate and those under its protection from days gone by, that they will not accept any kind of dissension and opposition , ie. since 15th Century AD.
Even with their Islamization which is suppose to bring them up with good governance and rule of justice, nothing has done much to remove their old Hindu-Buddha ways., they still won’t accept differences in views; what more opposition.
The coming of Western British ideas of democracy has only scratched the surfaces of the Malay skin, deep inside they are a very scared people, insecure and totally clinging to the last vestiges of their power.
They group together under patronage, the Police Judiciary, the whole lot and using what seemingly are lawful Acts of Parliament to detain those that they don’t like.
At one time, you are not suppose to even possess and own a Yellow coloured car nor wear that dress and cannot be without a songkok in the presence of the Sultans .
In the modern adminsitration, the Malays still cannot accept dissension and oppositon …as if the word opposition is like a pariah, the devil, some communist infested organisation, infidels , wrong-doers, evil-minded, anti-national …… and you name it.
They simply like the term Opposition rather than Majority or Minority Party ….. but then, most Malay Voters did not vote UMNO !
i dont believe it. Charged for OSA based on a posting?
wonder which is more of a a threat to national security. deletion of immigration records or such postings? do we need a genius to pick the right one. what is the police doing about that?
Ghengis :
“In the modern adminsitration, the Malays still cannot accept dissension and oppositon …as if the word opposition is like a pariah, the devil, some communist infested organisation, infidels , wrong-doers, evil-minded, anti-national …… and you name it.”
Bullseye!
The insecurity which won’t be alleviated by islamization, only making it worse because of all the absolutist worldviews that came from dysfunctional Arabism incorporated.
They would rather trust leaders who’ll say that “Democracy means different things to different people, ” a spin and self-justifying line from the the King of Jordan, carried and repeated so often by CNN.
guys. only a handful are you foes, but you are taking on the whole nation of malays.
Correction: a whole nation of malays(not exactly) are taking on the truth and hoping to defeat it.
the arrest of nat is more than meets the eye. nat is a harvard kuda of fff and fff is a hazard to this country. you all should realise how serious this is.
If they are detaining Nat for having link for the Johari’s “fee for freedom” case, I think they are not pro at all.
I thought their geeks are very terror on cyber crime.
Now they are doing the ‘gostan’ procedures.Should asked them to watch “Die Hard 4.0” !!
Come on this is totally uncalled for.
[…] Wong The Sensintrovert Reduced and Recycled Lucia Lai Rocky’s Bru S.K.Thew Susan Loone Jeff Ooi Politics 101 Malaysia Bullets of Quills and […]
to me fff agenda is suspicious, ai’s involvement is very suspicious, and nat, in dire need to be employed? he should choose his employer wisely
TDM once said this is “POLICE STATE” ! How true !
he should choose his employer wisely
He chose to stand by the truth and help others to stop the LEAKING of our Constitution and Nation’s rights for a better & free-er Malaysia! He is not a scare-ddy cat that will Vote for BN just because they are threatening to throw everyone in ISA/OSA and haunt us with may13 for not voting them!
the ongoing high profile case has confirmed what we all suspect – The police are ROBOTS. They are not there to think. They do as they are told. In this case, the maters are not too smart.
I wonder if in the next GE a BN candidate is contesting against a PKR candidate in my constituency, which one will get my vote.
It would have been an easy question to answer just a couple of months ago. I would have voted BN. Though BN’s faults are many and serious, I would not have opted for PKR, which, to me, was a worse choice.
Now, with the latest incident, things are not the same. The balance seems to have tipped in favour of PKR.
What about other Malaysians?
How many votes will this Nat Tan affair cost BN?
[…] to Susan Loone, Nat was arrested because of a blog comment that linked to Johari’s alleged corruption. If it […]
hantutelur.
If you’re a righteous person, believing in honesty and integrity. Doing your duty to stop the corrupted world. You should converge WATTAHACK.
What Nat’s doing should be honoured. I respect his courage.
well, 1 for sure 🙂
[…] game by Tian Chua Special branch nabs blogger by Susan Loone Nathaniel Tan: Wrongful arrest by Ronnie Liu 24 jam Nathaniel di tahan by Mushroom […]
dear all,
thanks for all the kind words poured in this post of susan’s website. all of us at the tan household is very very grateful. we hope for a speedy release for nat. nat ‘kirim salam’ to those who thought of him!
thanks again 🙂
ARE very grateful. sorry.
gawd, i need sleep.
Is it an arrest or a sort of kidnapping, so to speak?
In both cases freedom of movement is being restrained. One involves a restraint for the purpose of investigating a crime; the other is the crime itself.
Has monsterball also been arrested by Bukit Aman. How come he is missing? Not seen him commenting here for days.
Solidarity for Nat!!
hey hammerhead;
monty’s on holiday in an island somewhere…the last i heard. anything between then and now…..dont know ler…lets hope he comes back soon. or else its free nat and monty, too!
Could it not be Phukett? His pocket should be large enough to be engaged by Thighs. 😉
Nothing too special about Nat, bloggers or whomever. If you break the law, just pay for it. No need to try and make heroes out of them just because they have a blog. Even monkeys can start blogs.
“If you break the law, just pay for it”.
I’m making a big issue out of Nat’s arrest precisely because I don’t see how he has broken the law.
There is a big difference between what is illegal and what is embarassing to UMNO, unfortunately these fellas think they own the world, so they are using their power to intimidate whoever is embarassing them.
Tian chua slandered, decieved and lied in his posting. Why dont catch him? Is he serving UMNO s purpose.
Becos of stupid Tian Chua, now UMNO can justify its cliams that lies are being spread via the internet.
Why did u do this Tian? They paid you?
Maybe they want to find out who posted the allegations, stuffs like IP address logs. While other bloggers also have the link to the allegations, choosing Nathanial is convenient as he is young, new, and associated with PKR. For sure they will take the opportunity to get other P&C documents along the way.
I believe Tian Chua has done a lot of disservice to his supporters and has delivered a dent to PKR’s credibility.
It shows how low PKR and their followers could go to make a point.
when BN slander and post fake photos its the bible when other post leads to some corrupt practice its OSA! lets all join BN and post rubbish and get rewarded for it – maybe a Datukship for Blogging?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please prepare yourselves for the General Elections.
Vote wisely the candidate of your choise, despite the fact that BN will win again.
Unless, there’s Global Warm-up reaching above 40 C as everybody in the line-up will roast in the sun .
let put all those corrupted politicians in jail, they all are threat to our nation.
R.I.P FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN MALAYSIA.
TDM started all this OSA shit, abusing ISA(remember Ops Lallang) for his own political mileage.
I thought AAB will reverse all these policies and protect the rakyat but seems like they are all the same.
Does they Govt think that are we really fools?
Jasin MP – no action taken = cleared of wrong doing.
The Bahari- no action taken = cleared of wrongdoing.
Datuk ZAKAR RIA= need i say more.
ohh I forgot,
eric chia – aswell.
Anyway how could we expect any more from the Boys in Blue if the Head is totally corrupted- link with underworld gangs.
Blue Boys – work entirely efficient going after harmless lad like Nat but when it comes to crimes othing done.
Have u all wondered has any Ah Long charged in courts for so many intimidation, murders all these years. Wonder why? Its happening right in front of our eyes, any one person charged? Why?
Blue Boys in a way try to protect them ruling out these loan sharks involvement. I wonder again.
[…] Nathaniel: Elizabeth Wong The Sensintrovert Reduced and Recycled Lucia Lai Rocky’s Bru S.K.Thew Susan Loone Jeff Ooi Politics 101 Malaysia Bullets of Quills and […]
[…] a message from the now famous blogger Nat Tan, from […]
Though this is not an uncommon political phenomenon in our country (especially during Dr M’s ruling), I am still deeply disappointed that there are still very little signs that our country is heading toward political maturity, as only a handful (or less) of our leaders demonstrate such qualities and selflessness to bring the country to the next level politically. Perhaps it is saddest to know that the next generation of the ruling politicians are already showing us that they are more interested to be the next Dr M than building a mature country. Our country’s political culture and norms will perhaps continue to allow a few politicians to rule the nation according to their greeds and selfishness.. on the other hand, I am still hopeful for progress as there has been more and more freedom of speech after the Dr. M’s era, though sadly we are still enjoying such freedom under the mercy of our leaders (in a mature country, the freedom of speech of the leaders is under the mercy of the people..). My wish is that such progress will not be tarnished as it is not that easy for the government to turn the wheel despite such arrest to intimidate the people.
[…] MALAYSIAN MADNESS, MEDIA, POLITICAL and NEWS Since blogger Nathaniel Tan’s capture by police on Friday and his subsequent arrest on Saturday under the draconian OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT, I had […]