HOME Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin is welcome to return to Malaysia but must go through proper channels and have the necessary travel documents if he wished to do so.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) secretary-general said Raja Petra could contact him directly if he did not have the necessary travel papers and added that if he misses his home country so much and wishes to come back, he just has to do the right thing.
“He has to deal with the Home Ministry, not the Youth and Sports, or Agriculture Ministries. The question is whether he has done that. If he has, when? Who did he write to? Who in Bukit Aman did he contact?” Saifuddin told the media in an interview at his office yesterday (June 21).
“My advice to Raja Petra is, firstly, don’t play victim. Secondly, if he genuinely wants to return, he is most welcome.”
The Kulim-Bandar Baharu MP said that Raja Petra, with whom he had been acquainted during the Reformasi campaign in 1998, had left Malaysia to avoid prosecution.
In a 4:15-long video uploaded to his Twitter account on Tuesday (June 20), Raja Petra revealed that negotiations had been made with the relevant authorities since 2013 to facilitate his return to Malaysia.
Raja Petra claimed that he even met Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over the matter when the latter was deputy prime minister in former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration, tried to negotiate his return with Bukit Aman “many times”, and had even held negotiations with “two ministers” as well as Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said on the matter.
“The government doesn’t want me to return to Malaysia because it fears I will be dangerous to the government. That’s the excuse they gave,” he alleged.
Raja Petra claimed he had managed to renew his passport with Zahid’s assistance, but did not specify when or if it had expired by now, and that he had no outstanding court cases or charges against him because he had visited Malaysian embassies and high commissions in Thailand, Singapore, and London without any problems.
“Whatever charges against me have been dropped, the charges have been withdrawn,” he said.
In 2009, the media reported that Raja Petra had disappeared after two arrest warrants were issued against him for failing to appear in court on April 23 and May 23 respectively for a trial for publishing seditious and slanderous articles through his website. – June 22, 2023
Main pic credit: The Star
