RAJA Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) started as one of the warriors of the Reformasi movement and defended Anwar so valiantly. It was sad to see his hopes turn to disappointment as he was persecuted (two ISA detentions) and went into exile in Manchester, UK. 

When RPK was being pilloried by the New Straits Times in 2010, I lauded his efforts of the last decade in my article: “Cyber anarchist would be an apt epithet to confer upon him for he has done more than any politician in this country to expose the illegitimate institutions of the Malaysian state… RPK has gone beyond the sociological theses about the shared interests of the ruling elite – he has literally stripped bare the integuments of the Malaysian state; exposed the machinations of the police and shameful harassment of whistleblowers.”  

I further described RPK as the “nemesis of bumiputeraism”: “He taunts them in cyberspace all the way to hell. You couldn’t find a more exemplary model of the rational, non-racist Malaysian intellectual who is not afraid to castigate not only the ruling class but also the spineless and the opportunists in ALL the ethnic communities in Malaysia.” 

Having worked so many years in the “Free Anwar” campaign, it makes many Malaysians wonder how RPK suddenly in 2010 decided to launch his anti-Anwar campaign. I am interested to know his analysis and views on Umno during those years when he supported the Reformasi campaign. Was he, for example, already the “Malay nationalist” he said he was? 

In an NST interview, RPK said: “It was around that time, since 2010-2011, that I began to question many things involving politics and religion. I no longer accepted what could be described as mainstream beliefs… And this is what the opposition cannot accept about me, my unorthodoxies. And that was why they opposed the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) when it was launched in late 2010. They did not know what to expect and it is a natural human instinct to fear the unknown. So, they opposed the MCLM and condemned me for what they viewed as an attempt at creating competition for the opposition… So, when I revealed the truth behind the real face of the opposition, and when I exposed Anwar Ibrahim for the fraud that he is, the opposition people cannot accept this truth… it was Anwar Ibrahim who first declared war on me in 2010.  

“One of the key issues in my disagreement with Anwar was his agree to disagree policy and his refusal to resolve many disagreements in the opposition, the hudud issue being one of them. I said that if he does not address this issue then one day soon Pakatan Rakyat would disintegrate. And for that he attacked me. And now have I not been proven right? Has Pakatan Rakyat disintegrated? So why can’t I oppose Anwar when he is the cause of the disaster and when I had already warned him, and he declared war on me because I had brought his matter up.”  

Okay, so RPK had grounds for being disaffected with Anwar and the opposition coalition over the latter’s prejudice against the “Third Force” that RPK and others including Haris Ibrahim were trying to create after 2008. But did that mean he should make a complete volte face and support Najib Razak, the man he once opposed?  

RPK had also said: “It never occurred to them that we are supporting the government because we want to make sure that the Chinese DAP-led opposition would not grab power and set up a Chinese DAP-dominated government with Malays from Amanah and PKR as their proxies and puppets. And when I say that they call me a racist. So, I am a Malay nationalist. So what? Why does that make me a racist? The Scots, Welsh and Irish are nationalists as well…there is nothing wrong with being a nationalist and you should be proud of it. So, I am nationalist Malay and am proud of it. And if you find that offensive that is your problem, not mine. First close all your Chinese and Tamil schools before coming to talk to me about ‘there should be no Malays, Chinese and Indians but only Malaysians’… So why can’t I tell the Malays you must support Umno or else you are a traitor to the Malay race? What makes them right and me wrong?”  

For all his Oxford education, could RPK tell me if Umno was comparable with for example, the Scottish National Party (SNP)? Does the SNP subscribe to “Scottish dominance” along the lines of “Ketuanan Melayu”? I think not. Does the SNP subscribe to racism and racial discrimination like we have in this country? I think not.  

So, what happened to all the solutions the MCLM had to reform Malaysia? Surely, they did not include such exclusive Malay-supremacist objectives like closing Chinese and Tamil schools? Does RPK regret having left his “Malay nationalist” aspirations in suspension all those years of the Reformasi movement and the MCLM? Had he been a crypto-Malay supremacist all those years?  

RPK was certainly one of the most colourful bloggers that Malaysia has produced, and he had priceless information from whistleblowers. When I launched “Questioning Arms Spending in Malaysia: From Altantuya to Zikorsky” in London in 2010, he very kindly organised the event. At least I got to know the real RPK after we adjourned to the pub – human, rational and caring.  

So long RPK, rest in power. – September 10, 2024. 

* Kua Kia Soong, Director of Suaram, reads The Malaysian Insight.  

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.