Nathaniel Tan

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Nathaniel Tan (born 1980) is a Malaysian Peranakan politician and blogger. A member of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, he was the editor of a book on the conflict between former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, titled Mahathir vs. Abdullah: Covert Wars and Challenged Legacies and published in early 2007. He later co-edited a book on religion and politics with John Lee, Religion Under Siege?: Lina Joy, the Islamic State and Freedom of Faith, published in early 2008. In July 2007, Tan gained fame when he was detained by the Royal Malaysian Police for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act.

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[edit] Early life

Tan originally lived in the Damansara Utama suburb of Petaling Jaya, before moving to Taman Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. He attended Sunway University College where he studied for his A Levels, before attending Harvard College in the United States, where he graduated in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies.[1]

[edit] Political work

In February 2007, a book edited by Tan, titled Mahathir vs. Abdullah: Covert Wars and Challenged Legacies, was published by the publishing arm of Malaysiakini. The book carried commentary by politicians such as Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Guan Eng, and also articles by local commentators and activists.[2]

A month later, Tan joined Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), serving as an aide to Tian Chua, the party's information chief.[1] He later began working for the party's de facto head, Anwar Ibrahim, as Anwar's secretary for work related to the Foundation for the Future, which Anwar is president of.

Later that year, Tan formed his own company, JustNetworks.[1] The company states its objective as "aggregating the various online activist efforts and being a hub of information for public initiatives" and providing "communications strategies management for organisations".[3]

[edit] Detention

On 13 July 2007, Tan was detained by three plainclothes policemen, who requested that he bring his notebook computer and follow them to the police headquarters at Bukit Aman. However, Tan's lawyer later stated that according to Bukit Aman, there was no record of his detention. A police report was filed alleging Tan had been kidnapped.[4]

At 10pm that day, roughly six hours after his disappearance, Bukit Aman confirmed that they were holding Tan. Malaysiakini reported that "According to the police, Tan will be held for 24 hours by the Cyber Crime Unit in Jalan Dato Onn to facilite investigation under the Official Secrets Act," and that Tan's home desktop computer had been seized as well. Shortly afterwards, Tan was transferred to a different police station. It was announced that he would appear before a magistrate the following day for further remand.[4]

On 14 July, Tan was remanded for four days by a magistrate, who rejected the police request for a 14-day remand order, the maximum permitted under the law. The proceedings commenced before the arrival of his lawyers, who later alleged that the investigating police officers intentionally refrained from informing them about the proceedings, and that the court police had also misled the investigating officers about Tan's lawyers' whereabouts.[5]

An investigating officer later confirmed that Tan was being investigated for a potential violation of section 8 of the Official Secrets Act, which pertains to "wrongful communication, etc. of [an] official secret". Tan had reportedly published a comment on his blog alleging corruption on the part of Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom. After Tan's arrest, Johari announced that he had instructed the police to investigate "lies" published on the internet.[5]

One of Tan's lawyers, R. Sivarasa, stated that the remand order was meant only to "put Nat under duress". Citing the fact that several documents, CDs, and computers had been seized from Tan's office, home and car, Sivarasa stated:

“ If the remand is for investigation why continue to detain him, when he has given everything? This is a fishing expedition. There's clearly another agenda behind this. ... This is purely an act of oppression. I want to go on record (to say) this detention is politically motivated.[6] ”

On 18 July, Tan was released at 5.15pm on police bail, but was required to report back to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department in Kuala Lumpur on 31 July.[7][8]

[edit] Response to detention

After Tan's detention, Anwar condemned his arrest, and called for Tan's family members and lawyers to be given access to him. Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang condemned "secretive circumstances in the first seven hours of Tan’s arrest", calling them "a scandal which speaks of a police which has yet to fully accept that the first principle of policing in a democratic system must be policing for the people and not policing to serve the government leaders of the day". Lim also suggested that Tan might be a "pawn" used by the police and government to "protect their vested interests".[9]

Human rights watchdog Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) alleged that Tan's rights under the Constitution of Malaysia had been violated:

“ Under Article 5(3), it is the duty of the police to tell the (detainee) the grounds of arrest as soon as possible and allow Tan to consult his lawyer ... In the case of Tan, he was not told of the ground of arrest but was taken away on the pretext of investigations and the lawyers were not informed of his arrests ... Was the police trying to avoid informing the detainee of the ground of arrest by not making it clear to Tan that it was in fact an arrest?[9] ”

Other organisations that condemned Tan's detention included the Malaysian Bar Council, the Centre for Independent Journalism and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).[6] The Sun condemned the circumstances surrounding Tan's detention as "attempts at obstructing justice", and called them "politically-motivated".[10]

In response to a question in Parliament from Lim about two months after Tan's detention, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stated that "The arrest and the police report [filed against another blogger] are usual procedures followed by the police."[11]

[edit] Post-detention

In early 2008, Kinibooks, the publishing branch of Malaysiakini, published Religion Under Siege?: Lina Joy, the Islamic State and Freedom of Faith, a book Tan co-edited with John Lee about religious and political issues in Malaysia. Although he did not run for public office in the 2008 general election, Tan was billed as a prominent speaker together with bloggers Raja Petra Kamarudin and Haris Ibrahim at election rallies around the country.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Tan, Nathaniel (2007). Mahathir vs. Abdullah: Covert Wars & Challenged Legacies. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Kinibooks. ISBN 9834092237. 
  • Tan, Nathaniel; John Lee (2008). Religion Under Siege?: Lina Joy, the Islamic State and Freedom of Faith. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Kinibooks. ISBN 978-983-40922-4-5. 

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c Tan, Nathaniel. nat who?.
  2. ^ Tan, Nathaniel. Launched!! Mahathir vs. Abdullah: Covert Wars and Challenged Legacies.
  3. ^ Projects.
  4. ^ a b "OSA probe: Police detains PKR webmaster", Malaysiakini, 2007-07-13. 
  5. ^ a b Ong, Andrew. "OSA probe: 4-day remand for blogger", Malaysiakini, 2007-07-14. 
  6. ^ a b Hong, Bede. "Candlelight vigil for blogger", Malaysiakini, 2007-07-16. 
  7. ^ "PKR’s Tan freed on police bail", The Star, 2007-07-18. 
  8. ^ Jeff, Ooi. "Say NO to a Police State in Blogosphere", Screenshots, 2007-07-18. 
  9. ^ a b "Anwar, Kit Siang condemn OSA arrest", Malaysiakini, 2007-07-14. 
  10. ^ Surin, Jacqueline Ann. "An anxious time in police custody", The Sun, 2007-07-19. 
  11. ^ Palaniappan, Yoges. "PM: No Internet crackdown", Malaysiakini, 2007-09-11. 

[edit] External links