Raja, thou doth protest too much!

Raja Petra Kamaruddin, editor of political website Malaysia Today claimed rival UMNO politicians have been providing him with juicy scandalous insider titbits.

Speaking at a media forum organised by the Asian Institute for Development Communication (Aidcom) in Kuala Lumpur, he said “We are perceived as an opposition website, despite the fact that we have been fighting the opposition. But you would be surprised, the bulk of our readers are actually from UMNO. The bulk of information we get is from UMNO.”

He disclaimed his blog as being aligned with the opposition: “As an opposition aligned website, it’s impossible to get that information.”

Raja Petra said Malaysia Today had benefited from the infighting in UMNO and competition among its members.

He explained: “I mean, if you are president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, so what. How far do you go? But if you are president of Umno, you become prime minister, so everyone wants to be president of Umno. So in that sense, there is a need to topple and sabotage each other. So those in the ruling party use us (Malaysia Today) as prostitutes, if you wish.”

“They give us information, because so and so wants to smear the other guy, so he can topple the other guy, so the other guy can topple the other guy. Everybody gives us information because everybody wants to topple everybody. This is how we get information.”

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Raja Petra in person, yet, though as a keen fan of his writing I gather he is a very witty, disarming ["use us (Malaysia Today) as prostitutes"], charming and definitely an eloquent person.

But I have said this of Raja Petra before and I say it again. I opine he is an ardent supporter of Anwar Ibrahim. Mind you, I observe from his writing that Raja Petra has sometimes changed ‘tactics’ to seemingly attack Anwar, very much to the consternation of the Anwaristas.

But I reckon that has been an indication of his clever and flexible ability to ‘modify’ his campaign for Anwar from dedicated devoted defence into a discerning diffused disguise, obliquely supporting Anwar in a sort of back-handed reverse-psychological kind of way.

It is a tribute to his (Raja Petra's) brilliance.

Even when he praised or support Mahathir, cynical KTemoc would be looking for the Anwar angle – just bloody suspicious me, that’s all ;-)

In June last year, Jeff Ooi of Screenshots triggered off something that riled Raja Petra so much that he removed the Screenshots link off his blog list. From very reliable source he was at war (whatever form that took) with Jeff Ooi.

But I see the Screenshots link back on Malaysia-Today which means they must have kissed and made up – I must asked Jeff about this.

Now, the reason for his (previous) anger with Jeff and my suspicion that Raja Petra is pro-Anwar seem to converged in the following old BolehTalk postings:

(1) Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White, which was the start of the Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White Chronicles, where one of Jeff Ooi’s posting sent Raja Petra ballistic.

(2) Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White (2). Here Raja Petra believed that Jeff Ooi was part of a conspiracy to Get Anwar.

Not only that, he talked about PKR becoming the super mega duper party once Anwar Ibrahim returned from overseas (after his release). He also accused the Young Turks of PAS.

(3) Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White (3). In this one, I quoted him saying: "To thwart this move they [meaning UMNO and some PAS leaders] are resurrecting an old allegation that Anwar has stashed RM3 billion in 20 offshore bank accounts. If they can ‘prove’ this then Anwar would be seen as no better than those he is accusing of corruption, nepotism and cronyism.”

(4) Raja Petra's Gula Melaka for us where I wrote: “The sh*t has really hit the fan over at Malaysia-Today, with Raja Petra Kamaruddin attacking Jeff Ooi ad hominem.”

Additionally I commented on a Raja Petra article that said Jeff Ooi and a certain Alex Ong collaborated to sucker PAS strongman Husam Musa into political suicide.

(5) Australian TV Programme in 2003 - Anwar Ibrahim & IIIT, where I picked up from a Raja Petra article, allowing us to learn of Anwar’s lawyer declaring an intention to sue SBS, the Australian TV station that aired a story of Anwar’s link with a terrorist group through an Islamic think-tank that he was a director of.

(6) People Intimate with the Anwar Ibrahim-CIBT Nexus - just a KTemoc advice to spammers of the Chronicles to try their luck at Malaysia-Today.

(7) Is PAS a Siamese Twin or Millstone for PKR?, where I commented on another Raja Petra article about the relationship between PAS and PKR.

(8) Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White (4). Wow, here Raja Petra went as far as to state Husam Musa of PAS may be an UMNO plant, a BN sleeper, placed in PAS.

(9) From Worm to Dragon?, where a reader of Malaysia-Today criticised Raja Petra for making Khairy Jamaluddin into more than the young laddie actually was. The reader said: “Raja, if you keep talking about KJ you are helping the worm to be a dragon by giving him more and more publicity.”

(10) The Khairy PM-ship?

(11) A Conscientious Defence Witness where we get to read of a defence witness for Anwar who was both conscientiously ‘neutral’ and yet faithfully ‘devoted’ to Anwar.

But hey don’t take my opinion seriously. People like me don’t get invited to make a presentation at, what was it? ah, yes, a media forum organised by the Asian Institute for Development Communication, while Raja Petra was. Makes me so jealous.

And if Raja Petra claims his website is not aligned with the opposition, then really we should believe him. Don’t be like loony KTemoc.