The Hunt for NameWee Continues... Sedition!!

As a follow up to the blog yesterday:

The Internal Security Ministry claims that they are investigating the matter. They are checking to see if there are any elements of sedition in his song. My goodness, the Sedition Stick is out now. I never realised that the bar for sedition was ever this low. However, the secretary general of the ministry did say that he hasn't seen the video. I think that it only happens back home, where a highly placed official can comment on an investigation when they haven't even reviewed the case properly.

Our Deputy IGP says that the police cannot take any action against the kid because he committed the act outside of their jurisdiction. However, the police can take action if someone in this country files an official police report. I guess that the police are telling the Gahmen that they have more important fish to fry (like robbers, rapists and murderers) than this little kid who likes to write songs in a vulgar tongue. If the Gahmen really wants to hang the kid, they would have to make things very easy for them by building a case.

Also, the Foreign Ministry claims that they have not received any extradition requests from the police. As the police say that they cannot take any action, I doubt that an extradition request would be forthcoming. And even if the police did make a request, Malaysia might not be able to make an extradition request. According to Wikipedia, an extradition request requires that the act be a crime in both countries. I doubt that modifying our NegaraKu is a crime in Taiwan but I'm not so sure about the act of sedition though.

Personally, I think that if the Gahmen wanted the issue to go away, they should just stop beating the big stick. I'm not sure what the Gahmen hopes to gain from this exercise but, I think that this case has never been about a kid breaking the law. At least, they have stopped talking about copyright violations, or bringing the country into disrepute, or making unauthorised changes to the National Anthem, which they did earlier. As I had pointed out, I'm guessing that they have realised that they don't have a real case. So, this makes me wonder what all this is really about.

I'm not sure if the Gahmen will step back, now that the issue has come so far. But, from the reports, it seems that the police are trying to diffuse the situation and that the various ministries are trying to pass the buck. The Foreign Ministry says that they cannot extradite unless the police ask them to. The police say that they cannot investigate unless someone builds a case. The Internal Security Ministry says that they're checking but they've not yet seen the video. And everyone seems to agree that it's currently up to the Higher Education Ministry to summon him back, if he was a government scholar (I'm not even sure if our Gahmen sponsors students to Taiwan). In other words, no action, talk only.

Nothing good can come out from this. Whether the kid gets caught or not, the Gahmen will end up looking like a big bully. I'll just stick up the song again for everyone to review. It's really quite good. You be the judge of whether it's seditious or otherwise.

UPDATE+3: They've invited his had over for a cup of tea.