The Penang chief minister said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had gone beyond reproach by acting against Nga, who had merely expressed his views on Facebook.
This afternoon, Nga was arrested by MCMC officers and brought to a police station in Ipoh for questioning, following a Facebook post deemed to be offensive.
In a statement this evening, MCMC said it detained Nga for posting “objectionable” (jelik) content on his social media page.
It did not elaborate further on the said content but said it would investigate the matter under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
This section, among others, criminalises the use of network facilities or network services by a person to transmit any communication that is deemed to be offensive and could cause annoyance to another person.
MCMC said today’s swoop on three locations was aided by the Perak police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department.
Nga’s phones and computers were reported to have been taken away, too.
“This is a grave abuse of power and in breach of the ‘no-internet-censorship’ policy,” Lim said.
“To descend on Nga’s home, service centre and his parents’ home is unacceptable.
“I only wish MCMC would be efficient in more serious cases such as when my son was falsely accused of outraging the modesty of a girl. Why didn’t they go down to arrest the blogger right away?” Lim said when contacted.
He was referring to his then 16-year-old son, who was accused in a blog posting of groping a schoolmate’s breasts in 2011.
A collage of Lim’s son and the alleged grope victim was posted by pro-Umno blogger Papagomo.
It was later revealed that the girl in the photos was a chess player from Hong Kong named Anya Corke. The original photo, which showed Corke playing chess, had been cropped in an attempt to implicate Lim’s son.
Children, family traumatised by raiding MCMC officers
Beruas MP and Sitiawan assemblyman Ngeh Koo Ham said MCMC raided Nga’s official residence in Ipoh, his parliamentary service centre in Taiping and his parents’ home in Ayer Tawar, near Sitiawan.
Ngeh is Nga’s cousin.
Ngeh described the raid as a “fishing expedition” as the officers themselves were not sure what to look for.
He said the sudden raid had shocked his elderly parents in their 70s and 80s and also his three young children, aged 8 to 13.
Ngeh said the officers were accompanied by police Special Branch officers and each entourage had at least 10 people.
“I was told Nga’s children are petrified by the whole incident. I can only imagine what my uncle and aunt could have felt when the officers stormed into their home,” Ngeh told FMT.
Ngeh said what the officers had done might be illegal as they prevented a MP from discharging his duties.
“It is an MP’s duty to voice out the dissatisfaction of the rakyat. And Nga was just doing that. It was his duty.”
He said Nga was brought for questioning to the Sungai Senam police station, where he was represented by lawyer and Malim Nawar assemblyman Leong Cheok Keng.
It is learnt that Nga is being investigated under Section 233 (i) of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 for improper use of network facilities.
Nga courted controversy before when he posted a Hari Raya money packet described as bribes.