Saturday, December 15, 2007

Poison Letter (Update)

I wrote a couple of days back when my name was used in an email circulating very widely to defame a well known restaurant in Sri Petaling.

I have lodged a police report at the Damansara Police station on Thursday. The investigation officer have updated me to let me know that the case is now in the hands of the Multimedia Commission. I have of course provided all the necessary detailed email headers for their investigation purposes.

I called a press conference at the police station and the news have been reported in all the Chinese press as well as the Malay Mail. Other press that turned up were Harian Metro, Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo! Of course, I can't expect The Star or the NST to be present. ;-)

Came out on Page 3 of the Malay Mail on Friday:
TONY Pua, of Medan Damansara, never had lunch at this particular Chinese restaurant in Sri Petaling.

He said he only had dinner at the restaurant a long time ago. So it came as a shock to him when friends asked if he was boycotting the restaurant over an unpleasant experience he had during lunch.

“I received SMSes and e-mails from some 20 relatives and friends on the matter,” he said yesterday.

Pua, who is economics adviser to the DAP secretary-general, said he did not know why he was asked about the matter until he came across an e-mail defaming the restaurant. The e-mail, purportedly written by him, asked its readers to boycott the restaurant, which is popular for its mooncakes.

“I was shocked to discover the e-mail, which I had not written, on Dec 6 after a friend who asked about it forwarded it to me,” said Pua.

“Initially, I ignored it, but after I was questioned by many of my friends, I decided to lodge a police report.”

Pua lodged a report at the Damansara police station over the e-mail yesterday. He said the writer had defamed him for writing the e-mail and defamed the restaurant by alleging poor service. He said he lodged the police report with a view to protecting himself from being sued by the restaurant.

“People thought it was me who wrote the e-mail.” Pua hoped that police will fi nd the writer of the e-mail to clear his name and that of the restaurant.
Til today, I still get a few phone calls, emails and sms'es checking if I were the real author of the email. Sigh.

It's a pain lodging police reports and I certainly don't enjoy the exercise. Spent some 4 hours at the police stations, first at Damansara, then subsequently with the investigation officer at Petaling Jaya HQ. The officers were pleasant enough, plenty of small talk as well, but it just takes a really long time.

I do hope that the idiot gets tracked down. ;-)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only one group of people in Malaysia are adept in using poison pen letter. It is in their culture as well. That is UMNO.

Anonymous said...

Dear Tony,

Please take this from a positive perspective. The only reason this happended is becuase 'they' are jealous and scared of your rising popularity.

They know that you will beat them by winning citizens' true heart. I should really congratulate you for becoming their threat. You should also thank them for free publicity in the newspapers to make yourself more well known.

We're all behind to support you! We really can't wait to vote BN out!

Anonymous said...

Typical UMNO lalang tactics.

NEO said...

Dear All,

On the above matter, I belief its not UMNO but the largest chinese political party in the ruling coalition. Do not forget, the same party is having the majority equity interest in The Star.

MCA Phantom Member

Anonymous said...

Looks like dap supporters are thick with prejudice, but 'neo' has a different view - interesting...

Anonymous said...

don't get riled up, maybe it's just another guy who happens to have same anglican and surname.

Golf Afflicted said...

Hi Denzook,

Apologies for being skeptical but:

1. It just so happens that this other Tony Pua also lives in the Klang Valley and has a 3 year old daughter?

2. That most Pua's are spelt "Phua" like Phua Chu Kang?

3. That I've never heard of another Tony Pua in my past 15 years in Malaysia?

4. That nobody should be silly enough to castigate a restaurant in such a way without opening himself up to a whole series in litigation?

Tony

Anonymous said...

Dear Tony,
I'll say another positive outcome of this silly poison pen matter is that the I.T. ignorant authorities will now be CAUTIOUS in detaining innocent bloggers who are blamed for certain postings...Anyone could easily use someone else's identity through postings in the comment section and e-mails in our Blogosphere. So this universally declared maxim "one is innocent until proven guilty" stands...though in Malaysia I can only pray it is practised more often by the enforcement agencies.

Anonymous said...

Nahh... neo still has mca blood in him, so he remains a confused guy, you know the fence-sitter type

Anonymous said...

Think for a moment why Star and NST were not at your press conference - maybe not newsworthy enough? Let's give them benefit of the doubt. Wait till you have something going and you don't need to give them the scoop ok?

Unknown said...

guys - tony is in politics no doubt but the poison letter may or may not be political in nature... give-la time for the mcmc or police to investigate..

while i aint a supporter of BN i would choose to refrain from jumping the gun - that is the prerogative of some of the Neanderthals currently residing in parliament.

陈一豪 said...

Dear Tony,

I received that email from my aunt and I gave a reply, saying that it would not be you, before I went and googled you and found this story.

I've heard some pretty good stories about you from my friend, who is(used to be) working for you.

Cheers!

Golf Afflicted said...

Thank you Dr Tan ;-)

Tony

Crankster said...

There's another side to it. It's possible that someone has a grudge against the said restaurant (owner) and has used your popularity to lend credibility to his email.