Call me if you want to return home, Saifuddin tells Raja Petra

PUTRAJAYA: Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin needs to use the right channels and have complete travel documents if he wants to return to Malaysia as conveyed in a video recording posted on his social media account recently.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government had never prevented Raja Petra from returning home.

"He can write me a letter if he misses Malaysia and wants to come back. As a Malaysian, he just needs a proper channel and if he has issues with the proper documentation or his (travel) document has been cancelled or has been subject to a restraining order and so on, he can ask me officially.

"I will look into it. That is better than voicing this on social media," he said at the Exclusive Session of Media Editors with the Home Minister at the Home Ministry here, yesterday.

He said this in response to Raja Petra's previous statement which claimed that he was not allowed to return to Malaysia by the government and Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM).

In the video recording, Raja Petra claimed to have used various means to return to Malaysia since 2013, including holding negotiations with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi under the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak then without success.

He also claimed to have held negotiations with two Cabinet ministers as well as Bukit Aman to help him return to the country.

Raja Petra was reported to have fled the country after two arrest warrants were issued against him for failing to appear in court in 2009 for his trial of allegedly publishing seditious and defamatory articles through his website.

-- BERNAMA