THE TRUTH CHRONICLES: Hassan’s troubles with the law

HASSAN SKODENG SPEAKS THE TRUTH (FOR THIS POST, AT LEAST):

OK, obviously my name’s not Hassan Skodeng. I won’t reveal my name just yet, coz I don’t think this humour site’s about me. It’s about the jokes. The obviously unreal, completely and honestly fake jokes.

But today, reality caught up with me.

When it was reported in the news that TNB had, indeed, reported ‘that’ blog post to the MCMC, I knew this silly joke had gone out of hand. So I did what any responsible baboon would do — I contacted the MCMC directly to clarify my position. Coz’ the last thing I want is for the authorities to act based on only one side of the story and believe whatever TNB said, without hearing my side.

The MCMC people, honestly, are a good bunch of people (and no, I’m not sucking up to them. My fate is not in their hands, it’s now in the Attorney General’s DPP’s hands). They are (based on my own experience anyways) professional, thorough and polite as ever. They responded with courtesy and dignity, and expressed their desire to settle this case as soon as possible. But since someone had filed an official report, a complaint against this blog, they have no choice but to act.

So I spent about 3 hours giving my statement to MCMC in Cyberjaya this morning, bringing everything from my blog stats (to show them when the post was up, and when I deleted it) to all sorts of printouts, and explained the satirical nature of the blog. I told them that I was in fact pissed off that a stupid joke that does no one harm (other than some bruised egos, I guess) became something so big. I said that I wish they didn’t have to pursue this case, seeing how there are SO many other more important cases to work on (those guys are overworked, really. On average, an enforcement officer has 20 cases to work on at any one time!).

Anyway, after the interview, I read my statement, signed it (I believe that in Law, the truth is the ultimate defence). The officers then followed me to my office in PJ to ‘sita’ the CPU of the PC on which I wrote the ‘offending’ story. Police warrant in hand, they took pictures of the PC CPU (even the network cable — apparently it’s necessary as evidence), took snapshots of the blog, wrote stuff and bundled the CPU away (until their forensics lab are done with it).

BUt again, these officers were a polite and respectful bunch, and I understand their position. They have their orders, and were just menjalankan tugas. Kudos to them. And I apologise to them for wasting their time and energy.

My case is now up to the investigating officers’ recommendations, and the AG’s DPP’s definition. It’s filed under section 233 of the Multimedia Act (writing/spreading imappropriate material with the intent to hurt — or something like that, only in BM). I’m hoping that everybody chills and look at this for what it truly is — a silly joke. Parody. Heck, even the PM’s been parodied so many times in blogs and cartoons, and he’s cool about it. Maybe TNB’s a wee bit too serious about themselves, yes? I mean, is Earth Hour part of their national KPI or something? Did they lose money from my fake blogpost, which was erroneously lifted off and reposted elesewhere as ‘actual news’? I don’t know. Ain’t a lawyer. Just a red-arsed baboon.

So that’s it. I think I’ll take a break from writing crap for a while. This fake blog was created as a stress relief. I like writing jokes, and I enjoy making people laugh and destress. God knows the world is serious enough.

SO people, keep laughing. Keep smiling. I’ll write again if I get inspired and feel less disheartened by this whole surreal episode.

Till then, PEACE OUT! =)

Hassan Skodeng

NOTE: I would encourage anyone who had taken my posting on Earth Hour (before it was deleted) and copied it on their own sites, t0 delete it, or at least take it out of public view. The case is now ongoing — and although it has nothing to do with any other site, I wouldn’t want anyone else to be involved now, would I?

The Cyberjaya folks are watching…