Murray Hunter Substack: The year 2025

Hi there! As we are nearing the end of 2024, I thought it might be a good time to communicate directly with all of you about what has been going on behind the scenes.

Murray Hunter Substack has been blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) continuously for 20 months now. I have received 2 sets of public threats of criminal charges by the PDRM in 2024 (in both cases the police have gone above the constitution), and two Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), one being a proxy for the MCMC. My reach on Facebook has been dramatically reduced, and a couple of paid bloggers have attempted to damage my reputation. Trolls have run coordinated campaigns against my X posts. My former university UNIMAP wrongfully claimed they sacked me ten years ago, in conduct unbecoming for a so-called institute of higher education. Even the prime minister has told people in his chat group that I am a paid writer with the mission to defame him.

Nevertheless, fortunately Murray Hunter Substack achieved more than 200,000 readers per month under the above conditions.

Over the last four years, I have broken a number of stories. I have still been giving interviews on RT (no one else will interview me). On issues outside Russia, RT appears to be the least bias news agency left out there, so still proud to be there. The MCMC ensured that no local media would carry anything I wrote. Hence, I lost two regular columns on direction of the MCMC to the news portal editors and newspaper.

I was also able to expose media commentators who are not who they purport themselves to be. They are financed by foreign governments with vested interests. Consequently, I learnt that one must be very cautious about the opinions put forward by some analysts/commentators to their readers/listeners, due to concealed motives and objectives.

The objective for my Substack has changed somewhat, since I began it in April 2020 at the beginning of the Covid frenzy. Murray Hunter Substack was originally set up to be a repository for my past writings (I have been writing since 1992). It didn’t really matter if anyone read my collection, or not. It was never an objective to attract readers at that time.

However, with the events going on in Malaysia, I felt the need to do commentaries. I very quickly learnt (even though many called me anti-government and/or pro-opposition at the time) it was necessary to alert people to the wrongs going on within government. I believe Malaysia is now going through some rapid changes that are not for the better, and Malaysia is at a breaking point we haven’t seen since Singapore left Malaysia in 1965. Consequently, to some degree, I haven’t been able to write about the things I really wanted to write about.

In addition, this website has become the last resort for many activists to put out views they would be persecuted for in Malaysia. I apologise that some of these must carry a pen name rather than the person’s real name. This is just to protect their safety.

Citizens have come to me with their problems, that no one would assist with and no one would publicise. I couldn’t ignore and have tried to cover, often to my own determent. In addition, I respect those who took personal risk to contact me and provide evidence of corruption within the Madani government. There have been witch hunts inside government to try and discover who are those informing me and stop them. This motivated me to keep going during times I felt down.

In the light of rapidly declining press freedom in Malaysia, I cannot abandon what I have been doing, until the day comes when freedom of the press returns to Malaysia. I feel a duty to continue my work until Malaysia has a more democratic process. The current regime doesn’t respect the Rakyat’s (peoples’) wishes, becoming the most corrupt government this century. Due to the major crackdown on freedom of speech, Malaysians live in fear of talking, something akin to what I experienced back in the late 1970s in Malaysia.

I have tried to be unbiased and write as a political atheist. I don’t have a preference for any party. When a government is in power, I have often found myself as the only opposition, simply because the official opposition is not doing its proper job. I try to cover issues others don’t cover, or try to give a different perspective and/or insights on what is already being covered. I try to tell you what you need to know.

We must remember the fallen ones. This year we lost two people who had been reporting on what has been happening in Malaysia from outside the country. Hussein Hamid and Raja Petra Kamaruddin. They were both criticised for what they did, but they did their job. Now there are even fewer of us outside Malaysia telling people inside what’s going on, all suffering some personal hardship from a government that cant take criticism.

After two years of government attacks on the media there is little independence left. The current media, with only a couple of exceptions have been reduced to just relaying government propaganda to the people. This is just what it was like in Malaysia pre-1998.

There is a need for someone to tell things as they are. I am trying to fulfil this role. It is important for governments to be accountable for what they do.

So, Murray Hunter Substack will continue until Malaysian news portals regain their independence and become brave once again. Someone must fight the deceptive narratives coming out from the government.

Over the last 4 years, I have undertaken my work as a labour of love. The MCMC forced FMT and My Sin Chew to cancel me as a columnist. I have also left some media portals by choice in Australia and the US, due to drastic editorial shifts to the left over the last few years. This prevents one writing and reporting what one believes is the truth. I found it untenable to see these great news and current affairs portals turn woke, and actively support geo-political policies that are dangerous for the safety and stability of the world.

I want to do something next year more exciting for readers. That’s why I have introduced some guest authors. I want to carry out more in-depth analysis on issues concerning the region and geo-politics where my political writing began more than a decade ago.

Everything to date has been self-financed. This includes the investigative journalism, fighting government persecution, and civil actions. My time on this project prevents me from doing other things that might provide me with an income.

I will open up Murray Hunter Substack for donations. Some people have already generously pledged, but until now did not take up these offers. Now it is becoming a necessity, as I cannot even access my own bank funds in Malaysia. I will in the new year appreciate any assistance, no matter how small to assist.

I don’t believe in paywalls. I will keep all pages and articles open for those who wish to read them. I want people to know the truth, as far as how much of it I can ascertain from Malaysia, where it is no longer safe for me to go.

During the year I have published two important e-books “Malaysia – Deep Corruption: The evolution of the deep state” and “Feudalism in Malaysia Today: The real elephant in the room”, which you can access free on the links. Malaysia- Deep Corruption has been viewed more than 105,000 times since it was uploaded. The second book “Feudalism in Malaysia Today” highlights Malaysia’s real issue, the feudal society that has been created by the Malay elite to maintain power and wealth. These free books are primarily made up of materials Gerakbudaya wouldn’t use in the publication of some previous books published back in 2022, before GE15 with Dr Lim Teck Ghee.

With regards to those who dismiss my writings as the rantings of a foreigner. This ignores my deep connections and links with Malaysia through family and work. I lived many years in Malaysia identifying with culture, language and religion. I was forced into exile after commando raids on my home in Kampong Jejawi, Arau. When living in Malaysia on the farm in Berseri, gangsters would sometime come to my front door with loaded guns to intimidate me. On my than one occasion, fires were lit to burn my home down, and the place was ransacked when I wasn’t home.

It became unsafe to live there. I hope one day to see the Malay mind emancipated, just as I see where I am domiciled now in the Thai Deep South, under the Patani Sultanate that is fighting for recognition, dignity, and self-government by the people of Patani. They see Malay identity in a completely different light, unshackled by the colonial word “Malay”.

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