“They could barely pronounce the titles of my articles and barely spoke English.” – Murray Hunter on the Thai police after they freed him on bail, according to a Malaysia news portal. The Australian, known for harsh criticism of Malaysia after losing his job as a lecturer in Perlis, said he was sueing Malaysia’s MCMC for his troubles.
FOR a foreigner who has been living in Thailand for years now, one would expect Murray Hunter to know that English isn’t the preferred language of Thais. Or, one may expect him to have picked up some Thai, even.
But no, he had to put someone down for his predicament. Like always.
“I do not think the Thai police even understand why they were arresting me and only told me that I was charged with defamation.
“They could barely pronounce the titles of my articles in English and barely spoke English and repeatedly told me that I had been arrested for defamation,” he told the Vibes after the cops had freed him.
Some of you may detect a condescending tone there but I believe, even though I don’t know the guy personally, that that is who and how Hunter is. The Australian, who had been happily bashing Malaysia from his holiday home in Thailand, has just been served notice – legal notice – that he is not special, after all, and that – like you and me and everybody else – he can and will be held accountable for what he writes online.
If the law finds that what he has written are lies and defamatory, he will pay for his crime.
But if he has done nothing wrong, I’m sure the Thai laws will protect him.
My advice to Hunter, don’t insist that the judge presiding your case understand English. Just make sure your lawyer understands Thai.
Hunter was detained by the Thai immigration authorities at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Monday as he was about to leave the country for Hong Kong. He is being’s charged under Section 328 of the Thai Criminal Code with defamation, where four of his Substack articles were quoted as defamatory material.
He told the Vibes’ reporter that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was behind his arrest (he may have insinuated that the Malaysian body can tell the Thai authorities what to do, pls search for the Vibes’ article and see if he wasn’t) and has promised to sue.
I’m sure the people at MCMC are pissing in their pants at this Farang’s threat. – October 3, 2025
***Datuk Ahirudin Attan, known as Rocky Bru, is the executive director of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop.