Bloggers in Malaysia will soon be required to register with the authorities in a move that the government hope to curb the spread of malicious content on the net. The news from the local newspaper, theStar, immediately sparks outcries from web writers.
Using national security as the excuse, a deputy minister told parliament that the ruling might be imposed on bloggers using locally hosted Web sites. Malaysia has promised it would not censor the Internet but has said bloggers were not above the law if they “disrupt peace and harmony”.
Despite being the leader in recognizing the information technology and internet as the next business platform for the country with the establishment of MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor), it’s amazing to have ministers or deputy ministers who act and behave as if they’re from an illiterate country who does not know how internet works. Bloggers said the plan to limit Malaysian-based sites was unworkable, as writers would simply move their content to Web sites outside the country.
“Do they even understand how blogs work … Any time today, any number of the 11 million Internet users in Malaysia can register with Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG, stock) Blogger or WordPress or any of the blogging Web sites and there is nothing they can do about it … None of them need to ask permission to blog of anyone. This is why blogs are popular” Marina Mahathir, an active blogger and outspoken daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wrote on her blog.
Earlier, the New Straits Times, the country’s oldest and pro-government newspaper, filed suits in January against two bloggers, one of them a former employee, over numerous postings in their blogs attacking top company officials. The suit is the first case of bloggers being sued for libel in Malaysia.
Hiding under the name of national security is the normal reasons used by Malaysia government to restrict or contain any people or elements which seen to be a threat to the ruling party. Malaysians are always seen as people who are quite obedience and demonstation are something which is very rare before the internet age. But with the booming of the cyber-age and the arrests of former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, people started to show their capability in organizing peaceful demonstration to voice their dissatisfaction.
Internet has created the bourderless world with information travels at lightning speed. Malaysian government who are used to work under excessive bureaucracy with great inefficiency is caught pants-down with the new world of cyber-generation. The new rule (if implemented) will only chase away all the bloggers to switch their platform to overseas while the local hosting provider will be the next group of people who’ll have to close-shop.
After text blogging, the video-blogging is gaining popularity now. The technology for a blogger to shoot a video and upload it immediately to his/her blog is already here. The blogging platform can be thousands miles away but the blogger could be anyone walking along the streets of Malaysia. With more and more sophisticated method of blogging appearing, the Malaysian government’s new rule is merely wasting time and resources.
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April 5th, 2007 by financetwitter
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