Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has issued a warning.. those who spread untruths and slander on the Internet will face the law. [TheStar]
I’m undecided on this matter. At one point I want to stand firm on the last frontier for freedom of speech in Malaysia, on the other hand there are bunches of provocative informations from some irresponsible netizens that I would love to see them being penalized.
The PM statement also left a huge grey zone on what constitute as untruths and slandering, there are no real definitions on this matter and will always create chaos and confusions when real action is being taken.
I remember last month there’s a rumor spreading that one of our minister was dead when in fact he is still alive.. that’s untrue in every sense, simple and easy to identify it as untruth.
But what if I said that our government is corrupted? Common sense tells that corruption does happen in our government, but when I’m writing it with common sense and without real solid prove, does that constitute spreading untruth and slandering?
Some Malaysian bloggers are already jumping on the wagon crying foul for this PM statement, but fact is 90% of Malaysian bloggers need not care about the warning because as far as I know, Malaysia blogosphere are still in general groups of rational netizens.
Most of the rumors and slandering actually happen in various forums, both local and overseas. This raised another question as well, how are Malaysian police suppose to cope with information that are posted beyond Malaysia border?
Surely some Malaysians living in Australia can post whatever they wanted and as long as they are not revealing their identity, how are Malaysia government suppose to tackle that?
One thing for sure though, Malaysian bloggers have no more privellege to laugh at China and India’s internet censorship, cause we might be in the same boat.. soon.
August 2nd, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Just recently I reply on your UPM blog about Internet freedom of speech, and this comes out. We need to know blogging is a way of netizens life now to speak up what’s on their mind, sure there are others that have other hidden agenda behind it, we all know by the end of day, it’s the blogger opinion of it. Pak Lah should instead read the blog like any other good leaders does in the world and use blogging as a direct contact with the rakyat, he should start up a blog himself, I’m sure a lot of us will be interested to know more about him and his thought. Instead having a narrow and conservative way of controls and banding.
I think all the MPs and if not most of us, having a thin skin, can’t take critics constructively.
August 2nd, 2006 at 11:57 pm
The warning wasn’t unexpected but came sooner than I thought it would be. It’s already reported Malaysiakini is under the knife for some false statement when writing about Mahathir-pepper-spray issue, I wonder who’s next..
Pak Lah starting a blog would be interesting instead. He can just shut off the comment system if he’s not ready to handle the flame and critics, but you are right, common citizens would love to know what their leader is thinking and doing.
Speaking of communication.. if I would like to reflect something to the MP of my zone, I wouldn’t know how to contact him at all. That’s pity.