Malaysian Bloggers Under Fire From Nation’s Ruling Party

Malaysia isn’t the hottest spot on the Web. Naturally, that title is reserved for Silicon Valley. Nonetheless, the government of the Southeast Asian country is raising a fit over what it feels is a dangerous insurgency in the form of a blogger complex that is attacking the nation’s king and the religion of Islam.

And it’s threatening to use “tough anti-terrorism laws” to combat commentators who the governing party believes to be a threat security. Etcetera, etcetera.

Already, the ruling party has alleged the editor of Malaysia Today, a top political website operated within the country, that he had “mocked Islam and threatened racial harmony.” The editor, Raja Petra Kamarudin, “turned himself in to police Wednesday to answer allegations.”

In a sign that the government may not have its way with bloggers in retaining them indefinitely, denying them basic rights and so forth and so on, Kamarudin told the BBC that he promised “to give them a hell of a tough time,” exemplifying a willingness to cite established law and defend his publication from the crackdown by authorities. He said that “many people, especially the non-Malays in this country, do not have a forum to air their views,” and that the country “should not deny these people a chance to vent their feelings.”

As reported in the BBC Wednesday, Malaysia Today attracts roughly 250,000 visitors every day, and its editor “is known for his frequent criticism of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other figures.”

Time again, news of an international variety filters to the surface to do with free speech issues, rights, and censorship. For months, we’ve read continuously about the conflict between journalists and bloggers in China.

As is to be expected, individuals and/or groups which hold considerable authority over peoples remain convinced that they can carry their populations into the digital age and yet at the same time keep communications under constant surveillance. Such measures are taken by dictatorships and self-professed democracies alike. What needs to be learned by governments around the world, however, is that control cannot be maintained parallel all while allowing communications to continue, particularly those that reach global proportions. Censor after censor after censor can be put in place, but as technology gets put in the more hands every minute and hour of every day, such efforts to maintain “security” and “stability” will prove futile. With time, this fact will have to be accepted by Malaysia’s ruling party, and even the Asian continent’s preeminent power, China. Or they’ll have to shut down countrywide access to the Net.

Clearly, they have no choice but to halt the crackdown.

The Malaysian king and party representatives can quarrel with bloggers all they wish and proceed with placing numerous “threats” away under lock and key. Eventually the population will catch on. At that point (if the party doesn’t abort the efforts before then, that is), those with a hold on the country’s affairs will have no choice but to loosen restrictions.