Sowing Seeds of Discord
In two previous blog posts, The Future of Online Liberty in Malaysia and Registering to be a voter in Malaysia, I outlined my prediction that the Malaysian goverment will move towards controlling freedom of speech online. Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Barison National representative) said as much today when he noted that:
“We notice that a lot of bloggers have been sowing the seeds of discord among the races, religions… I believe there must be a limit … The people believe more in the bloggers than the newspapers… I am aware that a newspaper was censured by the Internal Security Ministry for publishing a sensational story but the bloggers could continue churning out malicious stories“
Ah, I see the twisted logic: when prominent UMNO politicians waive their keris with the threat of bathing it in the blood of certain ethnic groups in Malaysia - that’s perfectly fine. But when some ficticious blogger does so, it’s not so fine.
Why do I say fictitious? Because in all the blog reading I have done over the years, I’ve never seen a blogger “sowing seeds of discord among races, religions” online - have you? All I hear is honest talk, talk geared to the intention of building bridges, not walls. Looks like such talk is an anathema to members of UMNO, doesn’t it? Thankfully, the Internet routes around censorship, through TOR if need be.