Malaysia Stops Blocking Opposition Blog... But Arrests Its Founder

from the not-very-comforting dept

Mon, Sep 15th 2008 1:08pm — Mike Masnick

Over the last few years, we've followed the ongoing efforts of gov't officials to figure out the whole "blogging" thing. It started off poorly with gov't officials insulting bloggers and trying to pass a law that would have required all bloggers to register with the government. After that failed, the ruling party looked, for a bit, as if it might be trying to understand and embrace blogs. It set up an agency just to respond to blogs and even told certain of its own candidates for office that they needed to blog themselves. However, apparently it was the opposition party that embraced blogging much more -- and even a few of the bigger name bloggers got themselves elected. In response? The government demanded that ISPs block certain blogs, including the very popular Malaysia Today.

The latest news is that the government has rescinded the ban... but has arrested the site's founder. That doesn't seem like the best way to get bloggers on their side. It never fails to amaze me why politicians seek to shut up those who oppose them. What's wrong with actually responding and letting people understand the multiple positions? If you're confident that your position is the correct one, then why not convince people that's the case?

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Filed Under: arrests, blogging, free speech, malaysia, opposition

11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Sep 2008 @ 1:14pm

Well that tells me something
You don't have kids, or else you'd understand. If you do, try to let them explain their side of the issue where they want ice cream first.
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Sep 2008 @ 1:22pm
  
  Re: Well that tells me something
  WTF does ice cream have to do with this?
  
  Elucidate.
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  - Yakko Warner, 15 Sep 2008 @ 2:50pm
    
    Re: Re: Well that tells me something
    If I had to guess, I'd say AC is implying that the government of Malaysia is just behaving like your average five-year-old... ;)
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Jezsik, 15 Sep 2008 @ 1:32pm

1984
I'm so glad I read that book recently. It casts a bright light on this sort of nonsense (but, sadly, does not offer a prescription).
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Anonymous Poster, 15 Sep 2008 @ 1:50pm

"As your leader, I encourage you, from time to time and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so! But allow me to convince you. And I promise you, right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo...except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is I collect your [expletive] head. [...] Now, if any of you sons of bitches got anything else to say, now's the [expletive] time!" - O-Ren Ishii, "Kill Bill"

Something tells Malaysia subscribes to this manner of leadership. Only instead of "either my Chinese or American heritage", substitute "any action of the government".
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wasnt me!, 15 Sep 2008 @ 2:07pm

since mike isn't in jail i guess its safe to say that http://techdirt.com is being blocked in Malaysia.
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Megalomania, 15 Sep 2008 @ 5:10pm

You will agree or else
"If you're confident that your position is the correct one, then why not convince people that's the case?"

Apparently they do not believe their position is the correct one.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 15 Sep 2008 @ 5:23pm

Human Nature Same Everywhere
The Malaysian government's attitude to opposition is similar to the US attitude to, say, Cuba. You can't admit that they have a point on anything, because that could be interpreted as a sign of weakness on your part. So instead of engaging with them, you demonize them.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Sep 2008 @ 4:34am

Perhaps they are just tired of hearing the crap over and over, and figured now is a good time to take care of it. Like a mod on a forum.
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John, 17 Sep 2008 @ 6:31am

Politicians and Civil Servants Wielding Large Sticks
'It never fails to amaze me why politicians seek to shut up those who oppose them.'

Interesting that it has been noticed by others. For a while now I have been trying to get the donuts in Tim Horton's coffee shops, a Canadian franchise chain, in Nova Scotia at least, covered from flies as per the NS government regulations.
The result was that an individual official informed me that I did not understand the process, and the politician in charge of food safety referred me to the same inspection department individual, who then made what I took to be references to legal action by mentioning 'your litigous (sp?)statements' which presumably was when I mentioned that if he was in the private sector he would be subject to, and fail, performance reviews and be fired for totally failing to enforce the regulations.
The end result it that I now fully understand that the Nova Scotia government is using the Tim Hortons Safety Program to inspect food, and so I have shut up. (Yeah, RIGHT! - apart from mentioning it at every opportunity in my blog)
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Michelle, 2 Oct 2008 @ 10:31pm

do you qualify
Learn to earn money while you surf the internet and click offers. See if you qualify http://learn.to/parttime
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