KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin has found an unlikely ally – Khairy Jamaluddin, the target of some of his strongest attacks in recent years.
The Umno Youth deputy chief today came out strongly against the move by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to block access to Malaysia Today, a website owned by Raja Petra.
He said that "such a blatant and crude employment of State power is inconsistent with the widening democratic space – an approach the current administration adopted long before the 12th General Election".
Over the years, Raja Petra has needled the MP for Rembau, painting him as the power behind the throne and making a string of allegations against him.
"Few would disagree with the view that Malaysia Today deliberately invites controversy upon itself and does its best to elicit reaction from the government and certain individuals that become targets of Raja Petra.
“In his incessant desire to concoct sensationalism, he often peddles half-truths and occasionally, outright lies. The inability to judiciously moderate comments also results in racially and religiously offensive remarks being posted without any restriction by the web master.
"Nevertheless, none of these should justify an attempt at outright censorship. There are ample alternative channels to pursue action if desired - public rebuttals or civil suits for defamation are a few. And from personal experience, I find it apt sometimes to simply ignore the site and its wild stories even at great cost to my own reputation," he wrote on his blog.
Khairy said MCMC's high-handed approach also sends out the wrong message as it is at odds with the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantees – a 10-point Bill that prescribes zero Internet censorship.
Noting that Raja Petra is for the time being hosting the site elsewhere, he found it bemusing that the MCMC believed that its strategy of blocking of access to Malaysia Today would actually succeed.
“Internet censorship may not only be unnecessary, it is quite often impossible, especially when the targeted site is, for better or worse, one of the most popular across the country," he said.
Like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did a day ago, he also cautioned that any move to censor the Internet could further alienate the public from Barisan Nasional.
"This act of censorship betrays a lack of faith in Malaysia's youth to intelligently decide the truth for themselves. Tabloids sell far more than broadsheets in many countries, but it would take a bold person to suggest that readers of The Sun or The Mirror in the UK, for example, take all of its content at face value.
"I see every indication that bright young Malaysians, too, can apply the same self-filtering process. What they will not stand for is the State imposing its own filter on the web. The Barisan Nasional government needs to be savvier in responding to issues on the Internet," he said.
During the recent Permatang Pauh by-election at least 90 per cent of the young and newly-registered voters supported the opposition.
At a recent meeting involving ministers and government officials, a grim scenario was painted for BN.
It was suggested that with some 400,000 new voters being registered every year, the next time BN sought a mandate from Malaysians, they could face as many as two million new voters. The vast majority of this group of voters is likely to obtain their news from the alternative media and have their opinion shaped by what they read from blogs and news portals.
If the anti-government views of the bloggers are not challenged by the ruling coalition, the younger voters are likely to be opposition supporters, the meeting concluded.
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Tabloids have higher circulation because they use basic English and are easy to comprehend in comparison to other newspaper/magazines (e.g. The Economist). Tabloids know the swaying power they have and have never been afraid to use its powers to campaign against politicians (e.g. Ken Livingstone in the recent Mayoral elections) and governments. It is no wonder that Rupert Murdoch is able to get the attention of any British politician.
There are immensely clever people working for tabloids but unfortunately in quite a number of cases, their readers are unable to filter what they are fed.
Similarly, i am amazed by how some of my friends take everything written on Malaysia Today to be the gospel truth. Nevertheless, I do feel the courts are a better recourse for settling disputes relating to Malaysia Today. Shafee Abdullah might not be seen to be a man of pristine character but his move to promptly address the MT articles written about him in court does give him some credibility. Giving reporters a tour of his office/meeting room also did no harm to his case. To Raja Petra's discredit, he has simply posted more articles mocking Shafee Abdullah instead of backing his original comments with concrete proof instead of hearsay from his numerous sources.
I presently live in Singapore and a website like Malaysia Today would not survive more than a month for the simple reason it is in rare instances that Raja Petra posts articles that are substantiated. The Singapore government is swift with law suits as their strategy is to not allow their reputation to be soiled by untruths and innuendos. They know these innuendos can take a life of their own if left unchecked.