Do not filter out democracy
AUG 7 — It’s really funny how unremarkably the announcement came. The government yesterday put out a tender for companies to help filter the Internet. Now, in places like China and Iran, this happens quite regularly. But in Malaysia — well, there’s a first that should go into the Malaysia Book of Records.
In this day and age, it’s a rare regime that pretends to be democratic and yet maintains a law that allows the government to throw anyone it likes into jail for as long as it likes, without any accountability at all.
Rarer still are regimes who do this and who, rather than slowly loosening the chains of their people, only tighten them further. The people of Malaysia have spoken quite clearly: they want more freedom, not less.
The government dismisses calls for the abolition — and sometimes even amendment — of the Internal Security Act as unfounded, because the ISA is necessary to preserve national harmony. If people were to be able to do as they please, and speak their minds, this logic goes, then the country would collapse. Riots would break out and terrorists would have free rein.
Curiously, virtually every democracy with preventive detention laws has controls over how long someone can be held for. Often, after a certain period has passed, the government must either charge the detainee with a crime, or let them free.
In Malaysia, even though in theory someone can only be held for two years, the government has complete freedom to renew the detention order — and it is accountable to nobody.
The government pretends we are democratic in spite of this law; it is our own kind of democracy, they say. But democracy is about more than voting. They had elections in Soviet Russia; they have elections in North Korea. Hardly anybody pretends these countries, which have stripped the electoral process of all the freedoms it requires to work, constitute democracies.
Democracy needs information to work. The people who vote need to be able to understand the issues that concern the government, and to hear different points of view about how to tackle these issues. If you know nothing about who you are voting for, why bother voting?
It is true that letting people talk and listen has its risks. We must bring to justice people who spread a message of hate, and who plot against our country. But we must also accord those we suspect of these crimes their right to due process.
If the government can toss any terrorist it likes into the lockup for as long as it pleases, it will slowly and surely expand the definition of terrorism to encompass those who merely disagree with the ruling regime.
We have already seen this happen; how many ISA detainees have truly posed a threat to our country? Many of these supposed terrorists at this very moment sit in Parliament, on both sides of the benches, helping govern this country!
Anyone who has properly considered the issue of the ISA will view it as an untenable law. At the very least, it needs amendment so it complies with the same preventive detention laws used by real democracies. But I believe we would be better off abolishing the ISA, and compel the government to properly charge people in court for their crimes, instead of allowing the government to do whatever it likes to suspected criminals; no government should act as judge and jury.
But rather than begin repairing our broken democracy, the government is intent on destroying it altogether. The people are tired of sham democracy and rigged elections, and they have used the internet over the last ten years to make this known. Nothing has done more for our democracy in living memory than the development of the internet.
And now the government is set on censoring the Internet, to ensure only the opinions it likes will be available online. In name, the government merely wants to block access to pornography and websites which promote hate speech.
While I am sceptical about the feasibility of censoring pornography, I can at least see why a democratic government might want to regulate adult content. But there is no justification for censoring views and opinions — none.
For years, some of the most racist material has been available online; long before that, it was available from the podiums at most of the ruling parties’ annual general meetings. It is a testament to the wisdom of the Malaysian people that literally zero violence has resulted from these things in the last four decades. Malaysians are mature enough to reject calls for violence.
The government is carefully treading down the path of full censorship. When we restrict the spread of information and opinions, we restrict our democracy — and to what end? To protect the interests of those in power, who would rather not hear nasty things about themselves?
That is the primary reason the government wants to censor any and all avenues of information in this country. If we want to preserve the democracy our founding fathers fought for, we must put a stop to this nonsense, and vote out those who clearly put their own interests ahead of their country’s.
Clamping down on students
By Zedeck Siew
zedecksiew@thenutgraph.comzede
SPEAKING at the Muslim Students Leadership Convention on 26 July 2009, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he wanted "to see student leaders with dynamic and healthy minds in terms of airing views and opinions".
"I just hope that you can uphold the principle of intellectual honesty in assessing and scrutinising certain issues which arise from time to time," Najib said. However, the premier cautioned young thinkers to avoid becoming "activists" by spreading malicious slander and rumours. "It is important that the undergraduates are not diverted from the right track."
The "right track", of course, is a vague phrase that could mean a variety of things. And it is difficult not to view Najib's statements with some suspicion in the light of a recent surge in arrests of university students and student leaders.
The crime of being anti-Rosmah
Perhaps the first incident in the current series of events was the arrest, on 27 June 2009, of Mohamad Izuddin Helmi Mohd Zaini and Muhammad Syahrul Deen Mohd Rosli, two Universiti Malaya (UM) students studying at UM's Islamic Studies Academy (Api).
(© Shieko)
The two were detained for seven days on the suspicion of having been involved in the anti-Rosmah Mansor graffiti incident at Api. On 30 June, both were charged for mischief under Sections 427 and 436 of the Penal Code.
Following the arrests, a memorandum submitted by student groups to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) alleged that the duo had been arrested at their residence by plainclothes officers, who sported firearms, but came without warrants or police identification.
The graffiti is easily classified as vandalism, and the scrawls — "demon wife" and "Altantuya's killer", obvious references to the allegations against the prime minister's spouse — are perhaps defamatory. But these were suspects, not yet proven guilty. And how the arrests were made breached the Criminal Procedure Code.
But this wasn't the only case of students being shabbily treated by the authorities.
"Malays only"
On the evening of 12 July, Ong Jing Cheng and Yap Heng Lung, members of Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (Dema), rode into the UM campus, after clearing campus security. Their destination? The Api. "I just wanted to meet my friends in UM," Ong tells The Nut Graph.
A campus in UM (© Eric Beerkens)
Ong and Yap, former Universiti Sains Malaysia students, were later stopped by UM security officers, who informed them that the "Api was a place for Malays", and that "Chinese should not be there". The police were called, and both were taken to the Pantai police station.
According to Ong, UM security had no good reason to stop him. "We wanted to lodge a report against (the UM security guards)," Ong says. "But the police practised double standards. They only listened to the security guards, but did not let us lodge our report."
Both Ong and Yap were released on 14 July, after over 40 hours in the police lockup. There were no charges.
Protesting not allowed, sometimes
Another incident noted by the memo to Suhakam, jointly prepared by six student groups including Dema, was the arrest of students during a 17 July Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) action. The SMM had marched peacefully to the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to submit a memo calling for the cessation of state violence in southern Thailand.
While they complied with police instructions, seven students were strong-armed, then arrested by police officers. They were also denied legal counsel.
"Intellectual honesty" and the healthy expression of "views and opinions" is probably difficult, when instruments of authority seem adamant in running roughshod over students' rights to express any sort of opinion.
Even more so if their opinions differ from government-sanctioned ideas. Compare the incident in front of the Thai Embassy to a protest by students from Insaniah University College, Alor Setar, on 8 Jan, against Israeli aggression in Palestine.
Khaled Nordin (source:
pmo.gov.my)
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, following the protest, said that students were allowed to express their stand, because of (then) recent amendments made to the repressive Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) 1971.
"It is up to the university if they want to organise such protests," Mohamed Khaled said.
In its final sitting for 2008, Parliament debated, and subsequently passed, amendments to the UUCA. These amendments were criticised from the outset.
Freedom of association
At a glance, the UUCA amendments appeared to be a step towards reform, removing the ban on university students from joining off-campus groups and societies. Yet the amendment to Section 15 of the Act — which governs scholars' freedom of association — still prevented university students from affiliating with political parties and organisations deemed "unsuitable to the interests and well-being of the students or the university".
"Students are not restricted to have their own activities or interaction with the politicians or political parties, as long as these are related to academic issues such as organising forums on the petrol hike," Mohamed Khaled had said.
But Ong points out that the amendments meant little change over the way students were being controlled. "Even after the amendment, university authorities can still stop activities (arbitrarily)," Ong says.
"The UUCA allows university authorities to selectively exercise their powers against that which they regard as being unacceptable," co-higher education shadow minister for the Pakatan Rakyat, Tony Pua, tells The Nut Graph.
Tony Pua
Aside from calling for the UUCA's repeal, Pua, from the DAP, also zeroed in on the failing of university administrators.
"Currently, they are missing the wood for the trees," Pua, a long-time education advocate, opines.
He maintains that student activism generally does not affect academic performance — and that the administrators should work on improving the quality of their respective institutions' education, rather than cracking down on students.
Public intellectual Hishamuddin Rais, relating his experiences as a student leader in the mid-1970s, explains that student activism "advances the potential of each individual, by training them in various skills, like organising."
And isn't personal enhancement the point, after all, of pursuing any sort of education, tertiary or otherwise?
Hishamuddin believes that the recent crackdown against students was meant to put fear into young minds. Ong agrees. "The actions of the police tell students: 'If you go to demonstrations, we will arrest you for a few days.' "
This just lends weight to the earlier criticisms about how the state wants to continue controlling students. The authorities' actions against students over the past few months speaks volumes about what exactly the current administration means by the "right trackProposed Internet filter prompts criticism
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — The information minister said today a proposed Internet filter similar to China's "Green Dam" software" was aimed at stopping pornography.
Critics say, however, it could also be used to clamp down on the opposition and may hurt investment.
With a quiescent mainstream media, largely owned by the political parties that have ruled Malaysia the past 51 years, the government has been challenged by a vibrant new media culture.
Here are some questions and answers about Malaysia's plans for Internet censorship and what could happen next:
WHY HAVE AN INTERNET FILTER?
The government says the Internet filter will protect Malaysians from pornography.
That is just an excuse, critics say, to police websites publishing damaging stories about the government. These range from investigations of corruption, scandals involving government officials, to a clip of prominent lawyer arranging judicial appointments that appeared on YouTube.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is often a target of attacks on the Internet. He is still linked by opposition websites to the murder of a Mongolian model, although he denies the allegation, which has not been proven.
Censoring websites could help staunch the flow of criticism for a premier who is still fighting to revive his ruling coalition that slumped to its worst ever results in national and state elections last year.
Despite a rise in Najib's approval ratings recently to 65 per cent from 45 per cent, his Barisan Nasional coalition remains vulnerable. The government has been beaten in six out of seven by-elections since the 2008 election.
WILL IT BE AN EFFECTIVE CONTROL?
It could work. Tender documents specify a filter at the Internet gateway level, meaning service providers such as Telekom Malaysia, Redtone, Green Packet and Axiata will have to impose the blocks.
That will be more effective than "Green Dam", which aimed to force manufacturers to bundle Internet filtering software with sales of new personal computers.
Malaysian web surfers could get around blocks at gateways by using proxy servers that mask a user's identity from Internet service providers. But it's an endless game of pursuit as the authorities can also block websites providing free proxies.
WHEN COULD THE GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENT THIS?
Very soon. An industry source says the government could impose the filters late this year or in 2010, coinciding with the rollout of a high-speed broadband network run by Telekom Malaysia.
Malaysia aims to increase broadband penetration to half of all homes by 2010 as part of its drive to boost economic efficiency. This compares with neighbouring Singapore's rate of 78 per cent and Hong Kong's 80 per cent.
WILL THIS HURT NAJIB'S ECONOMIC REFORMS?
Najib has introduced a raft of reforms, including the removal of some economic privileges for dominant ethnic Malays, to lure investments and shore up an export-reliant economy likely to post negative growth this year.
News of the filter may scare away investors. For example Google announced last year it was considering a proposal to set up the world's largest server farm in Malaysia's version of the Silicon Valley, the "Multimedia Super Corridor" (MSC).
A government initiative, MSC was started in 1996 promising tax breaks and no restrictions on the Internet. Firms already there include Mircosoft. Annual investment into the corridor is US$458 million (RM1,600 million), according to industry data.
Malaysia is already struggling to provide skilled workers for a "knowledge economy" and Najib wants to increase the services sector to 60 per cent of output. Measures to implement teaching of maths and science in Malay instead of English may drag on efforts to draw in foreign direct investment (FDI).
FDI between January and May was just 9 per cent of 2008's total of RM46.1 billion.
Another time-consuming political fight would also tie down Najib and could lead to a clampdown that might damage investor confidence. Malaysia has seen portfolio money flowing out of its markets and has underperformed the region.
AND NAJIB'S POLITICAL PROSPECTS?
The opposition may use the issue to show a crackdown is in the works. That could add numbers to any protests around the ongoing trial for sodomy of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The government's reputation has also been stained by the recent death of an aide to an opposition lawmaker after being questioned by a state body.
The government is fighting back in cyberspace. Najib has a website called 1 Malaysia (www.imalaysia.com.my). In the past, the government has looked at proposals to register all bloggers.
Analysts say filtering websites shows Najib's government is fearful of the Internet culture that emerged in 1998 after Anwar, a deputy prime minister then, was sacked and charged with corruption and sodomy and then jailed.
The opposition, which had no access to mainstream media, harnessed the Internet during the 2008 elections, making frequent and effective use of blogs, websites and services like Twitter. — Reuters
Malaysia considers China-style Internet censor
Malaysia is considering imposing an Internet filter to block "undesirable" websites, on the grounds of maintaining racial harmony in the multicultural nation, a senior official said Thursday.
The move was quickly condemned by the opposition which described it as a "horror of horrors" that would destroy the relative freedom of the Internet in Malaysia, where the mainstream press is tightly controlled.
A senior official with the National Security Council (NSC) confirmed reports that the coalition government was considering imposing controls -- effectively scrapping a 1996 guarantee that it would not censor the Internet.
"It is to keep out pornographic materials and bloggers who inflame racial sentiments. We need to maintain racial harmony. We cannot have full-blown democracy like in the United States," he told AFP.
"This country must survive," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The memory of bloody racial 1969 racial riots is still strong in Malaysia, and the need to preserve peace between majority Muslim Malays, and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, is commonly invoked by the government.
The NSC official dismissed suggestions that the proposal echoed China's aborted "Green Dam" project, a plan to introduce Internet filtering software on all new computers sold in the country.
"It is not like China's Green Dam nor is it a plan sparked by last weekend's anti-government street protests," he said, referring to a massive opposition-led rally against laws that allow for detention without trial.
Malaysia's lively blogosphere has been a thorn in the side of the Barisan Nasional government, which was been in power for more than half a century but was dealt its worst ever results in elections a year ago.
Internet news portals and blogs, which escape tight controls on the mainstream media, were credited as a key element in the swing towards the opposition which has been adept at using new media to communicate its ideas.
Veteran opposition legislator Lim Kit Siang, himself an avid blogger, condemned the proposed controls and urged government legislators to uphold the pledge of Internet freedom.
"(The plan) will be seen as a turn away from an open society and retreat to a closed society with all the grave long-term political, economic and nation-building implications," he said.
The NSC official said that a tender was out for companies to help the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission evaluate an Internet filter.
The "Green Dam" regulation was to be implemented in China on July 1, but widespread opposition both in and outside of China resulted in Beijing backing down.
Beijing had said the Chinese-made Green Dam software would filter out pornography, protecting young people within the world's largest online population.
But trade and rights groups expressed fears that it was another attempt by China to control access to the Internet.
Malaysia considers China-style Internet censor
Malaysia is considering imposing an Internet filter to block "undesirable" websites, on the grounds of maintaining racial harmony in the multicultural nation, a senior official said Thursday.
The move was quickly condemned by the opposition which described it as a "horror of horrors" that would destroy the relative freedom of the Internet in Malaysia, where the mainstream press is tightly controlled.
A senior official with the National Security Council (NSC) confirmed reports that the coalition government was considering imposing controls -- effectively scrapping a 1996 guarantee that it would not censor the Internet.
"It is to keep out pornographic materials and bloggers who inflame racial sentiments. We need to maintain racial harmony. We cannot have full-blown democracy like in the United States," he told AFP.
"This country must survive," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The memory of bloody racial 1969 racial riots is still strong in Malaysia, and the need to preserve peace between majority Muslim Malays, and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, is commonly invoked by the government.
The NSC official dismissed suggestions that the proposal echoed China's aborted "Green Dam" project, a plan to introduce Internet filtering software on all new computers sold in the country.
"It is not like China's Green Dam nor is it a plan sparked by last weekend's anti-government street protests," he said, referring to a massive opposition-led rally against laws that allow for detention without trial.
Malaysia's lively blogosphere has been a thorn in the side of the Barisan Nasional government, which was been in power for more than half a century but was dealt its worst ever results in elections a year ago.
Internet news portals and blogs, which escape tight controls on the mainstream media, were credited as a key element in the swing towards the opposition which has been adept at using new media to communicate its ideas.
Veteran opposition legislator Lim Kit Siang, himself an avid blogger, condemned the proposed controls and urged government legislators to uphold the pledge of Internet freedom.
"(The plan) will be seen as a turn away from an open society and retreat to a closed society with all the grave long-term political, economic and nation-building implications," he said.
The NSC official said that a tender was out for companies to help the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission evaluate an Internet filter.
The "Green Dam" regulation was to be implemented in China on July 1, but widespread opposition both in and outside of China resulted in Beijing backing down.
Beijing had said the Chinese-made Green Dam software would filter out pornography, protecting young people within the world's largest online population.
But trade and rights groups expressed fears that it was another attempt by China to control access to the Internet.
More Singapore girls under 14 having sex
Teenagers dressed-up for a cosplay event. More teenage Singaporean girls are now having sex. — Reuters pic
The police have now tabbed this as a worrying crime issue, and are trying to keep a lid on the problem.
Crime statistics issued yesterday for the first half of the year showed that the number of statutory rape cases involving girls under 14 jumped more than 70 per cent, to 37 cases, compared with 21 in the same period last year.
Consensual sex was often at the heart of the problem. Many of the girls had sex with casual friends and boyfriends, most of whom were about the same age.
But when the girls’ parents, or in some cases, teachers, found out, they were determined that action be taken, and reported the cases to the police.
When the cases went to court, a variety of punishments was dished out. If the culprits were youngsters, they were fined, sent for reformative training, given probation or even jailed, said Patrick Tan, a lawyer in private practice.
In one case involving a 19-year-old youth and a 12-year-old girl, the youth was fined S$8,000 (RM19,200).
But if older men were involved, more severe sentences were handed down. For instance, one 32-year-old man who had sex with a 12-year-old girl he met through a friend was jailed for seven years and ordered to be caned 18 times.
The girls involved in such cases were not punished, even if they initiated the sex, lawyers said. But they were sometimes counselled or sent to homes.
But beyond landing those involved in trouble with the law, teen sex also caused other problems.
Many such trysts led to unwanted pregnancies, abortions and a rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV cases.
Last year, 787 teens caught STIs, more than three times the 238 in 2002. For HIV, the figure rose from one in 2002 to nine in 2007. The total number of teenage abortions last year was 1,289.
Yesterday, police said the increase in statutory rape offences was linked to wider societal trends, and they were working with various ministries, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, to come up with programmes to educate youths on the legal and social consequences of underage sex.
Last year, for instance, police delivered two talks in collaboration with the Education Ministry’s Guidance Branch, which supports schools in the social-emotional development of students. The talks were targeted at equipping trainee teachers with the skills to teach sex education.
In their statement yesterday, police called on parents, schools and others to play a role in combating such crimes.
“Care should be taken by families to pay attention to the activities of their younger members, as most of the perpetrators in such cases were known to the victims,” the statement said.
Counsellors contacted yesterday said they were loathe to solely blame men for what is happening, although they were the ones being punished.
The fault, they said, was with changing societal norms and values.
Said the chief executive officer of voluntary welfare organisation Ain Society, Md Yusof Ismail: “In the past, virginity was an honour. Now, we are becoming like the West in the 1950s and 1960s - if you are still a virgin at 15, you are not attractive.”
Other reasons for the trend included peer pressure, parents who were too busy working to educate their children about the birds and the bees, and greater exposure to sex via the Internet.
For instance, it is very easy for teens to download pornography via the Net, said Pastor Andrew Choo, who runs Andrew and Grace Home, a shelter for troubled teens. — The Straits Times
Malaysia mulls ‘Green Dam’ despite China’s failure
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Despite a guarantee of no censorship in Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim's ministry is evaluating the feasibility of putting an Internet filter blocking “undesirable websites” — similar to China's aborted "Green Dam" software.
The study is to be completed by this December and the results will be handed to a shadowy unit monitoring blogs and websites although the decision on implementation will lie with the National Security Council headed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Critics say any move to filter the Internet is against the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees apart from being largely ineffective as most Internet surfers can circumvent filters through proxy servers.
"It is a waste of time," Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, chief executive officer of Internet security firm Hack in the Box, told The Malaysian Insider.
But the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry has conducted a tender exercise calling for companies to put proposals to assist the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) evaluate an Internet filter.
The move comes on the back of proposals to register bloggers, most of whom are said to be anti-government, and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition parties to have a larger Internet presence.
Rais’s ministry has called for tenders for an Internet filter. — Reuters pic
• to evaluate the readiness and feasibility for the implementation of Internet filter at Internet gateway level, through assessments on the existing infrastructure and existing products in the market.
• to evaluate and estimate costs for the implementation.
• to study the existing legal framework in addressing content filtering and no censorship issue, including the impacts that are caused by the implementation to Internet users and the Malaysian economy.
The successful tenderer is also to visit Internet services oroviders (ISPs) and question them on various issues apart from studying countries which have some form of Internet filters to study the suitability for the Malaysian environment.
Among the recommended countries are India, Pakistan, Australia and Hong Kong. It is not known whether these countries use filters or what they are filtering.
Rais himself said last May that the proposal by some quarters for bloggers in Malaysia to be registered required in-depth study.
“The idea is good, but we have to see it from the legal aspects and from the aspect of freedom of Internet use. We have to see whether registering bloggers is in line with the provisions of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. We should not be hasty in implementing the proposal,” said the veteran minister.
But the move to filter blogs and websites is another matter altogether, Dhillon said.
"Filtering is 1990s technology and nobody is doing it anymore. Content-based filtering is so out of date that anybody can circumvent it easily using proxy servers," he said, adding "even my mother can do it, it is not difficult."
He pointed out that the government can implement the filter system and provide some short-term impact to those seeking to go to “undesirable” sites but "human nature is such it can find a way around it."
"The government is wasting money and just playing catch-up," Dhillon said.
He also pointed out that filtering content is censorship and goes against the MSC Bill of Guarantees Article 7 that reads "Ensure no Internet censorship".
"No matter how they want to word it, it is semantics, any move to tell us where we can go, what we can read is censorship no matter how they justify it," Dhillon added.
China controversially planned to install the “Green Dam Youth Escort” Internet filtering software on all computers but delayed implementation last July 1 although officials said it was only "a matter of time" until the software was installed.
In a notification to all users, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said: "In order to build a green, healthy, and harmonious online environment, and to avoid the effects on and the poisoning of our youth's minds by harmful information on the Internet, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Civilisation Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Ministry of Finance, in accordance with the Government Procurement Law, have used CPC financial capital to purchase one-year exclusive rights to use ‘Green Dam Youth Escort’ Green Online Filtering Software (hereinafter referred to as ‘Green Dam Youth Escort’) along with related services so that the whole society may use it free of charge. After comprehensive testing and pilot use, the software has been shown to effectively filter harmful content in text and graphics on the Internet and has already satisfied the conditions for pre-installation by computer manufacturers."
But the country's Internet users mounted a vociferous campaign against the policy that led to the MIIT delaying using the filter which officials claim will help to curb access to pornography, particularly by younger users.
Internet users say the image and keyword filter blocks pornographic, violent and politically sensitive content and monitors behaviour and fear it will be used to curb access to information and keep track of users.
Green Dam has also come under fire for exposing users to security breaches, with experts warning it could easily be hacked, and a US-based software firm is threatening to sue the Chinese developers for copyright infringement.
Industry bodies, the US government and others had also called on China to abandon the project.
Rais confirms ‘green dam’, says to shut out ‘blue sites’
UPDATED
By Lee Wei LianKUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — Datuk Seri Rais Yatim today confirmed the Najib administration is looking at putting an Internet filter to stop access to undesirable websites particularly pornography, but will leave bloggers to existing laws.
The information, communication and culture minister also took a swipe at "liberals" and told them to look at countries that had become "victims" of pornography.
"We cannot compromise on the protection of Malaysian children from pornography," Rais said when questioned about the Internet filter as reported by The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
"Those who refer to themselves as liberals or liberalism should look to those countries that have become victims where child sex has happened, the moral of pornography has become widespread. So the government will look at ways to overcome this problem," he added.
Rais took a swipe at ‘liberals’. — Reuters pic
When one reporter was half-way through a question on whether the government was in the process of tendering the Internet filter project, Rais abruptly cut in with a question on the journalist's background and media affiliation.
The interest in the topic of Internet filtering was not limited to local media as several international media were also present and keen to learn of the government's intentions.
A proposed Internet filter would appear to go against the government's commitment not to censor the Internet as part of the Bill of Guarantees under the national ICT initiative MSC Malaysia.
Most countries that attempt to censor the Internet, such as Iran and China, have come under heavy criticism as it is perceived as an attempt to clamp down on political dissent.
But Rais denied that the proposed Internet filtering was to stop bloggers from inflaming racial sentiments as mentioned by other media organisations.
"Bloggers will face the normal laws of the land (if they breach the laws)," said Rais, who has been at the forefront to curb bloggers, most of whom were seen as a catalyst for the ruling Barisan Nasional's dismal performance in Election 2008.
He added that he has directed the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to look into how to overcome the problem of Internet pornography.
The veteran minister, who has been in government since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's father's time as premier, said the government was still studying the filtering process, adding that it would only be implemented once every aspect of it was fully considered.
It is understood that four companies have sent in proposals for the Internet filter with a decision expected to be made in December by the National Security Council led by Najib.
posted by wan zaharizan b wan zan at 12:50 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home