Why do we blog?

By Sim Kwang Yang 

A piece posted by a writer by the name of “a pensioner” in Dayak Baru has this to say about why people blog.

“Blogging is nothing, other than a hobby & perhaps therapy for some. Blogs are meant for pensioners who have nowhere to spend their remaining valuable time. In short bloggers are those who have nothing better to do. They hope (only hope) to help shape public opinion, but as proven in Batang Ai…voters has no respect for bloggers. Not only the voters shy away, they don’t trust bloggers for they tell only half-baked truth.

“Misperception…bloggers seemed to think too highly of themselves, not knowing they are disgruntle lots.”

I am quite sure there are many bloggers who do blog as a hobby, for nothing better to do, in their young or old age. But the constrictive view expressed above is a little unfair to all bloggers in Malaysia.

In his latest posting on Malaysia Today entitled Sun Tze and the art of war, Raja Petra Kamarudin wrote this about the power of the internet:

“Yes, in 1998, when we first started using the Internet to fight Barisan Nasional, there were only 280,000 Internet subscribers against 8 million registered voters. Today, ten years on, there are almost 16 million Internet subscribers against 12 million registered voters.

“Over the last ten years, the number of registered voters increased only 50%. However, in that same period, the number of Internet subscribers increased 328.9% (according to the official statistics). Today, the Internet reaches 62.8% of the Malaysian population. Malaysia has more Internet subscribers than it has voters. (See the statistics below).

“Yes, that was our plan back in 2004 when we launched Malaysia Today. No, Malaysia Today is not a newspaper. And it is not in the same league as Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider. Malaysia Today is a guerrilla outfit. We are cyber terrorists. Our job is to hit the government whenever and wherever we can. And if hit and run is what it takes, then hit and run is what it will have to be.”

“Internet World Statistics

Total world: 1,581,571,589
Asia Only: 650,361,843
Malaysia: 15,868,000 (62.8 % of the population) (user growth 2000-2008: 328.9 %)

Source: Internet World Stats “

To-day, RPK is on the run from the law. This is the latest and the most creative form of peaceful civil disobedience. He is certainly very disgruntled, like me. He would not attract votes in Batang Ai certainly. But by his action and his blogging, he is helping to change Malaysian history.

What has been exposed in his blog inevitably find its way into the mainstream media. To many Netizens, his seemingly outrageous stories and claims are far more believable than what you read in the Star or the NST!

RPK is on the run because he is too much threat to the PM Najib Tun Razak. According to him, he is one of the two most wanted persons on the PM’s list. That too sounds credible.

Long ago, Jeff Ooi was often credited with the unofficial title of Godfather of Malaysian Bloggers. To-day, RPK is perhaps more worthy of that lofty throne.

He talks of his alienation from his royal kin. Others say he is also bankrupt. He has paid a great deal of personal price for his blogging cause. To lump him together with bloggers as “pensioners with nothing better to do” is the height of slavish ignorance.

RPK’s greatest contribution to Malaysian democracy is to show many citizens the road to freedom of expression. By his writing and by his actions, he has shown Malaysians an alternative way of becoming an actively engaged citizen trying to make a difference.

So what is wrong with thinking highly of ourselves, as independently minded, critical, and informed citizens, exercising our freedom to think and express ourselves to anybody who care to drop into our blog.

There is another reason why bloggers blog. We are all subjective beings.

There is no such a thing as an objective reality. There are only subjective interpretations of a reality. Our freedom to think and express our interpretation of the reality in which we live is the most precious core of our individual humanity. Take that right away from the individual to interpret and live his reality, and you reduce him to something non-human.

That is precisely what the UMNO government has done in the last 50 years.

By monopolizing the mainstream print and electronic media, the ruling parties have monopolised all the public domain and the right to interpret reality in only one version: the UMNO version.

This sort of dehumanization has reduced Malaysians to a nation of Lotus Eaters, reducing their brain to paper pulp.

The expansion of the Internet in the last 10 years or so has created an alternative public sphere for anyone to communicate with one another freely. Despite the massive abuse of the Internet by anonymous users, there are still a sea of responsible Netizens out there who have helped to nurture a new host of values, cultures, and opinions.

Sure, Bloggers are human and fallible too. They make mistakes, in facts and in opinions. But this new forum allows for friendly exchange, and for self-correction of mistakes in the virtual public realm.

In fact, the Internet has made the mainstream media superfluous. You don’t read the newspapers or watch TV, and you lose nothing, as long as you trawl through the net news portals like Malaysiakini, the Malaysian Insider, and the Malaysia Today every day. I maintain my subscription to the Star merely for the advertisements.

That is why I blog, and use the Internet, to reclaim my humanity from a political regime who try to make people stupid through various means. What better things are there to do in life except for the fulfillment of my only vocation in life, that of being human?

SKY can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com

 

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