MCMC: Cyber Gestapo in Malaysia?

By Sim Kwang Yang

So the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission officers are expected to charge Malaysiakini for transgressing cyber laws in Malaysia?

They have spent many man-hours interrogating the editor-in-chief of Malaysiakini Steven Gan and more than 10 of his staff members over the airing of two videos, one showing the cow-head protest and the other over a press conference given by the Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein.

According to MCMC monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director Abdul Halim Ahman, in his letter to Malaysiakini, the display of both videos on the news portal “is an offence under Section 211/233 of the CMA”

Under the Act, any individual found guilty of publishing content “which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person” is liable to a fine of up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.

For the life of me, I simply cannot figure out how the two video clips mentioned can offend anybody, except perhaps the cow-head protesters and the Home Ministers. Malaysiakini was just reporting facts and events that had actually happened. If that is a crime against the law, then the government might as well close down all newspapers and all media organisations.

There are many other papers and media organisations that gave significant coverage to the two events. Why are they not interrogated and charged as well?

Is the MCMC one of those Malay dominated institutions of state established to ensure Malay dominance in all things Malaysia – according to the narrative of Utusan Malaysia?

At stake, is the freedom of expression on the Internet in Malaysia.

Netizens in Malaysia have tasted the sweet honey of unfettered freedom of expression on the Internet, such that the BN controlled mainstream media have become superfluous, thereby breaking the BN monopoly of the past on the flow of information and shaping of opinions.

That press freedom on the alternative media is now poised to topple the BN half century stranglehold on power in Malaysia. The MCMC action is nothing but a feeble attempt to intimidate net news portals and bloggers into subservience.

This is nothing out of the ordinary. In all authoritarian countries, there will always be the dictatorial tendency on the part of the government to control information and opinions to perpetuate the status quo.

China had earlier on proposed the plan to put in the Green Dam software in every computer so as to sift out information that could threaten the legitimacy and rule of the Chinese Communist Party. Even in China with one-party rule, the proposal was withdrawn.

A similar proposal was also mooted by our often misinformed Communication Minister Rais Yatim. The proposal was later shot down by our PM Najib Tun Razak.

I know next to nothing about Internet technology. But my computer geek friend told me it is next to impossible to patrol and control information flow on the net. You plug one hole, and ten other holes will be opened up immediately after. The Internet is just too vast and too complex, he says. Is that true?

But the MCMC action could be the forerunner of a growing trend throughout South East Asia by governments to clamp down on press freedom on the Internet.

Malaysian Insider carried a story published on the Wall Street Journal entitled South East Asia Web censorship widens. It says:

“BANGKOK, Sept 15 — Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism.

Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet. The Southeast Asian nations are using other methods — also seen in China — to tamp down criticism, including arresting some bloggers and individuals posting contentious views online.

“In Thailand, police last month arrested two people for forwarding an audio recording in which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva purportedly orders soldiers to attack anti-government demonstrators. Abhisit said the recording is fake. Another Thai, Suwicha Thakor, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June after pleading guilty to posting videos mocking Thailand’s revered monarchy.

“In recent weeks in Vietnam, meanwhile, popular blogger Bui Thanh Hieu was detained for several days after criticising the government’s mining policies; another blogger, Huy Duc, was fired from his job at a Ho Chi Minh City newspaper after the Communist Party complained about his posts, while others have also been briefly detained. Yesterday, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh said in a note posted on her Web site that she is abandoning blogging after police detained her for several days after she made some critical remarks about the government. “I came to blogging as an adventure in the world of information, but every game comes to an end,” Quynh said.”

Metaphysically, our freedom of speech is rooted in our freedom of thought which defines our humanity. Our ability to think freely is the single characteristic that marks us apart from the rest of the animal world. From thought, comes human civilisation.

We can think only in words. Whatever we think, we must be able to articulate into words. The freedom to speak our mind is also central to our identity as thinking and speaking subjects.

Oppressing our freedom of speech is to stifle our freedom of thought, and therefore an attempt to dehumanise us. Any government that tries to dehumanise any citizen is guilty of a crime against humanity.

The threat of court charges against Steven Gan and Prem, the co-founders of the nationally and internationally acclaimed Malaysiakini, will not be likely to succeed in intimidating them into silence. They were probably ready to face minor challenges like that from tin pot Little Napoleons from the MCMC, from day one ten years ago when they launched their website.

Neither should the half million or so Malaysian bloggers be intimidated by the MCMC harassment of Malaysiakini, as long as we blog responsibly.

The falsehood of political oppression can only be revealed and laid bare by speaking the truth in the face of political power right on. As one US President said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

We have to snowball this one single voice to the MCMC: lay off Malaysiakini please!

Come on people! This is one more reason why we should change the federal government in the next general election, to get rid of cyber Gestapo in Malaysia!

(SKY can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com )