The fearful truth behind Malaysian blogging first struck home when Malaysian Politicians claimed that political blogs were safe but that we had to be very careful when it came to anything else.

Zainuddin reminded bloggers of their responsibilities in maintaining harmony among Malaysia’s multiracial society. ”They should not try to incite the people,” he said after launching the Malaysian Press Institute’s (MPI) new logo and witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the institute and the United Kingdom’s Thomson Foundation. 

Then came the Rocky court-case:

On Jan 4, NSTP, its deputy chairman Datuk Kalimullah Hassan, chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar, group editor-in-chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and former group editor Brendan Pereira filed a suit against Ahirudin alleging that articles and comments on his website defamed them.

However, it was the infamous Nathan arrest that really got things going:

Nathaniel, a prominent political blogger and webmaster of Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s website, has been detained at the Dang Wangi police station.

Nat himself is an aide to Tian Chua, the Information Chief of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (the People’s Justice Party, which holds only one Parliamentary seat, despite winning over 10% of the popular vote in the last election thanks to Gerry Mandering).

Then came the big threats, whispers of mandatory blogger registration and total lock-down!

Bloggers using locally hosted websites may be asked to register with the authorities, Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said.

Ahirudin Attan of Rocky’s Bru said the move to compel local bloggers to register was effectively the Government trying to control what Malaysians were writing online. ”This violates the Government’s no-censorship policy with regards to the Internet,” he said.

He also added that the move would just create fear among the bloggers and would encourage them to host their blogs overseas.

Blogger Jeff Ooi wondered why the Government was pursuing this course of action. He said the Government had already set up the Content Forum to deliberate on complaints by any party. Jeff Ooi Chuan Aun, who is being sued by the New Straits Times (M) Bhd (NSTP) and three others over articles in his blog, applied to the High Court yesterday to have his case heard jointly with that of another blogger, Ahirudin Attan. 

Ooi made the application on the grounds that there were same or similar legal issues and facts in the case brought by NSTP and four others against Ahirudin, who is better known as Rocky.

The NSTP, its deputy chairman Datuk Kalimullah Hassan, group editor-in-chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and former group editor Brendan Pereira are suing Ooi for defamation and falsehood. 

In recent news, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said:

"Bloggers should be careful not to cause offence to any particular group or cause disharmony. Those who are irresponsible will have to face the consequences,” he said at the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia’s national flag-hoisting ceremony here yesterday. He said the Government did not wish to restrict freedom on the Internet. “But this does not mean that there is no limit. Bloggers who are irresponsible will have to face the consequences.” 

This is clearly not a very good blow for the whole freedom of speech thing, but then that would be a very touchy subject indeed, and one that would be clearly best left for other people to be brave enough to talk about it, but then again, why not - especially since it is now (or at least it was on the 24th of July) officially safe to blog:

The Government has not made a decision to clamp down on bloggers, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. But at the same time, he advised Malaysians not to break any laws, ”There is no special decision to go against bloggers but citizens must be aware that there are laws in this country,” he said, when commenting on the police report lodged against the Malaysia Today website yesterday by Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib. 

Muhammad who lodged the report yesterday at Tun H.S. Lee police station in Kuala Lumpur stated that Malaysia Today carried a series of comments and remarks that insulted the King, degraded Islam and incited hatred and violence in the country.

Last week, Parti Keadilan Rakyat information bureau staff Nathaniel Tan was remanded to facilitate investigations under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) as he was believed to be in possession of documents linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in corruption.

Yet just in case we somehow happened to forget exactly how temperamental these policies are becoming, just three days later, Malaysian bloggers were given yet another warning:

The Government’s policy from the start has been not to intervene in the use of the Internet by people, including bloggers, who are free to use cyberspace to do “proper things”, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. However, the Umno vice-president said that if irresponsible bloggers go overboard in their Internet postings, the Government would be forced to step in. 

“If they go overboard and insult, slander and break the laws, they will not get away scot-free. No one is above the law. Whether in the alam maya (cyberworld) or the alam nyata (physical world), people cannot simply write whatever they want, especially if it touches on religion, culture, the Rulers’ position or the Constitution. These will be monitored,” he said.

“We are a democratic country but it does not mean that anyone can do whatever they want, including break the laws. For postings that insult (religion and the King), there are laws that can be used against the culprits,” said Muhyiddin, who is also Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister, after launching the four-day Malaysia International Machinery Fair 2007 - Putra World Trade Centre.

We then have the capers of Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng (DAP) admitting that they are a little worried about the consequences of what blogging may due to their reign:

He looked almost like them in his white shirt and spectacles except that his hair was not plastered down with hair cream but was more like that of Bart Simpson. He even spoke like the senior Lim – rather speechy and ponderous and using phrases like “draconian laws” and “repressive tactics” and asking Malaysians to “break down this devil of race politics.”  

Ooi has crossed from blogging into politics. He also seems convinced that he is destined for Parliament and has set up a new blog. Fellow blogger Ahirudin Attan or Rocky as he is known was there to walk with Jeff, as he put it. The DAP would love to have Rocky as well but most people do not see this former newspaper editor in politics.

Political websites made their debut in the 2000 general election. At that time, there were only about 280,000 Internet subscribers but it was still a powerful enough campaign vehicle for the opposition forces which had gathered around the cause of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s imprisonment. Today, the number of Internet subscribers has ballooned to some 11 million and there are about 10 million voters. There is an overlap of about 70% between the two groups but it is largely in the urban centres.

As if that were not enough, TechCentral hits the front pages with a lovely titled post in which they implied that Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin says that "Not all bloggers are stupid!"

The ones that were mostly goblok (stupid, in Indonesian) were political bloggers who float rumours and create hatred among the people, he said yesterday. He said political bloggers “blatantly abused the freedom of the Internet. Readers of these blogs read them to pass time and for fun, akin to reading a ghost story. The people must be able to distinguish between goblok bloggers and bloggers,” he added.

However, it is with a hopeful look to the future that we end this article outlining some big plans from AllMalaysia.info:

With big plans for the blogging community, the website – developed and maintained by The Star’s I.Star division – has organised the All-Malaysian Bloggers Project (AMBP).  The project, which also doubles as a contest, has attracted close to 500 Malaysian bloggers since it began accepting registrations. 

“The blogging community has tremendous reach and great untapped potential,” said I.Star vice-president Davin Arul.  ”The AMBP is our initiative to reach out to this increasingly important community, and to help them reach out to a wider audience as well. We’re starting the project with a contest to encourage participation. We’re hoping that once we get enough numbers on our blog directory, we can venture into other projects such as workshops, gatherings, blogathons and more contests,” he said.

For more on this up-coming project, please visit TechCentral.