MEDIA IMMEDIACY: ASIA ONLINE

At the heart of Malaysia's authoritarian reputation is its Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, which requires all publications to obtain licenses that can be revoked at will by the Minister for Home Affairs. The minister's decisions are final, and there is no judicial review.
    A holdover from British rule, when a communist insurgency threatened what was then called Malaya and led to "emergency" decrees, the restrictions are now used by the dominant United Malay National Organization (UMNO) of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to suppress dissenting views. For Malaysian readers of the mainstream press, the result is a daily diet of self-censored news. UMNO and its allies in the ruling Barisan national coalition directly own or control all major newspapers, radio and television stations, making it virtually impossible for alternative voices to reach the public.
    Following the November 29 [1997] general election, in which the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) scored the only significant gains against the ruling coalition, the government banned news-stand sales of Harakah, the PAS party newspaper. It then threatened to close the paper permanently if it failed to comply with the order. (Under the terms of its license, Harakah can be sold only to PAS party members.) After the September 1998 arrest and prosecution of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, which Harakah covered in detail, the biweekly's circulation quadrupled, to over 350,000.
            -The Satanic Kingdom of Mahasia

FreeMalaysia www.freemalaysia.com
FreeMalaysia proudly anounces that it has been identified by the ruling party UNMO as one of the three most active sites in "expressing slanderous statements". Highlights include biting political commentary, a corruption index, and a "rogue's row," where readers can nominate a corrupt politician or public figure for satirical deconstruction. Observing that "The stage is one of the oldest and most enduring platforms for political commentary," FreeMalaysia presents the "theatre of the absurdly real." Now showing: Mahacrantz & Daimenstern are Dead, featuring Mahathir and his "financial factotum" Daim Zainuddin.

Two Malaysians passing the time in a place shadowed by monstrous skyscrapers, telecommunication towers, cloud-piercing flagpoles, and crisscrossing overhead rail lines and roads. They are dressed in traditional Malaysian garb, including a songkok (a black, brimless, box-like cap). Each of them has a large, very large, leather money bag.

    Mahacrantz's bag is nearly empty, but never entirely. Daimenstern's bag is full, bursting. The reason being: they are betting on the toss of a coin to determine whether one of their cronies will get the next privatization project or government contract in the following manner: Mahacrantz (hereafter "Maha") takes a coin out of his bag, spins it, letting it fall. Daimenstern (hereafter "Daim") studies it, announces it as "heads" (as it happens) and puts it into his own bag. Then they repeat the process. They have apparently been doing this for about 18 years.

The Internet alone cannot bring about democracy.

    True, the Internet can, and has, made a difference. But in many Third World countries, the Internet penetration rate is extremely low. In addition to the digital divide between the rich and the poor, there is a language divide, a gender divide and a geographical divide.
    Moreover, there is no complete freedom on the Net. Take, for example, Malaysiakini. The only advantage we have over the traditional media in Malaysia is that we need not apply for the annual publication licence from the government. But we still face all the other restrictive laws that keep the mainstream media in check: there is the Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, laws against sedition, libel and defamation, and contempt of court - just to name a few. Until all these restrictive laws are repealed, there can be no genuine press freedom.
    The government had a complete monopoly on information - until the emergence of the Internet. Malaysiakini went live exactly one year ago, and we are still very much a cowboy outfit. Yet we already have 120,000 unique visitors daily - which puts us in league with the major daily papers in Malaysia.

The Internet is a valuable educational tool, but for parents of young teenagers, it can also be a nightmare - especially in these times of political crisis. Teenagers are particularly at risk of being manipulated on the Net and used by foreigners out to recolonise us because they often use the computer unsupervised and have not been exposed to the many years of valuable brainwashing by TV3, Utusan Malaysia and the New Straits Times that have given us adults that blind, sheep-like loyalty we have for our national leaders.

Portals:

AltaVista
Cari
Catcha.com
Cyber Jaya (english)
M Search (english)
Malaysia Directory
Malaysia-Index (english)
Malaysia Yellow Pages
Master-World.com
New Malaysia
SARAWAK Search (english)

Know a good site that we've missed so far? Please send us the URL and we'll credit you as contributor!

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