An
article called The Paradox in Malaysian Online Journalism that was written by
Dr Rahmat Ghazali, have given me a new context on freedom of speech and cyber
information. Based on the concept or idea that Dr Rahmat has wrote in his blog SuaraMurba.blogspot,
bottom line, we think that freedom of press and cyber information is a
necessity but is it really true? To further this, the meaning of Paradox is
apparently self-contradictory statement, the underlying meaning of which is
revealed only by careful scrutiny. The purpose of a paradox is to arrest attention
and provoke fresh thought (George Orwell, 1945).
DR. Rahmat said in his articles stated that
the freedom of media and the influences on the internet have given so many
positive and negative impacts on society and also to our nation. We can’t argue
more with the idea was internet is our new medium to search for entirely
everything, to what come worst to the most good things.
I couldn’t agree more that because of our
complicated social interracial interactions that involves many aspects, and
various methods the government has enacted to control the media, like the
Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, online journalism is certainly a
saving grace for the weak, for the voiceless to express themselves. To make
themselves heard.
But according to Malaysian Insider in their
articles stated that Malaysian on press freedom has drops to 147
in 2014 compared to 2013 Malaysia was ranked at 145 ut of 179 countries,
dropping 23 spots from the previous year. Lim, who is also Gelang Patah MP,
said Malaysia's ranking would have been worse if the government's latest move
in supressing press freedom had been taken into account, referring to the Home
Ministry's decision to reject publisher Edge Communications Sdn Bhd's
application for a newspaper permit recently.
According
to this article, Dr Rahmat also mentioned that as soon as AKM 1998 was
enshrined, there were a lot of websites such as Mahafiraun, Mahazalim and many
more saying bad things and in other words mocking our previous Prime Minister.
I, as a Malay am ashamed as the values that was imprinted in us was forgotten.
Harsh words and curses that sometimes we cannot even imagine saying to a person
is written in the internet. Is this the impact that freedom of press and cyber
information give us? Is this the education that we get from these social
networks such as Facebook and Twitter are considered as normal? You decide.
Even
with the internet providing anyone with access unlimited source of information,
these commentaries by individuals are almost always written emotionally, no
solid facts, biases are present in sentences and formed from baseless rumors.
So
surprisingly that our previous Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Muhammad have said
that if he once become a Prime Minister again he will censorship the Internet
Usage because he regret that he don’t censored when he was a Prime Minister
back then. But why Dr Mahathir, which promotes the growth of the Internet and
public access in Malaysia, and also promised to keep it free now changed his
mind?
Here
is the real reason why he wants to censor the Internet:
So that the opposition did not have a place
to highlight their propaganda and news to the people. Internet equalized in
terms of media access to the opposition and those who were hungry for news.
Without the internet, the opposition has only lectures, articles and faxed
statement that only some of the parties only have access to it. However, with
the internet, coupled with a mobile phone, spread the information was all
right.
In
his article, Dr. Rahmat Ghazali had wrote due to the support of the enactment
of CMA 1998, it had caused “an explosion of online journalism” for the free of
the press and it was the time when many had the freedom to voice out, to which
he continued, “That was the period when we could see the minorities, the NGOs,
civil and human rights activists, intellectuals as well as politicians across
different ethnic background taking part in online journalism to have their
voices communicated and be informed.” And up until today, it hasn’t stopped
since.
I agree wholeheartedly with the
Dr’s comment. Online journalism has indeed give democracy a space in our
country, but it in turn has given chance to unknown enemies a tool to
manipulate and create chaos within the country using the sensitivity that comes
with being a multiracial country.
Statistics
of how much of mass media is actually being controlled by political parties
