Unregistered moderated comments
In my negotiations with the MCMC, it was pointed out that the comments rather than my articles were the main problem. If I could assure the authorities that I will control or moderate the comments then they will consider unbanning Malaysia Today. I gave them my assurance that from that day on all comments would be ‘controlled’.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Some of you may remember that at 6.00pm on 26th August 2008, Malaysia Today was blocked and for about two weeks no one in Malaysia could access the site. Those outside Malaysia could still read Malaysia Today though.
Over those two weeks, I met up with officials from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to try to get them to unblock Malaysia Today.
The complaint against Malaysia Today was not regarding any of my articles but about some of the comments that were posted in the site. We do not know who posted these comments. In fact, they could have even been posted by Umno cyber-troopers.
Nevertheless, the comments were considered offensive and, subsequently, Malaysia Today was ‘banned’.
Now, who interprets whether the comments are offensive or not? Well, the government of course.
If Ibrahim Ali says that the Chinese are too much, biadap (insolent), and are inviting another May 13, to you and me that may be offensive but to the government that may be quite an acceptable statement.
Then, if I say that the Malays are backward because they are being held back by their religion, to you and me that may be a fact but the government may view that statement as an insult to Islam and will take action against me (which they did, mind you).
So it does not take much to get Malaysia Today banned. One ‘planted’ comment is all it takes and we all will lose Malaysia Today forever.
In my negotiations with the MCMC, it was pointed out that the comments rather than my articles were the main problem. If I could assure the authorities that I will control or moderate the comments then they will consider unbanning Malaysia Today.
I gave them my assurance that from that day on all comments would be ‘controlled’.
Malaysia Today was subsequently unblocked. However, the following day, the police came to my house to detain me under the Internal Security Act. Of my many so-called ‘crimes’ that warranted my detention, some of them were the comments in Malaysia Today.
What I have never told you before (until now, that is) is that 26 other Malaysians also suffered retaliation. The police went to their house or office and confiscated their computer. They were also summoned to the police station. One person was charged under the Sedition Act.
Today, we are trying to relax things a bit. While you can still register to comment, whereby your comments get published immediately, you can also post comments without registering.
However, they will need to be approved first — or rejected, as the case may be.
Why are we now relaxing things a bit? Because the next general election will soon be upon us and we may need to allow more discourse and debate.
Nevertheless, we still can’t allow a total free-for-all. This would be giving a ‘licence’ to the Umno cyber-troopers to kill Malaysia Today with planted comments. And 2008 has shown us that this is not only possible but was in fact done before.
The problem with this, though, is that this may cause some delay because the moderators need to first read your comments before they will appear on the site. All our moderators are volunteers who can afford a mere few hours a day with so many other commitments to meet.
You can, of course, avoid this delay if you register. But if you do not wish to register then I hope you will bear with the delay.
