Malaysia Politician Contradicts Himself

I can understand the dangers I might be treading on here but the Internet to me is freedom of speech while I’m normally a responsible writer and don’t take actions that could threaten myself. Therefore, in this case it is my personal opinion of why I feel the Internet industry in Malaysia is still slow especially in its content area.

In The Star today, there was an article titled; Don’t quote websites, says Zam. It’s about our current Information Minister advising the newspaper media to not quote websites (or even weblogs) of their content because they are made by “frustrated journalists or frustrated in politics” and that’s a direct quote.

But what really caught my attention and struck a note with me is the closing of the article when the Information Minister said this:

He (Information Minister) also urged the Government to instil a sense of responsibility among website writers instead of limiting freedom on the Internet.

“If the Government can educate the newspapers to be responsible, it can also do the same to the websites by law or whatever way.”

“I’m not asking for them to be banned but there should be some control over the websites,” he said.

It’s really a waste of breath and time when you try to barricade the online activities by a degree of law. If you did that in the Internet, it merely creates a larger rebellion and not supporters of the idea.

As long as I’ve been using the Internet the past 12 years or so, I’ve noticed what we really need is the education. There’s a writer in everyone trying to come out but because there is no guide, they end up doing it their own way.

If the government really wants to solve this issue of low or bogus content in our local Internet sphere, they need to start thinking of methods to educate everyone who use the Internet especially bloggers.

What training or education topics do you think would help bloggers?

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