The present government needs to be filtered more than anything else

BESIDES the escalating A H1N1 mortality, the ongoing inquest on mysterious death of DAP political aide, Teoh Beng Hock, the most talked-about-and-debated issue of late must be the controversial attempt by the BN government to put up Internet filter blocking “undesirable websites”.

This somehow reminded me of the controversial posting in the blog of former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahatir Mohammed (left)shortly after the announcement of the present Cabinet line-up by his protégé cum present PM, Datuk Ser Najib Tun Razak(below right), claiming that “several unsavoury characters who had been accused of being corrupt while in the previous government” had slipped in into the Cabinet.

Interestingly, four months after the formation of the new Cabinet and the appointment of the six Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ministers last month, we have not seen any of the suspected “unsavoury characters” being dropped. In other words, they are still there, probably quietly continuing with their old trait.

Perhaps it’s only appropriate that Mahathir should now come out and call for a “thorough filtering” of the present Cabinet (below right) and to remove these “several unsavoury characters”. Otherwise he should immediately retract his statement and publicly apologies to Najib and his entire Cabinet as well as the Malaysian public for misleading them.

The present BN Government also needs to screen and filter all of its ministries, departments, judiciary and law enforcement agencies of “unsavoury characters” who had caused a lot of damages to this country. This includes the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) whose reputation has further plunged to all-time low with the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock and the outcome of several other cases very recently.

It’s interesting to note how Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim (left) who on 7 August, 20009 confirmed and strongly supported the controversial “Internet filter” plan, was quick to dismissed it on Wednesday. This was obviously due to an outcry from politicians from both sides of the divide as well as criticism from industry bodies.

While it was reported that Najib had disapproved the “Internet filter” plan, he owes the Malaysian public a truthful explanation on how such a plan came about, with the tender exercise calling for companies to put proposals to assist the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to evaluate an Internet filter, done secretly without informing the public.

After all these years, we’ve seen many of the BN’s “good guy, bad guy” play-acting.

But, if it is proven that such an idea was indeed the brainchild of Rais, then maybe he should gracefully bow out, for what he did was rather irresponsible and a total violation of the “No Censorship” guarantee stipulated in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees announced by Tun Dr Mahathir during his tenure as Prime Minister.

As a senior and learned minister, Rais should be aware of the far-reaching impact of such move, if implemented. Under the Sesawe project, there are altogether 18 countries currently blacklisted as “pariah nations of the Internet world”, for implementing similar move.

Rais should realize that unfettered access to the Internet is economically crucial for Malaysia, as it was reported to have attracted RM1.6 billion worth of investment from technology companies annually.

The said move if implemented, would seriously hamper the series of economic liberalisation measures announced by Najib recently to attract foreign investment, and diversify Asia's third-most trade dependent economy away from its reliance on electronics and commodities exports.

Boosting banking, finance and the knowledge economy, all of which are key planks of Najib's economic strategy, would be impossible without a fast and unfettered Internet access. This ridiculous restriction will not only reflect badly on Malaysia but also cause existing investors to pull out from Malaysia and potential investors to shy away.

In short the Barisan Nasional Government is as good as convincing foreigners that Japanese sushi is in fact cooked food.

Therefore, Rais is clearly unfit for his present job in this dynamic ICT era. He probably must have forgotten the fact that he is essentially a civil servant whose salary is paid by the taxpayers. Hence, whatever move or decision he made must be in the best interest of the nation and its people, and not that of his political masters. It seems that he is worse than his two predecessors.

At least one of them had the courage to engage in a public debate with opposition leader like Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim (left), instead of throwing tantrum and chiding some reporters who were merely doing their job.

The proposed move also demonstrated the government was incapable of countering the many issues and questions raised by the cyber journalists and bloggers on the Internet. The government need not impose a tight control on the mainstream media and fear the online news portals and the bloggers, if all these while it had done nothing wrong except things that are truly in the best interest of the nation and the people.

The main reason why the masses started to boycott the mainstream media for the online news portals was because of the manner the mainstream media were exploited to become the ‘mouthpiece’ of the ruling government and a ‘convenient tool’ to smear the opposition.

The worse being the suppression and concealing of the ruling government’s wrongdoings or incompetence.

I may not be trained as a journalist but I do understand what does freedom of the press means, as one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States, George Mason passionately put, that “The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

On that note, I must salute the President of Gerakan cum Minister in the PM’s Department, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon (right) for his firm stand against censorship of the internet and that there should be freedom to voice differences of opinions.

"Why should we have that (censorship of the internet)? We should be able to debate and engage in debates - even if they are critical we accept and we have to respond to the freedom of views and expressions," he said.

Koh said the government can correct its shortcomings through the criticisms and opinions of the public through the internet.

"If we stand corrected by constructive criticisms then we will gain the public's confidence," he said.

While he agreed to some form of censorship for pornographic material on the internet, he firmly maintained that there should be no attempt to drown out political dissent, warning that if there are more attempts to curb public expression, it will only fuel hatred towards the BN government.

Before I sign off, I would like share with you a famous free speech quote by renowned American Constitutional Scholar, Thomas I. Emerson – “Suppression of expression conceals the real problems confronting a society and diverts public attention from the critical issues. It is likely to result in neglect of the grievances which are the actual basis of the unrest, and this prevents their correction.”