Thought Police in Malaysia -- and America

The estimable Jeff Ooi, a blogger in Malaysia who is doing great things for free speech, has been questioned by the authorities about his blog, according to GlobalVoices, which cites this Malaysiakini item.

Jeff is one of the best of the best in this new world of citizens media. He's working in a place that is not terribly fond of liberty, though it's way ahead of most Islamic nations on the freedom scale. He and other threatened grassroots speakers deserve our support.

So do American media in all forms these days, under attack from the resurgent blue-noses. The powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, now wants to extend their liberty-wounding censorship of the airwaves to cable and satellite.

Why not books, guys? Bookstores and libraries are full of material that children can see if they're motivated. And, of course, the Internet is the obvious target after that.

Why not? Because we have that arcane document called the Constitution (linked via Congress' own site), with a First Amendment that once meant something in the halls of power.

Stevens insists we need "standards of decency" in America. He's welcome to enforce his own standards in his own home. And he has the ultimate weapon -- the Off and Change-Channel buttons.

But he and his dictatorial allies don't trust Americans to make their own decisions, at least when it comes to personal liberty except the right to own weapons. Government, apparently, gets to decide what is decent. We are too feeble-minded to decide for ourselves.

These people praise moves toward liberty in Afghanistan but would emulate the Islamic fundamentalists in their attacks on free speech. What raging, dangerous, freedom-loathing hypocrites they are.

Comments

[Ted Feuerbach]

Sorry Dan, but the Right Wing seems to have us over a barrel.

You see, I happen to carry around a copy of the US Constitution on my thumb drive and after a careful re-reading of the document, I found that while our Founding Fathers were doing stuff like forming a more perfect Union, insuring domestic Tranquility and promoting the general Welfare they said NOT ONE SINGLE WORD about cable TV, satellite or the internet. They don't say anything about protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Sanctuary or the Ozone layer either!

Provide and maintain a Navy?
It's in there.

Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations?
Check.

Establish Post Offices?
Yup.

Cable TV, satellite or the internet?
Sorry, I guess that we're just going to have to find other ways to "secure the Blessings of Liberty."

[LHM]

"The estimable Jeff Ooi, a blogger in Malaysia who is doing great things for free speech...[sic]"

From Mr. Ooi's website:

"I'm planning to monitor and moderate the web forums very tightly although this goes against my wish for freedom of speech. Am forced to do this due to practical reasons. The maturity level of the general society is still in question and this has to be done in order to maintain peaceful feelings and harmony."

Tell us more about how Mr. Jeff Ooi is doing things for free speech.

[Al]

And the US Constitution is arcane? It's not. It's a rather short document that has worked for over 200 years. The new EU Constituion is over 800 pages. The lawyers and politicians will have field day with this thing. By filling it with all sorts of crap, no one will understand it. In reality, it doesn't seem like it's designed to be understood by anyone - only interpreted by the whims of the more powerful.

You should be thankful for this "arcane" document for it allows you to do what you want. Most people around the world don't have any where near the freedoms you and I have.

[Dan Gillmor]

Al, I used the word "arcane" ironically.

[Paul Stuart]

LHM, you repeated the same thing on Jeff's blog--what's your real issue? You confuse the irony of the necessity of having to moderate blog comments with hypocrisy. He's just saying you're free to speak your mind but not necessarily on his dime.

And then he leaves your unflattering "revelation" there anyway. Howzabout that?!

[JennyD]

I see you're coming to Ann Arbor. Good. I'll be there. The Knight-Wallce folks are notoriously bad at publicizing events except to a select few. I don't know what you're talking about, but it you want a large audience, you might want to agitate a little for good publicity.

BTW, what are you going to talk about?

[bayi]

I am a strong supporter of the work that Jeff Ooi is doing in Malaysia and for Malaysia. He is working against all odds to bring about an awareness that will open up the minds of the Malaysians and a more transparent government. As with most people doing such work, they are often at odds with those whose status quo is threatened and those who prefer to rest contentedly within the confines of what they are familiar with. Jeff certainly deserves our support. He is one true Malaysian. Thanks for bring it up in your blog.

[Owen]

"But he and his dictatorial allies don't trust Americans to make their own decisions"

Maybe Bush, Stevens and other national leaders are correct in their mistrust; how much faith do YOU have in people who are content to elect people like them to decide what rights we have?

The other point of view, of course, is that if we're wise enough to elect such enlightened leaders, we should be wise enough to make decisions about what we should see, or think, or believe.

However, given the predisposition of our solons in Washington to tell God what is sinful and their lack of trust that He is doing a good enough job of dealing with sinners, the second POV is probably not something they've seriously considered.

[degustibus]

I'ver always been shocked by the images of women of color in the National Geographic (I think someone once pointed out that you'll never find a nude white woman in the NG -- unless in a museum.

[Unknown]

"But he and his dictatorial allies don't trust Americans to make their own decisions, at least when it comes to personal liberty except the right to own weapons. Government, apparently, gets to decide what is decent. We are too feeble-minded to decide for ourselves."

And thus the consitution was born in Iraq. According to one of Naomi Klein's talk, thousands of people were laid off and didn't give them their pensions. But allowed them to keep their guns - "alternative employment" really.

And really...just on a personal side...I've always had an issue with the term, "people of color." Isn't white a color too?

[bayi]

During an art lesson, I learnt that technically speaking, white and black are not colors but shades. However, why do the Americans and Europeans traditionally refer to the non-whites as colored people? Mmm...food for thought.

[Nate Koechley]

Well put Dan. I agree with you.

[philippe]

In Iran the wife of the blogger condemned to years in prison has also been arrested. Not a word within the US blogosphere. The info is dispatched by reporters without borders.

[philippe]

The Internet under surveillance
3 March 2005
Iran

Pregnant wife of jailed weblogger imprisoned
Reporters Without Borders said it was appalled by the imprisonment of pregnant student, Najmeh Oumidparvar, 26 - wife of weblogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi - who has been imprisoned in her turn, one week after her husband.
Oumidparvar, who is three month pregnant, has her own weblog (http://www.faryadebeseda.persianblog.com - Dawn of Freedom). She has been accused of defending her husband too openly. On the eve of her arrest she gave an interview to German radio Deutsche Welle. A few days earlier she posted on her own weblog a message her husband had written shortly before his arrest. In it, he claimed the right to express himself freely adding that he was "waiting for the police handcuffs"

Plainclothes police searched Oumidparvar’s home on the morning of 2 March 2005 seizing computers, CDs and every article written by the couple. She was arrested after the search. She was taken back to her home in the afternoon to collect some of her possessions. The authorities told her that she would have to stay in prison for at least ten days.

More details : http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12655

[Jozef Imrich]

Thanks Dan ...

“Real news,” said Richard Reeves “is the news you and I need to keep our freedoms.”

I am reminded of that line from the news photographer in Tom Stoppard’s play Night and Day : “People do terrible things to each other, but its worse in places where everybody is kept in the dark.”

Paul McGeogh, who is one of the selected journalists I admire, noted in the Good Weekend Magazine, two weeks ago, that "terrible things happen everywhere, but the most terrible is a society in which you are not allowed to talk about the terrible things".

Probably nothing has done so much for the underground and blogging morale in Malaysia as the solidarity shown around the world and Jeff Ooi specifically notes the support of Dan

PS: The blogosphere is well aware of dictators: Lenin used to refer to the people who were always willing to excuse the senseless totalitarians as "fellow travellers" to their faces and "useful idiots" behind their backs.

[Maccabee]

Great blog

great post

[Kevin]

Dan,
My company operates malaysia.net we took over managment of that site and re launched it two weeks ago as a citizen journalism site. We need help, quality bloggers, and passionate thought leaders.

Thanks for this blog.

Kevin