Blogs in Vogue

What's the biggest difference this recent election made? In my opinion, it has to be the Government's 180% turn with regards to its attitude towards blogs.

Datuk Abdul Ghapur Hj Salleh of KALABAKAN asked the Minister of Information on 21st May 2008 that

...ternyata media generasi baru khususnya 'blog' membawa pengaruh yang besar ke atas trend pengundian pada pilihan raya yang lalu. Apakah Kementerian merancang untuk menyertai media generasi baru yang teramat berkesan ini.

And the short reply from the Minister was:

Kerajaan melihat perkembangan penyampaian maklumat dan pandangan rakyat melaluik blog sebagai satu perkara positif sejajar dengan kepesatan teknologi informasi. Semua pandangan yang dikemukakan melalui blog juga dilihat sebagai pandangan rakyat yang perlu diberi perhatian oleh Kerajaan.

Pihak Kerajaan sentiasa memantau laman-laman blog yang ada namun tidak bercadang untuk mengawal dan menapis laman-laman web dan blog berkenaan.

This wasn't the first time the question has been asked in this Parliament sitting, and what's more, they have mainly been asked by Barisan Nasional parliamentarians.

The previous Minister of Information, the infamous Zainuddin Maidin was defeated in Sungai Petani, and obviously the current one, Ahmad Shabery Cheek doesn't want to meet the same fate as his predecessor. ;-)

Taking a short walk down memory lane, let's recall how this same administration was just pooh-poohing blogs and of course, bloggers ;-)

• Aug 23, 2006 - "Pengendali Laman Blog ibarat penembak curi", then deputy Minister of Energy, Water & Communication.
  
  
• March 13, 2007 - MALAYSIA'S tourism minister has sparked a controversy among the local Internet community by reportedly describing bloggers as 'liars' and 'mostly jobless women'. The Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh quoted Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor as saying last week: 'All bloggers are liars. They cheat people using all kinds of methods. 'From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.'
  
  
• March 20, 2007 - Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin today asked newspapers not to quote from blog websites when writing news stories as the source of the information cannot be considered authoritative. He hoped newspapers would be more responsible by quoting only authoritative sources as many bloggers were relying on newspapers for credibility.
  
  
• April 5, 2007 - BLOGGERS using locally hosted websites may be asked to register with the authorities, Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said. He said registration was one of the measures the Government was considering to prevent the spread of negative or malicious content on the Internet.
  
  
• April 6, 2007 - Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin Friday lent his weight to a proposal to register blog sites, especially those which are politically-motivated. He said the mainstream media were subjected to registration, monitoring and specific laws, and as such, there was no reason why the same should not apply to blog operators.
  
  
• May 05, 2007 - Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said today Malaysia has to classify web bloggers as professionals and non-professionals as a mechanism to prevent misuse of blog sites.
  
  
• July 28, 2007 - "There are no laws in the cyberworld except for the law of the jungle. As such, action must be taken so that the "monkeys" behave," [Khairy Jamaluddin] told reporters after opening the Papar, Kimanis and Sipitang Umno Youth annual delegates conference.
  
  
• July 29, 2007 - The people must wise up to "goblok" (political bloggers) because some of them were willing to become tools of others to destroy the nation, said Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin. He said these bloggers belonged to groups with limited knowledge and had evil intentions.

Now while the above probably doesn't list everything, they certainly brought back 'fond' memories ;-) What a difference a year makes!