44
Vee Vian Thien
to BN in 2008. Notably, on both occasions, PR and Reformasi relied heavily on the
Internet to evade long-standing governmental control and surveillance of the mainstream media. The year 1998 saw the beginning of political activism on the Internet
with the proliferation of pro-Reformasi Web sites.
5 In 2008, PR ran a successful campaign on blogs and Web sites, managing to elect blogger-politicians.
6 Third, because
the constrained and censored mainstream media were unable to satiate the Malaysian
public ’ s hunger for details of Anwar ’ s high-profi le fi rst sodomy trial, this news vacuum
enabled Malaysiakini, an award-winning online news portal, to launch itself successfully into the role of a reliable and objective source of uncensored information.
Since 2008 the Malaysian government has made numerous attempts at asserting
control over the relatively unfettered Internet, citing maintenance of racial harmony
in ethnically diverse Malaysia as its regulatory justifi cation.
7 These attempts, whether
an extension of existing laws or a tabling of regulatory proposals, have been met with
ferocious online resistance, especially by the Malaysian blogosphere. To date, the
Malaysian government has backed down from its three most drastic regulatory proposals: implementation of a nationwide fi lter on the Internet, registration of bloggers,
and identifying “ professional ” as opposed to “ nonprofessional ” bloggers. Although
the government has not formally acknowledged these acts as a concession to online
pressure, the concession can be inferred from the circumstances. This social pressure
is signifi cant in its context — the Malaysian government is not known for retracting or
repealing unpopular measures, especially those infringing on civil liberties.
8
Malaysian sociopolitical blogs, a subcategory of blogs on matters concerning the
governance of state and socioeconomic concerns, fi gure prominently in the general
Malaysian public consciousness and were especially infl uential in the run-up to the
2008 elections, according to a study conducted by Zentrum Future Studies, a media
studies research group.
9 Zentrum ’ s survey polled eligible voters between the ages of 21
and 41 during the election campaign period running from February 20 to March 5,
2008. Zentrum reported that 54.1 percent of 21,000 eligible voters in its nationwide
sample designated the online media, that is, blogs and news portals like Malaysiakini,
as their preferred source of information, as opposed to mainstream newspapers.
10 Of
the 11,360 sampled voters who preferred online media, 58.5 percent ranked blogs as
their primary source.
11 Blogs had a much stronger following among younger voters
than their older counterparts, as fi gure 3.1 illustrates. Given their visibility, these blogs
and their administrators have been the main Internet regulatory target of the Malaysian government.
This chapter situates the regulatory drama currently unfolding in Malaysia within
the OpenNet Initiative theoretical framework of next-generation controls, as conceptualized by Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski in the context of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS).
12 It then identifi es structural and normative features of
the Malaysian political blogosphere that have enabled it to successfully contest the
Vee Vian Thien
to BN in 2008. Notably, on both occasions, PR and Reformasi relied heavily on the
Internet to evade long-standing governmental control and surveillance of the mainstream media. The year 1998 saw the beginning of political activism on the Internet
with the proliferation of pro-Reformasi Web sites.
5 In 2008, PR ran a successful campaign on blogs and Web sites, managing to elect blogger-politicians.
6 Third, because
the constrained and censored mainstream media were unable to satiate the Malaysian
public ’ s hunger for details of Anwar ’ s high-profi le fi rst sodomy trial, this news vacuum
enabled Malaysiakini, an award-winning online news portal, to launch itself successfully into the role of a reliable and objective source of uncensored information.
Since 2008 the Malaysian government has made numerous attempts at asserting
control over the relatively unfettered Internet, citing maintenance of racial harmony
in ethnically diverse Malaysia as its regulatory justifi cation.
7 These attempts, whether
an extension of existing laws or a tabling of regulatory proposals, have been met with
ferocious online resistance, especially by the Malaysian blogosphere. To date, the
Malaysian government has backed down from its three most drastic regulatory proposals: implementation of a nationwide fi lter on the Internet, registration of bloggers,
and identifying “ professional ” as opposed to “ nonprofessional ” bloggers. Although
the government has not formally acknowledged these acts as a concession to online
pressure, the concession can be inferred from the circumstances. This social pressure
is signifi cant in its context — the Malaysian government is not known for retracting or
repealing unpopular measures, especially those infringing on civil liberties.
8
Malaysian sociopolitical blogs, a subcategory of blogs on matters concerning the
governance of state and socioeconomic concerns, fi gure prominently in the general
Malaysian public consciousness and were especially infl uential in the run-up to the
2008 elections, according to a study conducted by Zentrum Future Studies, a media
studies research group.
9 Zentrum ’ s survey polled eligible voters between the ages of 21
and 41 during the election campaign period running from February 20 to March 5,
2008. Zentrum reported that 54.1 percent of 21,000 eligible voters in its nationwide
sample designated the online media, that is, blogs and news portals like Malaysiakini,
as their preferred source of information, as opposed to mainstream newspapers.
10 Of
the 11,360 sampled voters who preferred online media, 58.5 percent ranked blogs as
their primary source.
11 Blogs had a much stronger following among younger voters
than their older counterparts, as fi gure 3.1 illustrates. Given their visibility, these blogs
and their administrators have been the main Internet regulatory target of the Malaysian government.
This chapter situates the regulatory drama currently unfolding in Malaysia within
the OpenNet Initiative theoretical framework of next-generation controls, as conceptualized by Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski in the context of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS).
12 It then identifi es structural and normative features of
the Malaysian political blogosphere that have enabled it to successfully contest the