Dr M Supports Bloggers! Bloggers United!

Malaysiakini reports Dr M: Bloggers are only hope left
by Andrew Ong on Aug 15, 07 9:17pm
As Umno musters its forces against the emergence of bloggers, the party’s former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad is urging online dissidents to keep up the pressure on the government.
-> ‘Umno completely paralysed’
-> Gather force, bloggers told

Blackinkorea has the full text of the report that describes why Dr M said "Umno is paralysed".

The ex-Prime Minister, who was also the ex-President of UMNO had this key point to highlight:
“UMNO has become completely paralysed. It cannot do anything (to correct itself). The only hope left is with the bloggers,” said Mahathir during a two-and-a-half hour speech to some 100 bloggers at the Perdana Leadership Foundation headquarters in Putrajaya.

Mahathir was speaking on the perceived intolerance of UMNO’s leadership towards criticism on allegations of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

Other related news:
16/08: Mahathir blames rising crime on 'rot' under govt (The Straits Times)
15/08: “There is something rotten in state of Malaysia, today" (Biggum Dogmannsteinberg)

Malaysia Today is running a recording of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the Perdana Leadership Foundation (VIDEO) .

I believe Dr. M is trying to say that Malaysian citizens should play a role in doing what the government is supposed to be doing but not performing accordingly. After all, most, if not almost all socio-political bloggers writing about Malaysia are Malaysians.

As the proverbs say, the pen is mightier than the sword. Blogging, which is equivalent to writing in the internet would be a better way to impact a peaceful change to inefficient governance rather than violent resolutions.

Blogging has brought many nations with suppressed voices to a new level of freedom. Citizens of Iran, Singapore and Malaysia endorsed the trend with open arms. Iran is the third largest country of bloggers according to wikipedia. Although blog was initially used to write about personal subjects, it has now turned to an important domain to express dissent and opinions. Certain people with better resources use blogs to expose corruption, accompanied by documents. Most of the time, these writings are not available in tightly-controlled mainstream mass media. With the presence of the PPPA ,that requires annual renewal of media license, Malaysia holds true to a certain degree of mind-boggling self-censorship.

In these recent times, there were calls from certain quarters of the government to utilise the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) against certain bloggers. Dearly shocking! Using imprisonment without trial on Malaysian citizens who merely write? If bloggers are slandering, there are existing defamation and libel laws to be used. It is not necessarily to invoke ISA. ISA is intimidating. ISA is meant for people like communists or foreigners spying on Malaysia. Why should such laws which are meant to protect Malaysian citizens be used against Malaysian bloggers @ Malaysian citizens?

Malaysian citizens are not enemies of the state. Corruption is. Convince the bloggers that the government is cleaning up. If it happens, bloggers will write good things about this government vice versa. ISA-ing writers incurs more anger and dissatisfaction that contributes more negative articles. Such is the rule of psychology.

Maybe, the government is feeling the mounting pressure from citizens; Citizens who blogs, love the nation and yearn for a drastic change to save Malaysia. A shift to propel the country to become a first world country, currently hindered by massive corruption, cronyism, nepotism, incompetence and low quality buildings, products and services with a first world cost funded by the blood and sweat money of taxpayers.

After all, behind every cloud is a silver lining. The pressure is getting high. The climax is getting near. Maybe the usage of ISA is the last straw symbolizing an up-and-coming successful reform. ISA is the most draconian and merciless law of the land. What would one use after ISA?

As Dr. M says, "The only hope left is with the bloggers".

Write for your nation!

Bloggers @ Citizens United !!!