Internet – take the bad with the good

Last week, while talking to a fellow journalist about politics, I was asked if I thought the government would censor the Internet.

“I really don’t think so,” I said. But my friend was cynical. He said certain quarters were making threatening noises about curbing access to the Internet, and he asked me why I was so sure.

I replied that the government has stayed true to the Multimedia Super Corridor’s bill of guarantees – one of which ensures non-censorship of the Internet – from Day One and there’s no reason to believe it will go back on its word.

My friend pointed out that the authorities did ban Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia Today website. And I pointed out that the decision was reversed very quickly. 

“(Datuk Seri) Najib might not be the most web-savvy PM in the world but he knows the importance of the Internet,” I said. “When he’s trying to restructure the economy to an innovation based one, how can he afford to censor the Internet?” I asked rhetorically.

For a while, it seemed like I spoke too soon. A few days later, news emerged that the government was looking at various filtering technologies – supposedly to block pornographic sites.

Everyone got alarmed. And then the prime minister made it clear that the government  will not censor the Internet.

“Firstly, because it is not effective; secondly, it may cause dissatisfaction among the people because in this...borderless age, information moves around freely,” he said.

I agree with him only partially. Guess which part?

Although a lot of people like to say that it’s impossible to censor the Internet, that’s actually not true. China has shown that it is quite effective indeed in blocking “undesirable” sites – basically those that mention Taiwan, Tibet, Falun Gong and so on (for the record, my personal website oonyeoh.com is blocked in China because I once wrote an article about Taiwan).

Other countries that aggressively – and effectively – censor the Internet include Myanmar, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Their success in doing so proves that contrary to popular opinion, the Internet is not necessarily an insurmountable threat to authoritarian governments.

Many of my friends in the ICT field are quick to point out that even if the government were to be misguided in its thinking and decides to implement Internet filters, there are always ways to get around them.

While it’s true that hardcore geeks will always be able to find workarounds, 99.9% of people are not hardcore geeks. Most people have difficulty configuring their POP3 e-mail accounts, let alone bypassing firewalls and overriding government filters.
The point is, it can be done. If the government really wanted to do this, it can. It would entail deploying an army of regulators doing nothing but scrawling for pornographic sites (and other sites deemed "undesirable") to include into an ever expanding blacklist. But it can be done.

So, the prime minister is actually not correct when he says it won’t be effective. It absolutely can be effective if enough resources are put into it. This is why his second point is so incredibly important. He says it won’t be acceptable.

Malaysians – unlike their neighbour in the south – are used to the uncensored Internet from Day One. To turn back now would be totally unacceptable to everyone. Not just foreign investors who were attracted to the MSC in the first place because of those bill of guarantees but everyday folks.

I’m aware there are those in government who are still very old school in their thinking. They are making the classic mistake of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They realize the Internet is important – indeed an integral part of doing business today – but yet they want to curtail the free-flow of information on the Net.

What they don’t realize is that it doesn’t work that way. You can’t just take the good and weed out bad and expect a derring-do, innovative mindset to emerge amongst the people. The misguided approach of trying to determine what the people can and cannot access is why you will never see the likes of Google, Facebook or Twitter emerge from China.

If Malaysia wants a chance at really becoming a knowledge economy based on innovation, the government must keep its hands off the Internet.

Oon Yeoh is editor for New Media at The Edge Malaysia. He invites you to follow him at www.twitter.com/oonyeoh.