KUALA LUMPUR - The recent arrest of a
prominent Malaysian blogger and senior aide to
chief opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim has
shaken the fast-growing blogging community in this
country, which has long been dominated by docile,
state-controlled mainstream media.
Harvard-educated Nathaniel Tan was
detained on July 13 under the Official Secrets Act
(OSA) for posting information on the Internet the
government considered sensitive. His arrest was
apparently part of a new
government campaign to combat what officials
allege to be inaccurate information being
spreading by bloggers and other Internet-based
writers.
Deputy Internal Security Minister
Johari Baharum said he had instructed police to
ferret out who was writing what in the Malaysian
blogsphere. Baharum told the official Bernama wire
service on Sunday that police had arrested Tan as
part of an investigation into "lies and slander
against national leaders" posted on the Internet.
"We want the police to investigate and
trace writers spreading lies through websites and
to bring the culprits to book," he said. "The
police must act to prevent those [bloggers] from
tarnishing the image of the country," Baharum told
Bernama.
Police arrested Tan, who also
manages the website of Anwar's opposition National
People's Party, and took away his laptop and
desktop computers. Tan was released on Tuesday
after four days of questioning by police and said
he was constantly asked by a relay team of
officers over postings in his blog. "I have to
report to police later and am not sure how the
case will progress," he told Inter Press Service
after his release on Tuesday.
Although Tan
has been released, he potentially faces a heavy
fine and a mandatory one-year jail sentence if
charged and found guilty under the OSA. According
to international rights group Amnesty
International, the OSA is a particularly draconian
law which provides "vaguely worded definitions" of
what constitutes an official secret.
"It
gives the authorities wide powers to curb and
impose penalties on the unauthorized publication
of any information in the hands of the government,
no matter how insignificant or whether such
information is already in the public domain,"
Amnesty said on its website.
The arrest
sent shock waves through the closely-knit blogger
community, sparking fear on one hand and outrage
on the other. "The arrest of Tan has shaken up the
blogging community," said human-rights activist
Elizabeth Wong, herself a blogger. "We are all
asking who is next?"
The fear is palpable
because Tan is widely seen as a "mover and shaker"
in the blogging community, who is noted for his
unvarnished criticism of government leaders. He
had previously criticized minister Baharum and
asked readers to "vote this guy out" on his
website www.jelas.info. Baharum was investigated
and cleared of all wrongdoing last week after
Internet postings surfaced alleging he had
received 5.5 million ringgit (US$1.6 million) in
bribes to release three convicted criminals from
prison.
Political analysts said Tan was
not the only target, but that other bloggers who
had openly criticized politicians and pushed the
boundaries of press freedom in cyberspace were
also at risk. Oriental Daily News, a Chinese
vernacular daily, best described the mood when it
headlined its front-page arrest story on Tan as a
"white terror" striking down bloggers. The daily
asked, "Is the campaign against bloggers started?"
Political analysts see the government's
campaign as an attempt to instill fear and also
curb unrestrained attacks on national leaders,
especially on Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in
advance of a general election widely expected to
be held later this year.
Officials have
said they fear that "too many Malaysians" were
being taken in by the alternative blogs and
websites, some of which offer an explosive mix of
gossip, hard opinions and debatable facts,
capturing the imagination of millions of readers.
The government has admitted that it likely won't
repeat its sterling performance at the 2004 polls,
when voter hopes for a clean start under Abdullah
ran high.
That said, it isn't clear
whether the public fascination with Internet-based
writings will necessarily translate into votes for
the opposition. What is clear is that the ruling
National Front coalition also does not want to see
a major swing in voter support for the Anwar-led
opposition, which is promising more transparent
and accountable government, affirmative action to
help all needy Malaysians, not just Malays, and an
end to all racially discriminatory policies.
The arrest sparked widespread condemnation
both in Malaysia and abroad, with Anwar,
opposition lawmakers and various rights
non-governmental organizations demanding Tan's
immediate release and an end to the campaign
against bloggers. Anwar, who spent six years in
prison on trumped-up charges of which he was later
acquitted, condemned Tan's arrest and described it
as "unprofessional and high-handed".
Anwar
said the police did not present a warrant of
arrest, nor did they tell Tan's relatives the
reason for his arrest. "It is to intimidate and
threaten the opposition political parties," he
said. "We have taken to the Internet to push our
agenda for change and the government is getting
worried at the huge Internet following bloggers
have earned for themselves."
Parliamentary
opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, meanwhile, urged
Abdullah to stop the government's policy of
"arrest [first] and then investigate". "Abdullah
should spell out that his administration is for
human rights and freedom of publication as he had
promised the people he would do," Lim said in an
interview. "There is a clear ulterior motive in
arresting the blogger."
The Southeast
Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and Reporters without
Borders both urged Abdullah to respect human
rights and restrain the police. "By arresting
[Tan], the authorities are trying to intimidate
Malaysian Internet users and get them to censor
themselves," SEAPA said in a statement. "Until
now, they had limited themselves to threats and
abusive prosecutions. Now they have gone further
and adopted a more radical form of repression."
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