Malaysiakini Raided - Malaysia's independent internet newspaper offices get a visit from the coppers

January 20, 2003

[Update 4:50pm: The reader's letter which seems to be the subject of the UMNO Youth police report which may have initiated the raid is entitled Similarities between 'new Americans' and bumiputera. The anonymous letter is critical of Malays in general as well as the Malaysian government affirmative action policies for Bumiputeras. It seems, to at least to this untrained eye, that it could be interpreted as in contravention of Malaysian laws against publishing material that could endanger Malaysia's tolerant multi-racial society that is characterised variously as either "unique and powerful" or "sensitive and fragile" by government officials depending on the situation.]

The Malaysian independent internet newspaper - MalaysiaKini is apparantly being raided by police at this time, according to one source.

An independent and rare non-government or political-party-owned news source reporting on Malaysian politics, society, culture, economics and business - MalaysiaKini - has come to be respected for it's independent reports as well as the divergent views published in it's letters section, resulting in it becoming one of Malaysia's most-read websites. Malaysiakini was set up just prior to the first national elections following the Anwar sacking and detention.

A first person account just received reads -

"... Award-winning Internet daily Malaysiakini's office is currently being raided by the police, we believe in connection with a report lodged against them by the youth section of one of the political parties in the ruling coalition, Pemuda UMNO, claiming sedition. There are more than ten police officers, two uniformed, and it seems likely that they will take away all the computers. This will not only mean that MalaysiaKini can no longer operate, but it also means they have access to a lot of confidential information, including the addresses of letter writers who have requested confidentiality..."

MalaysiaKini can still be accessed at the time of writing from their URL of http://www.malaysiakini.com/. The site appears to be hosted on a North American server.

Caution should be exercised in drawing conclusions from just one source at this time.

The Malaysian popular electronic and print media in Bahasa Melayu, Chinese, English, Tamil, and Arabic is dominated by government ownership, providing the ruling administration a powerful means to deliver public relations messages and re-inforce government policy. However, at times, this coverage can become highly political, especially around election time.

The same domination has not been true of dedicated internet media however, where government sites have usually failed to exploit the unique advantages of the new medium, being slow to develop internet-based communication channels. While major government-owned print newspapers do provide quality "internet editions", many government sites are plagued by out of date content, non-interactivity, and poor quality control. This has left "MalaysiaKini" to almost dominate the dedicated internet media for Malaysian political news, even though funding remains an ongoing problem, as Malaysian advertisers are wary of being associated with the publication.

International media have increasingly been drawn to Malaysiakini reports while the mainstream media have been hamstrung in their options due to strong self-censorship, monitoring and licencing regulations. Up to now, at least, the Malaysian government has played a generally low-profile line in regards to MalaysiaKini, which as internet media is not subject to the same licensing laws as print and broadcast media. It's reporting style has been to allow a far broader divergence of opinion than print and broadcast media in Malaysia.

Chao Phraya River Rat in Asian Internet on January 20, 2003 03:13 PM

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Comments

The letter published was fairly esotoric. It could probably be interpreted as seditious within Malaysia's very strict laws on sedition. That said it is nothing that you wont hear in any street stall chatter any day in Kuala Lumpur. Its about time that Malaysia is seen as mature enough for open discussion without it turning into a riot or a lawsuit.

Posted by: Julian on January 21, 2003 12:10 PM

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it."
(Martin Luther King Jr.)

Uphold democracy and fundamental human rights. We Malaysians want justice, freedom, democracy and good governance. We know what to do in the next general elections.

Posted by: Lim Keh Long on January 21, 2003 01:10 PM

A letter itself is innocuous,but the response of certain readers may prove to be explosively harmful.Take for instance,the reaction of the UMNO Youth.Had there not been any police report or publicity to blow the issue out of proportion,the allegely seditious letter will still continue to form a light but entertaining topic for chat sessions in coffeeshops.With mainstream media under its wing,there is little doubt that the UMNO Youths will continue to fan racial hatred from this point onwards.

Why do they still have such parochial mindsets even as we move to the information age?If such bellicosity were the menu of the day in 1960s,that can be understood.But this is the 21st century...how much have we grown since our birth 45 years ago?

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