Web vital for aiding reformasi, says Chandra
Celine TanPublished: Mar 23, 2001 6:12 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
The Internet has been credited with playing a pivotal role in sustaining the reformasi movement beyond the political tumult of 1998.
Keadilan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar yesterday acknowledged the vital contribution of the world wide web in facilitating dissent in Malaysia by providing a means for which information can be disseminated in a heavily-regulated media environment.
Comparing the 1998 political crisis with that of the late 1980s, Chandra noted that the current movement for reform has been able to sustain itself and mobilise grassroots support largely due to alternative news and analysis available through the Internet.
"This (dissemination of information) is not confined to the level of the middle classes," said Chandra at a seminar in London today. "Children of rural villages download information and pass it onto their parents and this is important to the movement."
The political tumult of the late 1980s which precipitated a constitutional crisis was unable to garner much popular support for opposing views in spite of it triggering more opposition from within Umno than the unceremonious sacking of heir apparent Anwar Ibrahim. This, Chandra attributes to the lack of alternative channels of information dissemination 10 years ago.
On the contrary, resentment towards Umno and the Barisan Nasional government sparked off by the Anwar episode has been fueled substantially by the proliferation of websites critical of the government, be they party-political portals, such the homepages of PAS or DAP; cyber forums for reformasi news and debates, such as Mahafiraun or independent news and analyses websites, such as malaysiakini or the now defunct agendamalaysia.
Political commentator Sabri Zain's jottings of his forays into downtown Kuala Lumpur at the height of the street demonstrations - now consolidated into print as Face-Off: The Reformasi Diaries, first saw their publication as email instalments.
'No censorship' pledge
Chandra was optimistic that the BN government would not censor the Internet, partly due to the technical difficulties in erecting such barriers, and partly due to the desire of the current administration to maintain a censorship-free environment to facilitate investments in its Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project.
Last week, the 'disappearance' of several reformasi websites hosted on Tripod.com due to technical glitches resulted in premature panic among reformasi supporters that the government was clamping down on the freedom of the Internet. Webmasters feared the loss of thousands of bytes of valuable information stored on the websites, many of them dating back to September 1998.
Chandra was speaking at a seminar entitled 'Politics, Democracy and Human Rights in Malaysia' organised by Amnesty International in London. The Keadilan deputy president also cautioned Malaysians against fostering blind loyalty to leaders, both of the government or opposition.
He said that members of the opposition must develop a more profound appreciation of the challenges which lay ahead in shaping a new political landscape for Malaysia not built on feudal or communal politics.
Keadilan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar yesterday acknowledged the vital contribution of the world wide web in facilitating dissent in Malaysia by providing a means for which information can be disseminated in a heavily-regulated media environment.
Comparing the 1998 political crisis with that of the late 1980s, Chandra noted that the current movement for reform has been able to sustain itself and mobilise grassroots support largely due to alternative news and analysis available through the Internet.
"This (dissemination of information) is not confined to the level of the middle classes," said Chandra at a seminar in London today. "Children of rural villages download information and pass it onto their parents and this is important to the movement."
The political tumult of the late 1980s which precipitated a constitutional crisis was unable to garner much popular support for opposing views in spite of it triggering more opposition from within Umno than the unceremonious sacking of heir apparent Anwar Ibrahim. This, Chandra attributes to the lack of alternative channels of information dissemination 10 years ago.
On the contrary, resentment towards Umno and the Barisan Nasional government sparked off by the Anwar episode has been fueled substantially by the proliferation of websites critical of the government, be they party-political portals, such the homepages of PAS or DAP; cyber forums for reformasi news and debates, such as Mahafiraun or independent news and analyses websites, such as malaysiakini or the now defunct agendamalaysia.
Political commentator Sabri Zain's jottings of his forays into downtown Kuala Lumpur at the height of the street demonstrations - now consolidated into print as Face-Off: The Reformasi Diaries, first saw their publication as email instalments.
'No censorship' pledge
Chandra was optimistic that the BN government would not censor the Internet, partly due to the technical difficulties in erecting such barriers, and partly due to the desire of the current administration to maintain a censorship-free environment to facilitate investments in its Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project.
Last week, the 'disappearance' of several reformasi websites hosted on Tripod.com due to technical glitches resulted in premature panic among reformasi supporters that the government was clamping down on the freedom of the Internet. Webmasters feared the loss of thousands of bytes of valuable information stored on the websites, many of them dating back to September 1998.
Chandra was speaking at a seminar entitled 'Politics, Democracy and Human Rights in Malaysia' organised by Amnesty International in London. The Keadilan deputy president also cautioned Malaysians against fostering blind loyalty to leaders, both of the government or opposition.
He said that members of the opposition must develop a more profound appreciation of the challenges which lay ahead in shaping a new political landscape for Malaysia not built on feudal or communal politics.
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