Malaysia jails the messenger
By Baradan Kuppusamy, 20 July 2007

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."

(Inter Press Service)

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