(Picture sourced from: www.granitegrok.com)
Raja Petra Kamarudin? Hero or villain?
We all know of Malaysia's famous (or infamous for some) political blogger who was recently charged on the sedition act for apparently posting a 'seditious' article in his website deemed 'Let's Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell' where he implicated Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah in the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu that send shock waves throughout Malaysia one year ago. Berating the Prime Minister and the local government for the lack of urgency and commitment in solving the case, Raja Petra ends on a high where he urges Malaysians to push this issue and not allow the murderers who walk in the corridors of power instead sending them to hell where they deserve to be.
Spending 3 days in prison apparently did little to quenched his fighting spirit where Raja Petra is deemed by many to be a true political hero. In a country where freedom of speech is an understatement, the recent elections have undermined the popularity of political blogs where Malaysians would turn to for news that is not filtered by the government. In a recent press conference covered by The Star newspaper, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the government will take on bloggers in cyberspace and respond to wild and baseless allegations raised in blogs. But is this a case of too little too late?
National hero? Raja Petra before posting bail.
(Picture sourced from: www.thestar.com.my)
After the infamous happenings of last year where Khairy Jamaluddin, deputy chief of the youth arm of UMNO, famously said at a conference on July 28 that, "there are no laws in the cyberworld except for the law of the jungle. As such, action must be taken so that the monkeys behave." It is of little surprise to learnt of the bombardment that he received from the online community.
Thanks to the function of multimodality (Walsh 2006), sites like Malaysia Today are able to convey the intended message across effectively and efficiently. One such example is provided by Schriver (1997) where multimodal modes like hyperlinks allow web-users to skim from webpage to webpage as well as linking each other as genre permits it. In this case being political blogs.
Personally, I am one who is totally for press freedom in cyberspace. True, we will have a few rotten apples in the basket that will be providing baseless defamation but dare we lose it all in the name of 'National Security'? The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists' executive director Joel Simon put the situation in perspective when he said in a press release, "Any new laws tailored to censor the Internet would represent a significant step backward for press freedom in Malaysia."
We, after all, are citizens of a country that is in a dire need for a sense of urgency and advocacy for the freedom of speech.
Reference List:
1) Bloggers Rally Around Raja Petra, AsiaMedia, Viewed on 11 June 2008 at
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=75215
2) Government To Engage Bloggers In Cyberspace, TheStar, Viewed on 11 June 2008 at
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/28/nation/21376112&sec=nation
3) Let’s Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell, Malaysia Today, Viewed on 11 June 2008 at
http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/6604/84/
4) Raja Petra Released On Bail (Updated), TheStar, Viewed on 11 June 2008 at
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp%20file=/2008/5/9/nation/20080509095825&sec=nation
5) Schriver, KA 1997, 'Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text For Readers', Wiley Computer Publisher, New York
6) Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37
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