Is Malaysia becoming more like Saudi Arabia?

Din Merican

Next month all bloggers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have to obtain licenses.

If you are in Saudi Arabia, you’re going to need a license to blog starting next month. The Middle Eastern country is requiring anyone who posts anything online to register for a license with the Ministry of Culture and Information. Applicants for a licence, which is valid for up to three years, must be Saudi, at least 20 years old and a high school graduate with ‘’documents testifying to their good behaviour.’’ Anyone caught posting to an online forum or authoring an article for the web without a license may be subjected to a fine of up to 100,000 Riyal ($26,665) and a ban on all online activity, for possibly forever. [read the rest here at Illume.com]

This week Prime Minister Najib called for more rules to govern the use of the internet in Malaysia this week. He said:

“Indecency and anarchy can seep in into any environment that is not anchored on any cultural roots and our values. Our culture and our heritage are what make us unique and it is important that we educate our peoples never to abandon what makes them uniquely Asian.”

Aside from the controversial Net filter — said to be in the vein of the “Great Firewall of China” — the ruling administration has also called for a registry of bloggers, many of whom are said to be anti-establishment reporter the Malaysian Insider.

This is not too long after the Najib administration revealed its interest in building a China-like Green Dam to filter incoming internet content in August of 2010, although the issue first came up in August 2009. In every instance the Malaysian public has systematically rejected the notion. Of course the whole idea of an internet filter is illegal according to the laws that UMNO itself has created. The MSC Bill of Guarantees Article 7 that reads “Ensure no Internet censorship”.

After a public outcry Najib said on August 7 2010 “The government has no desire to implement Internet filtering.” Sure. The government has no DESIRE. It doesn’t want to censor. But, as in all things the government doesn’t want to do, it sometimes HAS to because of the greater good, like the ISA for example. The government doesn’t like to arrest and detain people without trial because its unconstitutional. But the government does it anyway because it has to. The government doesn’t want to censor the mainstream press but it has to to ensure stability and happiness.

In any case – is Malaysia becoming more like Saudi Arabia? Possibly. In more ways than one. And will I need to apply for a license to blog? But really? Where does the jurisdiction lie? My blog is hosted in the United States. I might not even be the person who is writing these articles? How will this hold up in a Court of Law? Will bloggers just migrate underground and write under pseudonyms? Is this just subterfuge in the advance of a general election? So many questions. So few answers.

In any case – if the government does ever manage to build a wall around Malaysia to keep things from coming in, here is one easy way to get around it

The Global Proxy Cloud (GPC) is a tool that enables activists to harness the open, unmonitored Internet, enabling the transfer of information from and within local communities behind the firewall to each other, the international media, and the global community. The GPC benefits activists, dissidents, politically censored groups, and curious individuals in heavily censured countries. It is easy to use, with a low technical knowledge threshold to get involved. Created in partnership with the Tor Project, a non-profit devoted allowing people to protect their Internet traffic from analysis, the GPC uses tools that are well-tested, robust, and shown themselves to be capable of accessing banned websites in many different environments. GET IT HERE