Hisham's U-turn is all about the election

Just when we thought that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was finally worth every sen of his Cabinet salary, he disappoints us with his U-turn on the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) for the online media.

He is such a spoilsport. We were looking forward to cat and mouse games in cyberspace. More importantly, we are denied the guaranteed effect that restricting online media would have had on the outcome of the general election.

This U-turn has all the fingerprints of APCO. Even if the entire Cabinet had put together their collective minds, a reversal on the PPPA hardline policy would not have been remotely considered by BN.

The Malaysian Cabinet would not have wanted corruption and crime to be revealed. Wikileaks is one thing, but the drip-drip effect of many online bloggers and the online media would have been too much. Far better to ban the whole thing.

Poor Hishammuddin. He has had a terrible two days. At the beginning of yesterday, he announced that BN was going to enforce the online media more strictly and propose amendments which would mean that anyone posting news on the internet would need a licence to operate.

This way, the government could easily apply political pressure and possibly declare news websites illegal.

However, within a few hours, Hishammuddin had done a U-turn.

That is so unlike him for we thought his performance at work had suddenly improved. Wasn’t it only the other day that Hishammuddin had his ‘Eureka moment’ and said that in future, all citizenship applications would be processed within one year?

Unless, he meant that it would take one year for his many thousands of staff, to write the one letter of rejection to one hopeful applicant?

Or perhaps we have now called Hishamuddin’s bluff and all that talk of speedy citizenship applications was electioneering? Perhaps after the elections, we will return to square one?

Nevertheless, Hishammuddin tried to explain the U-turn by saying the public had been too hasty to reach its conclusion about press censorship on the airwaves and that PPPA 1984 had yet to be finalised and that they were still discussing the issue.

He said, “We have not made any final decision. The proposal announced by my secretary-general yesterday is still at the early stage. He was giving his view”.

It appears that the higher up the people are in the Malaysian government, the more irresponsible they act. When things go wrong, the leaders seem to blame it on some hapless individuals who are dispensable.

Remember how Muhyiddin blamed Chua Soi Lek for the unprecedented backlash against BN because Normala’s gloved hands have started a religious spat?

This time Hishammuddin saw fit to blame his secretary-general.

If only these underlings had realised that their bosses lack integrity and are prepared to sacrifice them to further their own interests.

Hishammuddin said that there had been a meeting of the Special Committee to Strengthen the Government’s Communications Strategy and that the committee involved three ministries – the Prime Minister’s Department, Home Ministry and the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry.

Just the other day, we were treated to a smiling and bemused Najib saying that he liked to iron his shirts but time and pressures of work did not permit this. Wasn’t it Najib who said he was an internet sensation via Facebook and Twitter? A ban would have denied easy interaction with the rakyat.

The second ministry, the Information and Communications presents a tricky set of problems. Its leader, Rais Yatim has a dark cloud hanging over him. For reasons of his own, Rais would love to ban all bloggers and the online news media.

Now we know why he wanted more stringent regulations on the internet. It had little to do with protection of our culture, but more to do with protecting his reputation from the disclosures of his extra-curricular activities.

Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmood Adam created more public anger when he said that the PPPA would look at the definition of “publication” and whether the act should be expanded to reflect the changing landscape of the digital era, to include internet control, blogs and Facebook.

Mahmood said the ministry was working with the Attorney-General’s Chambers to study the proposed amendments.

It appears that none of the three ministries, including the Attorney-General Chambers, are the right departments to police us.

Each department has its own skeletons in the closet. The AG, is also alleged to have been involved in extra-curricular activities, by some online sites.

Should we happy with the reversal of the PPPA expansion?

No. We should not relax our vigilance, yet. It is unlike BN to allow us to have an easy life. - Malaysia Chronicle