Barisan Nasional: Take Your Censorship and Shove It Up Your Ass
August 28, 2008
After the embarrassing defeat of the Barisan Nasional machinery in the hands of Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar Ibrahim in Permatang Pauh, it seems like the government has finally learned at least one lesson: Bloggers and the online independent news media are able to effectively shape public opinion.
Of course, learning a lesson doesn’t mean much if you don’t do anything about it. In a move that is highly typical of the Malaysian government we have known for the past 51 years, Malaysia’s #1 blog, Malaysia Today, www.malaysia-today.net has been blocked by 3 ISPs, namely TMNet, Time, and Maxis. The directive was issued by the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), even though under some Multimedia Super Corridor agreement, there would be no censorship of the Internet.
Here is what MCMC’s chief operating officer has to say about this (Malaysiakini):
“It is being blocked because we found that some of the comments on the website were insensitive, bordering on incitement,” he told Malaysiakini.
…
Mohamed Sharil said MCMC had instructed all ISPs to block access to Malaysia Today based on complaints received by the general public regarding offensive comments posted on the website.
Asked if the move to block Malaysia Today went against the government’s guarantee of Internet freedom, he said that the matter was subject to interpretation.
“We are governed by the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) which allows us to take preventive measures and advise our license holders (such as ISPs) when a service user may be contravening national laws,” he said.
Under Section 263 of the Act, a licensee must “use his best endeavour” to prevent his/her facilities from being used to violate any law in the country”.
Mohamed Sharil said that MCMC will be communicating with the Malaysia Today owner Raja Petra Kamaruddin and other blog owners soon regarding “ethical blogging”.
“We are not against blogs, but we would like to see ethical blogging,” he stressed.
This blogger would like to ask, who is MCMC to tell us what to read and what to believe? Who gave you the moral authority to decide what is ethical and what is not? Does MCMC have a handbook for all it’s officers that details what ethical blogging means?
Honestly, I am fucking sick of the censorship situation in our country. Do you sometimes get the feeling that you’re being treated like a 8 year old? My National Geographic magazines come with censored pictures of indigenous natives. Even when a film is rated 18-whatever, there are times when the cuts in the movie just make a film incomprehensible and unwatchable. Books are banned just because it doesn’t agree with the worldview of the Islam Hadhari. Has anyone ever tried getting a copy of Charles Darwin’s “Origin Of Species”, the definitive tome on evolution? Good luck with that. How about the flip-flopping over Avril Lavigne’s concert ban, where she was deemed too sexy and inappropriate for our Merdeka month? Give a me fucking break.
Censoring the Internet is a sign of a government that is desperate to continue brainwashing the minds of the people through the traditional ways of the government-owned print and electronic media. What can we do? Well, nothing actually. We’re pretty much fucked until the next government decides that Internet censorship is a big no-no. And I really do hope that THAT next government comes into power this September 16th.
Meanwhile, to access Malaysia Today, you can still access the page via their IP address http://202.75.62.114 or http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com. These are not blocked because the ‘censorship’ being done by the MCMC is just a matter of domain name blocking, whereby the URL http://www.malaysia-today.net does not resolve to the IP http://202.75.62.114. Basically, it is meant to thwart less tech-savvy users from accessing the Malaysia Today website.
If you’re up to it, you should stop using your ISP’s domain name server (DNS) and switch to using OpenDNS, which provides much, much, much, much more features than normal DNS. Instructions on setting up OpenDNS can be found here.
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5 Responses to “Barisan Nasional: Take Your Censorship and Shove It Up Your Ass”
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the government never seem to learn the most important lesson of all which is that people are so sick of all the stunts and corruption!
we want a stronger leadership!
although i can still access malaysia today, but i feel that the government are misusing their powers. they are trying to eliminate any threats that will deter them from holding on, onto their powers.
i’m really disappointed and mad over the state of our country today.
phing’s last blog post…RPK’s Malaysia Today
August 28, 2008 at 11:51 am
what’s next? shutting down every single internet connection in malaysia? from what i see, under the rule of BN government, malaysia is goin to become either a communist or dictatorship country. REFORMASI
NoBle’s last blog post…Congratulation Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim
August 28, 2008 at 3:40 pm
wow, i wonder when will be the last day we can access darnmalaysia.com =D the more you shove it down people throat, the more they wish to spit it out. How many can you block? Today there is malaysia-sucks.blogspot.com, tomorrow there is malaysia-sucks-sucks.blogspot.com. If you are so clever, block everything lo, from google.com to any-kind-of-blogging.com.
Censorship is totally screwed up here. This morning while in gym, Discovery was showing some native tribes that wear almost nothing. So question, why Astro can show such stuff? Because it pays the officers well? I wonder.
Psychoric’s last blog post…20080626 Today’s Photo - Multiple mE!
August 28, 2008 at 4:22 pm
In the event that MCMC decides to further implement a full blocking of websites or blogs not friendly to UMNO/BN, the followings can be used as an effective way to circumvent internet censorship:
1. Accessing a mirror site
2. Using a non-censoring DNS-server
3. Using a non-censoring proxy server
1. Access a mirror site
For instance, Malaysia Today can still be accessed at this moment at http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com . Using mirror sites may not be effective as they may start blocking these sites too.
2. Using a non-censoring DNS-server
Change your DNS to OpenDNS server 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220 .
Click http://www.opendns.com for more info on how to set DNS.
3. Using a non-censoring proxy server
(i) Proxy Sites
More effectively, this blocking can be circumvented by surfing through a proxy sites, such as:
http://proxychina.org
http://proxy4china.com
There are many proxy sites available, just google for them.
(ii) Proxy Tunnelling Software
Another better and most effective way to circumvent internet censor is by using Ultrasurf. It is developed by the people against internet censorship in China. It enables users inside countries with heavy Internet censorship to visit any public web sites in the world safely and freely while it automatically searches the highest speed proxy servers in the background.
Download Ultrasurf software from:
http://www.ultrareach.com
http://www.wujie.net/downloads/ultrasurf/u.zip
Then extract the file and run, that’s it.
If you are using browser other than IE, then you have to manually change your proxy IP address to 127.0.0.1 with port :9666 .
(iii) TOR and TOR based browsers
For those who are more IT savvy, they can try TOR. TOR based browsers are also available, such as xb Browser and OperaTor. But TOR solution tends to give slower internet surfing experience.
Say NO to internet censorship.
drsd1665’s last blog post…How to Circumvent Internet Censorship
August 29, 2008 at 1:49 am
The BN scares of influential bloggers
Writings people read some believe in it
Giving alternative news true or false
Let the readers find their ways
Blocking websites just to show
The power BN government gets
It is the people who elected them
The BN leaders should understand
The ground movement has set
Another nail to BN coffin
The BN leaders don’t wake up
Some of them so quiet………
As if they have no voice left
The spirit of the charter
It must be given its proper standing
In it where MSC flourishes
Now it is back to frog in the coconut shell
BN government is trying
To make the transit
When others prosper leap and bound
We are running backwards
Too scared to challenge the global world?
Banning websites
It can’t take away the liberty of the people
The borderless world shall not go away
Wake up and take the challenges
With BN the leaders have no guts to do
August 31, 2008 at 2:34 pm