Dawsheng asked if enacting new laws to curb the effects of an unmoderated blog like RPK’s Malaysia Today would go against the Bill of Guarantee signed for Multimedia Super Corridor?

The guarantee is for freedom of internet and freedom of expression within but even the international community and liberal voices in progressive jurisdictions would go that far to say that Freedom here may be translated into “absolute” freedom and license to spread falsehoods and harm others’ reputation and careers by defaming them via the Internet.

It has always been the case that even in progressive societies the quest is not for one desirable principle of Freedom of Speech only but also the freedom to be protected from harm of being unjustifiably defamed out of malice rather than fair comment!

Hence to make new laws to seek such a “balance” of the imperatives of Freedom of Speech against the Freedom to be protected from calumny of slander, libel and defamation may not necessarily be construed as a breach of Bill of Guarantee.

Besides, the present bunch of guys up there are more interested in what feathers their present nest than the past interest of Tun Dr Mahathir’s pet projects, whether MSC and Bills of Guarantee or Proton, Labuan offshore Centre, the Crooked Bridge to S’pore etc

So I think they would try make the laws but such laws will only have deterrent value to an extent but will not have the “teeth” to bite ie enforced effectively.

For the Internet, Blogs, postings made under anonymity and IP data stored in overseas servers pose very unique challenge and technical obstacle to any authority whether here (as they found in RPK) or in other more progressive western jurisdictions.

Even if you have such laws there is much difficulties to get tangible admissible evidence to satisfy the demands of legal due process in courts: to go all the way is such a protracted and costly process, that it is simply not worth the while from the practical stand point!

For reasons of which the drift in progressive jurisdictions is necessarily a decreasing emphasis on enforcing usual laws on defamation/libel that awards monetary compensation to those innocently victimized by libel in blogs or prosecution by criminal law against irresponsible bloggers – not because the laws are no more important or the need to protect the innocent against spurious allegations posted on the Net is no more relevant or desired but it is because of difficulty of enforcement due to difficulty or costliness of tracing the source and procuring evidence.

That is also why increasingly the emphasis is on the rights of response or reply by the individuals who were defamed on the very forum or even elsewhere to correct and dispel the offending allegation.

Meanwhile there is really little one can do to the likes of RPK who knows the score and the game of how to harness and leverage on the Internet. Round One of Mike Tyson versus RPK would go to RPK because Mike Tyson does not understand the unique challenges posed by Internet and that is way using hackneyed ways like raising Islam and King being disparaged by commenters against 3rd party like RPK only serves harassment value but has no “bite” in real terms of prosecuting him.

Police understands this : that is why the interrogators wasted 8 hours trying to get the IPs of the commenters from him in vain!

Yes, the best way to silence RPK and bloggers is still resorting to the Internal Security Act as what Undergrad2 mentioned but as I said ISA is no more in vogue and fashion to deal with Cyber dissidents who are viewed by readers/public as champions to expose corruption. By no means can a cyber dissident be considered an anti national element whether Communist, Triad leaders or Jemiah Islamiya that the draconian ISA is supposed to be used against!

To crack down on likes of RPK by OSA is then like seeking to hammer a small gnat that inflicts an itch that doesn’t go away with a huge mallet/sledger where the end result does not justify the means : one’s image is straightaway dealt a blow from domestic civil socioeties and opposition not to mention the international furore from Amnesty International and Transparency International etc crying “repression” and ranking Malaysia several notches again down their scale whilst meanwhile RPK in Kamunting will have more time to read and write and doing same damage though on a greater scale unimpeded with help from his ten servers overseas.

The better – and more practical way – is to tempt RPK with untold riches, UMNO’s privatised contracts, get him on their side and get a mouth piece like him to stop the unrelenting pressure to expose the BN’s bigwigs and instead persuade him by carrot to write more exposing those in the Opposition parties, how in spite of rhetorics for example so and so in DAp is making money or so in so in PKR is a hypocrite or so and so in PAS in the Kelantan State Govt is awarding timber and land to businessmen for monetary rewards. I am sure RPK is competent to get a few truths here and there and then extrapolate them big way to show Opposition is in same boat as those in BN except smaller scale since Opposition has not yert the hand on the levers of power to award Contracts big way!

Here again main obstacle is RPK’s integrity. He may not want to play ball.

Then again it is the tenet of principle amongst the “thieves” [to borrow Godfather's favourite expression] that everyone can be bought at a price. The question is as always how much.

Some you have to pay a lot because the integrity/principle is very high up there but it still can be bought but you have to pay substantially more. Others less principled the price is cheaper.

Moral of the story – if you want to get rich fast and be bought : be a clever cyber gnat like RPK, have your sources, create alot of discomfort amongst powers to be but make sure they cannot latch unto any law to nail you but have to pay you off instead to silence you or work fior them against the Opposition by some lucrative contracts, packaged with datukship and other privileges symbolic of success in our feudal society!