Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Ensure no censorship of the Internet

Read This: Keng Yaik says no to regulating Internet content



The government has no intention to censor and regulate Internet content, Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said today (The Sun, Aug 1, 2006).

"It's difficult (to control the content) especially when you had given a promise when promoting the MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor). You have to go back on our word. Part of the article of guarantees of MSC was no censorship," he said after launching "EZ 2 Own Broadband PC' programme.

One of the bill of guarantees under the MSC conceptualised in 1996 was that the government will not institute Internet censorship.

Asked if the ministry planned to regulate it in future, he reiterated: "Not that I am aware of. Not at the present moment because we've given a bill of guarantees to the MSC."

Lim said there is much to be learned from the Internet provided one is selective in choosing content.

"In the Internet, you choose to enter. It's not like free-to-air television that if you are on it, whether you like it or not you have to see it (the programme). If you choose to enter the Internet, there must be certain discipline," he added.

Monitoring Internet and private broadcasting media comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication.

The Information Ministry is only tasked to overlook Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM) and national news agency Bernama.

On Monday, Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said the government must control the Internet and websites to curb the spread of rumours and news that can harm unity in the country.

Last week, Zainuddin had issued a stern warning to newspapers that actions will be taken should they stir up religious and racial issues.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow later clarified that the responsibility of monitoring and regulating newspaper lies with his ministry and not other government agencies.

These fuckers, during election time they tell the rakyat to vote for them, that the government of Barisan Nasional will protect the Rakyat, their freedom, liberties, rights, and benefits such as education, health and livelihood. After the election and becoming ministers they forget about the rakyat and uses their political power to strangle and stiffle the rakyat's civil liberties. What they should be doing is to ensure peace and harmony among the rakyat and not threatening them. Instead, they let the mobs rule on various occassion and these mobs were permitted to disturb the peace of the ordinary citizen, yet no affirmative actions were taken against those mobsters.

To the weak and innocents rakyat, the ministers are so powerful. They had tried everything possible to trash and force the rakyat to submit to the whims and fancies. they were prepared to create laws that would inevitably crush and destroy the civil liberties and freedom of the rakyat. And they still call themselves the Rakyat representitives.

Remember, who vote you there! The rakyat did, dear ministers. Your arrogance and dim-wit attitudes are nauseatic to us.

Oh, at least remember what our Prime Minister Pak Lah said yesterday:


"[YOU] should not talk big and then have to backtrack when [YOUR] actions become a burden to [all of] us. (and become a nuisance to Pak Lah)"







BILL OF GUARANTEES

The Malaysian Government commits to:-


* Provide state-of-the-art physical and information infrastructure (see "AMENITIES IN THE MSC ZONE");
* Allow unrestricted and user-friendly employment of local and foreign knowledge workers;
* Ensure freedom of ownership within the MSC zone to accelerate the growth of the MSC and enhance its attractiveness to world-class companies;
* Allow freedom of sourcing capital globally for MSC infrastructure and freedom of borrowing funds;
* Provide competitive financial incentives including no income tax or an investment tax allowance for up to 10 years tax exemption, and umlimited duty-free importation of multimedia equipment;
* Protection for intellectual property rights;
* Become a regional leader in international property protection and cyberlaws;
* Ensure no censorship of the Internet;
* Telecommunication costs will compete with US telecoms rates and special time- or distance-independent tariff structures will be developed for MSC companies to ensure global competitiveness;
* Provision for gas, water and electricity supplies by reliable local utilities companies;
* Tender key MSC infrastructure contracts to leading companies willing to use MSC as their regional hub
* Provide a high-powered implementation agency, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) to act as an effective one-stop shop;
* A dramatic increase in the number of technical and business professionals graduating from Malaysian universities;
* Multimedia University and the MSC campuses of top IT universities. Also, all schools within the MSC will be connected to the Internet;
* Creation of Cyberlaws covering electronic commerce, digital signatures, intellectual property protection, comptuer crime, telemedicine, and electronic government;
*Creation of university-company partnerships to educate and train potential employees in specific skills.

2 comments:

Howsy said...

You want instant comedy, Doc? Just read BN's manifesto. It will bring you laughing to tears.

mob1900 said...

I laughed so hard reading the Bill of Guarantees and cheap-ubat-kuat-tongkat-ali-looking 'Manifesto' that I almost sh*t in my pants!

I just hope they would understand the word: H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E

Mave's title blog says IT all!