My opinion

jc_tian's "Blogging a crime" wrote that blogging is"a great means of expressing myself, initiating healthy discussion & learning from others I have not met. So are all these privileges under threat now?"
Meding wrote "I feel that we should be encouraged to voice out our comments and opinions more by blogging cos in the old days..........many were not able to do so in any form except in conversations among friends and relatives. Blogging is the latest way of expressing one's opinion in our society now and gives one a sense of freedom without fear of being reprimanded".
I wonder if the public really understood what the Prime Minister wanted to say? According to Star's article, "those who spread untruths and slander on the Internet will face the law. If information in blogs, websites and online portals were incorrect, bordered on slander, caused disturbance or compelled the public to lose faith in the nation's economic policies, their authors would be detained for investigation".
What is jc_tian's concerns if he/she is not going to touch any sensitive issues that contained information that are incorrect, slandering or cause disturbance? Is jc_tian planning to question on the issues of religion, on the economic policies and how the government runs? If not, why the worry?
I partly agree with Meding, that we now have the freedom of expressing ourselves. But being reprimanded is necessary to an extend because there are topics that cannot be discussed due to its sensitivity. If there is no one to reprimand us, how will we know if we discussing something that will not disturb the peace?
In the olden days, citizens talk and criticized, even the most sensitive issues, but no one brought up the point that if there were any untruth or slandering, the government cannot stop it because the source, or person who said it, cannot be traced. NOW, with internet and blogging, its practically easy to track down the source! And our Prime Minister is merely telling us citizens, in a different way, just to be careful. Look at the response!
jc_tian questioned our Prime Minister, has any law been written and shouldn't such laws be proposed and passed? As I wrote as a comment to his blog, cyberlaw is still relatively young, even in US. For Malaysia to even catch up with US will take another few more years, say 10 years. Imagine the time taken to propose and pass laws as demanded by jc_tian, the government would have suffered a lot of damage due to slandering and untruths. In the meantime, the culprits would be having a jolly time.
Rajakumark's "Stop control of world wide internet" (2nd August) expressed his anger as to why there should be no control. From such responses, I really believe that a lot of Malaysians are not seeing the point that the Prime Minister is trying to convey but instead, they have misunderstood, and this caused them to panic, fearing that they will be investigated. Why worry if you are not doing anything that will cause panic to the country?
Instead of simply expressing your opinions and views, you need to think carefully what you want to say. Think of how the others would react to what you say. Is it appropriate? You need to understand that there are billions of human beings out there and each think differently. Not everyone shares the same opinion as you, and you need to write to express your views so that the sensitive people will not get offended. While we in Malaysia still have a certain degree of freedom, we should not take it for granted.

NAME:ODIN AND ZHUYINGYU
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