How Did This Dunce Make It To Parliament?

Another low IQ tin-pot dictator in the making spoke in Parliament yesterday and he wants the government to find ways to curtail bloggers from 'abusing' the Internet to spread lies and defame the leaders! Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a Barisan Nasional nitwit representing the parliamentary constituency of Bera further added, "we notice that a lot of bloggers have been sowing the seeds of discord among the races, religions... I believe there must be a limit."

Almost reflexly this apparently intellectually challenged Yang Berhormat gave the age old and primitive remedy for things he can't or doesn't want to understand (the when in doubt, cut it out mentality) by opining that there ought to be a law governing bloggers like those imposed on the print and broadcast media!

The one sane statement from him at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday was, "the people believe more in the bloggers than the newspapers." He did hazard a guess why this is so by saying, "I am aware that a newspaper was censured by the Internal Security Ministry for publishing a sensational story but the bloggers could continue churning out 'malicious' stories." In other words the mainstream media is muzzled therefore no one believes them and since the rakyat trusts the blogs, the government must, in true 80s and 90s style intolerance, shut them out. Great going Ismail Sabri! Zainuddin Maidin would be proud of you. Who knows, an appointment at the Information Ministry may be in the offing!

Ismail Sabri is not alone in being afflicted with this intolerance malady. So used are these people to the repressive era dating back to Dr Mahathir's premiership that they haven't come out of the sheltered tempurung to see that things have irreversibly changed. If the blogs feel that some leader is doing wrong, then his or her wrongdoing will be published. If reporting this is considered by Ismail Sabri and his ilk as 'malicious,' so be it.

Another BN MP Hasni Mohamed, a pontianak from Pontian felt that cable television network Astro should come under the purview of the Broadcasting Act 1998 under the ambit of the Information Ministry and not under the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry.

He said this was to ensure that Astro would adhere to local values, culture and needs. Looks like any successful private enterprise, especially non-Malay ones, which are not indirectly owned by these greed merchants should come under the purview of some law or other to 'preserve' or 'reflect' local values. First Air Asia and now Astro.

All I can say to these MPs is I don't know how you chaps got selected to the august House but as long as you keep your trap shut, no one will notice. Start making illogical speeches and you'll be shown the door in the next elections. In the meanwhile if you've committed some crime or broken a law be sure to look up the blogs now and then, for you wont know when your name might come up for 'malicious' discussion.
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A must read for all bloggers: Blogging Freedom of Speech: Can You Really Say Whatever You Want?