The Star’s senior journalist Veera Pandiyan has weighed in with yet another opinion piece in the mainstream media on the Malaysian status quo’s demonization of blogs. Among his observations are the latest shocker from Zainuddin Maidin (below), who was known as a fairly reasonable and perceptive man until he became a minister.

clipped from thestar.com.my Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin’s warning to the print media last week came as another shock, especially with him being a former journalist and recipient of last year’s Tokoh Wartawan (Eminent Journalist) award.� Last week, he urged the local media not to quote from blogs as such information was not “authoritative.” Bloggers, he cautioned, might be “provocative, politically motivated, inaccurate or just floating rumours for the interests of certain parties.”�

So why do otherwise reasonable human beings in Malaysia begin to see blogs as evil incarnate when they ascend to power? Perhaps clues to the explanation lie in this pervious posting by Unspun.