It is now an article of faith in Malaysia that bloggers are powerful shapers of public opinion. Malaysian Ministers admit to this, Umno officials blamed neglecting bloggers as one of the reasons for their loss and the bloggers themselves, of course, amplify their own importance.

This being the case, you’d think that the Malaysian Government would begin a charm offensive or sorts to win over bloggers. If nothing else they would come up with ways to engage the bloggers.

Yet any hope that the Badawi Government is even semi competent in this area must dissipate when you hear the Minister for Higher Education (perhaps the onus on grasping what blogs are about would not  be so high if he was only Minister of Lower Education?) Mohamed Khaled Nordin whingeing  about how bloggers are treating the government.

The Minister complained that bloggers are censoring the government.

“There were articles criticising the Government. We also sent in many replies but they were removed by the bloggers,” he said.

Mohamed Khaled said the Government had in the past ignored such articles.

“We made a mistake. The blogs play an important role. The people read and believe what’s said in the blogs.

“Now, we are looking at the blogs to respond to them but are prevented from doing so,” he said.

Boo Hoo. If the Government is not happy about it, or if Khaled is not happy about the bloggers there is one simple solution: They should start their own blogs. Of course, for any blog to be influential they would have to post diligently, openly and with credibility, as well as being prepared to engage others with different points of view. This is something that the Malaysian Goernment still does not get.

And it will get nowhere in the credibility sweepstakes until it learns this lesson. Its all about getting real and engaging in conversations. Duh.

(quotes and news clip via Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin )