Unspun

Over the past week the Malaysian blogosphere has been up in arms over the libel suit filed by executives of the UMNO-controlled newspaper New Straits Times against two popular bloggers, Jeff Ooi of Screenshots  and Ahirudin “Rocky”Atan of Rocky’s Bru. The plaintiffs are executives of the paper and are perceived by amny to be the supporters of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

Though full details of the suit have yet to be made public, Malaysian bloggers, have been up in arms over what they see is part of the status quo’s attempt to curtail freedom of speech and expression. They have also brought up issues of good governance because the plaintiffs are suing the Blog Duo under the name of the paper instead of under their personal capacities. (One of the plaintiffs have been accused of lying about a meeting between Prime Minister Badawi and Ex-Premier mahathir; another was accused fo plagarism).

What’s impressive is the speed by which the bloggers have mobilized themselves. Within short order Kickdefella has organized a Bloggers United: No Fear logo to be put into blogs and a blog Walk With Us has been set up to coordinate the resistance against the Borg. There is talk of setting up a fund for the legal fees. And many, many bloggers have swarmed over the issue making their displeasure with the Borg known, among them ex-journalists and the Mahathir’s daughter (RantingbyMM), who’s a columnist in her own right.

While its is too early to tell whether the blog movement will succeed, so far it has been impressive. The lesson here is that technology can empower many individuals to organize themselves, stay in touch, form support groups and mobilize with bewildering speed, even in a country where the Government cntrols the entire mainstream media.

Could Indonesian bloggers, and for that matter, bloggers elsewhere in this region tap the power of blogs to effect a positive change in society? Could they, for instance, force the Government to act decisively and purposefully in ensuring aviation safety (its been three weeks since the Adam Air KI 574 went missing and the only concrete action Unspun knows of so far is an empty threat to hold airline executives responsible for aircrash – what about the audit into Adam Air’s maintenance records, how about an audit into all airlines’ maintenance records and make them public)? Or force disclosure and action over Lapindo?