Schism in the Malaysian blogosphere?

May 27, 2007

Unspun‘s been reflecting on SK Thew’s posting (below) about a possible rift in the Malaysian blogosphere with the formation of ostensibly competing organizations, All Blogs and People’s Alliance of Blogs.His worry is whether this rift between bloggers was healthy, given the pressure being exerted by the Government of Malaysia, particularly from the Minister of Information.

Some of SK’s readers have written in to defend this development, with the “more competition is good” argument.

Unspun thinks they are missing the point. As Unspun has pointed out in his comment on SK’s post, trying to establish an organization framework to bloggers is counterproductive. In some ways it is no better than the government trying to register and regulate bloggers.

One does it in the name of the protection of bloggers, he other does it in the name of the betterment of the people. What’s the difference? Both are trying to bring under some sort of structure that which is best left alone.

Bloggers are at their best when they perform as individuals. Those that take risks and remain reasonable gain street creds and readers. As individuals, one of thousands or millions blogging, they are also mighty difficult to bring under control. Think of a shark trying to catch a meal from a shoal of fish.

Yet, because of RSS, trackbacks and tags, bloggers can find each other and swarm over an issue when they choose to. These are all the framework that bloggers need to be effective as they allow for the wisdom of crowds. Distort this with more structure and control and what you have left is the madness of the mob.

Putting a structure to blogging also has one disadvantage in Malaysia: the arousing of jaalousy (best captured by the Indonesian term cemburu sosial). For some reason or another Unspun has the impression that Malaysians are better at tearing down things than building them, and the main reason for that is that often they cannot stand the personality of the person ahead of them.

Also another reason why the Malaysian blogosphere should be left alone in its formerly pristine, amorphous state.

clipped from www.skthew.com

Uncharted blogosphere

Thursday, May 24th, 2007 | 11:50 am @ SK

My worry turns reality and frankly speaking, this is the last thing that I’d want to see it going in Malaysia’s blogosphere.

Barely 2 months after the establishment of All Blogs (AB) which is chaired by Ahirudin Attan a.k.a Rocky with Screenshots’s Jeff Ooi as the vice-president, there is a new blog association in town founded by Susan Loone and KTemoc – People’s Alliance of Blogs (PABS).

However, with the objectives of PABS remain unknown, Jun-E says competition is good, with more choices of representation. However before we dwell further, my question is, do we really need such a split of choices at first place, especially when we’re under such tight scrutiny by Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin and co.?

unspun

blogging, Malaysia

blogging

6 responses to “Schism in the Malaysian blogosphere?”

bayi

May 28, 2007 at 9:16 am

You’ve got a point there, Unspun.

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rocky’s bru

May 28, 2007 at 12:31 pm

Bro,
You forget Bob (the Brotherhood of Evil Bloggers), set up on the same day as Pabs.

I agree with you:- bloggers are best when they act as individuals. That is why All-Blogs, of which I have been entrusted to act as pro-tem President, will ensure that bloggers remain as they are now – individuals. All-Blogs (which is short of National Alliance of Bloggers or Pakatan Kebangsaan Penulis-Penulis Blog) will also ensure that bloggers do not have to register.

However, the exco members of the All-Blogs (there are 13 of them including me) will have to be registered, which is a requirement under the Registrar of Societies. You can consider the 13 as the front-liners – those who are sticking their necks out in case anything happens.

But while bloggers are most effective as individuals, they are also most vulnerable in that very form. As you know, I am facing a lawsuit filed by the NSTP, a corporate and media giant. Blogger Jeff Ooi has also been slapped with a separate suit by the same company.

Individually, as I explained to a group of bloggers when we set up All-Blogs, we are no match against lawsuits. We need to protect these individual bloggers. The best way to do it is to have an organisation to act on behalf of the bloggers.

Thank you bro.

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unspun

May 28, 2007 at 2:30 pm

Rocky: I hear you Bro. But before you and Jeff there was the late MGG Pillai who wrote about the bigwigs and got sued. And so it goes.
Those with the resources will always use their resources to bear on the others. Whether an alliance of bloggers can match these resources is an interesting question to pose. And, if you have a Machiavellian mind, these guys taking out suits out on you guys haven’t even begun to play rough.
While not arguing with the benefits of having an organization act on behalf of bloggers, I think there is a greater benefit in making the Government and the forces of the Borg realize that if they persecute and prosecute those who blog openly, they force the bloggers to go underground.If that happens the Government and the Borg will have a more difficult time as they will then have to fight shadows rather than slapping suits on Rocky and Jeff.
It is no accident that Amnesty International has a booklet on how to blog anonymously for bloggers in regimes that do not encourage free speech

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Jango Ang

May 29, 2007 at 4:34 am

Once again, the propaganda machine of the dreaded Barisan dogs are driving a wedge between the blogs. Counter-reactionary forces within the blog movement are manipulating the growing split among the bloggers. As usual, stupid Malaysians are falling into the trap.

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unspun

May 30, 2007 at 2:39 am

Jango: Not sure about the culpability of the Barisan agents here. It looks like the bloggers themselves are doing a good enough job shooting themselves in the foot. have you seen the quality of the debate in some of the comments of the relevant posts/blogs?

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MageP’s Lab » Blog Archive » Unspun: Schism in the Malaysian blogosphere?

June 30, 2007 at 10:08 am

[…] Alliance of Blogs (PABS), blogger Unspun who is currently based in Jakarta has another refreshing thought. […] trying to establish an organization framework to bloggers is counterproductive. In some […]

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