Open Reply to P. SRITHARAN

This is my take in responding to P. SRITHARAN who suggested that blogs should be censored.

My reply will be short and precise.

The Internet and all its content cannot be censored because of one simple reason; we are all adults. Period.

I don't think as an adult, we like to be told what to do even from the government. In many ways, this is like communism.

The problem with this world is that there are good and bad guys out there, and sometimes in certain situations, bad guys contributed good deeds to the society while the good guys may have indirectly contributed bad deeds to the society.

It will take us forever to debate who is right and wrong on all matters that are around us. This is not a productive thing to do.

Therefore, the Internet should be totally free and the viewers have to decide for themselves. The wrongdoers can be charged accordingly, but Internet and its content must never never never never be censored, otherwise, Malaysia will have no adults.

A blog is just a web site, a blog is not a special thing, it can be considered a different type of contents because it usually come from personal point of views. Thus, why are blogs so effective ? Because it is personal, it relates and it is if not fake, real.

It is a good thing that blogs can get people excited and the brain started thinking, for this we reap the benefits of hitting two birds with one stone, because Malaysia can then train its citizen to become more mature and articulate so that we can compete with other people better. The key point is that we have to think and make decision and be responsible for it.

The world is facing yet an even bigger problem that is related to this debate, that is 'Net Neutrality'. Net Neutrality is a concern about telecommunication infrastructure owners such as Telekom Malaysia and etc, exercise content filtering based on the ground that the infrastructure is owned by them. However, at the same time, they market the Internet as a free medium. This, if is rampant, is even worst because it resembles dictatorship.

The consequences of not achieving Net Neutrality will bring doom to the world because majority of Internet users will only be exposed to selected few content owners. And this is what feared by Google as well.

Malaysia cannot afford to stay in the comfort zone forever, we have to move on and take risks. Why must we make sure that everybody pass the SPM ? (Even though in reality still some will fail)

The Internet must be totally free and remained uncensored. Let adults take own risks and be adults.

Finally, I think that it would be more feasible and fair if we prevent young children from using the Internet or we can have some sort of content filtering tools and even a subnet of Internet for children and youngsters only. I think they will understand it when they become adults one day.

Freedom of thoughts is the ultimate privacy that humanity should protect.