Bloggers v. Authoritarians and Censorship

Political bloggers are no strangers to the ways that the internet is able to circumvent traditional controls on media and information. Nothing could epitomize this more than the story of the man in Malaysia who once controlled the system and the media and now fights against it. A former Prime Minister turned blogger Mahathir Mohamad is a case study in the power of the internet in the furtherance of freedom. Where once he was the man directing the censorship of the press he now undermines it.

We on the tubes that deal primarily with American media and American politics dont always have such a firm grasp on the stark difference between the media we have and the media in third world dictatorships. While it is true that the press has been the propaganda arm of our government on the iraq war and other issues we cannot say the entire media is oppressed or corrupt. We still have some honest people who do good reporting both on tv and in newspapers. Most of the drivel that serves as our national discourse can be chalked up to incompetence rather than outright corruption. This is not the case in other parts of the world and Malaysia is one of those places.

Malaysia is a place where government pressure and intimidation has created a press that is worse than ours. Imagine if all we ever had was Fox News. Now imagine that if you called out Fox news you faced things like imprisonment without trial, attacks in the government-friendly press and defamation lawsuits. It is as if Cheney had a license to simply throw any one in Guantanamo when he felt like it. In an environment like this the ability to disseminate the truth to the population is an invaluable tool in fighting for and securing freedom. This is exactly what Mahathir Mohamad discovered.

In a way Mahathir Mohamad becoming a political blogger fighting for freedom of the press would be like Bush suddenly discovering that the police state was a bad idea after being in power for two decades. He helped to set it up and suddenly when he wants something it gets in his way. oops.

But he has become an irritant and a spoiler five years after stepping down, turning against his handpicked successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and falling victim to the press controls he perfected as prime minister.

“Where is the press freedom?” he asked two years ago, apparently surprised at being suddenly ignored. “Broadcast what I have to say! What I say is not even accurately published in the press!”

He is not a particularly sympathetic character. The NYT piece that relates the story of the Malay bloggers would have done better i to focus on Jeff Ooi. Ooi seems to be the Malay Kos because he has moved the Malay Political Blogosphere onto the ground effecting political change.

In March, political experts said, Malaysia’s bloggers helped influence elections, contributing to the biggest upset that the governing party, the United Malays National Organization, had suffered since independence in 1957. For the first time in decades, it held fewer than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, and it lost control of 5 of the 13 states.

Among the opposition winners in the national and state governments were several bloggers, most prominently Jeff Ooi, who claimed to have prodded Mr. Mahathir into starting his own blog.

“The government doesn’t have a clue how to handle bloggers,” Mr. Ooi said in an interview. “If I were a dictator, I would be despairing. What do you do against this?”

The fight that these Malay bloggers face is harsher than that of getting Barack Obama elected. While we had to overcome the sleaze of John McCain we really never had to fear that the government would come to our houses and toss us into Gitmo. While our constitution has eroded considerably I think this stuff would be hard sell to the public.

Now, a convert to free speech, Mr. Mahathir is using his blog to champion the most recent victim of government censorship, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the country’s most prominent blogger, who posts on www.malaysia-today.net, his Web site. The site has been blocked, but readers are redirected to another Web site, which continues to be updated.

The government has fallen back on the kind of tactics that Mr. Ooi faced. It charged Mr. Petra with sedition and jailed him for two years without trial for comments he had posted.

Mr. Mahathir sounded almost like Che Guevara when he said in his blog that the arrest showed “a degree of oppressive arrogance worthy of a totalitarian state.”

Furthermore, jailing people is futile, he said in an interview in his office. There is no way the government can arrest all the bloggers, even if it wants to.

I dont want to glorify Matathir because he helped to put the system into place. That he is a person now trying to bring down the system of injustice is the simple fulfillment of a duty he has to the people of Malaysia. However, his story and the story of the Malaysian bloggers who have made a real difference in the freedom of the Malaysian people deserves to get some attention. The internet and freedom of speech are a powerful force as these courageous people have shown. They should be an inspiration to oppressed people everywhere and they should strike fear into the hearts of the oppressors because what jeff ooi was right when he pointed out the power of the internet,

“If I were a dictator, I would be despairing. What do you do against this?”

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GOP needs a new catalyst

Many have no doubt seen the fox video that details just how ignorant sarah palin was when she was selected to be the potential vice president. This is just the beggining of the internal war for control of the GOP. Sarah Palin is going to get obliterated in this fight. Many others are likely to be in the same boat. Palin, because she is an obvious target, and any remaining moderates because they will be outnumbered and encumbered with the failure of John McCain. With the moderates gone the dominante narrative for why they lost the election is going to be the economic crisis, sarah palin, and bush not being a true conservative.

Exhibit A,



Chafee is correct that the republican's failed in governance. They were good at winning elections but not governing. The problem is that he specifies the failure of Bush mostly in profligate spending. He blames Bush for not being a true conservative. So even Chafee has the wrong idea about what the conservatives need.

The conservative party at its core is a reactionary party. They run against things. Unfortunately after eight years in power they ran out of things that made sense to run against. To some extent this is where you can blame Bush because he undercut all of their arguments against the democrats with his abominable record. Bush alone though is not the answer. Look at the polling on the issue over at pollingreport.com and what you find is that a majority of americans side with the democrats on issue after issue.

The Republican party is stuck in a time freeze. They imagine that America is just as it was during 1980 when Reagan was elected. This is clearly not the case as the election of Obama proved. The white vote is becoming less powerful as time moves forward and the GOP has become the white party. They need to restart their outreach to minority communities, they need new rhetoric. Until we see people of color leading the Republican party i really doubt they manage to reestablish a national power base.

What the Republicans need most is new ideas. The ideas the currently run on have been neutralized in many ways. they no longer have welfare to run against, the terrorism smears failed against oabama. Abortion is not a winning issue with the voters they need to reach. Bashing guys is an issue that has just about reached its sell by date. Although several propositions were passed around the country attacking gay rights the age breakdowns suggest that they wont last very long. What is eventually going to spur a Republican resurgence is an Obama administration failure.

Obama is going to do something that does not work and as soon as that happens the GOP will latch onto that and ride it into the ground. As a party they do well in the opposition where they can be passionate and ideological without serious responsibility. They can tear down instead of building up. Until Obama puts a foot wrong though they wont have the location of their new attack strategy.

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The Fight for Accountability

Last night in the midst of the celebration Meteor Blades posted a diary that touched on an essential subject. Accountability of those who have placed us in this horrible mess. As President Obama takes office it is a lingering question whether or not he will follow through on promises to close guantanamo and to hold the people who screwed everything up accountable. Will Obama do as Ford did and throw accountability under the bus or will he affirm in no uncertain terms that no one is above the law? If it comes down to holding Bush Administration people responsible versus passing health care of major infrastructure reform we know that Bush and Co is going to get a pass.

A quote from Meteor Blades outlining perfectly the point of view and worry over holding those Bush Admin people responsible.

Barack Obama's promises of a broad bipartisan focus on solving our country's problems may prove as wise as the similar message of the Civil War president whose words echoed in the Grant Park speech. But that healing cannot occur, not wholly, unless the crimes that have brought our nation to such a ruinous condition - morally, economically and politically - are investigated thoroughly and a proper penalty imposed. Most importantly, the bent machinery that allowed, nay encouraged, those crimes must be rebuilt with safeguards so that they never occur again. That's not vengeance. It's justice. And true healing and progress cannot come about without it.

You can put me down in the column that needs to see some heads on this one. I truly believe that it is essential that we augment the the laws pertaining to governing our nation with the proof of punishment. We must demonstrate credibility on this issue or else the precedent set is one of excused criminality. What stops a future power abuser and criminal if they know that after they finish raping the country that they will be forgiven in the "best interests of the country to move on"?

Nothing epitomizes this more than the need to hold some people responsible for Guantanamo Bay Prison and the abuses that occur there. The story of that place will be a black mark on America's record akin to the internment of the Japanese during WWII. This is not to say that all the people there are innocent. However there are plenty of people who are, some even acknowledged by the government itself. Gitmo stands as a testament to abuses of human rights and due process. For our country to claim any moral authority we need to do more than simply elect an African American we need to clean up the mess.

Here is Obama on the topic of holding Bushies responsible,

Q: I mentioned the report in my question, and said "I know you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the issue of justice, and a lot of people -- certainly around the world and certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly committed" regarding torture, rendition, and illegal wiretapping. I wanted to know how whether his Justice Department "would aggressively go after and investigate whether crimes have been committed."

A: What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.

So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in cover ups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it.

The answer is a mixed bag. There are some good things like supporting the concept that nobody is above the law. There are also some iffy parts like making the distinction between bad policy and breaking the law. That seems like a very broad net that will let unethical activities off the hook. For instance would Palin's pressuring of Monegan satisfy the Obama standard? I doubt it. A great deal is of the worst excesses and abuses are going to fall under bad policy as opposed to criminal malfeasance. However, people who screwed up their job, and by extension the country, so completely should not be let off the hook. The people need to be identified at the very least so that they may be subjected to a minimum of public shaming.

You can tell from his acceptance speech that Obama is going to be highly focused on building a true bi partisan administration. He is genuinely concerned about undermining this by going after bushies. I can just see where this is going to lead. Obama is a pragmatic man and when it comes down to passing the big legislation versus holding some people criminally liable, legislation wins. I think you can certainly balance the two but i dont know if Obama is willing to take that risk.

I dont want to dampen the excitement over an Obama election. It truly is a great step forward for our country; but like Obama said, his election is not the change but merely the first step on a long road to change. We may have won this election but the next 2-4 years will be very important in determining whether we can create a long lasting progressive government or whether we let the gop back in the door. This first step is to cleanse the blight of the last eight years. Hold the those people who decimated the government responsible otherwise we let a malignant cyst fester. A part of the Obama election must be read as a mandate to hold people accountable. So lets hold both Bush, for his past abuses, and Obama, in his future activities, accountable because no one is above the law.

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The Election of Barack Obama

The election of Obama is a very important step forward for America. It fulfills the best promises of our nation, that a person rises and falls on the merits of their own ability regardless of skin color or heritage or sexual affiliation or religious affiliation. Well maybe not sexual affiliation just yet. I think the most important part about electing an African American to the presidency is that he was the best man for the job. I could not have voted for him if he did not meet that requirement.

Obama truly ran a race designed to be as free of sleaze as he could make it. He largely succeeded at this and in doing so has provided hope that others will follow in this path and run on issues and problem solving. Obama allows our country to breathe a giant sigh of relief that Bush, despite his best efforts, has failed to totally destroy the country.

Obama has a big win and a solid mandate to follow through on his policy proposals. I hope he chooses to get that health care done first. There is a lot on his plate including the closure of Gitmo. Not to mention the massive economic issues he must deal with.

Obama though is not perfect. He seems to be very much focused on moving forward without dealing with the sins of the past. I hope i am wrong about that because i think it is truly important that we deal with those who have so disgraced us in the eyes of the world. It is not enough to simply work to undue what they have done, we need to provide a disincentive to ever try and do it again. Accountability should be the watch word. Sadly i dont see obama following through on this, but i hope i am wrong.

So congratulations to everyone who worked their asses off to get him elected and to america for having the good sense to vote for him. He was truly the best choice, the best person for the moment. Now the work of governing and fixing our problems begins.

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Prediction Post

Because all the cool kids are doing it.

* 58 Democratic Senate seats
* 40 Republican Senate seats
* 263 Democratic House seats
* 172 Republican House seats
* 353 Obama Electoral Votes
* 185 McCain Electoral Votes
* 52.1 Obama Popular Vote Percentage
* 47.5 McCain Popular Vote Percentage

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