Here comes the chilling effect!

2 days ago, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor started to push the basket around, blamed it on on the Indonesian blogger Nila Tanzil, hence rejected the earlier claim by Sin Chew, saying that he was misquoted.

Blogger Unspun, who first highlighted the unfortunate event, warned that active denial and finger pointing towards Nila is going to piss off all Indonesia bloggers, especially women bloggers.

True enough, the backlash begun as soon as Indonesian news portal detikinet.com highlighted the incident.

(SOURCE: detikinet, 16 March 2007)

Nila mengaku bingung, kenapa Tengku Adnan mengatakan tulisannya bohong. "Kalau memang pernyataannya me-refer ke tulisanku, aku ingin tahu bagian mananya yang tidak benar. Pihak mereka tidak ada yang mengklarifikasi ke aku. Kok dia bilang itu bohong?" kata Nila. [...]

Nila mengatakan tidak ada maksud buruk di balik tulisannya. "Aku berharap pihak Malaysia Tourism Board dapat mengambil input positif dari apa yang aku tulis di blog, untuk memperbaiki Visit Malaysia tahun depan. Kalau mau klarifikasi, silahkan klarifikasi," tuturnya. [...]

Nila berpesan agar tidak takut menuliskan kebenaran. "Tetaplah menulis. Keep telling the truth! Selama apa yang kita tulis benar, nggak usah takut,"

While she was questioning Tengku Adnan over his statement, she clarified her intention was meant to be good for the Malaysia Tourism Board, which she hopes MTB will look at the allegation positively in order to improve the Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

"Keep writing, keep telling the truth! Do not afraid as long as what you write is true," she urged.

Now, please look at the comment section, that’s where the chilling effect really started to kick in while one of the Indonesia most famous blogger Enda Nasution felt that the MTB should be thankful to Nila for telling the truth rather than condemning her.

Enda menyambut baik tulisan mantan presenter acara wisata ‘Melancong Yuk!’ di SCTV tersebut. Menurut Enda, justru pihak Malaysian Tourism Board (MTB) yang harus dewasa. "Kalau yang dia tulis benar, kenapa harus merasa salah? MTB malah harus berterima kasih mendapat masukan seperti itu," ujarnya kepada detikINET.

In this case, Tengku Adnan owes Nila a thorough explanation. Needless to say, it’s unethical and inappropriate to condemn Nila as a liar without seeking clarification from her. It’s also interesting to question the motive on why Nila was suspended by SCTV without proper investigation?

On top of all these, what’s MTB going to do with the chilling effect? At this stage, hiring a good PR or even Nila is no longer an issue. It’s about coming out from the dark, stop passing the bucket culture, admit the problems and fix them!

Let me reiterate my stance on this matter. It’s about making visitors feeling welcomed at Malaysia. It’s about making visitors feeling right that Malaysia is a truly wonderful country and right destination to visit in the future.

It’s about fixing what’s wrong that matters. It’s about visitors feeling appreciated that matters!

Got it?

Thanks blogger Lim Kean-Jin in Finland for the headup.

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