Blogging in Malaysia: Fear factor vs Tipping Point
Monday, October 8th, 2007 | 12:08 am @ SK
[UPDATED VERSION] Now, let’s maximize the power of internet, reduce the fear factor and contribute your little bit in promoting more of tipping points as shared by Global Voices Online’s David Sasaki.
Do us (do yourself) a favor with little effort in promoting the recorded video by blogger Zan Azlee on the YouTube, the presentation slides by David on slideshare.net and pictures taken by Lensa Malaysia’s Paul Choo on Flickr.
(SOURCE: slideshare, 6 October 2007)
(SOURCE: Flickr, 6 October 2007)
[ORIGINAL VERSION at 4:07pm, 5 October 2007] That’s right, it’s the state of fear among Malaysians that deter Malaysia bloggers to promote the transition from the "digital democracy" of cyberspace to actual democracy in society.
(SOURCE: Screenshots, 5 October 2007)
But what’s exactly "the state of fear" which David Sasaki shared to a group of bloggers, lawyers, fellow journalists from online alternative media Malaysiakini and Chinese press Nanyang Siang Pau, ex-journalists, NGOs, activiststs and etc. as part of his finding?
"I can tell that, in Malaysia, there’s a big fear factor when it comes to blogging: "If I write something, am I going to lose my job? Is it going to prevent me from getting a job in the future? Am I going to be detained by some authority and questioned? What’s going to happen to me?" he said. […]
"Blogging, podcasting, and citizen media has not reached that tipping point in Malaysia because there aren’t enough people jumping off the rock. We need a concerted effort and a lot of people who are motivated to apply for some of these grants - who are willing to take the risk.
"If there are enough people to do it, then there’s not going to be any arrests because you have that critical mass." [Malaysiakini]
Some of the suggestions proposed by David to fully relish the great potential among bloggers in Malaysia is to minimize the fear factor and to promote more of tipping points by getting more Malaysians to become part of the blogging community.
Tipping point occurs when change happens quickly and unexpectedly after an apparently slow build-up or in another word, an event of a previously rare phenomenon becoming rapidly and dramatically more common, in which according to David, the term "tipping point" was coined to describe the state of near-paralysis or hesitation he and his friends experienced as teenagers whenever they were about to dive off a particular rock into a river - 40 feet below - they used to swim in.
None of them would initially want to be the first to jump off that rock - to go beyond that tipping point - into the air and plunge 40 feet into the water, said Sasaki. It was only when one of them overcame that fear that the rest followed.
I have faith that blogging is the latest tipping point of communication because no other form of communication has been so immediate, so interactive, so far-reaching and so ready-made for relationships.
As many of us are just beginning to figure out the depth and breadth of blogging, together with the relationships we are making and the information we are gathering, we need to believe that we can change things and bring light to events that would have never seen the light of day.
If we set our minds in the same direction, who’s to say that we can’t change this country?