Says it is only to stop
porn
The Malaysian government has called for a tender for an Internet
filtering system, but said it was only to block porn and not censor its
citizen's free speech. Information, Communication and Culture Minister
Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim claimed that the expensive filtering system was all
to protect kids from porn.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia
Commission (SKMM) and other bodies responsible for “policing Malaysian
cyberspace” were told to look into implementing this system. Yatim said
that he had asked authorities such as SKMM to find ways to implement this
and study how developed countries have successfully overcome the problem of
the culture of pornography. Yatim might have a problem here because
developed countries don't try to censor porn, it is usually only backward,
autocratic or extremely religious countries that try their hands at such
censorship.
He attacked “liberals and supporters of liberalism” who have
criticised the Government’s plans for such a filter. Yatim claimed that
porn on computers had led to child sex because apparently we didn't have
paedophiles before the advent of the Internet. However there are fears that
this is just another Green Dam project to block “undesirable websites.”
The
Malaysian government has had big problems with bloggers who it thinks are
not respectful of politicians. It is only a small step to stick the websites
of bloggers that the government does not like on a censorship list claiming
they supported porn.