IP: Malaysia Crackdown

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 08:15:30 -0400
From: Dave Banisar <banisar () epic org>
Subject: Hunt for cyber-rumors bodes ill for Malaysia's high-tech future
To: Global Internet Liberty Campaign <gilc-plan () gilc org>






Posted at 9:17 p.m. PDT Tuesday, August 18, 1998


Hunt for cyber-rumors bodes ill for Malaysia's high-tech future


BY MICHAEL DORGAN
SJ Mercury News Staff Writer


Can a country attract the best and brightest of the Information Age after
it launches a nationwide hunt for Internet rumor-mongers and then detains
suspects under a Draconian national security law?


That question hangs like a dark cloud over Malaysia, where the government's
determination to create a regional hub for information technology seems
matched by its eagerness to punish those who use that technology in ways it
doesn't like.


Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is so intent on developing an IT
industry that he is pressing forward with plans for a multi-billion-dollar
Multimedia Super Corridor -- a project of keen interest to many Silicon
Valley companies -- despite a worsening economic crisis that has pushed
Malaysia into recession after decades of steady growth.


The Multimedia Super Corridor is by any measure an ambitious project. It's
a 270-square-mile high-tech zone that will contain two new cities,
including one that will serve as home to the world's first ``paperless''
government in which most functions would be conducted electronically.


Mahathir hopes the MSC will catapult Malaysia to the forefront of the
Information Age. But to achieve that goal, Malaysia must woo talented
high-tech workers from abroad because its own talent pool is too shallow.
And that could prove to be problem. Because the 72-year-old prime minister,
who prides himself on his knowledge of the gizmos and gadgets of high
technology, seems to lack an understanding of the human component.


``I think that Malaysia is in a difficult position,'' said Mark Radcliffe,
a Palo Alto attorney who specializes in emerging field of cyber law. ``The
very people it wants to attract generally are the most freewheeling,
libertarian, anti-government people you can find.''


Barry Steinhardt, president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in
Washington, D.C., which monitors legal issues involving the Internet,
agrees that Malaysia is sending mixed signals.


``I think the message (Mahathir's government) sent out is that they are not
prepared to adhere to international principles of human rights, and that
other countries, particularly Western countries, should be very cautious
about doing business there,'' he said.


Steinhardt was reacting to news that three unnamed Malaysians were detained
last week under the country's Internal Security Act -- which allows
indefinite detention without trial -- for allegedly spreading rumors of
riots in downtown Kuala Lumpur.


A police official said the alleged culprits were tracked down with the help
of technology experts who sorted through thousands of e-mail messages and
traced the offending ones back to their source. The investigation is
continuing and more arrests are expected.


The rumors, circulated two-weeks ago in a flurry of e-mails, reported that
machete-wielding Indonesian immigrants were running amok and attacking
ethnic Chinese in the city's Chow Kit district, the site of a vicious race
riot in 1969.


Given recent attacks against ethnic Chinese in neighboring Indonesia, as
well as mounting ethnic tensions in Malaysia, it is not surprising that the
rumors were widely believed.


Like Indonesia, Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim nation with an
economically powerful ethnic Chinese minority that is widely resented. And
tens of thousands of Indonesian workers in Malaysia face imminent
deportation, leaving many of them angry. In March, a deportation drive
resulted in rioting at four detention camps that left eight people dead.


As the recent rumors spread, many of Kuala Lumpur's residents locked
themselves in their homes. Others rushed out and emptied the shelves of
grocery stores in a binge of panic buying, despite assurances from Mahathir
that the rumors were untrue.


``There are no riots,'' he announced in a widely publicized statement
issued during the panic. ``All the rumors are only lies. Some people
deliberately made up the story to create chaos in our country. These people
are traitors of the country. If possible, I want to catch these people,
drag them to the street and beat them up.''


Mahathir's anger was understandable. But the decision to use the dreaded
Internal Security Act to prosecute Internet rumor-mongering may have
unfortunate consequences for Malaysia's hope of attracting high-tech talent
from around the world.


Even in Malaysia, where only limited criticism of the government is
tolerated, questions have arisen about the wisdom of the heavy-handed
crackdown.


``Using what is essentially a Cold War-era security law to punish a
cyberspace perpetrator may not gel well with our quest to become a wired
and kinder nation,'' opined columnist A. Kadar Jasin in the New Straits
Times, one of Malaysia's English-language newspapers.


Also weighing in was Elizabeth Wong, head of the Malaysian human rights
group Suaram, who described rumor spreading as ``a sociological phenomenon
rather than a criminal activity.''


``It breeds best in a society which is deprived of factual information,''
Wong was quoted as telling Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. ``What is
read in the newspapers is reduced to the status of propaganda, whereas what
is heard on the grapevine is elevated to fact.''


Edward Liu, a San Francisco attorney who co-founded of a Web site that
focuses on ethnic Chinese issues (www.huaren.org), said the crackdown in
Malaysia has had a ``chilling effect'' on electronic communications from
ethnic Chinese in that country. Many Malaysians, he said, have begun to use
U.S.-based Internet service providers to avoid having their e-mails
monitored.


``If you're a high-tech person and think about the Draconian measures being
done in Malaysia, you're going to think twice about going there,'' he said.
``I think I'd stay in Silicon Valley.''


Many other techies are likely to feel the same way. Malaysia may never go
so far as to embrace the American notion that the answer to reckless speech
is more speech. But the country's venture into cyberspace may not go far at
all until its government realizes that information technology is not only
about technology, but also the free flow of information.










______________________________________________________________________


Barry Steinhardt                        East Coast Phone  212 549 2508
President                               East Coast Fax   212 549 2656
Electronic Frontier Foundation          West Coast Phone 415 436 9333 ext 102
1550 Bryant St. Suite 725               West Coast Fax   415 436 9993   
San Francisco, CA 94103         <http://www.eff.org>
Barrys () eff org