On 5 July 2001, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dr Rais Yatim, said, “The government would unleash another set of missiles on Internet publications that threaten the country’s security.”

“And this time around it will definitely hit the target,” added Rais, the de facto Minister of Law.
 
Rais did not spell out what he meant by “threaten the country’s security” or what “missiles” they planned to “unleash” on the Internet publications. He did not even identify which “Internet publications” they had in mind as the targets. However, he did say, “Internet publications are on the increase in Malaysia and, as such, hate messages, seditious writings and e-mail advocating religious dissent and others are becoming common.”

“Due to the government’s no-censorship commitment, the initial missiles do not seem to follow the enemy but has ricocheted towards us. However, I assure you, the missile’s inventor is not without imagination or recourse,” he said. It looks like, from this statement, the government had already tried to “bomb” these “not so favourable” Websites before but the attack had failed – “ricocheted towards us”.

On what, exactly, the government had in mind, Rais said, “I will keep that a secret until such time when we are ready to unleash another set of missiles, which will surely hit the target.”
 
These are extremely strange words coming from a Malaysian Minister. It is also a most irresponsible statement and one that would have invited arrest if uttered by an opposition leader. The next day, Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohammad echoed these same words and issued a similar warning.

But why all this paranoia about “anti-government” Websites? The answer is simple! The government is losing the Internet “war” and will continue to do so. Come the next General Election in 2004 or thereabouts, the opposition would, by then, be dominating the Internet.

During the last General Election in 1999, there were only 280,000 Internet users. Since then, a period of 20 months, the Internet users have ballooned to about two million. The government confirmed this recently when they tried to merge the two main Internet Service Providers or ISPs, Jaring and TMNet.

The government expects this figure to double by 2004, which means there should be about four million Internet users by then. This is a huge jump from a mere 280,000 at the beginning of the “Internet revolution”.

And the party that is making this possible is the government itself. The government is making it easier for Malaysians to get onto the Net. All schools are being supplied with computers and one can withdraw one’s Employees’ Provident Fund savings to buy a home computer. One can also subscribe to a free ISP like TimeNet or MaxisNet – you only need to pay for the phone call unlike TMNet or Jaring.

There is this big push to make the Multimedia Super-corridor a success and every Malaysian is being “helped” to get onto the Net to ensure this success. But, with this easier, and sometimes free, Internet access comes the “bad” side effects, and one of these bad side effects is, as the government says, “opposition propaganda” on the Internet.

Most Internet users are from the younger computer-savvy generation. These are the same people who no longer accept anything based on face value but would research the truth and obtain second opinions. These are also the new or first-time voters – an extremely potent combination indeed.

During the last General Election, 5.6 million Malaysian came out to vote – about 70% of the 8 million registered voters. This figure is increasing by a steady one million new voters a year. By the next elections, it is expected that there would be about 11 million or so voters – even after all the “phantoms” have been exorcised from the electoral roll. If, say, the “traditional” 70% come out to vote, there would be about 7.7 million people voting – an increase of 2.1 million over 1999.

Guess who these 2.1 million new voters would be? No prize for the right guess! Yes, first-timers and young voters – Internet users and computer-savvy Malaysians at that too.

In 1999, the opposition obtained 2.6 million votes against the National Front’s 3.1 million votes – a difference of only 500,000 votes. Can you imagine what the impact these 2.1 million new voters would be to these 500,000 “pro-government” voters – assuming these 500,000 still vote for the ruling party next time around? And we are not even assuming that these 500,000 “pro-government” voters would remain pro-government. With the Siqiu, Nanyang, Damansara School, and many other issues “turning” the Chinese community, many of these 500,000 may already have swung to the opposition.

The 1999 General Election was an electronic media war. The government used television to frighten the Chinese into voting for the ruling party, albeit reluctantly. But the fear has since subsided and no longer can the Chinese be blackmailed into giving their vote to the party they never had any confidence in. The Chinese now dare dissent and they have shown this in the many bold moves they have made – giving the Lunas seat to the opposition in a by-election being but one.

2004 is going to be another type of war, an Internet war, and already the opposition is wining this war. The government realises that it has very little chance of winning an Internet war so they need to silence the Internet soon or else 2004 would be a foregone conclusion.

Standby for new moves the government will be making to “kill” the Internet critics before it faces the 2004 General Elections. Are more arrests in the cards?