Entry Four. Entitled an explanation as to why I’m in Malaysia and a continuation of where I last left off in Blog Three.

AT this point, dear blog, you are probably asking a key question. Something along the lines of “But wait a minute sweaty Andrew, why are you even in Malaysia? You’ve been blabbering on about the shortcomings of new Simpsons episodes, KFC, and Bootlegged DVDs but have yet to even hint at why you are in KL in the first place.” Well said, blog – very well said. I commend you. The short answer is that I’m interning at the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia for the next four months (the longer answer really involves me bugging Sandy Smeltzer for like 8 months). I’m thinking it would be prudent to write a few words on what CIJ is. A word of caution, though: I’m in the apartment right now, sans wireless, so all of this is off the top of my head, and may not be totally comprehensive. I have the feeling it’s going to be awesome though. Okay, (huge breath) CIJ is a non-profit, non-government advocacy-based organization that works towards greater media freedom and awareness in Malaysia. The first thing to know is that the media in Malaysia isn’t censored in the traditional sense – my impression thus far is that it is more a matter of a “learned self-censorship.” It is a very complicated system, and I’m sure that there are many factors involved that I currently don’t understand or know about, but at this point I would say that the state of media freedom is a result of 1) a history of racial “disharmony”, 2) tricky legislation (most of which spawns from 1969 and said disharmony), and 3) government(ish) owned media.
The thing about number one is that Malaysia’s population can be broken down into something like:
• 15% Indian
• 35% Chinese
• 50% Malay
Shortly after Malaysia’s Independence from England in the 1950’s there was some intense racial tension, resulting in the race riots of May 13 1969. These were pretty violent – I get the impression that it was very Gangs of New York. Anyways, the way that the government functions now has a lot to do with this conflict. The government is a parliament that puts emphasis on “harmony” and “asian values.” This is where number two comes in: there is a lot of tricky legislation that sacrifices human rights for the greater good; i.e. for the sake of harmony. A few examples of this are: the Printing and Publications Act (PPA), the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act (OSA), and the Internal Security Act (ISA – this one is sweet). The PPA ensures that every Publication and broadcaster has a yearly license; the OSA prevents anyone from releasing information that could be considered an official secret; the Sedition Act makes punishable saying anything against; and the ISA allows the government to arrest anyone who acts against the “national interest” (Okay, I had a source for that one) … without a trial, for a maximum of 60 days, renewable indefinitely. So the result is an inherent fear of publishing anything that could be considered anti-government because that could result in a swift removable of ones publishing or broadcasting license, a fine, or imprisonment. On top of this, all of the major mainstreams publications and broadcasters are in some way connected/controlled to/by a political party.

So, I’m spending the next few months in Malaysia, interning at an NGO that basically advocates for less of paragraph two. But, I have the feeling I’m spending too much time inside. Time to explore.

P.S. Damn! I’m going to have to bring my laptop and steal wifi from somewhere so I can post this.
Update --- I found some wireless in the park out front of the twin towers