Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 11 August 2014 issue)

Dear Kam,
Is it my imagination or was there a demonstration at Dataran Merdeka?
Sleeping in KL

It was a weekend and I was driving through Kuala Lumpur. I was on a highway when I saw something strange. A group of young Malay men were on their motorbikes, nothing strange about that. They were dressed in black jeans and black T-shirts. The pillion passenger of the lead bike was bearing a big flag. It was a black flag with Arabic writing. I’m fairly certain it was the flag of ISIL. I might be wrong, maybe it was for some other organisation, but I really don’t think so. Presumably, these young men were on their way to a demonstration at Dataran Merdeka being held in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza. They were on their way to sully a worthy cause with something wholly ignoble and horribly dangerous. While the world’s attention has been focused on the destruction of Gaza, ISIL’s fanaticism in Iraq has been largely ignored.

ISIL is the army of young men perpetrating horrific crimes in Iraq, murdering Christians, Shias and Sunnis in the name of its own brand of Islam. Indonesia has just banned ISIL, stating that ISIL’s extremism has no place in multiracial Indonesia. I do not like ISIL. I cannot understand how anybody can like ISIL. I was deeply saddened to see Malaysians carrying the ISIL flag on the streets of KL. Several young Malaysian men have gone to Syria and Iraq and might well be fighting with ISIL. One day, they will come back, and then we will have a real problem on our hands.

Dear Kam,
Did something very important just happen in Indonesia?
Awakening

In some ways, Indonesia is strangely out of step with the rest of the world. I was working there in advertising 15 years ago and was surprised to discover that Indonesia seemed to be the only country that had adopted Betamax video technology and not VHS (younger readers will have no idea what any of that means). And now, Indonesians love their BlackBerry phones even though the brand is struggling everywhere else. But in the most important way, Indonesia could well be leading the pack, especially in Southeast Asia. Indonesian voters gave Joko Widodo (Jokowi) a resounding victory in their recent presidential election. Unlike our system, or the American system, the Indonesian vote is a basic contest for the popular vote. Jokowi won 53%, eight million more votes than his rival, the ex-army man Prabowo Subianto. During the election, Prabowo basically told Indonesians, who considered democracy to be alien to Indonesia, that he would reverse it if he won. Therefore, they should vote for him. Once.

Personally, I am really excited about Jokowi’s victory and I’m hoping that he succeeds in being the president he has promised to be. Already he has asked Indonesians to nominate his Cabinet and although his promise to fight corruption will undoubtedly fail, he has promised an inclusive and secular political landscape. He’s different, and I think he offers a glimpse of Asia’s future. When I was in Indonesia, there were several times when I was flicking through all the TV stations, trying to find anything to watch, but on every channel and for hours and hours, there was nothing but Suharto mumbling on and on at some function. He and his followers must have assumed that Indonesians were drinking up this endless barrage of propaganda, believing every word and that Suharto and his family would remain in power forever. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Now, the president is a young man who likes heavy metal music and he’s from a non-establishment background, which sets him apart from other Southeast Asia leaders. Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines are all led by children of previous leaders, and Prabowo was Suharto’s son-in-law.

Jokowi looks a lot like Barack Obama and it’s possible that after all the excitement, Jokowi will be a disappointment like Obama. Indonesia is vast and astonishingly diverse. Malaysian politicians have difficulty governing 25 million people, but Java alone has a population of over 140 million. Challenges will occur (some manufactured) and Indonesia has a military that historically sees itself playing a political role. It is entirely possible that things could end badly for Jokowi, but I still believe his election victory is an indication of things to come. I believe that (to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr) the arc of history inevitably bends towards a liberal democracy. It’s possible that his existence will frighten Asia’s old order just as it has broken Indonesia’s New Order.

Dear Kam,
Can the Internet be switched off?
Switched On

I’m not sure how it happened, but it seems that Dr M managed to get himself kicked out of Facebook. Being kicked out of Facebook would be a complete disaster for a teenager and I get the impression that Dr M isn’t taking it too well either (although these things often get distorted in the re-telling).

It’s an irony that some people who use the Internet extensively to tell their story don’t seem to actually like the Internet. There is a fear that the little people will be exposed to a different story (“rumours”) and might start believing it (“become confused”). If only something could be done about this.

Once again, Vladimir Putin is leading the way in managing the Internet. With attention focused on MH17 and the fighting in eastern Ukraine, it has been barely noticed that Putin has introduced some new laws to make sure that Russians only ever hear one story. Commercial TV stations are now banned from having any advertising, which naturally means they can’t make any money. Companies like Twitter and Facebook must place their servers in Russia within two years, which they won’t be able to do because they won’t have enough time and even if they did, it would mean that the Russian government would be able to see all accounts. And any blogger who has more than 3,000 readers must apply for a licence, and good luck with that.

The examples of Russia and recent events in Thailand have shown that the Internet is easily killed. The difference between Malaysia and Russia or Thailand is that Malaysians have always looked outwards, Malaysia has always been part of the world. Russia sits at the end of one trade route whereas Malaysia sits at the heart of a trade network. It is simply not in the Malaysian psyche to be excluded from the world. So, everyone is going to have to compete for space and eyeballs on the Internet. Nobody can have exclusive access and no single story can predominate. It’s a free-for-all. Enjoy.

Reprinted with the kind permission of