Malaysia ranting about the Internet

["E. Allen Smith" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

	Rack up another country likely to start censoring the Net (or
trying to, at least). What degree of Internet connectivity does Malaysia
have, anyway?

>     _________________________________________________________________
>   Centura
>     _________________________________________________________________
>                MALAYSIA SAYS WEST SPREADING SMUT AND VIOLENCE
>   __________________________________________________________________________
>      Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net
>      Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service
      
>   UNITED NATIONS (Sep 28, 1996 02:12 a.m. EDT) - Malaysia's prime
>   minister accused the West Friday of spreading smut and violence,
>   particularly on the Internet.

	And what, pray tell, is wrong with this?
   
>   In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Mahathir bin Mohamad said
>   that although the information age facilitated worldwide knowledge, it
>   also demeaned moral values.
   
>   "Smut and violence gratuitously distributed by criminals in the North
>   is no less polluting than carbon dioxide emissions nor less dangerous
>   than drug trafficking."

	All three of them things that probably shouldn't be limited,
noticeably, and things that are classically used to discourage human
freedom & progress.

>   In a reference to the United States he said if one great power could
>   apply its laws to citizens of another country for drug trafficking
>   "why cannot countries with different moral codes extradite the
>   traffickers of pornography for legal action?"
   
>   "Before the whole world sinks deeper into moral decay, the
>   international community should act. Abuse of the ubiquitous Internet
>   system must be stopped," he said.
   
>   Politically, he said the monopoly of the West's electronic media
>   should be broken on so-called world news networks.
   
>   "Not only are distorted pictures of our countries being broadcast but
>   our own capacity to understand what is happening is being undermined,"
>   he said.

	Translation: people are finding out true information that local
governments don't like - such as what goes wrong.
   
>   "In the past, Western missionaries spread the gospel. Today the media
>   has taken over and all our cherished values and diverse cultures are
>   being destroyed," he said.

	Translation: our culture that promotes censorship and other civil
liberties violations is being destroyed.
   
[...]

>   The prime minister also lashed out at U.N. forums where nations
>   lamented poverty, debt, human rights abuse, conflicts and war without
>   doing much about them.
   
>   "It is boring almost. And yet nothing much has been done which could
>   bring about amelioration of this sad state of affairs," he said.
   
	Translation: Give us money.

>    Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net