I met the internet... in person

I'm staying in a house in Kuala Lumpur in which political sentiments are bitter and oft expressed. I couldn't help but be infected by an interest and perhaps, I acknowledge, a bias. I mentioned in my last post that Joanna's friend had been arbitrarily arrested. Well, he was released last week due largely to a very public campaign on the part of his friends, family, and most importantly to this post, his network of fellow bloggers. They even managed to get a BBC news team to come down to film the vigil outside of the police station at which he was being kept.

Backtracking a bit, he was arrested specifically because, it's claimed by the authorities, he was suspected of having classified government material on his computer pertaining to a very high profile case involving the alleged murder of a Mongolian actress by a high ranking government official. A case that has elicited much cynicism from the public at large. Anyway, they weren't able to get anything substantial on him and it's more likely than not that they were trying to scare him to get him to back off of his government criticism in the one medium that is completely free from any direct government supervision.

Anyway, yesterday Joanna, her friend Tracy and I went to a seminar he had organized called "Facing & Surviving the Internet Clampdown: Our Liabilities, Rights and Responsibilities". It was attended by a motley crew of about 20 people (bloggers mostly, but also journalists and concerned citizens). As one would expect it was a bit of a mixed bag, much like the on-line community in general. There were several that were very on point, had highly relevant concerns and asked poigniant questions. Others seemed to like attention and tended to blather noisily when given the opportunity.

We learned about what to do if one is arrested or otherwise approached by the police by this rather rotund but obviously very good natured and highly enthusiastic communist Indian guy. His presentation lacked any structure (he tended to spend a lot of time on obvious points and speed through the more complex details), but he incorporated some play acting and was really into it. He seemed to really get off on the glamour of standing up to police officers and was often distracted by reminiscences - fairly typical of radicals.

The highlight for me was the human rights lawyer that Nat (I'm not sure if I ever gave you the arrested blogger's name) had invited. He spoke about and answered questions regarding defamation law as it applies to blogs and internet postings in general. He was highly articulate and obviously knew very well what he was talking about and knew how to present it to a non-lawyer audience. My one critique, and I suppose it's an easy one to make as a spoiled, non-government besieged Canadian, was that I think up to a point he presented anti-defamation laws as bad. Or at least that he could have been interpreted that way. I think it's really important to make clear what those laws are there for, and that they can just as easily apply to the efforts of those attempting to counter the influence of the bloggers as to the bloggers themselves. Furthermore it gives them credibility because they are accountable to be able to produce substantive claims and are thus forced to hone those weapons needed to defend themselves against claims of going off on flights of fancy. At one point he said, I think proabably accidentally or as a placation of an excited questioner, that "unfortunately" one cannot disclaim one's own posts. There's nothing unfortunate about not being able to shirk responsibility for what one says.

I took a voyeuristic pleasure from seeing grass-roots internet politics in action. It was a great way for a total politics dork like me to waste an afternoon.

The evening was worth recounting as well: We went to see a presentation of Indian ballet. Of the main dancer, as I told Tracy, I'm not entirely convinced that she wasn't a Hindu goddess. Her whole body was involved in the dance (her eyes, her mouth, her fingers, her toes). She was halfway to being Shiva. The live musical accompaniment rocked too.

Ta ta for now.

Notes
-Nathaniel's blog is at the following address: http://jelas.info/