'Fear Factor' & 'Tipping Point' in blogging
UPDATED VERSION. After reading this blog entry from Jakarta, David Sasaki emailed to clarify on the Taiwanese bloggers to emulate their Chilean counterparts in contronting their presidential candidates.
He also pointed to "an interesting parallel between Taiwanese and Malaysian blogger activism".
"Earlier this year, Taiwanese bloggers organized to save a leprosy sanatorium. Now it is a group of Malaysian bloggers trying to do the same thing," he added, pointing to valleyofhope.blogspot.com which showcases the community's struggle to save the Sungai Buluh leprosy sanatorium.Interestingly, David he learned about the two campaigns to save leprosy sanatoriums via a blog in Hong Kong, interlocals.net.
"What a globalised world!" David exclaimed.
Details of David's updates have been included in the second portion of this blog entry.
Original Posting
I reckon those who didn't make it to the ALL-BLOGS Forum to hear David Sasaki speak on Blogs and Digital Democracy must be puzzled with the terms FEAR FACTOR and TIPPING POINT, and juxtaposition brought forth by the meanings between the two phrases.
SITuATION IN MALAYSIA: Fear Factor vs. Tipping Point... LensaPress photo by Paul Choo
As I had observed earlier, Fear Factor and Tipping Point could well be David's assessment of the situation in Malaysia, that fear is gripping the country and that people may stop speaking up.
That is because, throughout David's 4-day visit to Malaysia and holding eyeball-to-eyeball conversations with the bloggers, journalists, think-tank, lawyers, human rights activists and the laymen, FEAR was the buzzword that popped up repeatedly in various contexts.
David, who travels extensively across the world in the course of his work -- literally from hotels to hotels and backpacks to backpacks -- still believes that there is great potential for bloggers in Malaysia not only to expand and become more influential but also to promote the transition from the ‘digital democracy’ of cyberspace to actual democracy in society.
“But it’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of commitment, and it’s also going to take less fear factor and more ‘tipping point’,” he said.
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz of Malaysiakini, who covered the event, has a good record of what David shared with his audience and I listened well to most of the dialogue that circled around the blogging scene in Malaysia today.
Let me quote Fauwaz and Malaysiakini on this:
The term ‘tipping factor’, Sasaki explained, was coined to describe the state of near-paralysis or hesitation he and his friends experienced as teenagers whenever they were about to dive off a particular rock into a river - 40 feet below - they used to swim in.None of them would initially want to be the first to jump off that rock - to go beyond that tipping point - into the air and plunge 40 feet into the water, said Sasaki. It was only when one of them overcame that fear that the rest followed.
Comparing this to blogging in Malaysia, Sasaki said the interests and welfare of bloggers demand that there be a critical mass of bloggers to take the plunge by embarking on blogging projects to promote democracy and government accountability.
“I can tell that, in Malaysia, there’s a big fear factor when it comes to blogging: ‘If I write something, am I going to lose my job? Is it going to prevent me from getting a job in the future? Am I going to be detained by some authority and questioned? What’s going to happen to me?’ he said.He noted that there were many organisations - including his - willing to fund grants worth millions of dollars on blogging projects that could serve as tools to promote democratic practices.
“Blogging, podcasting, and citizen media has not reached that tipping point in Malaysia because there aren’t enough people jumping off the rock. We need a concerted effort and a lot of people who are motivated to apply for some of these grants - who are willing to take the risk.
“If there are enough people to do it, then there’s not going to be any arrests because you have that critical mass,” he added.
How governments approach blogs and citizens who speak up
David gave firmer context to the notions of Fear Factor and Tipping Point by showing how countries like Burma, Barbados, Egypt, Malaysia (yes, Malaysia!), Turkey, and Thailand have sought to scare bloggers from competing against the states’ monopoly over news and information.
On the other hand, bloggers in several other nations have succeeded in engaging the government and persuading its officials to embrace blogging as a medium of communication.
Some government authorities, such as the city of Buenos Aires, now even have official ‘chief bloggers’ who serve to moderate discussions on blogs and channel constructive criticisms and proposals to the relevant government bodies for action, David said.
The Pro-Blogs Brazilian minister
Chile had blogs set up for all candidates to the 2001 presidential elections. Each candidate was obligated to answer each and every question posed on his or her blog.
The experiment in Chile was soon repeated in Taiwan for its presidential elections, noted David.
However, the record shows that, as much as bloggers in Taiwan really liked the idea of the Chilean presidential candidate blogging forum, they weren't able to organise it, David told in a subsequent email exchange today.
Taiwan & Sungai Buluh
"However, there is an interesting parallel between Taiwanese and Malaysian blogger activism," David said.
"Earlier this year Taiwanese bloggers organized to save a leprosy sanatorium. Now it is a group of Malaysian bloggers trying to do the same thing," he added, pointing to valleyofhope.blogspot.com which showcases the community's struggle to save the Sungai Buluh leprosy sanatorium.
Interestingly, David he learned about the two campaigns to save leprosy sanatoriums via a blog in Hong Kong,
interlocals.net.
"What a globalised world!" David exclaimed.
He also cited the example of Cambodia, which had organised a national conference of bloggers last year.
That conference, in turn, led investors around the world to start thinking seriously about investing in Cambodia.
David also noted that Cambodian King was the country’s first blogger.
“Even president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a blog,” said David, showing a slide on it.
Other examples of governments that had incorporated blogging as part of its communication tools were Ecuador and Brazil.
In the case of the Brazilian state news agency, links to all blogs discussing its articles are embedded in their reports.
David also cited similar success stories as seen through the case the Mzalendo blog in Kenya. The blog documents the bills passed by and the voting patterns of Kenyan parliamentarians.
A captivating development in blogs has been the readiness of notable organisations and institutions to fund blogs initiative.
In the first-world countries like the USA, TechPresident is funded to show how US presidential candidates have been rated by influential bloggers.
The strong pertinence that drives TechPresident is because such blogs had raised the level of discussion above mere rumour-mongering, David said.
“it’s not the bloggers trying to get the politicians to come to their conventions - it’s the politicians trying to get the bloggers to their conventions,” he added.
Part of the reason such blogs have been supported is the realisation that bloggers have become ‘cultural ambassadors’ of their respective countries, according to David.
Even large corporations have to some extent depended on and embraced blogs and bloggers, he said.
Nevertheless, David observed that governments around the world normally deal with digital democracy in three patterns, that is to either (1 ) engage them, ( 2 ) suppress them, or ( 3 ) ignore them.
While some governments have either embraced or cracked down on bloggers, bloggers may also be faced by a government that simply ignores them. In this event, said Davidi, bloggers have to look elsewhere for institutional and financial support to help their cause.
“Look to civil society groups and explain the potential of citizen media to them,” he urged.
Rising Voices microgrants
ALL-BLOGS really appreciates David's willingness to pop over to Malaysia for a short visit and to speak at our first public forum to promote blogging.
We also wish to thank Rising Voices, an outreach initiative of Global Voices supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to put Malaysia on its radar screen.
We understand that Rising Voices aims to extend the benefits and reach of citizen media by connecting online media activists around the world and supporting their best ideas through three main strategies: ( 1 ) Microgrants; ( 2 ) Outreach Curriculum and ( 3 ) Networking.
The next round of Rising Voices microgrants will be announced in two weeks time, Anyone in Malaysia who wish to explore the possibilities of applying for such grants may visit the official website, or contact this blogger.
Read this before you post a comment in this blog!