Kewartawanan dalam talian harus dikawal

Hari-hari yang cukup mencabar bagi masyarakat Malaysia sudah tiba dengan kemunculan arus-arus media baru yang sedang giat dipertontonkan dihadapan masyarakat kita yang berbilang bangsa. Kewartawanan dalam talian dewasa kini telah menjadi medium untuk ahli politik, para sosialis dan realist, pelajar, dan masyarakat umumnya ingin menjadi wartawan yang tidak bertauliah. Dahulu mereka masih tercari-cari bagaimana untuk meluahkan pandangan, menyampaikan idea, pendapat mereka tentang sesuatu perkara amat sukar, tetapi dengan adanya kewartawanan dalam talian, mereka boleh menyalurkan kesemua rasa yang terpendam di dalam lubuk hati dan pemikiran masing-masing melalui blog, website, akhbar parti pembangkang, dan sebagainya.

Menurut mantan perdana menteri, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed ketika berucap mengenai Dilema Ekonomi Bangsa Malaysia di Universiti Putra Malaysia, “kepelbagaian saluran seperti blog boleh dijadikan sebagai platform untuk ahli politik bersuara dan kita boleh menggunakan blog ini untuk menyampaikan pendapat jika kita tidak dapat bersuara di dalam sesebuah parti”. Saya setuju dengan pendapat mantan perdana menteri kita, kadangkala suara yang tidak didengari ini mempunyai kualiti dan idea yang berbeza, maka dengan adanya media baru ini mereka boleh menegakkan pandangan mereka. 

Tetapi, sesetangah daripada mereka yang digelar ‘wartawan tidak bertauliah’ ini telah melampaui batas-batas sehinggakan ada yang menghambur kata-kata jijik dan kurang enak dibaca apatah lagi untuk didengari. Saya bukan ingin menunding jari kepada sesiapa, tapi sebagai pemerhati, saya melihat kewartawanan dalam talian ini harus dikawal agar tidak dijadikan medium untuk mencaci, mengutuk, menghina, antara satu sama lain. Berdasarkan kajian yang dibuat oleh Dr. Rahmat Ghazali didalam artikel ‘Kesan Kebiadaban Di Dunia Siber’, beliau mendapati bahawa caci-cerca dan maki hamun sesame kaum oleh golongan dan individu yang tidak bertanggungjawap amat lumayan seperti berikut; (Melayu Babi, 703,000), (Cina Babi, 661,000), (Keling Babi, 116,000).

Adakah perkara ini yang kita mahu lihat terjadi didalam negara kita? ,disebalik imej Malaysia sebagai negara berbilang bangsa yang aman dan harmoni, tetapi realiti nya, kewartawanan dalam talian ini menjadi duri dalam daging yang menghasutkan semangat perkauman, sifat kebencian antara individu, dan sebagainya. Perkara ini harus dibendung dan dikawal, kelak ia akan menimbulkan bencana yang besar, malah lebih teruk lagi seperti peristiwa hitam berdarah. Malah, perkara ini menjadi semakin parah sehinggakan ada diantara rakyat Malaysia sanggup menghina Almarhum Sultan Johor dengan menulis blog bertajuk “Sultan Johor is Dead, Bravo!” oleh adukateruna.blogspot.com yang menghina dan menghambur kata kesat kepada Almarhum Sultan. Dan saya sebagai umat Islam sendiri amat kecewa apabila penulis blog “adukateruna” ini sanggup mencaci isteri-isteri nabi Muhammad s.a.w di dalam blognya bertaju “sembang mazhab”. Dengan menggunakan bahasa yang tidak sopan, mencari-cerca, beliau seperti boneka yang tidak bermaruah di mata saya. Dengan iman yang tidak seberapa didada, beliau berlagak sombong dan takbur umpama dunia ini beliau yang punya. 

Pada pendapat saya, kerajaan perlu mengawal kewartawanan dalam talian ini dan memantau perkara ini, mungkin ia agak sukar untuk memantau secara satu persatu, tetapi dengan teknologi yang serba canggih sekarang ini, ia tidak mustahil. Ini kerana, pihak Central Investigation Agency (CIA) Amerika Syarikat, telah mempunyai satu kaedah untuk memantau lebih daripada 5 juta perbualan di rangkaian laman media sosial, Twitter, sehari. (sumber daripada Berita Harian Online). Maka, pihak kerajaan harus membuat initiative awal untuk membendung perkara ini sebelum ia mengancam keamanan negara ini. Selain itu, setiap individu haruslah mengetahui had masing-masing sebagai rakyat Malaysia yang hidup dalam berbilang bangsa. Malah, setiap individu harus mempunyai etika untuk dijadikan sebagai panduan untuk mempetahankan keamanan sejagat.

Introduce Military Service

Malaysia is one of the multiracial countries in the world; this is the uniqueness of our pride nation. Our country rich with flora and fauna, traditional culture, foods and etc. which is the selling point for people around the world to visit our country. Apart from that, we as Malaysian must give good image to the outside world what is Malaysia is all about. Moreover, people who have visited Malaysia will praise about the unity of our people. Unity is the major aspect of our achievement in gaining independent in 1957. 

But, in reality, we have faced a major treat since 1969 that keep worsen day by day: the communalism. Our people has been segmented by the British, hence, the communalism was reinforced when political parties started to gain advantages by organizing economic venture and cooperatives in order to make money. 

From my opinion, we have a major treat occurs from inside out of our country. We can see in most armed forces and uniform, which majority of them are Malays. We are the Chinese and Indian in our country goes? Are they doesn’t care about the security and protecting our country?  As a people of Malaysia, we have our own responsibility in protecting our country of any treat come from inside or outside the nation. 

The steps taken by our Government for implementing National Military Service in 2014 is one of the best ideas that will ensure the protection of our country and increase the unity among the youths. They will be trained in all elements of defense of military, in addition to combat operation.

 Before this, we have multiracial Federation Regiment, which is consist all races in Malaysia who fight together to protect our nation from the Communist Terrorist. But this regiment has stunted by the government, since then other races didn’t participate in the armed force. 

I agree with the statement of Lieutenant-General (RTD) Datuk Abdullah Samsuddin, there must be a leader who believe in unity and dedicate themselves to multiracial unity and harmony. Now, our Prime Minister, Dato’ seri Najib Razak has introduce to us the slogan “1 Malaysia” to unite the people in achieve the objective of Malaysia itself. 

 Thus, by introducing National Military Service in 2014, youths can realize the importance of unity and dangerous of communalism. They can build the sense of love the country, serve and protect our country as 1 strong Malaysia. 

However, the most important aspect which must be handled seriously is change the mindset among youths and older Malaysian. We step in the same soil, eat same food, and live in same community must work together as a team. Hence, we will become strong, and can defend our pride nation with dignity. 

As a conclusion, the National Military Service is good in increase our unity as one nation, and prevent communalism. I hope that by this military service, the multiracial regiment will reintroduce in our armed forces and give the Chinese and Indian a chance to protect our country together. Work as a team is important, with it; we can prevent any kinds of treat from inside and outside. As the quote taken from the movie Any Given Sunday, Al-Pacino said that “either we work as a team or die as an individual”.

Press freedom and cyber information: a paradox

In the era of globalization, cyber technology plays a vital role in human daily life, to be the medium of communication. Human become more advance day by day with the existing of technology, because it simplify the human activities. With the introduction of BlackBerry, IPhone, tablets such as IPad, and etc. human can send and receive information with just in blink of an eye, without any geographical boundaries, time and cost consuming. Press freedom and cyber information phenomenon has widespread through all the country that imply democracy, people want their thoughts to be heard, express their opinion, but sometimes it can be misleading. However, in Malaysia, the information in the cyber world and the press are bound to the Multimedia and Communication Act (1998) and Printing Presses and Publication Act (1984) respectively. 

Based on my opinion, there is no such thing as freedom when it comes to press and information. Yes, the Malaysian government act stated that “there is nothing in the Act can be construed as permitting the censorship of the Internet (AKM 1998: 3.3)”, but in reality, all the information and press are controlled by other kinds of act such as Internal Security Act (1960), Official Secret Act (1972),  Malaysian Cyber Law and etc. Is this the press and cyber information freedom people are talking about? Think again. We have limited freedom as the reason given by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, we need to restrain our freedom of speech as it may led to touch the sensitivity of the multiracial people in our country. This is the ugly truth about our press freedom and cyber information, but still, Government didn’t have measures to prevent and filtering the information flow in cyber world. Thus, people still can freely apply freedom of speech in the cyber world, they also can upload video, access all the webs, blogging, and the social network site such as Facebook and Twitter creates a new phenomena towards the people. Today, people use this new kind of media to achieve the freedom of speech and cyber information. They can gain access to all webs, spread gossip or rumors to create delinquency and other negative things. Take this for example: 

Profile created by anti-Muslim to criminate our beloved Prophet Muhammad!!

News website condemning the Prime Minister as a snake. 

Is this how we show our respect and thankful to our ex-prime minister??

However, there’s a good thing about press freedom is, it would acts as a check and balance on both individuals and institution – Government, legislature, judiciary, business, civil service, NGO’s and etc. which plays a vital role in building a just and democratic society. It also can prevent corruptions and abuse by being transparent and accountability by reinforce good governance. But, it’s the law of nature, people must have rules and oblige to it in any civilization, they must be restrict in order to control them. The greatest law of all is Allah commandments, which we Muslim have to oblige and bow to it.

To sum up, the press and cyber information freedom was not been fully exercise in Malaysia, because, they are bound to other laws and act. Thus, people must be aware of what they want to say and to publish because if it go across the line you can be prosecute by the legislature body.