This is evident from the recent spate of cyber attacks against anti-government sites and even pro-establishment blogs criticising or exposing questionable conduct of the powers that be.
Recently reports have emerged of predominantly pro-BN or anti-opposition blogs like Apanama, A Kadir Jasin's The Scribe, Helen Ang and NegaraKita having difficulties of being accessed, supposedly due to selective filtering.
These blogs are known to be highly critical of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his administration despite their pro-BN leanings.
On the other hand, the Bruno Manser Funds website, which is mounting a campaign against former Sarawak chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has also been hit by a cyber attack that brought its servers down, forcing it to shift on social media platforms.
This follows earlier attacks on independent news portal Malaysiakini, anti-Taib whistle-blowing website Sarawak Report and the selective censoring of access to various foreign news reports on Malaysia which the powers that be view as contentious.
The attacks range from highly sophisticated distributed denial of service attacks to selective filtering of specific content or even websites at local ISP access points.
Someone is certainly tampering with Malaysia's no-censorship Internet policy highlighted in its pledge when launching the Multimedia Super Corridor.
Those responsible should know that once something is officially banned or even if there is a whiff of news that a site is under cyber attack, people are more likely to seek out the banned material or site to see what the fuss is all about.
A lesson taught to the government by none other than former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed himself, when he was younger and more vigorous.
Growing up, one of the stories I was regaled with was the infamous 1969 Mahathir Letter by Mahathir, then an "ultra-Malay" pulling a Perkasa on his own party Umno, which was banned by the then government.
The hard-hitting letter, which analysed the troubles in nascent Malaysia as being from the economic imbalance afflicting the Malays, was reportedly circulated by the very angry young Mahathir, calling for then PM Tunku Abdul Rahman's resignation.
My relatives would tell me how seemingly innocent school children would transport the letter in their socks to avoid suspicion and how it was passed from person to person and ardently read.
It went beyond its original circulation in Kampung Baru, the flashpoint of the May 13 racial riots, to all over the nation the moment the government declared it illegal.
The intoxicating effect of the "banning" drew more and more people to it despite the risk of arrests, fines and maybe even incarceration.
But are cyber attacks a knee-jerk reaction of the authorities due to the “fear factor” of online sites and their ability to carry news that Malaysia's shackled print media dare not?
Or truly, is there currency in blocking sites that can actually help stifle dissent?
Recent events and previous cyber attacks have shown that this is not the case, more so in the age of the lightning fast social media where all blocked or banned content will find a way to circulate, the new version of the Mahathir Letter in schoolchildren's socks.
And even if the government takes down the net just to stop criticism, I am sure what happened in modern revolutions all over the world will take place too, as activist Hishammuddin Rais calls it, the A4 revolution, the spread of information through the low-tech printed matter.
Considering this, the government’s multitude of media advisors would probably have advised against it.
Is this then the action of minions currying favour, or over-sensitive little Napoleons jumping at each and every online shadow?
Whatever the case, as the outdated and strongarm cyber attack, banning or blocking continues, more and more people who previously wouldn't have bothered to will check out whatever affected site or content, whichever way they can.
This is something that the powers that be or little Napoleons should take heed.
By Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
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