BlueHyppo, the Telekom portal, celebrates its first birthday in MidValley tomorrow, on April 14, which is also the day of mourning for justice and democracy the day when Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to six years imprisonment in 1999, on the charge of corruption.
Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor and Saari Sungib were among the reformasi activists who were detained under the Internal Security Act in relation to an opposition plan for a massive Black 14 demonstration which was accused by the government of being a blanket for militant revolt.
But why am I talking about BlueHyppo, MidValley and Black 14 in the same breath?
BlueHyppo is a symbol of the increasing usage and importance of the Internet in the country. Of course, it must be acknowledged that the Internet is still far from being the media of the masses. Whether limited through the lack of technical know-how or the lack of economic means to gain access to the Internet, the majority of Malaysians get their entertainment and news largely from Umno-linked Utusan , government-controlled private broadcast station TV3 and PAS organ Harakah .
It does not help that the language of the Internet is primarily English. Furthermore, even among the younger, urban Malaysians, the habit of touching and (perhaps) even smelling what you are reading puts the Internet as the secondary medium.
Power of the Net
Nevertheless, Premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is keen for our country to ride the waves of the information revolution. Not satisfied with the numerous skyscrapers, my Proton Wira that always breaks down, and a beautiful administrative capital to work at, he put into force the Multimedia Super Corridor, or the MSC.
To invite investors and spur venture capitalists and netpreneurs, Mahathir had to give a concession there would be no censorship in the Internet, unlike the electronic and mass media.
Admittedly, the MSC has far from reached the initial expectations, but Mahathir's guarantee has allowed critical discussion, dissemination of alternative views and political debates (along with the usual pornography) to grow in the information superhighway.
When reformasi came into the picture in Sept 1998, the Internet joined magazines, tabloids, cassettes and video CDs in providing differing perspectives to the discredited mainstream media. Stuff from e-mails and websites were printed out, and encouraged by opposition leaders, photocopied to be distributed to Mak Ngah and Uncle Muthu in the kampung and estates.
As Harakah multiplied significantly in circulation and Laman Reformasi , Mahazalim and malaysiakini enjoyed hundreds of thousands of hits a day, conservative establishment parrots such as the New Straits Times suffered a huge drop in readership. It is hugely telling that the NST in its cosmetic makeover adopted a variant of malaysiakini 's motto! Such is the power of the Internet.
Youth at the fore
Obviously, at the crest of this Internet revolution is the educated, middle-class, urban Malaysian youth. They have the skills and means to access the vast cyber vault of information. Some are willing to be more critical as they are ones liberated from the mindset that since Umno-MCA-MIC had delivered (at least formally) Merdeka, therefore we should be unquestioningly loyal to them as many older generation Malaysians subscribe to.
The members of this section of society are also the ones who hang out and loiter at MidValley. This is the generation that grew up in a more materialistic Mahathir's Malaysia that played great emphasis on capitalistic development. While a wide range of Malaysian society in the cities while away time withering in these ugly edifices of consumerism, the middle class have the means to do more than just gawk at the latest Sony laptops in glass displays. And it's the youth again the shopping malls celebrate the latest youthful culture more than anything else.
I have to admit that I am part of this phenomenon. When my eyes ache from watching the computer screen and reading too much history, I would head to MidValley which is just a stone's throw away to hang out with friends. It took a friend an activist who took the simple example of MidValley to point out the gross inequality that exists in our society.
"How many of the younger generation realise the plight of the squatters living at the steps of MidValley? Can't they see the absurdity of an immense parking area that could have been made into decent homes for these people?"
The younger generation, with their conscientious understanding of the need for more intellectual liberty, must also be aware of the plight of the common rakyat . Far removed from the politics of the Internet, is the very real and important politics of the people. Many of our grandparents, be they Malay, Chinese or Indian, came from the socio-economically-disadvantaged classes; thus we should not forget our roots.
Fearsome youth
This April 14, the day Blue Hyppo will be blowing a candle on his (it is a he, right?) cake at MidValley, will be the third anniversary of the injustice that befell Anwar Ibrahim and made a mockery of our judiciary. My anti-establishment nature had kept me rather apart from Anwar's exploits in Umno but like many Malaysians, I saw the significance of Anwar's strong support from the masses to make them realise the plight of the Malaysian people as a whole.
"If a former deputy prime minister could face this kind of injustice, what hope lies for the common Malaysian?" remarked Anwar in 1998.
Indeed, a significant number of the voices of dissent are the younger generation, and many belong to the educated middle class. The majority of the 680,000 voters who were denied the right to vote in the previous election were from the younger BlueHyppo-MidValley generation.
Every authoritarian and despotic regime fears the youth for their idealism; the middle class for their financial independence and the educated for their exposure to the ideals of justice and liberty.
Can you imagine how the people at Putrajaya fear us for our combination of all the elements of democratic change?
Yet as BlueHyppo allows us to get differing views and voice out much freely without fear of being penalised; MidValley, Suria KLCC and 1 Utama is lulling us into typical consumerist complacency, and blinkering us from the true state of the nation.
To be successful therefore, we have to mobilise the power of the rest of our generation whose minds are locked in simply the Internet and shopping malls, but seem out of touch with reality.
Our fellow bourgeois comrades need to be shaken from the slumber that everything is good because Malaysia has the world's tallest building, a Formula One circuit and is peaceful enough for a sip of Ice Blended at Starbucks. The problem is, these are out of reach for many Malaysians.
NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD is raring to be the 680,001th new voter. He is the youthful exco of the Political Education Unit of the Institute for Political Research (UPP-IKD) and editor of SuaraAnum.com .
