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The powers that be will do better in loosening their grip on the mainstream media than get into a fight for the hearts of the elitist inhabitants of blogosphere, of whom this writer SHARIZAL SHAARANI can be counted as one.

The Malaysian Insider 

To accuse the lack of savvy on the government’s part to shape public opinion online is short sighted and will likely end up being counterproductive.

There are many reasons people would think why websites and blogs are getting more popular day by day.

News portals such as The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini try to provide alternative news or even angles that are not presented by the mainstream media.

Personal websites or blogs such as Screenshots and Malaysia-Today gained mythical status and its writers turned celebrities because many believed that that have been unfairly roughed up by the authorities.

Others are already superheroes or supervilains in their own right, so when Tun Mahathir, KJ, Chua Soi Lek or Umno’s Mike Tyson blogs, its followers will mainly either regurgitate praises or spew out rabid criticisms. Constructive comments and honest suggestions are usually far and few in between.

But a glaring theme that spreads over all the above reasons why the New Media is popular simply boils down to the fact that the rakyat is crying for alternative points of view and they wish for someone to react, respond or even just to lend an ear to their raving rants and complaints.

The rakyat is sick of one-sided news in the mainstream media and is sick of dissenting voices being muzzled by unnecessary snipping in self-censorship by editors.

Simply put, despite the assurances of "various channels" that the government promised to provide for feedback and grouses, Malaysians still crave for more space to engage with the powers that be and this is because such "channels" are inadequate, slow to follow up or even non-existent.

Rather than to engage with the bloggers in the elitist Malaysian blogosphere, the government should relax controls on the mainstream media and engage the rakyat directly.

The Cabinet should act upon and support Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar’s proposal to have media licences issued once during application and not renewed annually.

Mainstream media must encourage news editors and TV programmes to reach out to dissenting views, present all sides to a story and to let the facts stand out for themselves.

And speaking of facts, the Barisan Nasional government should also seriously consider the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.

As it is, access to some important information is blocked and shrouded in secrecy. The Freedom of Information Act will seal the BN government’s commitment to transparency and accountability to information, failing which, the rakyat will continue to be frustrated with the lack credible information and will be patronised by simplistic excuses and biasness in information dissemination.

This will lead to more worshipping of websites that the BN government is accusing of spreading lies.

No amount of "engagement" online or otherwise will be able to help BN to get out of the mess it arrogantly created itself.

However, politicians who are seen to be personally attacked by various elements online must also not hide behind any form of government machinery be it the law of some obscure government policy.

If these politicians are serious about engaging the virtual public then they themselves must personally engage through their own personal blogs.

Let the individual politicians engage the virtual public at their own expense. The government should not have to have to engage bloggers virtually.

The existing rules of engagement can be relaxed and improved via mainstream media and the Freedom of Information Act to engage with the rakyat directly.

We are already in great financial dilemma with the current oil price crisis so the BN government must not waste or direct resources unnecessarily to fund such virtual contests for public opinion.

All the BN government needs to do is to govern properly and do it for free.

Sharizal Shaarani has been unfairly called a seasonal blogger but remains a popular figure in the blogosphere. He blogs occasionally at www.sharizal.net amidst his main pursuit of living life well!

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