More blogging can result in better blogging, since the blogging community resembles a marketplace of ideas where unpopular blogs tend to wither away. So let a thousand keyboards bloom, such that the best ones will flourish.

Sunday Star says...

FIRST, some public officials launched blogs in their respective capacities. Then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak confirmed that the Government would operate blogs to take on critics in the blogosphere.

All of that is welcome, since it promotes two-way political communication. Citizen bloggers have congratulated officials for finally steeling themselves to the challenge of engaging in open dialogue in the larger public interest.

Discussion and debate are healthy and helpful, particularly when they deal intelligently and respectfully with issues of public interest. But they will have to rise above political squabbling to interest and educate Malaysians.

More sophisticated today than before, the Malaysian electorate is rightly disappointed with inarticulate or inaccessible public representatives who claim to act in its name. Malaysians deserve to know their politicians and their politics better.

More blogging can result in better blogging, since the blogging community resembles a marketplace of ideas where unpopular blogs tend to wither away. So let a thousand keyboards bloom, such that the best ones will flourish.

In a similar vein, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Zaid Ibrahim will engage with members of the media today to discuss media freedom and responsibilities.

Any such meeting is welcome, the more so when there have been so few of them.

There need not be a complete meeting of minds on every aspect of every issue. Nonetheless, mutual understanding can be gained and progress made towards enlarging more democratic spaces for the Malaysian media.

Where regulation is still needed, it need not be restrictive. And where laws are still seen to be required on media operations, they need not be punitive.

A more enlightened and people-friendly approach is due from the Government, as is a better sense of social responsibility from bloggers and other new media operatives in particular. As usual this would need to begin with fruitful dialogue, which is about time.

Eventually all parties concerned need to show something substantial from this activity. But until then, today’s dialogue need not be the first and last.

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