YOURSAY 'Is Ahmad Shabery a secret agent of the Singapore government? Why is he following the law of Singapore?'

'Gov't to study feasibility of regulating online portals'

Chee Hoe Siew: I am staying in Singapore and I know that the Singapore government's ruling to requiring websites with more than one Singapore news article per week and with 50,000 viewership to obtain a licence and slap a S$50,000 deposit has created an uproar among the netizens.

This led to an embarrassing backtracking from the authorities. Already another round of protest has been called against the republic's Media Development Authority (MDA).

So the Malaysia government wants to follow suit? I think the reaction will be worse than Singapore.

Anon.ymous: Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek, are you taking a dig at the rakyat when you say, "Now that Singapore, a country that people see as more sophisticated, has come up with the regulation, so we will look into its feasibility"?

Everyone (except you, perhaps) knows that regulation of the news media in this age of the Internet is akin to catching fish with a broken net.

The people just want to have a voice in how their nation is being run and not being dictated to like a bunch of schoolboys being terrified by the discipline master who wields the rotan at every perceived misbehaviour.

The opposition in Singapore has made much headway in recent years because of this, despite the fact that the economy is doing well and affairs of state are generally well-managed over there.

Ferdtan: Is Ahmad Shabery a secret agent of the Singapore government? Why is he following the law of Singapore?

The PAS renegade Hasan Ali is right when he said that there is a political party which wants to join Sinagapore. He got it a bit mixed up; it turns out to be Umno and not DAP.

If the government were to control the last bastion of free and uncensored information, we shall all march to protest against such act. There are millions of young users in the social media and you can be sure the crowd will be more than the Bersih 3.0.

Malaysian Born: There is no point in holding up Singapore as an example as they have been trying to get a handle of the dissent there as their controlled media has been taking a beating from the Internet.

It's time to wake up and smell the coffee, technology has reached the point that censorship cannot work on economies that want to grow and thrive.

Sad Malaysian: Singapore copied China's dictatorial censorship and we're copying Singapore's move.

Jedi_Who: If you have a relatively clean government and good governance like Singapore then you can start aping them. We have neither, so it's better to shut up and start doing some real work.

Neutralgrounds: I knew it, I just bloody knew it. When the news broke that Singapore online news required licence, I said to myself, it will also be implemented here.

I just didn't know it will be this fast. Very efficient indeed.

RJ: The main reason, if not the only reason, Ahmad Shabery wants to regulate the news portals is Malaysiakini.

But gone are the days when the rakyat followed the government blindly. The youth of nowadays are bright and can no longer be hoodwinked.

'40,000 Bangladeshi voters in GE13? That's absurd!'

The Observer: The high commissioner should provide a list of the 100 plus Bangladeshis who were 'naturalised'. Compare that against the list of the Bangladeshis that were listed on the electoral roll and explain the difference.

If the whole country has only 100 plus naturalised Bangladeshis, it is rather strange that Pandamaran alone has one busload of about 150 plus that were allegedly going to vote.

FairGame: High Commissioner AKM Atiqur Rahman, where have you been for the past two months?

We have been talking about your countrymen who are already here in Malaysia, and who are being used (and of course rewarded) to vote for the government which 51 percent of my countrymen does not recognise.

Your decision to comment on this issue only now seems like you have been 'cajoled or promised' some reward in kind.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Dear official, the 40,000 is from within Malaysia, not from your motherland. There are more than 40,000 Bangladeshis in Malaysia, the problem is they voted, when they should have not.

So please, we were on the ground and we saw your nationals and caught them in the act. There may be a group of Malays who will not mind your nationals voting here but trust me, the youth in Malaysia today will not tolerate what your countrymen are doing to their future here.

Anonymous #85701391: Mr High Commissioner, even if one of your countryman voted, that's bad enough.

Since you have come out to teach us, Malaysians, the logistical issue, do us a favour, tell us the total number of your countrymen who were registered with or tracked by your embassy in this country on May 6, 2013. Forget about the illegals, just the legal ones will do.

Overlord: "There are even Bengali families who have been here for more than 100 years and are in their third generation. Do you not consider them Malaysian?"

So, MIC, PPP and Hindraf, any comment as to those stateless Indian? It's seem to be the Bangladeshis are having better back-up than what you can provide to your own kin.

Psycho: It is easier to have Indonesians registered as phantom voters and walk among us rather than having Bangladeshis.

The similarity of Malay Malaysians and Indonesians are 99 percent whereas the differences between a Bangladeshi and Malaysians are 99 percent noticeable.

Whom would the BN government prefer to choose? Come on Malaysians, use your brains.

Rober727: It would be better for his excellency the high commissioner to interview their workers before making the final decision on this matter.

Don't just talk about 40,000 being not possible, even 400,000 is possible because Malaysia Boleh.

Multi Racial: I bet if Pakatan Rakyat had won the GE13, this Bangladesh high commissioner will talk differently. Something like "the previous regime should not have abused Bangladesh workers. They are here to earn living, that's all."

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