Tree of Knowledge

This post is the product of exam study procrastination so bare with me if it seems a bit obtuse.

It’s old news by now, but the recent Malaysian election was a real doozy. As Michael Leigh (econo-blogger Andrew Leigh’s father) wrote at the time in a fascinating article I recommend you check out for yourself:

Yesterday Malaysians voted for change, shocking the leadership of a coalition that has governed Malaysia without a break ever since independence, for half a century. The political landscape has changed overnight, now that the National Front Government has lost its 2/3 majority [that allowed it to pass constitutional amendments]. As of the time of writing the Government has won 137 of the 222 seats in the National Parliament, the opposition has 82, with 3 yet to be decided.

But what particularly caught my attention about the election was the seemingly significant role that the Internet played in the left field result. As The Economist reports:

Television hardly ever covers opposition rallies and speeches. But the online world is delightfully free. Anxious to make Malaysia a high-tech cyber-hub, the county’s former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, exempted websites from the annual licensing requirements that help keep print publications deferential. The 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act decreed that there would be no censorship of the internet.

As the approved pundits stumbled to grasp the stunning implications, some 500,000 Malaysians lost patience, and turned to Malaysiakini, an independent online newspaper, with 35 staff.

Truly, we live in exciting times.

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