Racist bloggers: Best to drown their voices

"What is needed is for the largely-civilised online community to drown the voices of the hatemongers."

Racist bloggers: Best to drown their voices
While a deterrence, the law cannot be the silver bullet that slays the racist monster
Friday • October 19, 2007
Nazry Bahrawinazry@mediacorp.com.sg

IF YOU discovered a blog with vulgar, racist remarks, how would you react? For trainee teacher Tanveer Khan, who recently stumbled across two such blogs — apparently created by the same person — it was a no-brainer: Alert the authorities so that this person with a "dangerous mind" could be "stopped".True enough, about a week after his email to the Media Development Authority (MDA), which in turn notified the police, the offending blogs were taken offline, as Today reported.
The incident prompted other readers to write in and direct this newspaper to other offending websites and remarks posted online, including hostile, xenophobic remarks posted on the website of a German dragonboat club in Singapore.A Singaporean on the team told Today: "We have written to the MDA and are seeking their assistance on this ... The (proposed) revised Penal Code addresses offences of people guilty of causing racial and religious disharmony. I wonder if this would qualify."When it comes to online bigots, it seems Singaporeans expect the authorities to intervene. But is that really the best course of action?
Shaped by past incidents, the public reaction is no real surprise. In 2005, three young Singaporeans were convicted under the hitherto little-known Sedition Act after they posted racist remarks online. Two of them were jailed, while the third and youngest was given a two-year probation and ordered to do community service with Malay welfare organisations.Now, with the proposed changes to the Penal Code, which make it easier for the police to crack down on online racists, among others, the current expectations that the authorities will deal with online bigots could become entrenched.While legislation serves as one form of deterrence, it cannot be the silver bullet that slays the multi-headed racist hydra.Member of Parliament Zaqy Mohamad, for one, agrees that it is impossible to monitor everything on the Internet. And while the Government takes a serious view against racism, it cannot possibly crack down on every single racist remark in cyberspace — even if members of the public point them out.More importantly, such an approach may not be the best way to preserve Singapore's racial and religious fabric.At a recent Asian youth summit here organised by the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP), local participants felt that any interfaith dialogue to build bonds between races would be more effective if it were initiated at the grassroots, rather than at the government, level.

By extension, it might be better for citizens to take the lead in protecting the bonds between races. What is there to stop the average citizen from contacting online service provider Google, which owns the service that hosted the two offending blogs, to demand that they be taken down?
When contacted after the racist blogs were blocked, a Google spokesperson said: "When we are notified of the existence of content that violates our terms of service ... if we determine that it does, we will remove it immediately."
Google did not say it would act only if the complaint came from the police. And if one person's voice is not persuasive enough, rally more to the cause.
Some may argue that in cyberspace, where bloggers can hide behind the veil of anonymity, naming and shaming may be nothing more than a sham.
But the true benefit of societal self-policing is not that it can cane or shame the prejudice out of someone's mind, but that it affirms the true virtues of the society.
What is needed is for the largely-civilised online community to drown the voices of the hatemongers.

In the long run, of course, education is the best way to stem racist tendencies. The Education Ministry can take the fight to schools by ensuring sufficient focus on the study of ethnicity and cultures in the syllabi at the primary and secondary level.Case studies of countries such as South Africa and Rwanda, which suffered from apartheid and ethnic cleansing respectively, can help young Singaporeans better understand the need for multiculturalism.On the legislative front, what is now needed is to manage people's expectations. A close look at the amended Penal Code shows that the punishment for causing racial or religious discord — a three-year jail term or a fine, or both — is the same as that of the Sedition Act.So, perhaps it is better to regard the legal revision as a symbolic gesture rather than a sign that the Government will go after all racist bloggers in the same way it did with the three who were prosecuted.Indeed, there has been no word on how the latest incident has panned out. And that may not be a bad thing.The foremost custodians of racial and religious harmony in Singapore, both online and offline, should be its people. If it were not the case, Singapore would not be what it is today. We should never forget that.

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http://www.todayonline.com/articles/217483.asp