Keadilan website under attack

Not only are opposition voices restricted in the mainstream, but entities are also determined to silence them in cyberspace. On 27 February, Naththaniel Tan confirmed that SuaraKeadilan.com had gone down due to Dos attacks against the website. On his blog, jelas.info, Nathaniel Tan informed his readers that the site was successfully restored and will benefit from backup measures currently being implemented. Due to the virtual nature of “hactivist” warfare, the source will likely remain unknown—the attacks could be the work of an organization or an individual hactivist.

Also posted on jelas.info (29 February) were three election videos worth watching. Produced by the youth group, Youth for Change, the cleverest of the three was critical of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s proposed solution to price inflation: “change your lifestyle”. The video presented an upstanding, suit-adorned citizen with a car, who was eventually reduced to wearing a sarong and Japanese slippers (with no mode of transportation). As prices increased and the citizen’s situation worsened, the character portraying Deputy Prime Minister Najib barked “change your lifestyle” from behind a podium. The closing caption suggested a change of government instead.

Targeting the increased crime rate, another video showed a police officer sleeping beneath a copy of a “Perutusan” newspaper, while a computer, a television, and the young girl watching it (a mannequin) were stolen. The video was well done and the message obvious, but the reenactment of a kidnapping—enhanced by a voice-over of a child crying—is perhaps a bit insensitive for an election video. It does, however, fit in with Nathaniel Tan’s tendency to use the pictures of rape and murder victims to highlight the BN’s ineptitude in crime prevention. The value of the third video was found predominantly in its comic relief, as it is more or less a humorous, though unconstructive, affront to the ruling coalition.