The word Balkanization or Balkanisation (Balkanisasi in Malay) refers to the noun, Balkan which means dividing a territory into small states. To ease the understanding of the term, it is also similar to the word collapse, break up, separation or even division. This basically refers to terms in politics, life and style, and economy in a country which is going through a division caused by the balkanisation of a subject. According to the article given by Dr. Rahmat Ghazali, it is referring to the cyber balkanisation.
Cyber balkanisation or balkanisation through the internet has been a hot topic lately in our country, Malaysia as the political state of our country has been the word of mouth. Through the internet, readers and subscribers may choose what they read from what they want to know instead of receiving the actual fact and from this, of course what they are eager to know could be easily obtained without getting the urge to even read other facts which may be true and more reliable compared to the facts that the readers or subscribers believe in.
Because of the freedom of speech through the internet has no limitations or any gatekeepers to guide and strain what goes on and what has been uploaded, readers and subscribers have their own rights to choose in what they want to read and believe.
As an example, the most easiest way to show about cyber balkanisation in Malaysia which effects a lot towards the political side of our country is the case on the Bersih 2.0 rally in the month of June 2012 in the streets of Kuala Lumpur (as the main gathering location). The rally started off as a calm protest but suddenly turned out to be aggressive when tear gas started aiming the protesters, and the protesters began to start their rage and became violent. To differentiate and compare on reports and news on this case between cyber or online news and printed media (magazines, newspapers, etc.), there shows different point of views and different ways of reporting about the case. We could see some media have been accused for being bias to one political party, and of course as the internet is a free and non protected source of information, people tend to make up stories and cause a bigger wave of hatred to one another (political party).
Besides than political views, through religious beliefs, respect towards ethnics in the country, the misuse of freedom of speech and the misuse of limitless and free internet access may also be a cause to balkanisation in the country. For example, to create websites is expensive, but to create a blog is free. Therefore, people create a blog to write anything they want (because of no gatekeepers) and by anything it could be something that might be sensitive to anyone. Blogs and sites talking about bad things on a religion, using racism or even sexism in their text, sharing false information are now widely seen on the internet. For instance, as what Dr. Rahmat Ghazali stated, if we search "Melayu babi" on Google, there will be more than 100,000 results related to the topic. Not just that, even tips on how to kill a person will result to almost 50,000 related articles to the topic. These could be a start in leading towards robbery, rape and even murder.
Division between political parties, religion and ethnics is what we should avoid in order to raise the name of our Malaysia and show the spirit of 1Malaysia throughout our daily lives. We may have the rights to speak up, voice out and say what we want to say, but there are their limitations. Balkanisation shall be avoided.
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Artikel 3: BALKANISASI SIBER: GANGGUAN KEPADA SEMANGAT 1MALAYSIA (Malay) by Dr. Rahmat GhazaliCyber balkanisation or balkanisation through the internet has been a hot topic lately in our country, Malaysia as the political state of our country has been the word of mouth. Through the internet, readers and subscribers may choose what they read from what they want to know instead of receiving the actual fact and from this, of course what they are eager to know could be easily obtained without getting the urge to even read other facts which may be true and more reliable compared to the facts that the readers or subscribers believe in.
Because of the freedom of speech through the internet has no limitations or any gatekeepers to guide and strain what goes on and what has been uploaded, readers and subscribers have their own rights to choose in what they want to read and believe.
As an example, the most easiest way to show about cyber balkanisation in Malaysia which effects a lot towards the political side of our country is the case on the Bersih 2.0 rally in the month of June 2012 in the streets of Kuala Lumpur (as the main gathering location). The rally started off as a calm protest but suddenly turned out to be aggressive when tear gas started aiming the protesters, and the protesters began to start their rage and became violent. To differentiate and compare on reports and news on this case between cyber or online news and printed media (magazines, newspapers, etc.), there shows different point of views and different ways of reporting about the case. We could see some media have been accused for being bias to one political party, and of course as the internet is a free and non protected source of information, people tend to make up stories and cause a bigger wave of hatred to one another (political party).
Besides than political views, through religious beliefs, respect towards ethnics in the country, the misuse of freedom of speech and the misuse of limitless and free internet access may also be a cause to balkanisation in the country. For example, to create websites is expensive, but to create a blog is free. Therefore, people create a blog to write anything they want (because of no gatekeepers) and by anything it could be something that might be sensitive to anyone. Blogs and sites talking about bad things on a religion, using racism or even sexism in their text, sharing false information are now widely seen on the internet. For instance, as what Dr. Rahmat Ghazali stated, if we search "Melayu babi" on Google, there will be more than 100,000 results related to the topic. Not just that, even tips on how to kill a person will result to almost 50,000 related articles to the topic. These could be a start in leading towards robbery, rape and even murder.
Division between political parties, religion and ethnics is what we should avoid in order to raise the name of our Malaysia and show the spirit of 1Malaysia throughout our daily lives. We may have the rights to speak up, voice out and say what we want to say, but there are their limitations. Balkanisation shall be avoided.
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