All-Blogs must NOT go to Ijok

I have been observing with interest this post of Susan Loone's, pushing All-Blogs to go to Ijok to "campaign for freedom of speech for bloggers". The arguments going in her comment section seems to have gone awry, attacking people based on their political inclinations (which is totally irrelevant and somewhat childish). Noone seems to care about what I see as the bigger picture, i.e. the future of All-Blogs to be able to unite all bloggers, to educate and to engage the government about blogging.

I wish I could put it in a more diplomatic way (since there are other segments of the cyberspace who strongly agree with Susan) but my opinion is: NO. All-Blogs must NOT go to Ijok.

Firstly, as I have mentioned here in my recommendations for All-Blogs, All-Blogs has to undergo an image revamp. It is important from several levels, to engage more people to blog, and to calm the government down, convince them that we are not here to topple it, but to help it improve our beloved country. We have to be neutral (and perceived so), and change has to come gradually. Not radically, and definitely not when All-Blogs is less than one month old and is still trying to define its existence.

Strategically speaking, it is suicide, for All-Blogs to "campaign", during the clash of the titans. To be there, to be waving the (not yet existent) flag of All-Blogs, will just increase the government’s apparent paranoia towards bloggers. Who's gonna hear, or believe, your cries of “All-Blogs is supporting neither the Opposition or Ruling Party”? Perception is the truth. Besides, at Ijok, the heated atmosphere will force us (All-Blogs) to take sides. Even in Susan’s post, people are taking sides already.

If we go to Ijok and present a referendum, saying "support my referendum, or siaplah kau", do you seriously believe that something good will come out of that? Here are some likely scenarios:

1. Govt becomes even more paranoid and (futile) blogger registration exercises are expedited.
2. Govt laughs at bloggers. With the full capacity of RM36mil behind Ijok. Govt laughs hard.
3. Opposition makes use of All-Blogs for their political speeches. All-Blogs sinks deeper into its anti-establishment image and loses whatsoever hope it has left of being a neutral entity, able to educate govt about what blogs are, and engage govt for healthy dialogue.
4. All-Blogs is ignored. What? We are not as important as we think we are?
   

You can say, fuck the government, they’re the ones behind times, they’re the ones that should listen to us, the almighty bloggers, wielding our keyboards and whatnot, to champion for democracy and freedom of speech. The government says: Fuck you back.

Are we out to prove that our (figurative) balls are bigger than the government’s? Stay focused, people. The good of the country. Getting heard by those who matter. Talking not only to the enlightened, but also to everybody else. Get the drift?

The second thing is, All-Blogs should not do anything of this sort without the agreement of the majority of its members, or at this moment, its committee members (which I am not part of =P). The constitution is not even out to state the All-Blogs’ policies towards these issues! I absolutely refuse to be represented by an entity which I do not believe in.

Yes, bloggers can go by their personal capacities to observe the campaigning process and perhaps provide us with insights overlooked by the mainstream media. But please spare All-Blogs.

I have actually spoken to Rocky about this matter. There seems to be a mix-up of sorts, which I hope that he will clarify a.s.a.p. What I have read and what he has told me seems to be two different scenarios.