Malaysian Blogs: (Where) Got Nice To Read

Blogs. The democratization of media. The mouthpiece of many. The bane of our authoritarian government.

If you're a typical Malaysian blog reader you'd have stopped after the above statement and permanently marked this blog off as 'serious stuff lah, no nice to read'. I'm sitting over at the Swinburne computer lab writing this post (sorry for the lack of images, I'll go home and add later on) and a guy in front of me just finished reading through Kennysia, Xiaxue and Smashpop, in that order.

No Jeff Ooi.

No Huffington Post.

No O' Reilly.

No thinking blogs of any manner.

The guy is scrolling through Xiaxue again. I see a lot of rabbits. Why in the world would a discerning, intelligent college student scroll through pictures of rabbits?

There is this phenomenon in the Malaysian blogosphere. I call it the Got Nice To Read frame of mind. According to this theory, the most widely read blogs in the Malaysian blogosphere must have the following qualities:

1. Have lots of big pictures. Everywhere. In every post. With every line. Take Kenny Sia (disclosure: I'm an ardent fan of Kennysia, for reasons I can't yet fathom), for example. Picture after picture after picture ... of himself swimming, running, his iPod, his trip to Egypt. Little words.

2. Blogger behind blog must be a camwhore. This means lots of pictures of the said blogger. Showing off his/her new nose, his/her new BF/GF, his/her new haircut. Us Malaysians love peering into the nose hairs and body cavities of our internet idols.

3. Must Review Food/Toilet Bowls. Almost all successful Malaysian blogs have to have one or more posts about food. Chickenricenasilemakburgertimes. I contribute this to the fact that Malaysia is one country where fist fights can start over where to find the best Laksa. Toilet bowls? We Malaysians are discerning people, and we guard the thrones housing our butt cheeks very protectively.

4. Must write about superficial topics. You're not a Malaysian a-lister if you write about real, happening topics that affect everyone. You can write about how you won the recent Nasi Lemak eating competition, you can write about how much you've spent in Blook. But the instant you start subjective analysis about the democratization of media and the New Education Policy people start running away from you and your blog like you've contracted the plague.

5. Must write little. If writing about superficial topics isn't bad enough, most successful Malaysian bloggers write little. They post up hundreds of pictures, but their commentary on recent social issues are usually 1-5 liners. Why? I've no idea. Our eyes are not made for text. We have attention spans of a 3 year old. We are Malaysians.

Consumer consumption in Bolehland rocks. Big time.

Let me make this post clear: I'm not saying these blogs are lousy. I'm not saying Kenny Sia's and Xiaxue's and Smashpop's blogging styles are wrong, or can be improved upon. There is no such thing as a correct blogging style, just as there is no right way to write novels. All I'm saying is that I'm sick of it. Why can't we have good, topical bloggers writing about local issues that maintain a degree of integrity? Why aren't we reading more of these blogs?

Andrew Ho is perhaps the greatest single example of this. He caters for Malaysian readers who don't want to think. I love his posts, I really do. I read them frequently. But that's because he's a friend, and I read all my friends blogs.

When I give him a link to, say, Dooce (who was nominated for a writing award early this year), he rejects. He's started rejecting all the thinking blog links and industry news blogs I've been sending to him.

So far I've only found two Malaysian bloggers who write beautifully, with substance, and with depth (not politics, like Jeff, who is in a league of his own). One of them is a pleasant (and much needed) breath of fresh air: Zewt, who writes about social issues in a way that most of us Malaysians can understand. I like the way he handles issues, starts discussions, and am very glad he did not go down the many photo little words path.

The other is Kamigoroshi, aka Edrei Zahari. He's now one of the leaders of the Personal community over at 9Rules, the blogging network that places quality above all other factors.

Some of the bloggers there are incredibly influential.

A lot of them command multinational audiences that make Xiaxue and Kenny Sia and Smashpop (and all the other blogs we read and many imitate), seem pathetic.

But we're not reading them.

We're not imitating them.

Why?

Bolehland prevails.