Ninjas and Samurais on the Internet

It was in feudal Japan where the samurai was elevated to the status of the most esteemed warrior. It was also feudal Japan that gave the modern world the stereotype of the ninja, the dark, masked, silent assassin. Where the Samurai fought under the strict warrior code, the ninja was effective but only by stealth and trickery.

With a broad brush stroke, one can classify Singaporean bloggers into samurais and ninjas. Mr Brown (Lee Kin Mun) is clearly a samurai. He has made his views and identity known, battered but unbowed. You can disagree with the man’s views, but you cannot question his honour. There are unfortunately too many ninjas out in cyberspace - anonymous bloggers with views that can be attributed to nobody. Almost stranger than fiction, the mainstream media even reported that PAP was also employing ninja tactics in cyberspace to counter the anti-establishment views. Since Mr Brown has already identified himself, he is certainly standing on solid moral grounds to protest at the double standards.

Xenoboy, probably a ninja himself, recently posted his reaction Deep Throat. His theory was that PAP was using anonymous bloggers to infiltrate the internet community, to plant doubts and prevent dissenters from coalescing around a single view. And more to the point, coalescing around his pessimistic view that Singaporeans were miserable, and that their misery was compounded by a system that failed them. Rather ironically, here we have a ninja complaining about the other side using ninja tactics. More importantly, just exactly how the public could find a focal point in the Singaporean cyberspace of bloggers without names is beyond me. One couldn't even ascertain if the person behind the pseudonym was a Singaporean, a foreigner, a real blogger or a spy. Or it could well be one man writing on twenty different blogs to fan anti-establishment views. Who is out there, how many exactly are there, all unknown unknowns. Ninjas.

Just as I wonder how society can properly interact with a population behind veils, I also find it difficult to imagine how proper discourse can take place when every one takes on a hidden identity. The content and message of the blog are obviously important, but the identity of the blogger is no less so, for with it frames the entire context - background, history, credibility, vested interest.

Signing your name to your views is like making a small investment into social trust, a bona fide token that shows you believe others will match you in openly stating their views, honest people speaking honestly, nailing the colours to the mast if you like. It is therefore a pity that even as bloggers claim they are pushing for a more open society, they are doing so behind hidden identities. A proper democratic discourse needs faces, real views attached to real people, not the Mr Pseudonym vs Miss Anonymous variety. More ninjas cannot be good for debate or civil society.