Of late there have been many warnings issued by the powers-that-be in the country to the effect that the Internet may soon come under closer government supervision and control. Despite the government's earlier commitment to creating a free and open Internet cyberspace for its citizens to explore and enjoy at leisure, it is now clear that the authorities have finally come to realise that cyberspace is a different kind of terrain altogether that recognises no boundaries.

As the frontiers of cyberspace are pushed ever outwards, our sedimented perceptions and notions about freedom of speech are invariably contested as well.

It is sad to see how little the ruling elite in the country has evolved over the years, if not over the centuries. Till today the feudal mindset that animates those in power in the country have more in common with the traditional outlook of the Rajas of old, who believed that they were the masters of all that they surveyed.

Like the Rajas of the past, the rulers of the present believe that their powers extend to the point of epistemic arrest: to be able to dictate Truth itself on their terms. Yet the rulers of the present are thwarted today as their predecessors were in the past. We can draw a parallel with the conflict between the Kaum Muda (Younger Generation) and Kaum Tua (Older Generation) of the turn of the century.

Long before the advent of the conflict that we see in the country today, the pace of social reform and political mobilisation in Malaya was speeded up thanks to the efforts of a generation of progressive Malay and Peranakan thinkers who were based in the British colonial settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore.

It was they who laid the foundations for the development of modernist and reformist Islamic colleges (Madrasahs) at the turn of the century and the emergence of a vernacular Islamist press.

At that time the Malay world was split into two mutually irreconcilable groupings: the ruling traditional elite led by the Royals and aristocrats based in the Malay sultanates on the peninsula; and the modernist reformist Malay and Peranakan intelligentsia who were based in the more cosmopolitan centres on the West coast.

Both groups were worried about the future development of the country and their collective fate under British rule. The royal families and aristocrats launched a number of initiatives that were aimed at protecting the interests of the local communities against the onslaught of British political and economic hegemony.

One such effort was the Majlis Agama Kelantan (Kelantan Religious Council) that was formed in 1915. But the Majlis and many other bodies like it soon came under the leadership and patronage of traditional Malay rulers who were more interested in protecting the interests of the traditional ruling elite than the ordinary Malay masses.

The task of genuine social reform and political organisation therefore went instead to the new generation of Malay reformers and modernists who came to be known as Kaum Muda .

The Kaum Muda reformers were mostly Malay and Peranakan Muslims who had grown up in the British colonial settlements. The inheritors of a different intellectual tradition which went back to the time of Munshi Abdullah Abdul Kadir, they viewed the condition of the people from a radically different perspective.

Unlike the native subjects of the Malay kingdoms, these urban-based Malay and Peranakan Muslims did not live under the influence of courtly protocols or traditional adat law. They were shaped instead by the values and lifestyle of a modern, cosmopolitan mercantile community where economic and political success was the key to survival.

Among the more important and influential figures of the Kaum Muda were the Sumatran-born Sheikh Mohamad Tahir Jalaludin al-Azhari and Malaccan-born Syed Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hadi. Both of them were regarded as representatives of the Kaum Muda generation and they were very much attracted to the reformist and modernist ideas that were en vogue in the Muslim world at the time.

It was through the educational efforts of Sheikh Mohamad Tahir Jalaludin that the radical ideas and methods of the newer generation of Muslim thinkers like Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida were introduced to the Malay-Muslims of the peninsula.

Like the other reformers of the time, Sheikh Mohamad Tahir condemned many of the traditional practices and institutions around him. In particular he singled out the lifestyle and values of the ruling elite (which he regarded as morally corrupt, decadent and unjust) as well as the teaching methods of the conservative ulama (which he argued was out of date and counter-productive) as the main reasons why the Muslim Ummah had sunk to the low state that it had found itself.

Sheikh Mohamad Tahir's work was taken up by Syed Sheikh al-Hadi who was both a prolific writer and founder of numerous modern reformist Madrasahs all over the peninsula.

Syed Sheikh al-Hadi was particularly interested in reforming the institution of the Madrasah and Pondok, for he believed that education was the key to solving many (if not all) of the problems that the Muslims were facing at the time. He set up numerous Madrasahs, including the Madrasah Al-Hadi in Malacca and the Madrasah Al-Mashoor in Penang.

Apart from his stress on modernisation and development of Malay and Islamic studies, Sheikh al-Hadi's views on women were also radically different from that of the traditionalists and conservatives of the time. He argued in defence of women's education and equal rights, and constantly brought up the topic of women's welfare in his magazine al-Ikhwan as well as the two novels which he wrote, Hikayat Faridah Hanum and Hikayat Puteri Nurul'ain .

Along with other reformist thinkers like Haji Abbas Mohamad Tahar and the Acehnese Sheikh Mohamad Salim al-Kalali, the new generation of reformist Malay and Peranakan Muslims began to introduce a whole new outlook and set of values to the Malays of the peninsula that challenged some of their most basic understandings and beliefs.

Long before the creation of the Internet, the main instruments of the reformers were their network of reformist Madrasahs and the progressive journals, magazines and newspapers that they published themselves.

Among the more popular and influential of the journals were Al-Imam (published by Sheikh Mohamad Tahir and Syed Sheikh al-Hadi in Singapore), Al-Ikhwan (by Syed Sheikh al-Hadi in Penang), Seruan Azhar (by Kesatuan Jamiah al-Khairiah - the Malay Students Association of Al-Azhar, Cairo), Pilihan Timur (by Indonesian students at Al-Azhar in Cairo) and the teachers' magazine, Majalah Guru .

While the traditional establishment looked on in horror, the reformers began to collect around them a number of young followers who would later on take on the cause of reform and modernisation in the Malay world.

In response to the tide of change from outside, the Malay Rajas and aristocrats accused these reformers of treason ( derhaka ) against their rulers. The ulama of the Malay states and courts issued countless fatwa against the reformers themselves and their teachings.

The Muftis and Sheikh'ul Islam of the Malay states condemned the ideas and teachings of the reformers on the grounds that they were irreligious, kafir and/or influenced by Kadiani (Qadiani) ideas.

Despite the polemics launched against the Kaum Muda activists though, the objective of the reformers had been achieved in more ways than one. The Malay and Peranakan Muslims of the peninsula began to think seriously about their economic, social and political condition and they sought ways and means to better their lot.

By the first and second decades of the 20th century, the Malay-Muslims had begun to organise themselves into modern socio-political movements.

Today we seem to be witnessing a re-enactment of the Kaum Muda vs Kaum Tua conflict right before our eyes. On one side there are the younger generation of Malaysians whose concerns are based more on ideas such as the need for social, political and structural reform of their country.

They are not prepared to sit back and allow the existing political system rot before their eyes for the sake of "Asian values" or traditional respect and deference to authority.

On the other side there are the ruling elite who seem to resemble their traditional predecessors from the feudal era more and more by the day. While the younger generation are calling for change and an honest analysis of the ills of their society, the elder generation clinging on to power can only chant the litany of respect, loyalty and obedience to the state and kerajaan.

In the past, those who fought to reform and develop their society were hindered by feudal elites who used whatever weapons they had at their disposal, ranging from fatwas from ulama to royal decrees issued by the Rajas.

Today the state tries to stem the rising tide of discontent with new libel laws, lawsuits and now, talk of an Internet surveillance system to police the corridors of cyberspace. Sooner or later, this impasse will have to be broken.

But in the past it was the younger generation that eventually won the day. For the truth is that history is always on the side of change and development, and inevitably all the walls of officialdom will crumble before its relentless advance. Thus it was in the past, and no doubt it will be so in the future as well.