Malaysia's Ministry of Transport has built a web site called Pandu Cermat (malay for "drive safe") where any motorist may upload digital photos of another motorist's traffic violations - apparently in a bid to acquire some of the characteristics of the "Ministry of Love."
Quite apart from being a stupid move, because it intrinsically encourages use of cameraphones by drivers, it is also contrary to the ideal that traffic laws should not be retributive. For example, the main purpose of speed cameras is not to fine errant drivers, but to ensure that the speed limits are kept to, and to that end in civilised countries it is standard procedure to ensure that signs of the speed limit (and advertising the fact that a speed camera is present) are standard.
Having citizens report on one another is also tantamount to having secret informants - and this has long been recognized as a danger to free society. In his Constitutional History of England, written in the mid-19th century, Sir Thomas May observed:
Men may be without restraints upon their liberty; they may pass to and fro at pleasure: but if their steps are tracked by spies and informers, their words noted down for crimination, their associates watched as conspirators -- who shall say that they are free? - 1863, p. 275.
So - Malaysia - Stop it.
[The Raw Feed via Techdirt]
