Why So Sensitive?

A Malaysian restaurant owner, Tharumraj Sivaperumal, director of Jothys Sdn Bhd is suing a blogger, Poh Huai Bin for writing on his blog sixthseal.com, according to the director defamatory remarks about his signature dish, the fish head curry.

Click here to read the review.

He claimed that after the posting on the blog in May 2010, his business has suffered severe loss. He's suing for RM6 million. And here's the thing, he's even suing Google for listing the blog in their search engine!

Of course, Google is not going to entertain such a suit. They're just a search engine that index all content in cyber space. They've got nothing to do with the content that webmasters choose to feature on their websites.

I'm really amazed that such a "well-known" restaurant (the owner did claim that his restaurant is featured on The Lonely Planet, so it must be well-known), has to resort to blaming a blogger's posting when business is not doing so well.

I wonder how famous is the blogger that he can affect the business of a "well-known" restaurant. For myself, this is the first time I've heard of this blog and the defamatory remark that the blogger is being accused of.

What's to become of blogging when bloggers have to be extra careful of what they say on their blog? In fact, I think by making negative comments, a blogger would attract more attention.

I think the defamatory remark that Jothy's is suing Poh for has in fact make the restaurant more popular since most people would actually be curious as to how the fish head curry taste like to warrant such a negative comment.

Indian Fish Head Curry

As for me the price tag of the fish head curry is enough to discourage me from trying the fish head curry no matter how curious I am about the taste of the dish.

Anyway, I think everyone has a right to their opinions and if I don't like something, I won't say it outright that I don't like it. I would probably sugar-coat it a bit. But I guess in the online community, sugar-coating won't get you the attention and therefore Poh used words that would really shock people. It's just for the shock effect. Don't be too sensitive, Jothy's.