Anwar Ibrahim’s Style Revisited: Never Stop Asking

( I suggest you read this in stages as it’s a long one. Answering a simple question: Is Anwar our only choice? If not, what can you do).

On 25th Sep, I wrote a post about Anwar Ibrahim’s political style.

Briefly, my point was Anwar is an opportunist in politics. For all his reformer credentials, his ideology is closer to Bush and the neo-conservatives such as Wolfowitz, Cheney, etc. than a believer in constitutional liberty or liberalism.

The neocon government of Bush lied to the people and their Congress (our Parliament), imprisoned individuals on nothing more than hearsay in Guantánamo, dismissed public prosecutors who refused to bend justice and stood up against the White House, and, in recent days, belligerently asking for tolerance from the American people and support from Congress in the latest Wall Street crisis.

The American public knows how to stand up to their politicians – Bloomberg’s reporting on the recent USD$700 billion bailout plan:

The plan would benefit “a bunch of rich good old boys,” said Seattle bicycle messenger Mark Pilder, 39, on a break from his downtown deliveries. “They’re not going to lose money. They’re shifting the burden to taxpayers. The ones actually making the decisions aren’t in danger of losing any money.

Blog – Short break

Taking a break from the raging mediocrity in our ministerial Cabinet and as Malaysian blogs go into narcissistic navel-gazing mode: speculating about opportunists (unprincipled politicians) and who will be made next Emperor of Malaysia (next PM), I will be going off for a week.

Meantime, my posts on Anwar seem to be gaining notoriety and, in blogs, you have to read them chronologically for what I’m saying. You can click here if you want to.

As for Mahathir, here’s my posts.

If you find yourself all alone with nothing much else on, here’s my top 3 posts:

1. For a better Malaysia – Tony Fernandez, Jeremiah and me;
2. MalaysiaKini – remaining Web news after Malaysia Today?;
3. Alternative vs Mainstream Media in Malaysia.

Finally, the next post will probably be a discussion of what one commenter, ‘Outsider‘ asked – one of which – “Anwar is the best of the worst, what choice do we have?” See the comments in full here.

Simple, but good, question. May be difficult to answer for some. I will try next week – Monday, 6th Oct.

Meantime, Selamat Hari Raya to all Malaysians.

1st Presidential Debate

This is more what I just watched and follow than the drama in Malaysia, re Badawi vs Anwar (vs Mahathir?). If you’ve felt that American politics has no real impact locally, just ask your friendly local branch manager whether the Wall Street crisis has directly impacted you.

It’s certainly affected my thinking, plans, etc.

Anyway, here’s what I got from the 1st presidential debate and the pundits’ thoughts immediately after:

Obama: “(regarding the Wall St crisis) … this is the final verdict of 8 years of Bush administration …“

McCain: “(persistently repeating to Obama) … You don’t understand“.

Pundits (CNN political analysts & reporters) think McCain was condescending and talking down to Obama

David Gergen: McCain close to a neo-con, especially like Bush’s 1st term – attack, attack, attack, ignore everyone else.

David Gergen: Obama reminded him of Kennedy, younger Senator, taking on more experienced Vice-President Nixon and held his own in the first debate. Therefore, established his status – younger, smarter, better.

Christiane Amanpour: Need for America

Visuals for Friday & Sarawak, Malaysia, Borneo

Waiting for the Debate (Sat 8am, Malaysian time). The posters below (also available in pdf) are from Design for Obama (see Resource | Links > Insane Creations). You can download / print / re-design as you wish.

3 sample posters here.

1) “Be like Mike”

http://DesignforObama.org

2) Backward vs Forwards (McCain vs Obama, respectively) | Bigotry vs Clear Thinking

Anwar Ibrahim’s Style of Politics

[Update - 27th Sept: At chedet.com, Mahathir has written a post mocking the United States. This was a day after this post went online. Altho' commenter, "By kamal ahmad on September 26, 2008 11:03 PM" has posted a link here - I doubt Mahathir wrote in reference to my thoughts.

To be clear tho', let me just say Mahathir is no exception - his style of politics is no different, if not worse.

See this article: "Mahathir Mohamad, a client of Abramoff’s who paid $2.2 million to arrange a visit with President Bush in 2002 (raw story)". To be fair, Mahathir corrected the reports saying it was 'merely' USD$1.2 million'.

For a list of articles about Mahathir & Abramoff, a conservative lobbyist convicted for corruption in political scandals]

Comments on my recent post about Anwar Ibrahim went from ‘how did you find this stuff?‘ to ‘well, you really don’t like him very much, do you?‘.

I want to clear up a few points:

• First, I have never met Anwar, so I don’t care about the man. I do care about who will lead Malaysia next and I don’t agree with his ‘say anything, do anything‘ style of politics. He does not stand for anything, other than opportunism – as far as I am concerned

Anwar and the Politics of ISA – Hysteria & Humbug

(from the department of i’m-not-braindead-i-want-to-think)
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[Update-30th Sep: Zaid Ibrahim's open letter to PM asking ISA to be repealed, with reasons]

In 1946, George Orwell ended his essay, “Politics and the English Language“, with this:

“Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Back then Allies had just won the war but Eastern Europeans, and quite a few Russians, were still being sent to mass graves. The target of Orwell were gutless leaders of Allied states who couldn’t stomach another war, this time against the Soviet empire.

Today, 62 years later, in his tradition, but not his place, I too say to our leaders and young Malaysians:

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the decision of our government to imprison lawmakers and journalists, our Ministers’ lack of sincerity in justifying these arrests, the abandonment of political ideology

Anwar Ibrahim – Saviour, or the Wooden Chameleon?

Most readers realise I’m highly sceptical of Anwar Ibrahim.

His rethorical skills delivered in commanding oratory does make him unique in Malaysia today. But his appeal, I will suggest, is very much for narrow-minded Malaysians, absolutists following the Piper down the drain.

Most Malaysians can see only one side of the man. Our side, the one for Malaysian masses. When he’s outside Malaysia, his preference for conservative organisations – from newspapers to think-tanks such as the Council of Foreign Relations, has always shielded Anwar from scrutiny.

(For those unfamiliar, conservatives are Bush, Cheney, McCain, Palin – “there’s WMD, let’s kill Iraqis”).

To paraphrase his speech of July 2006, in a Brisbane City Hall, he is certainly free to “throw caution to the wind and seize the moment while he still has the image of reformer (not just the podium) “, yet, keen Malaysian watchers would do well to note his arguments for constitutional liberty a mere 3 months before.

In March of 2006, during his globe-trotting days to shore up international support, Anwar published an eloquently written article in LA Times, and said:

The true cultivation of democracy requires more than simply the

Dear Ministry of Education: Learn Web Metrics

FMCG is for ‘fast moving consumer goods‘. Most readers will not care for such arcane info unless you have drunk ‘Lipton‘ tea, or pamper yourself with ‘Dove‘ products, or heard of ‘Ben and Jerry’s’ – you will have been affected by Unilever.

The oft-quoted statement by Lord Levehulme, founder of Unilever:

I know that half of my advertising budget is completely wasted, I’m just not sure which half.

I don’t wake up Sunday mornings thinking about Leverhulme, but I did when I read an article today, ‘English on the Web’ , about a website by our Ministry of Education:

THE Online Resources for Learning in English (MyLinE) which was specially created to help UTM students improve their language skills, has proven to be a hit. It’s been so popular that the website has been extended to students in the country’s 19 other public universities.

… By the second semester, the MyLinE website already had 158,192 hits.

Did they say 158K hits? Should it be ‘hits’ or ‘visitors’?

Saturday thoughts & blogger ‘Kickdefella’ freed

Been reading on the web, listening to Fleetwood Mac and Don Maclean, etc.

One of the better pieces is by Paul Jenkins, ‘Obama Still Does Not Know His Place‘. It’s fairly ‘old’ (posted 29th July) but it always reminds me how hard change can be to the status quo.

By definition, emerging thinkers or leaders are not from the old establishment pack. Stories of such new thinkers and doers having their difficult rite of passage must be as old as the Greeks. Yet we still see it in 2008 – up north in USA and here at home. And if we stop for a moment, parse the words and thoughts of old moguls, compare them with what we (the public) seek, we’ll realise we still can get things done and progress without old dogma – what I sometimes, in exasperation, call ‘the box’. Our younger Malaysians can draw inspiration from this. There’s always a better tomorrow.

Hence, this piece is a reminder for me, a reminder that no matter how absurd our lot, there’s a much longer road than we can imagine, and we’ll get there, one day. Anyway, if you haven’t already, it’s a good read.

PS. Requires some knowledge of geo-politics, importance of Clintonistas to Democrats, and so forth. But still brilliant on its own

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Want to give it a rest? It’s Friday.

According to my latest straw poll (of one, me), I think Malaysians are becoming like citizens of the largest democracy in the world, India. They love their politics, and that’s their choice. But do we have to as well? This incessant politicking is driving me crazy. It’s Friday already everyone. Give it a break. Start again on Monday maybe?

I’m writing this with a mantra buzzing between my ears: I’m an intelligent person, and I have a life, I’m an intelligent person, and I have a life, I’m an intelligent person, and I have a life, …

In one week, starting 12th Sep, we’ve had the following:

• Saturday (13th Sep): The shortest ISA detention in our history when journalist of SinChew Daily, Ms Tan, was released after 18 hours
• Monday (15th Sep): Zaid’s resignation as Minister for Law
• Wednesday (17th Sep): Another blogger, Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, who writes as “Sheih Kickdefella”, arrested under ISA.
• Thursday (18th Sep): Our government’s Cabinet finally realising that we are all Malaysians, regardless of colour, when they approved the Race Relations Bill (hello Star, it’s not an Act of Parliament yet)
• Friday (19th Sep) @1.30pm : the release of our lawmaker, Ms Teressa Kok, from ISA
• … now we we have this: “Police report lodged against Anwar for causing unease“, reported by The Sun, at 5.22pm, on a Friday.

Anwar vs Badawi: How do I keep going?

With so much at stake in Malaysia, as Anwar dream and Badawi cringe, I check out some Classifieds for inspiration:

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1) Slugs for lease

Date: 2008-05-29, 8:52PM PDT

I have some banana slugs I will lease out for $1.00 per day.

You just come catch them, and keep sliding dollar bills under my front door.

I also have some worms availabe for .50 daily, and a few spiders as well.

I am trying to save up for a flat screen TV.

Thank you so much in advance.
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2) Beautiful Persian or Ugly Husband

Date: 2008-08-01, 2:57PM CDT

Who is Anwar Ibrahim?

(let the man speak – full statement, then see my questions below; also see my ‘UPDATE – 20th Sep’ at the end)

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Full statement by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim:

Today Pakatan Rakyat leaders have submitted a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to call an emergency session of Parliament to deliberate a motion of censure against the leadership of YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi no later than Tuesday 23 September 2008.

This is in accordance with Order 11(3) of the Standing Orders of Parliament and warrants an immediate response given the gravity of today’s political impasse. A delay in his response would be interpreted as nothing short of a further sabotage of the democratic process and abuse of Executive Power.

The Prime Minister’s haggling on the syntax of our first letter is puerile at best. The intent of our meeting as described in that letter was clearly to discuss the future course of the nation’s leadership – though in deference to his position and in accordance with acceptable norms we remain considerate and polite in our approach.

“A matter of choice” / Updates / ‘kickdefella’ support

A fellow blogger has commented that he just started a new one called Cendana Blues~Addicted to Politics. His other blog is: Recovery From Drug Addiction (in Malaysia).

As he made some comments here, I decided to reciprocate.

Here’s my post:

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Hi Mat,

Saw your comments at my blog. Thought I’d put in a word or two.

In particular, you mentioned:

“Since politics is generally a dirty business, I’m gonna get dirty and be dirty too.”

Well, it doesn’t have to be dirty.

Those who stoop so low will always be caught – in Malaysia or elsewhere. Some may take longer – like Stalin, some quicker – like Bush. No one is an island.

Malaysia-in-progress: Another blogger arrested

Another blogger, Syed Azidi Syed Aziz has been arrested for sedition, as reported abt 15 mins ago by The Star.

According to The Star:

Weeks earlier, Syed Azidi had confessed that he feared he would be arrested because of his online appeal to fly the national flag upside down as a sign of protest towards certain Federal Government policies.

Question: How many blogs have this symbol?

Bar Council calling the kettle, “Black”

(from the department of: status-quo-is-in-my-interest,-change-is-bad)

Our wonderful SOLICITORS AND ADVOCATES, the ‘Bar Council of Malaysia‘, has a tendency to pussyfoot with what really matters. Sure, Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) will get everyone worked up, file for habeas corpus, comment on use of ‘unfairness‘ of ISA . They also released a report recently – see my earlier post, “Malaysians still blinking like Magoo“. I can fill this post with 1000 ‘things’ – a statement / report / discussion by the Bar Council.

I wonder where the real lawyers are, certainly not at our superactive Bar Council. The ones we have at the moment goes thru’ the motion creating nice fireworks, but absolutely ineffectual to the bottom-line: protecting rights of Malaysians. They can act indignant but avoid raising real issues, then go home. No wonder Malaysia has one of the worst income-inequality in Asia.

Fellow Malaysians, especially non-lawyers, you guys have been bamboozled all these years by the Bar Council of Malaysia.

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LOOK AT FACTS Look at this report: “Mortgaging freedom for security: Arbitrary detention of five HINDRAF leaders (May 2008) by The Observatory (FIDH-OMCT) , download it here. Then look at the Bar Council’s press release of the report – “Observatory Report : ISA is a violation of human rights principle“. This report by the Observatory was written by one lawyer- Ms Berg; in page 9 she wrote:

Not going to speculate

If you can imagine, it’s worth a try – visualise yourself watching a particularly lousy B-movie: where the baddies keep coming, they’re disposed off quickly by the heroine, then you notice an anomaly – the bad guys look similiar. An epiphany: budget limitations results in recycling extras/baddies; hence, they’re the same guys/gals playing different characters.

Currently, that’s how it reads to me:

• Anwar: ‘We’re going to topple the government. No, wait – they left for Taiwan. Never mind, now we have 31 that crossed the aisle, update 1 2. I’m waiting for update 3.

• Raja Petra was visited by his family at “the police headquarters” and he is not on hunger strike, but his condition is not good (pls read link above). His treatment under ISA? ““He said he was never physically abused, but was mentally abused”.

• According to our Prime Minister, “The Internal Security Act (ISA) is good but its enforcement should be rational and fair“.

This is where I disagree.

Sir, all laws are justified – it is not for private citizens (like me) to claim any law I disagree with is not justified and, under protest, to defy it. That will be mayhem.

Leaving your mark – History and Education

Yesterday, one of the world’s older bank, Lehman Brothers, est 1850, closed down. At least their place in history – educationally – is assured: Lehman Brothers Collection at Harvard, came online Feb 2008.

Whatever Badawi will be remembered for, tussles for leadership should not be one of them in these times of instability and uncertainty.

If the Lehman Brothers Collection didn’t get you far in terms of educational value, you can try:

• eBooks@Adelaide – Free Web Books, Online – “includes classic works of Literature, Philosophy, Science, and History“, where I often read, and re-read Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language‘.

• The other is of course Wikisource, everyman’s library of the internet.

• Open Yale courses, under Creative Commons license, which provides lecture notes (text and video) as well as background info on some interesting subject matters, philosophy anyone? Check out their ‘About‘ section for more on how to use the free materials.

Before I forget, let me just add one final thing here – ‘Google on the High Seas‘, I fell off the chair on this one. That’s innovation.

Malaysia-in-progress – 15th Sep 2008 / Monday

Today

• Law Minister of Malaysia just resigned over inappropriate use of ISA laws on Malaysian civilians.

UPDATE: Badawi has refused to accept Zaid Ibrahim’s resignation – 10.00pm today

• One of the detainees, Raja Petra Karmaruddin, is on a hunger strike. Due to his medical condition, this might be fatal. Haris Ibrahim, a blogger, is raising the issue and asking for assistance.
• Detainees, Teresa Kok and Raja Petra, and their lawyers have filed for habeas corpus.

My thoughts:

• For background info in my posts on ISA, please click tag (bottom of page): “Suppression under ISA“.

• Zaid Ibrahim, as Minister of Law, has taken a principled decision to leave our government. He should be applauded because that must have been agonising – can he make a difference whilst on the inside or should he leave to make a louder one-off protest – but then lose all internal decision-making influence within the Cabinet.
• Zaid’s resignation, and the whole saga of using ISA by our government, is gaining traction in international news. And that’s good because now our ministers will have to face the rest of the world and explain why, as politicians, the do NOT make decisions – except our Minister of Law.
• Final point: Was he not consulted? Why does he hold the portfolio? Does Badawi’s Cabinet even know what is Zaid Ibrahim’s role in the government?

A new template / What just happened?

As you can see, this is a new template. For several reasons:

1) It’s a cleaner look. No more clutter on the wings.

2) Better navigation. All links are now below. The top links – words between vertical bars – are the new pages. Also, the ‘Home’ which was duplicated in the prior theme is now removed. The landing page should be obvious, “Our Table?” … or not.

3) As requested, I’ve added info on my background = “Who and Why”.

4) This theme is from Derek Powazek, an ‘old’ web designer (in internet years). He writes for A List Apart, one of the oldest blogging sites around, and one of the first sites based entirely on CSS. Very nice site.

5) I don’t normally use RED as the contrast colour, but in this case it sure works.

On Malaysia’s lack of integrity: Badawi really screwed it up over the weekend. It appears the POLICE decides who to detain? What about the A-G? What about the Cabinet? I’m not quite sure if the police force has the authority. I have not read the legislation, but delegating to the police is the lowest I have heard.

More importantly, amongst other absurd developments, ministers are now not making decisions on ISA matters because, get this, ‘we are politicians‘.

3 Malaysians arrested under ISA on 12th Sep 2008

Yesterday, Friday, 12th Sep 2008, my government arrested the following individuals under the Internal Security Act (see also AP-GoogleNews):

1) Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of Malaysia Today.

2) TAN Hoon Cheng, reporter at Sin Chew Daily

3) Teresa KOK, DAP and Seputeh Member of Parliament

Local politicians, civic organisations and international press:

• Bar Council of Malaysia released a statement.
• Anwar Ibrahim released a statement and Lim Kit Siang / DAP’s statement.
• List of international websites reporting the detention under ISA (via Google News).
• See Al-Jazeera’s article on the use of Internal Security Act in Malaysia
• updated: 14th Sep 2008 – Activists slam Malaysia over crackdown on dissent (Huffingtonpost)

All these started from a by-election in Permatang Pauh, Penang (see my first post) and here (Economist).

Whilst most Malaysians look forward to the weekend, three of my fellow countrymen, are stuck behind walls – calling them ‘prisoners of conscience’ is not half of it.

What is Democracy? Who cares – I want my Judiciary!

(This post is going to require a cuppa or two for a slow read, and please remember at least one person is held under ISA because we’re not quite sure what’s going on in Malaysia at the moment.)

First, pls see my post on ‘Malaysians still blinking like Magoo‘. Note near the end I mentioned how ‘democracy’ is misused.

Second, I read an article by Irene Fernandez, whom I blogged on, here: “Malaysia – 10th Sep for Irene Fernandez“. Today, she posted an article at Malaysiakini: “Is 50 years enough“, as a reply to Dr Denison Jayasooria, Executive Director of MIC’s Social Strategic Foundation, where at the end she says:

Is it morally wrong to move forward the process so that we practice genuine democracy, we fight corrupton and instill good governance, we protect the rights of the people, we ensure our resources and our land is protected not just for ourselves but for our children and we free our women, children and ourselves from the violence of the state institutions? Is this transformation immoral?

Her argument is simply that we’ve screwed up for 50 years and we need to, morality requires us to, fix the crappy state of affairs in Malaysia.

I do not disagree with her.

But here’s the problem. Is democracy about good governance? Is democracy about protecting our resources and our land? More to the point, read what she said earlier in the article:

20 years on – Malaysians still blinking like Magoo

I know I said I’m going quiet.

But this is where we are today – 20 years after the dismissal of our Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas and 2 other Supreme Court judges (Tan Sri Wan Suleiman and Datuk George Seah).

A report was released 2 weeks ago, ‘Review of the 1998 Judicial Crisis in Malaysia (26 July 2008)‘ and 20 years on, Malaysians are still like blinking Magoo, the famously nearsighted character who always admonished himself, “Oh Magoo, you’ve done it again!”. Sound familiar?

Oh Malaysia, you’ve done it again - Raja Petra of Malaysia Today was detained today under ISA (Malaysiakini).

There are many who see the event in 1988 as a political cause celebre – the famous Karpal Singh asking Mahathir to apologise, a blogger believing Mahathir has every right to condemn the report, and Malaysia’s Bar Council members posing for photos and getting authographs on the report.

Is that it? Politicians writing letters, Bar Council Presidents (current and former) taking photographs and others issuing statements? Let’s not pass the buck so much anymore, and raise the bar a little this time - let’s understand what happened in 1988 and repercussions it has on Malaysia today, 20 years later.

Gone quiet

Think I’ve been a doing bit too many posts. Will be mucking around and rebuilding a few servers for awhile. Unless there’s something to blog about I’ll be doing the home project. Meantime, I’ve made my recent posts available on the top right.

The post “For a better Malaysia” is popular – click on ‘Disconnected‘ category on the left below to read.

Finally, I’m running out of ideas so anyone would like to give me requests / ideas / thoughts would be good. Don’t hesitate – have a go, tell me.

mike.

PS. Politically, it’s a mess at the moment, so I’ll post on politics after the dust settles.

Malaysia vs The World (Malaysiakini vs EFF)

Dedicated to:

All in Malaysia who do not run online businesses and therefore might not appreciate the intricacies of network protocols, hacks, or web services:

Against anonymity: Generally, Malaysians – including Premesh Chandran of Malaysiakini – think it’s a form of cowardice because bloggers avoid disclosure of their actual identity on their blogs. This, he believes, is the same as not showing your idenity to our government. To this I say, its flawed thinking because, in Malaysia, the government requires less time than watching a Batman movie to figure out who you are for many, many reasons. Look, there’s no Data Protection Act, nor right to privacy in Malaysia. Hence, to claim you are releasing your actual name and thus is not a coward when criticising the government is just grandstanding. Our government knows who you are anyway. Nicknames, real names, false names are useless. The point: Don’t be fooled by grandstanding as you’re not anonymous to our government.

[NOTE: Updated 12th Sep, I know readers don't normally read comments. Please note Premesh Chandran of Malaysiakini has commented on the above paragraph, pls see his point under the comments section]

What can you do? Unless you log in from jurisdictions with strong privacy laws, don’t for a minute think our government can’t figure you out. Even then, privacy is eroding in such places. Another way is counter-measures to anonymise your online surfing, but even if you use tor – they still might find out. So, you can’t do much.

Malaysians, what do we want?

For several of my previous posts, I’ve fallen into a habit of emphasising letters written to Malaysiakini because they are well thought out and makes a point. So, here we go again.

A well-written letter at Malaysiakini by Keith Leong, ‘Reject Sectarian Violence‘, has made several points which all of us can be proud of.

The most important is in the middle where Keith says:

What is necessary for the creation of a just and unified Malaysia is a citizenry that is active, virtuous and conscious of both their rights and responsibilities.

So, as a duty and responsibility, I will take up the challenge of UMNO Youth Secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, when he said on 8 Sep 2008 (The Star), there was ‘deafening silence‘ on the inappropriate actions by Anwar to become our next Prime Minister. Abdul Rahman also asked:

“Where are the voices of NGOs, Bar Council and bloggers who had voiced loudly the need to protect the rights of people?

My posts on the irresponsible words and actions of Anwar Ibrahim are here, here and here (chronologically). More importantly, I have also questioned our current Prime Minister here and our former Prime Minister here.

Malaysiakini and The Nut Graph – same old, same old

Prelude:

Had a funny one and a half day, running around with my electricity provider. Thought I had missed my bill payment (which I did) but it wasn’t that, just a crocked fuse. Anyway, I paid them $600 for a few months – think I’ll need to learn to generate electricity just to stop myself going broke.

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Right, let’s get to the point.

Read an article at The Nut Graph, ‘Net TV: Does it click?, which I found quite boring and that’s their choice but anyway, I then saw a comment which basically questioned the relevance of The Nut Graph. Jacqueline Ann Surin, the vaunted editor at The Nut Graph gave the commenter ‘daniz’ quite a retort. So, in the interest of having open exchange, I did my bit.

Here’s my comments to the guys at The Nut Graph and the Jacqueline Ann Surin:

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Hello – The Nut Graph and Jacqueline,

I read your article on Net TV and the first question I ask is: how many? How many readers of Nut Graph actually watch programmes online? We don’t have the bandwidth, and frankly, I am not sure most users have an idea of what’s available online in general.

Raja Petra Kamarudin + Anwar Ibrahim

Reading the MalaysiaKini site, I notice this: “Is Anwar Unstoppable‘ by Raja Petra Kamarudin at Anwar’s site.

Excerpt:

Today, I received many phone calls from concerned friends who told me that the government is considering detaining me under the Internal Security Act ‘very soon’. If that does happen, then this could probably be the last article I write, at least until 16 September 2008. So I too need Anwar to succeed. If not I will be in Kamunting for quite some time to come and you will not hear from me over the next couple of years.

…

But if I am wrong…..well, then see you maybe in six or seven years time, because for sure Najib Tun Razak will not release me in 2010 when he becomes Prime Minister. What he would do, instead, would be to rollover my two-year detention another two years, and another two years, and another two years, until I am too old to think and write anymore.

Till we meet again, if we do meet again, take care and keep the flame burning. There is still a long fight ahead of us in bringing reforms to this beloved country of ours.

MalaysiaKini – remaining Web news after Malaysia Today?

I’m posting this because I can’t help but think of Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today. It must have hit a nerve and Badawi’s administration is really not pleased. I’m wondering how much of the alleged seditious issues formed the basis of complaints against Raja Petra. Did politics have anything to do with it? Ok, I am naive. Ahem!

Anyway, I then found Stephen Gan’s discussion in on the reasons they are getting more subscribers today, which actually, validates my earlier post – Alternative vs Mainstream media in Malaysia – on the approx 200K daily visitors during our GE last March and the recent surge again. The presentation by Stephen Gan also speaks about the values that makes MalaysiaKini succesful, a short excerpt:

Although seen as an icon of the internet revolution, Gan made clear that Malaysiakini is at its heart driven by the classic values of professional journalism. Unlike most websites, it is run by fulltime journalists. Indeed, what distinguishes it from the mainstream press is that the journalists are fully in charge.

For a better Malaysia – Tony Fernandez, Jeremiah and me

Just read a letter at MalaysiaKini by I Jeremiah, ‘Irrationality of rational racism‘. After you’ve read Jeremiah’s letter you should also read Tony Fernandez‘s (yes, the Tony Fernandez) post, ‘Merdeka to All‘. Both of them make the same point, which is, we cannot keep doing this to ourselves.

OK. I’m going to stop here and wait for you to read the posts if you haven’t.

Ready?

Right, the first point that comes across from both posts is that racism (for that matter, any form of discrimination) is bad for you, bad for ourselves … simply bad. That’s it. No buts … no ifs … just bad, as a matter of fact.

ebooks from kinibooks

Just saw the stats from MalaysiaKini, and obviously they seem pleased by the post below. No, I’m not gloating but I thought I’d take advantage of this opportunity – why don’t you guys do ebooks?

It’s portable, highly exchangeable, not exactly difficult and lotsa people waking up to its possibilities.

Alternative vs Mainstream Media in Malaysia

A recent report by Malaysia’s Center for Independent Journalism shows that local mainstream media has lost credibility. This is a short excerpt:

The survey revealed that Malaysians were critically assessing the content of the local mainstream media, upon which the majority relied heavily as sources of information. Asked to rate the performance of the mainstream media according to six indicators—ethical, variety of opinions included, variety of issues covered, objectivity, fairness and truthfulness—only 56 percent said they were all met; the figure plummetted to 35 percent when it came to fairness of reporting.

Full report available online – with pdf download at the bottom of the page (beside pics).

In terms of market share, this graph from Google Trends (beta) show that MalaysiaKini is doing exceedingly well. It’s ‘daily unique visitors’, particularly in the past 6 months, is indicative of Malaysians seeking alternative sources of information.

Here’s the graph:

Off the Table: Geeks 1 and 2

With all the politicking going on, I thought its’ a good idea to lighten the load. I need a break. So, let’s change topic.

Reading thru’ my feeds, I came across this and its funny to me ‘cos in our world of latest, hottest gizmos … we’re fashion tragics. Here’s one from Logic + Emotion:

David Armano <http://darmano.typepad.com/>

Recognise anyone – yourself now, myself now, yourself-in-the-future, myself-in-the-future, friends and family?

Malaysia – 10th Sep for Irene Fernandez / 16th Sep for Anwar Ibrahim

About 16th September: another day in Malaysian politics

This is priceless.

Fearful of the opposition and under the banner of ‘We need to study’, the Malaysian coalition government is going to leave Malaysia, as reported by The Star.

After a strong showing by Anwar-led opposition in our general election last March, Abudullah Badawi thinks its good to idea to run away from 16th Sep – 11 days from now. Rumour has it on 16th Sep Anwar will lead a revolt and file for a no-confidence motion in Parliament.

Harris Ibrahim’s blog, People’s Parliament has a nice post on this and the comments it generated is quite tough reading because one senses how disliked BN is by the populace. But does that mean you go off to another country? Why Australia? Can’t the government ’study’ in Malaysia?

When I first read this, I thought it’s got to be a joke because this is just the most absurd, hare-brained, strategically ridiculous idea any aspiring politician can think of (read ‘Tiong King Sing’ – see Star article)

Why? Because you need your allies/ friends / party members in Parliament on the 16th September 2008!

Dear Prime Minister: Whose truth? Whose facts?

(in support of A Joint Merdeka Day Message – available here)

On Wednesday, 3rd Sep 2008, our PM Abdullah Badawi said that we should ‘uphold truth without fear‘. Yet, I don’t think he understands the point.

It’s not the principle of telling the truth that Malaysians fear. So what if they did tell the truth? Will the relevant authorities act on principle? The last I heard, they are corrupt. Is that wrong? I also believe that they are quite incompetent. Is that also wrong? Finally, the banning of an entire website for comments relating to one post at Malaysia Today goes against the very grain of fairness and reason. Am I wrong to say this?

Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today

There’s a strongly worded statement out by the Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday and that’s not good for Malaysia:

“The Malaysian government has reneged on its pledge not to censor the Internet by blocking Malaysia Today, and we call for the order to be immediately withdrawn,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s Asia program consultant. “Online curbs have no place in a democratic society.”

From what I gather, it was one article at Malaysia Today that attracted comments which were deemed to be offensive, seditious … or whatever term Badawi’s MCMC uses nowadays.

As this will be a short post, just one question: ever heard of proportionality?

On a more positive note, I believe bloggers of Malaysia are working towards a self-regulatory regime (i.e. Code of Ethics for Malaysian Bloggers), though I don’t have much info on this. This seems a good idea and none too late as any self-respecting profession always does.

As the blog count go up in this country and everywhere else, we seek greater freedom to voice our concerns as a right. Yet, it is also our duty to speak up responsibly. Why else would bloggers tell truth to power?

Finally, the 2008 Memorandum on Media Freedom need your support.

Judging Politicians

(from the department-of-the-not-so-blind)

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Erasmus – Dutch philosopher & scholar (1466 – 1536)

Although Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam is not popular today, during the Reformation he was known as ‘Prince of the Humanists’.

Nearly 500 years ago, Erasmus knew that ideas and deep-seated beliefs are more dangerous, and harmful, than the individuals behind such misleading ideas. Similiarly, Prime Ministers of Malaysia may come and go – whether it was Mahathir, is Badawi, and might be Anwar – their practises and ideas last longer than their administration. And if they are wrong, the damage to Malaysia is that much greater.

Raja Petra’s lot – see Messrs Brown and Lee’s new media

So much happened over our 51st Independence celebration weekend, from the racist remark in Penang, to MCMC taking on Google by banning Malaysia Today (and another 126 sites), to Badawi’s cries for unity (IHT).

To MCMC and Raja Petra’s friends and supporters:

If we were not dismissive of Singapore, we could learn how culturally similiar societies deal with their civil society issues, as they too face restrictions on free speech but they get smart and learn faster. If ony Khairy, Badawi and friends try to do the same.

A succint and intelligent post of Mr Brown about our kin/friends/neighbours down south, instead of that lazy, populist and humdrum Khairy Jamaluddin.

Wished I had it that easy at Oxford.

Blogs and Commenting – Valuing Free Speech in Malaysia

Funny thing, receiving comments on the blog. I look forward to feedback, but when I get some, I’m disappointed.

The blogosphere is a community of individuals voicing their opinion via the web. We all want to be heard because we care about whatever we blog about, some care about it more, some less. We believe we can make a difference because of the interaction from the community of bloggers and readers, which, compared with traditional publishing is extremely cheap. Hence, when readers respond, the only issue is, have they read the post. Because, if they haven’t, why comment on it?

Which brings me to a comment I received on my last post, ‘Taking sides‘.

It started off with the following declaration: “Freedom of speech Is not freedom to be heard.” Then it rambled on with demands after demands with some questions thrown in for good measure and finally damning the guy I’ve been blogging about.

You know what? Stop.

First, not everyone is sufficiently inspired to blog and that’s fine. But if you believe you have a right to be heard, then you do it, as I do. To start off your comment with ” … not freedom to be heard (sic)”, what do you think I’d do? So, please think clearly, then put your thoughts into words in relation to the post. If you do not care enough to put in the effort to make your point, then I certainly would not bother to read your comment.

Taking sides

Following on from my last post, Anwar and his drama, I actually read the article by The Nut Graph on ‘Anwar’s imminent road trip‘, and submitted a short comment. It’s stuck in the moderation timespace continuum, so I’ll do a complete one below. (NOTE: You need to read the article first to understand the context of my comments).

It is a sad state of affairs if Anwar’s imminent road trip to becoming the next tyrant of Malaysia is so ‘riddled by landmines’, we should have to prostrate ourselves and pave the way to ensure he gets a smooth ride.

I believe Malaysians deserve better. The reporting of mainstream media is not balanced. Are our blogs following suit? What has he ever done to deserve such accolades?

Instead of being the flavour of the moment, I have a better idea. Be more incisive and take a side, the side of explaining who Anwar really is. Check out Volokh Conspiracy’s article. Can you see the point?

Anwar and his drama

The last time I checked, there were 26 million of us in Malaysia. However, Anwar thinks winning Permatang Pauh with an electorate of about 60,000 will make him the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. Anwar claimed, as reported by Al Jazeera yesterday:

Clearly the prime minister has lost the mandate of the country.

He needs to learn how to count.

In our general election last March, BN had more than 50% of the votes. Badawi is President of UMNO, and with UMNO forming the largest party in our coalition government (BN), Abdullah Badawi is the Prime Minister. We inherited our electoral system, called ‘first past the post‘, from the Brits when we got our independence in 1957 and I believe a local reporter, Jacqueline Ann Surin, did a pretty decent job explaining how it works. Obviously, Anwar did not read it.

Is there a place for Malaysians?

Decided to start a blog today. Promised myself I would have to do it if Anwar wins the Permatang Pauh seat. I had hoped, against all presumption, it would not happen. The details of his win – here (Malaysia Sun) and here (AFP).

Most people don’t remember his earlier days when he rose to prominence through populist actions. He preyed on the most base and fearful aspects of Malaysian society, the politics of division and racial identity. He was an UMNO Youth leader with strong support from the Malay youth movement of Malaysia, largely a result of his irresponsible nationalistic and radical messages. For those who cannot speak, read or write English well, even if you are a graduate of a local university, you can thank him.