From Asia Sentinel:
Packaged TV productions extolling the virtues of Malaysia and Sarawak state Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud have embarrased some of the world's leading television networks after they were found to have been paid for by the Malaysian government as part of a massive public relations campaign.
According to the Sarawak Report, a Sarawak-based NGO, the news programs are being produced by Fact Based Communications, a London-based company also known as FBC Media, that describes itself on its website as an "European-based media and entertainment group specializing in television format creation, production and distribution."
Read the rest on the web:
Government effort to plant stories tarnishes major TV networks worldwide
Friday, 12 August 2011
Riots and Chaos
The IGP has some words of wisdom for the Malaysian public.
Deputy IGP: London riots proof against allowing street protests
A few things that need to be taken into context here:
1. The British police were instructed to "stand and observe looting". This will never happen in Malaysia, because the cops are too anxious to get their hands on any unsuspecting citizen so they can show who's boss. The British cops on the other hand, display restrain.
2. In order not to provoke more anger, the police did not take any action against the rioters. Unfortunately, there were many out to take advantage of the situation by committing crimes. The police should have promptly arrested those.
3. The issue that the British government has failed to tackle here is the minority underclass. From several videos and images on the web, it is very evident that most of the perpetrators are of minority groups who probably hold a lot of resentment about their status.
Interestingly, there have been a few instances of massive riots in the US. And yet, the US still remains the world super-power. I expect the UK economy would not be unaffected by this either though they would do well to get to the root of this matter of random rioting.
That being said, while streets protests are enshrined in the constitution as a freedom of expression and public gathering, riots are never acceptable.
Expressing oneself is normal, infringing on someone else's property and personal rights is not.
Deputy IGP: London riots proof against allowing street protests
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — The ongoing riots in London and other major cities in Britain are evidence of the “nightmares” that can be prevented by avoiding street protests, said Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar
Despite chaotic scenes where tens of thousands were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons during the July 9 Bersih rally, Khalid (picture) said that “we are able to avoid these scary and tragic scenes from erupting here in our beloved country.”
“These are the nightmares that we are fighting hard to avoid and prevent. Street protest should always be avoided as we will never know what it can turn into,” he said on his Facebook page last night.
A few things that need to be taken into context here:
1. The British police were instructed to "stand and observe looting". This will never happen in Malaysia, because the cops are too anxious to get their hands on any unsuspecting citizen so they can show who's boss. The British cops on the other hand, display restrain.
2. In order not to provoke more anger, the police did not take any action against the rioters. Unfortunately, there were many out to take advantage of the situation by committing crimes. The police should have promptly arrested those.
3. The issue that the British government has failed to tackle here is the minority underclass. From several videos and images on the web, it is very evident that most of the perpetrators are of minority groups who probably hold a lot of resentment about their status.
Interestingly, there have been a few instances of massive riots in the US. And yet, the US still remains the world super-power. I expect the UK economy would not be unaffected by this either though they would do well to get to the root of this matter of random rioting.
That being said, while streets protests are enshrined in the constitution as a freedom of expression and public gathering, riots are never acceptable.
Expressing oneself is normal, infringing on someone else's property and personal rights is not.
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Do Malaysians Care About Wrongful Deaths?
He was 29 years old.
He lived in North London. Just last week, on the 6th of August, he was fatally shot by the Metropolitan police.
He was by no means an innocent angel.
Mark Duggan was an alleged cocaine dealer and member of the 'Star Gang'.
His biggest mistake was to be carrying a gun - something that is relatively rare in the UK.
His friends and family held a vigil in protest over his shooting. Over 200 people gathered.
Unfortunately, this led to riots and subsequently, looting in a minority community which was already seething over the wealth discrepancy in London and what they perceived as police bullying.
Mark Duggan was not the most upstanding citizen in the neighbourhood, but his death was not tolerated by the community.
In another country far away, two young men (who were not entirely upstanding citizens either) had their lives snatched a few years earlier.
One was Kugan Ananthan, and the other Gunasegaran Rajasundram. They were in their 20s to 30s - very much like Mark Duggan.
But unlike Mark Duggan, very few mourned their deaths. Another life gone was not to be despaired over - after all, there were already 1805 deaths in custody, so what was another?
In fact, some even went to the extent of saying, "We work for our living, we don't cause trouble, avoid crime and make the best of our lives in Malaysia. Not like Indians. Get involved in crime, have massive protests and threaten the government and the police."
The fact that police are senselessly killing Malaysian citizens does not worry the average Malaysian. Or does it?
He lived in North London. Just last week, on the 6th of August, he was fatally shot by the Metropolitan police.
Mark Duggan was an alleged cocaine dealer and member of the 'Star Gang'.
His biggest mistake was to be carrying a gun - something that is relatively rare in the UK.
His friends and family held a vigil in protest over his shooting. Over 200 people gathered.
Unfortunately, this led to riots and subsequently, looting in a minority community which was already seething over the wealth discrepancy in London and what they perceived as police bullying.
Mark Duggan was not the most upstanding citizen in the neighbourhood, but his death was not tolerated by the community.
In another country far away, two young men (who were not entirely upstanding citizens either) had their lives snatched a few years earlier.
One was Kugan Ananthan, and the other Gunasegaran Rajasundram. They were in their 20s to 30s - very much like Mark Duggan.
But unlike Mark Duggan, very few mourned their deaths. Another life gone was not to be despaired over - after all, there were already 1805 deaths in custody, so what was another?
In fact, some even went to the extent of saying, "We work for our living, we don't cause trouble, avoid crime and make the best of our lives in Malaysia. Not like Indians. Get involved in crime, have massive protests and threaten the government and the police."
The fact that police are senselessly killing Malaysian citizens does not worry the average Malaysian. Or does it?
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
What The Election Commission Says
The Selangor Election Commission (EC) has rejected all 583 complaints which claimed that permanent resident (PR) holders had been registered as voters, claiming that they were found to be citizens.
Could all 583 be bogus complaints?
You and I know how valuable Selangor is to the federal government. Port Klang, one of the nation's cash cows is located in the state of Selangor. Then we have most of the affluent neighbourhoods as well.
BN really needs to reclaim Selangor to be able to continue lining their pockets.
From Malaysiakini:
Not only that, the EC has been found to have registered a voter named 'Kg Baru'.
From Malaysiakini again:
Believe it or not folks, there is a RM10 fee levied on each objection raised by the public, as well as a RM200 penalty for every objection that is rejected.
This is the extent of their shameless corruption and cheating.
Could all 583 be bogus complaints?
You and I know how valuable Selangor is to the federal government. Port Klang, one of the nation's cash cows is located in the state of Selangor. Then we have most of the affluent neighbourhoods as well.
BN really needs to reclaim Selangor to be able to continue lining their pockets.
From Malaysiakini:
Selangor EC had received a total of 1,475 objections against the second quarter supplementary electoral roll draft, with 583 or 39.5 percent on PR holders allegedly being given voting rights.
The rest were ordinary complaints such as discrepancy in registered address, which will be resolved through a public inquiry held from Sep 6 to Oct 6, Dzulkifli added.
The issue of a PR holder named Mismah registered as a potential voter in the latest supplementary electoral roll draft was first reported by Malaysiakini last Tuesday.
Pakatan Rakyat then claimed that they had detected 1,597 such cases nationwide, with 1,108 of them found in Selangor, a state ruled by Pakatan.
Not only that, the EC has been found to have registered a voter named 'Kg Baru'.
From Malaysiakini again:
According to the EC online verification system, 'Kg Baru' (Mykad: 830527115422) is a voter registered in the state constituency of Hulu Besut and parliamentary constituency of Besut, Terengganu.
However, a check with NRD online system revealed that the Mykad number is assigned to one Noraini binti Abdullah.
"The question is, how can the EC make such a shameful mistake? How did it happen?” asked Johor PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat, who discovered the flaw.
Believe it or not folks, there is a RM10 fee levied on each objection raised by the public, as well as a RM200 penalty for every objection that is rejected.
This is the extent of their shameless corruption and cheating.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Another Brain Drain Story
From: Brain drain: The story behind the dwindling Chinese in Malaysia
Excerpt:
Migration has always been a part of our history, especially in a country like Malaysia, where most of our forefathers were migrants looking for a promised land. They worked their fingers to the bone making their fortunes far away from their places of birth, often with little help and lots of hardship.
There is also the rural-urban migration, where the main pull factor is the seeking of better education and better job opportunities compared to those available in the rural sectors. But the worse kind of migration is what is happening in developed countries today - the migration of fully qualified, hard working professionals to other countries, not because they cannot find jobs, but because they are unhappy with the political system practised by the state.
A brain drain is one of the worst things that can happen to a country; that is the reason why states like Singapore are doing their best to retain not only their own people, but foreigners who study in their local institutions of higher learning. These new graduates are dangled not only with scholarships and a stable career after graduation, but also offered the security of a citizenship.
And it was Malaysia who gave these bright sparks 11 years of free education; Singapore merely complemented it with a few years of university and then got to keep them. Now, who are the biggest losers? Who are the real dummies?
Excerpt:
Migration has always been a part of our history, especially in a country like Malaysia, where most of our forefathers were migrants looking for a promised land. They worked their fingers to the bone making their fortunes far away from their places of birth, often with little help and lots of hardship.
There is also the rural-urban migration, where the main pull factor is the seeking of better education and better job opportunities compared to those available in the rural sectors. But the worse kind of migration is what is happening in developed countries today - the migration of fully qualified, hard working professionals to other countries, not because they cannot find jobs, but because they are unhappy with the political system practised by the state.
A brain drain is one of the worst things that can happen to a country; that is the reason why states like Singapore are doing their best to retain not only their own people, but foreigners who study in their local institutions of higher learning. These new graduates are dangled not only with scholarships and a stable career after graduation, but also offered the security of a citizenship.
And it was Malaysia who gave these bright sparks 11 years of free education; Singapore merely complemented it with a few years of university and then got to keep them. Now, who are the biggest losers? Who are the real dummies?
Straight From The Horse's Mouth
A lot of people would ignore this bit of news.
It does sound like the typical mainstream media spin, which it tries to be. However, it gives some precious gems of information - quite unwittingly, I wager.
What I learned from this article by Bernama:
1. BN is extremely worried - to the extent of hiring bloggers to counter-attack the rising public sentiment against BN and by their own admission, it is not working!!!!!!
2. A lot of people are going online for information rather than sticking to the conventional news on TV, radio and print media. It shows that BN has totally lost credibility.
3. The urban-dwellers are being enlightened and in turn enlightening the folks back in the kampungs. This means the message is actually being carried across and the rural folks do not have the same perception of the government as they used to.
4. BN acknowledges that the July 9 rally was a huge blow for them.
BN does give some really good advice though: "In this age of information, people must train themselves to think and analyse before actually accepting the information presented to them."
I'm so glad that so many people do think and analyse - which is why they have rejected BN.
It does sound like the typical mainstream media spin, which it tries to be. However, it gives some precious gems of information - quite unwittingly, I wager.
What I learned from this article by Bernama:
1. BN is extremely worried - to the extent of hiring bloggers to counter-attack the rising public sentiment against BN and by their own admission, it is not working!!!!!!
2. A lot of people are going online for information rather than sticking to the conventional news on TV, radio and print media. It shows that BN has totally lost credibility.
3. The urban-dwellers are being enlightened and in turn enlightening the folks back in the kampungs. This means the message is actually being carried across and the rural folks do not have the same perception of the government as they used to.
4. BN acknowledges that the July 9 rally was a huge blow for them.
BN does give some really good advice though: "In this age of information, people must train themselves to think and analyse before actually accepting the information presented to them."
I'm so glad that so many people do think and analyse - which is why they have rejected BN.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Alwyn Lau On The DUMC Raid
I think Alwyn Lau manages to get to the root of the matter. This is probably the best piece written on this issue.
Excerpts:
Berita Harian and Harian Metro see only how Christians want to bribe Muslims into believing in Jesus Christ, without seeing how Christians may in fact be concerned about the very poverty of some communities (including Muslims, obviously) and how the fact that some Muslims end up being Christian may reflect less some odious scheme to convert Muslims and more the natural sense of gratitude humans have when people show compassionate love.
In a word, the politically motivated see only what they want to see. But what they can’t see is that segment which they must be most responsible for i.e. the least of “the people”.
I’m talking about the homeless, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the orphan, the widow, the handicapped, i.e. the very people for whom the DUMC dinner was thrown — who sees THEM? Only, it seems, DUMC and Harapan Komuniti.
The drug addicts and homeless are those whom society doesn’t enjoy seeing, so all the more reason why our leaders must take a good hard look at how they came to be.
The orphans are the ones for whom GE13 will make hardly a whiff of difference, so it’s critical that voters make a difference at GE13 bearing these children in mind.
The handicapped are the ones who will continue to suffer after the media furore has been cleaned (off the fans and the surrounding “areas”), so we need to bring them to the top of our political priorities lest it makes our talk of justice and a “high-income society” full of nonsense.
It’s pretty ironic when we remember that the people being served by Harapan Komuniti represent the very definition of “marginalised”. And yet when an incident involving them sprouts up, the last thing we think about is them.
Because after the political parties and analysts have finished their speeches and back-patting, after we’ve finished convincing ourselves that the bad guy remains as bad or even worse than before and that our good-guy party isn’t an iota responsible, the abused wife who has to feed three kids still has to fight back the tears every day to ensure her kids don’t have to fight back their hunger.
[Read that bit again, O ye sanctimonious Pakatan Rakyat supporters.]
We need to see the less privileged in our community as part of us and not merely as pawns in political ploys to get people to tick a preferred square on a piece paper come election day.
I’m glad Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim apologised for the incident but I’ll be gladder if his commitment towards justice doesn’t end with reprimanding Jais for their conduct and if, overall, Pakatan Rakyat is defined less by their criticism of Barisan Nasional and more by their efforts to bring joy and hope to these individuals.
Read the whole piece on the wesbite: The DUMC Raid: Are we forgetting someone?
Excerpts:
Berita Harian and Harian Metro see only how Christians want to bribe Muslims into believing in Jesus Christ, without seeing how Christians may in fact be concerned about the very poverty of some communities (including Muslims, obviously) and how the fact that some Muslims end up being Christian may reflect less some odious scheme to convert Muslims and more the natural sense of gratitude humans have when people show compassionate love.
In a word, the politically motivated see only what they want to see. But what they can’t see is that segment which they must be most responsible for i.e. the least of “the people”.
I’m talking about the homeless, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the orphan, the widow, the handicapped, i.e. the very people for whom the DUMC dinner was thrown — who sees THEM? Only, it seems, DUMC and Harapan Komuniti.
The drug addicts and homeless are those whom society doesn’t enjoy seeing, so all the more reason why our leaders must take a good hard look at how they came to be.
The orphans are the ones for whom GE13 will make hardly a whiff of difference, so it’s critical that voters make a difference at GE13 bearing these children in mind.
The handicapped are the ones who will continue to suffer after the media furore has been cleaned (off the fans and the surrounding “areas”), so we need to bring them to the top of our political priorities lest it makes our talk of justice and a “high-income society” full of nonsense.
It’s pretty ironic when we remember that the people being served by Harapan Komuniti represent the very definition of “marginalised”. And yet when an incident involving them sprouts up, the last thing we think about is them.
Because after the political parties and analysts have finished their speeches and back-patting, after we’ve finished convincing ourselves that the bad guy remains as bad or even worse than before and that our good-guy party isn’t an iota responsible, the abused wife who has to feed three kids still has to fight back the tears every day to ensure her kids don’t have to fight back their hunger.
[Read that bit again, O ye sanctimonious Pakatan Rakyat supporters.]
We need to see the less privileged in our community as part of us and not merely as pawns in political ploys to get people to tick a preferred square on a piece paper come election day.
I’m glad Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim apologised for the incident but I’ll be gladder if his commitment towards justice doesn’t end with reprimanding Jais for their conduct and if, overall, Pakatan Rakyat is defined less by their criticism of Barisan Nasional and more by their efforts to bring joy and hope to these individuals.
Read the whole piece on the wesbite: The DUMC Raid: Are we forgetting someone?
Saturday, 6 August 2011
I Found This On Wikipedia Main Page
It has something to do with a Malaysian event.
Can you see it?
It is things like these and not a peaceful demonstration that would keep potential tourists away.
 |
| Click on image to enlarge |
Can you see it?
It is things like these and not a peaceful demonstration that would keep potential tourists away.
Anonymous Returns!
Remember Anonymous? The same guys who hacked into the Malaysian site some time back as a lesson to the Malaysian government for censoring whistle-blower site Wikileaks?
Well, these guys are back with a vengeance, and the next date is 24th October 2011.
I wonder if the Malaysian government is prepared to be humiliated yet again. Maximus Ongkili (minister of Science, Technology and Innovation) was quoted as saying that the hackers were in the process of being identified.
I have yet to hear anything on that subject so far and it has been almost 3 months since then.
Not only that, he claims the hackers were Malaysians. Nabbing them would have been quite easy.
But I suspect it is all trash talk to sound big and mighty. After all, perception management is a big thing for the Malaysian government, otherwise why would they hire APCO and FBC to make them look good?
All this trash talk is making them sound silly as Anonymous prepare to unleash yet another volley of Denial Of Service (DOS).
Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrZsmfylog&feature=youtu.be
Well, these guys are back with a vengeance, and the next date is 24th October 2011.
I wonder if the Malaysian government is prepared to be humiliated yet again. Maximus Ongkili (minister of Science, Technology and Innovation) was quoted as saying that the hackers were in the process of being identified.
I have yet to hear anything on that subject so far and it has been almost 3 months since then.
Not only that, he claims the hackers were Malaysians. Nabbing them would have been quite easy.
But I suspect it is all trash talk to sound big and mighty. After all, perception management is a big thing for the Malaysian government, otherwise why would they hire APCO and FBC to make them look good?
All this trash talk is making them sound silly as Anonymous prepare to unleash yet another volley of Denial Of Service (DOS).
Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrZsmfylog&feature=youtu.be
Friday, 5 August 2011
This is a good one
The irony is that while Muslims in other parts of the world are being persecuted for their religion, over here it is the other way round.
I think religious extremists exist in every religion, but the crux of the matter is that we should not shun a fellow Malaysian just because he or she is of a particular religion.
I think religious extremists exist in every religion, but the crux of the matter is that we should not shun a fellow Malaysian just because he or she is of a particular religion.
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