Bloggers see red over tourism chief's 'insults'

Image courtesy of Kickdefella

Minister said to have called them liars and mostly jobless women

MALAYSIA'S tourism minister has sparked a controversy among the local Internet community by reportedly describing bloggers as 'liars' and 'mostly jobless women'.

The Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh quoted Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor as saying last week: 'All bloggers are liars. They cheat people using all kinds of methods.

'From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.'

He apparently also said: 'Bloggers like to spread rumours; they do not like national unity.

'Today, our country has achievements because we are tolerant and compromising. Otherwise, we will have civil war.

'Malays will kill Chinese, Chinese will kill Malays, Indians will kill everybody else.'

The report touched off a storm of criticism from Malaysian bloggers, including former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's daughter Marina Mahathir.

She called Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan's reported remarks an 'unbelievable bit of foot-stomping' by 'a supposedly sober person in high office'.

The minister reportedly made the comments in response to questions by reporters about criticism of the Malaysian tourism authorities contained in an Indonesian broadcast journalist's blog.

Ms Nila Tanzil wrote in her blog that her team from Indonesia's SCTV had run into Malaysian bureaucracy when invited by the tourism board to shoot aspects of Malaysian tourism.

Asked yesterday about the controversy, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan refused to confirm whether he had been quoted accurately by the newspaper.

'I do not have anything to say right now,' he said.

Malaysian freelance writer Susan Loone said in an open letter to the minister that his reported comments were 'highly demeaning' and seemed to reflect the ideas of a 'woman hater'.

'Women these days are different. We do not merely sit around looking pretty,' Ms Loone wrote in her blog.

'We work, take care of the family, write, blog, ask questions, analyse, create, invent, and a million other things.'

Another blogger, who goes by the name EWOON, said: 'Think before you speak, sir. When you do not look good, you make us Malaysians not look good.'

Other bloggers used even harsher language.

The timing of the controversy is bad because Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan is spearheading the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign.

The controversy is also likely to worsen relations between the cyberspace community and officialdom.

In the past few months, bloggers and online media have been targeting sharp criticisms at the government, while some government leaders have called for more curbs on cyberspace. The Internet is currently uncensored in Malaysia.

The Malaysian authorities have often warned bloggers not to spread false reports or rumours that will cause disharmony or destabilise the multi-ethnic, mostly Muslim country.

Many of Malaysia's most popular blogs offer political commentaries that include criticism of government policies.

The pro-government New Straits Times newspaper sued two political bloggers for alleged defamation earlier this year in Malaysia's first lawsuit involving online journals.

-ASSOCIATE D PRESS

Malaysia's tourism minister refused to respond on Monday to accusations that he had insulted women by reportedly saying that Internet bloggers are liars, and many are jobless women.

The Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh quoted Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as saying last week that "All bloggers are liars, they cheat people using all kinds of methods.

From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women."

The report sparked a storm of criticism among Malaysian bloggers, including former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's daughter, Marina Mahathir, who called Tengku Adnan's reported remarks an "unbelievable bit of foot-stomping" by "a supposedly sober person in high office."

The tourism minister reportedly made the comments in response to questions by reporters about criticisms of Malaysian tourism authorities contained in an Indonesian broadcast journalist's blog.

On Monday, Tengku Adnan refused to comment or confirm whether he had been quoted accurately by the newspaper.

"I don't have anything to say right now," Tengku Adnan told The Associated Press.

Freelance writer Susan Loone said in an open letter to Tengku Adnan that his reported comments were "highly demeaning'" and seemed to reflect the ideas of a "woman hater."

"Women these days are different. We don't merely sit around looking pretty," Ms Loone wrote in her blog. "We work, take care of the family, write, blog, ask questions, analyse, create, invent, and a million other things."




The world’s oldest blogger Liar


Donald Crowdis of Toronto, Canada is probably the world’s oldest blogger at 93 years by Christmas 2006, his latest entry posted 8th March is interestingly entitled "I’m not dead" and continues to say that family concerns are preventing him from blogging.

Now seems there’s another blogger of the same age as Crowdis, tomato grower Ray White, whose blog is called Dad’s Tomato Garden Journal.

Last but not least, the title for the world’s oldest blogger should now belong to Allan Loof of Norrkoping, Sweden who is older than Crowdis and White by 2 years. The blog is in Swedish, of course.

He has been blogging for a year and has had his own site http://allanloof.com for a couple of years.