Blogger Syed Akbar Ali appointed to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission

Blogger Syed Akbar Ali is one of five new members of a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) panel who received their letters of appointment for the next two years from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Friday, Feb 25.

He sits on the Consultation and Prevention of Corruption Panel (PPPR) which had seven of its 11 members retained and five more added on to bring the new membership to 12.

All the seven members of the Operations Evaluation Panel (PPO) were retained and two new members were added on to raise the membership to nine....more

Appointed To The MACC

By Syed Akbar Ali

I was at the Prime Minister's office this morning, along with a number of other folks, to receive my 'watikah' or letter of appointment to the MACC's Consultancy Panel on Corruption Prevention and Education.

The official term is Ahli Panel Perundingan Dan Pencegahan Rasuah, Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM). Its a two year appointment that runs from 25/2/2011 till 24/2/2013. The appointment is by the Prime Minister.

The MACC first called me about two weeks ago, quite early in the morning as I was having breakfast at home. There were 12 people, including myself, who were appointed to the Consultancy Panel this morning. We also met the other serving members.

The other folks who received their appointments today were Prof Dr. Eng. Chin Yew Sin, Datuk Marimuthu Nadason, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, Haji Anis Yusal Yusoff, Dato Seri Azman Ujang, Dato Prof. Ishak Tambi Kechik, Dato Wong Chun Wai, Datuk David Chua, Dr Zainal Abidin Abdul Majid, Prof Dato Dr Abdul Rahman Hj Embong and Datuk Johan Jaafar.

It was a fairly well spread out distribution representing consumers associations, NGOs, universities, media and others. I am simply listed as 'Blogger, OutSyed The Box' which I take as recognition of the Bloggers and their contribution to the public discourse.

I wish to thank the Prime Minister and the MACC for this opportunity to serve the public. The highest form of service is indeed public service. I hope we can do good through this appointment...more

Kickdefella gets the "kick" from Pas

The movie director, who achieved blog-fame for using movie posters on his blog to take jabs at Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he was PM (the name of his blog was inspired by Pak Lah), joined the PAS state goverment of Kelantan one year before the March 2008 by-election where he used the media, especially the new media, to help improve PAS' appeal to Malaysians outside Kelantan.


From Malaysiakini:

The ongoing graft probe at Kelantan Chief Minister Incorporated (PMBK) has resulted in the sacking of its corporate liaison officer Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz.

Popularly known by his Internet pen name Kickdefella, Syed Azidi in an entry in his blog, said he learnt about the termination of his contract with PMBK at noon yesterday.

The speculation is that his sacking was related to the ongoing Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigations against PBMK chief executive officer Mohd Ariffahmi Abdul Rahman.

MACC has yet to reveal its reasons for probing PMBK and Ariffahmi, the son-in-law of Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat, but it is believed to be over financial improprieties.

Syed Azidi said that since the MACC began investigations into PMBK, he had been a victim of many spurious accusations by those who have been brought in for questioning.

He said he would be holding a press conference tomorrow to clear his name before returning to his home in Kuala Lumpur.

He also suggested a possible rift between his detractors and Nik Aziz, who is also the chairperson of PMBK.

"I will stand firmly behind the menteri besar throughout the investigations," wrote Syed Azidi, a staunch supporter of Husam Musa, one of Nik Aziz's protege and state exco member.

Denies involvement

Syed Azidi said that upon learning of his termination, he had met Nik Aziz to accept the termination notice and sought the latter's advice on how to take an oath based on Islamic traditions.

He said he then took an oath in front of the MB denying he was responsible for reports of corrupt practices in PMBK to the MACC.

He also denied divulging information about the corporation to Umno politician and Nenggiri state assemblyperson Mat Yusof Abdul Ghani.

PMBK is an investment arm of the state government directly under the control of the Menteri Besar's office.

Ariffahmi was appointed as chief operating officer in 2008 before being promoted as CEO two months ago. He was questioned twice by the MACC, while his chief financial officer was questioned last Thursday, where several documents including financial statements were seized.

Penamatan Kontrak Serta Merta

Tengahari tadi sejurus selepas saya tiba ke Kota Bharu dari tugas rasmi di Kuala Lumpur, saya dimaklumkan bahawa kontrak perkhidmatan saya dengan Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan telah ditamatkan dengan serta merta.

Sebaik menerima makluman itu, saya menemui YAB Tuan Guru Haji Nik Abdul Aziz Bin Nik Mat, Menteri Besar Kelantan dan Pengerusi Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan.

Di dalam pertemuan pada 2.45pm di Pejabat Menteri Besar Kelantan saya telah,

1. Mengucapkan jutaan terima kasih diatas kepercayaan Tuan Guru selama ini terhadap saya.
2. Memaklumkan bahawa saya menerima penamatan serta merta ini dengan tanpa rasa terkilan.

Saya kemudiannya meminta YAB Menteri Besar mengajar saya bagaimana untuk bersumpah mengikut syarak kerana saya ingin bersumpah dihadapannya bahawa,

1. Saya tidak pernah membuat sebarang aduan/laporan kepada SPRM berhubung PMBK.
2. Saya tidak pernah memberi sebarang maklumat kepada Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Barisan Nasional dari Nenggiri berhubung PMBK sewaktu Sidang DUN yang lalu.

Setelah melafazkan apa yang ingin saya lafazkan, saya mengucup tangan YAB Menteri Besar dan meminta maaf sekiranya ada kesilapan di pihak saya sepanjang perkhidmatan saya dan meminta dihalalkan makan minum dan gaji yang saya terima selama ini.

Perjumpaan tersebut disaksikan oleh Setiausaha Politik Menteri Besar.

Semenjak Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia memasuki premis Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan, terdapat tuduhan-tuduhan dari pihak-pihak yang ditemubual oleh SPRM terhadap saya.

Saya akan berdiri teguh di belakang YAB Menteri Besar sepanjang siasatan ini.

Esok saya akan membuat sidang media untuk menjelaskan dan membersihkan nama saya dari segala tuduhan yang dilemparkan dan kemudiannya akan terus pulang ke Kuala Lumpur.

Perjuangan Belum Selesai.

Patah Sayap Terbang Jua.

Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz

Kampung Demit

Cops to investigate blog insulting Prophet Muhammad

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will investigate the people behind a weblog said to be full of insults to Prophet Muhammad.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said this after Utusan Malaysia carried a report about the blog on its front page Saturday.

“The act (insulting the Prophet) can cause anger and offend especially the Muslims and Malays. It also provokes religious and racial conflicts,” he said.

He said that from the legal perspective, it was an offence under the Sedition Act and the police would immediately investigate the owner and writer of the blog.

According to the report, the blog used pictures and drawings purportedly belonging to a Malay woman said to be open-minded but the Malay language daily claimed that the woman’s photograph and name had been used by another party. -- Bernama


Read also Azly Rahman: "Please remove this blog"

Political bloggers are stupid !

Saya anak Bangsa Malaysia, goblok monkey !

Nation moving towards dictatorship ?

Offensive on bloggers: Nation moving towards dictatorship
Noor Hamzah

The West values freedom of speech, writing and thinking. Where speech is free, opinion is valued, no matter how stupid our views.

So it is a shock to me that Malaysia is moving to curb bloggers on what they write.

Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of the prime minister, reportedly said: ‘Dakwa penulis blog. Biar monyet lain takut’ (Charge bloggers in court. Let the other monkeys get scared).

Are we priming the country towards dictatorship? Like, ehem, Pakistan or previously, Iraq? Are we reducing parliament to be a mere rubber stamp for the incoming dictator? Notice that Khairy makes the call first, then Umno politicians follow suit and formulate policies which will then be rubber-stamped by the rest of the BN coalition.
(more from Malaysiakini here)





Meanwhile,it is official, monkey blogger Jeff Ooi on Tuesday confirmed that he had joined Malaysia's main opposition party the DAP, saying that he now wished to participate in the legislative process of parliamentary democracy.

Jeff Ooi, a prominent blogger fighting a libel suit, announced he has quit the Gerakan party in the ruling coalition to join the DAP to fight against government curbs on online dissent.

Ooi, who writes political commentaries on his "Screenshots" blog, is one of two bloggers who were sued by the government-linked New Straits Times daily for making allegedly libelous postings about the paper and its leadership.

I do not want people to misconstrue my intentions, which is why I have launched my political blog – parliament.jeffooi.com – to convey my thoughts and agenda," he said.

“I cannot remain a fence-sitter if change is to happen,”

he said at a welcoming party held by the DAP (Democratic Action Party) here on Tuesday.

Jeff has created waves in the Malaysian blogosphere. We await a tsunami from him in the political arena, said Lim Kit Siang.

Jeff’s statement of the reasons for joining the DAP is an eloquent expression of patriotism of a Malaysian, illustrating that patriotism is an integral part of all Malaysians and not the monopoly only of those who hold office or high positions. This makes the 50th Merdeka anniversary particularly significant.

I do not want to use the “monkey” language but this will be one of the challenges of Jeff Ooi, together with others in the political arena, to fight back the creeping law of the jungle and to restore the rule of law in Malaysian political and public life.

It has been said that Jeff Ooi’s decision to join the Opposition is a loss to blogging.

It should not be so. It should be a gain to both politics and blogging in Malaysia, enriching both.

I will like to see more politicians taking up blogging and more bloggers entering politics.

After all, blogging particularly socio-political blogging is not an end by itself but a means to an end and a time must come when bloggers must decide whether they should “dirty their hands” and make the transition from advocacy of their political ideals in cyberspace to enter the political terrain to be able to directly translate their ideals into action.

There is the perception that politics is dirty. It it is not politics that is dirty.. Politics is an honourable calling demanding conviction, passion, selflessness and sacrifice. If politics is regarded as dirty, it is the politicians who make politics dirty. Let bloggers get directly involved in politics to cleanse and rid it of “dirty”, unscrupulous and unprincipled politicians!

( Lim Kit Siang's Speech at the “Jeff Ooi’s Welcoming Party” as member of DAP in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 31st July 2007 at 11 am)

Visit Jeff's political blog @ http://parliament.jeffooi.com

Another Malaysian Messenger in the Firing Line

Poster courtesy of Mob's Crib

Press statement/Letter to the Editor by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee on UMNO Police Report Against Raja Petra

I am writing in defense of Raja Petra Abdullah and his commentaries in his website, Malaysia-Today.net. This website contains some of the finest and most incisive political analyses and commentaries on the problems and ills that beset our nation. Malaysia-Today.net is simply without peer – whether as a whistle blowing or expose revealing resource or as a barometer of the pessimism and cynicism that many Malaysians feel when given freedom to express their views. Whilst some of the comments that are contributed by the website’s considerable following – especially on racial and religious issues – may appear over-exuberant, they are no more than the honest - if sometimes – passionate views and sentiments of our own citizens who write in precisely because they love the country and want it to be a better place.

Raja Petra’s own writings have not only been consistently factual, balanced and temperate. In his investigation of the many follies in our nation, he is providing that model of fearless, patriotic and ethical journalism that can help bring about higher standards of governance and behavior, especially from our leaders.

A fair-minded government should not for one moment entertain - let alone pursue - the false charges that have been leveled against him by UMNO. I hope good sense will prevail - and Raja Petra and Malaysia Today can be allowed to continue unhindered in their good work aimed at achieving a better Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, 24 July 2007.


M. Bakri Musa’s comments:

I join Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and others in condemning this police report lodged by UMNO. Just as I thought we had breached the depth of stupidity with Najib Razak’s utterance of Malaysia being an Islamic state, out comes this news of an UMNO Vice-President lodging the police report.

Without being unduly Pollyannaish, I see some good coming out of this bizarre police report. I always knew this double Muhammad to be utterly corrupted but I did not know that he breached his scholarship bonds or that his divorce settlement to his wife, the Sultan of Selangor’s daughter, was a cool $12 million ringgit. Thanks to Raja Petra, now we know.

This is the Muhammad who was acquitted on a criminal charge of trying to smuggle a couple of millions in cold cash on the technical grounds that he could not understand the customs declaration forms! This begs the question, if this graduate of a local university could not understand English (no surprise there), how could he follow Raja Petra’s exposes that are written in English?

That soiled characters like this double Muhammad could rise so high in UMNO reflects more on the nature of UMNO. UMNO in turn reflects more on our Malay culture and norms. That is the tragic part.

I am glad and not at all surprised that Raja Petra, far from being cowered by this latest challenge, is being emboldened. The kucing kurap of UMNO cannot rustle this lion of a prince.Thank Allah that Malaysia is blessed with such individuals as Raja Petra.

M. Bakri Musa

clipped from news.yahoo.com Malaysia denies crackdown on bloggers KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia's deputy prime minister denied the government is clamping down on bloggers after a prominent ruling party politician lodged a police report against a website, reports said Tuesday. "Some of the offensive comments are capable of threatening racial stability and national security. The comments show that they do not respect the law," Muhammad said according to New Straits Times. The incident comes after Nathaniel Tan, an aide to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, was detained by police for four days over an anonymous posting on his blog referring to corruption allegations against a minister.

Farish A. Noor :

Just a week ago a Malaysian blogger – Nathaniel Tan – was arrested and taken if for questioning by the police due to some postings related to allegations of corruption against politicians in the country. Now that a blanket ban has been used to close the forum of public debate on the Islamic state issue, worries have been raised about whether this marks yet another attempt to clamp down on cyberspace and silence the bloggers and cyber-writers.

Following the arrest and subsequent release of Nathaniel Tan, another prominent Malaysian cyber-writer, Raja Petra Kamarudin, who runs the hugely popular www.Malaysia-today.net site has had a police report filed against him by Muhammad Taib, former Chief Minister and member of the ruling UMNO party. The UMNO leader claims that Raja Petra, through his articles and postings on Malaysia-today.net had insulted the king, degraded Islam and incited hatred in the country.

As yet it is not known which of Raja Petra’s postings are said to have been insulting to King and country, though he dismisses the accusations as being baseless. According to Petra: ‘This has nothing to do with allegations about misrepresenting Islam, though such an accusation is the most convenient since when I write about religion I am expressing my personal opinions which are subjective and can therefore be discussed. But what really upsets them are my exposes on corruption in the country, which have been backed up with documents I have posted on the site. How can they refute that?’

Indeed, Raja Petra’s site has been receiving hundreds of thousands of hits daily precisely because of his exposes on corruption among politicians, businessmen, Malaysian criminal networks as well as the Malaysian police force; the last of which has taken a battering over the years due to a series of scandals and exposes related to cases of police brutality, deaths in custody and of course the now-infamous beating of the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim.

Activists, journalists and legal experts are now worried about what this may hold for the future, for the arrest of Nathaniel Tan and the police report against Raja Petra would suggest that moves are being made to silence the messengers on the internet. In the words of prominent Malaysian lawyer Malik Imtiaz: ‘it would be regrettable if this latest action is part of a wider campaign to close down the public domain of speech and discussion on crucial matters such as Malaysia’s constitution and the question of whether Malaysia is an Islamic state.’

In the midst of this, the Malaysian government’s reaction has been one of denial and retaliation instead. The country’s state-controlled TV channel RTM1 featured an editorial piece condemning local Malaysian newspapers that ‘cause trouble’ by raising sensitive issues on race and religion; while leaders of the ruling UMNO party continue to mouth a rhetoric of ethno-nationalism that is replete with communalist sentiments. The contradictions are clear, as is the paralysis of a government whose leader is on holiday while the messengers remain in the firing line. Full text here .

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad believes that there is an attempt by the government to curb voices of dissent on the Internet

"Yes there is an attempt. But you cannot stop people from using the Internet." […]

Mahathir said in the past, his administration would have liked to ban Internet pornography but it was "impossible" because, among others, the content was based overseas.

"Same with bloggers. You can’t stop them," he stressed. (Malaysiakini here)


Read also : " Growing trend towards stifling dissent " written by Dr Toh Kin Woon, executive councillor of Penang from Gerakan :

The recent arrest of Nathanniel Tan, a blogger and the call by Umno to the police to take action against ‘Malaysia Today’, a much visited blog by Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, reflect the growing trend towards stifling dissent in our country.

Despite earlier promises of allowing freedom of the electronic media as part of the effort to promote the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the government has reneged on these promises by suppressing blog sites deemed to air views critical of the government.

The action against Tan and the call to take action against ‘Malaysia Today’ are the latest in a series of undemocratic moves by the government. Another recent action in this series of moves was the ban imposed on the mainstream media by the Internal Security Ministry on the publication of views challenging the statement by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

No action against bloggers unless they break the law

The authorities cannot take any action against bloggers unless they break the law, said Energy, Communications and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

“There is nothing we can do. What you want me to do? Block the whole thing? If they break the law and we know who they are, we will go after them.

“You want to listen to all these fellows, the lies and misinformation? You get confused and you do not know what is the truth, half-truth or lies. But as you become more knowledgeable, you can differentiate (them),” he said.

Dr Lim was asked about bloggers who posted wrong information about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was overcome by heat exhaustion on Sunday.

He urged the public to be selective on the information on the Internet as “good knowledge come together with bad knowledge.”

“I get a lot of questions like minister you have to stop this and stop that. I can’t stop because knowledge, good or bad, come together,” he said.

He said parents should discipline their children while adults must discipline themselves.

“Through the Internet, you select the knowledge and not the minister who pushes the knowledge to you,” he told reporters after opening the APT Policy & Regulatory Forum 2007 and World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

Farewell from the Sandmonkey-Egyptian Blogger

A popular Egyptian blogger known for his withering criticisms of the government has given up writing after becoming the latest victim of a state crackdown on dissent.

The blogger, known as Sandmonkey, signed off last week, writing that he had noticed state security agents on his street and heard clicking noises on his phone. "There has been too much heat around me lately," he wrote.

In recent months, the Egyptian regime has jailed several bloggers, ending a period in which it had taken a more relaxed attitude towards internal critics. Human rights activists claim the about-turn follows the US administration's decision to relax pressure on Middle Eastern governments to enact democratic reforms.

During Sandmonkey's three years on the internet, his was one of the most widely read Egyptian blogs, popular especially among Western readers for his unconventional opinions about his country and the Middle East. "Cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled" was how he described himself.

He is a 26-year-old American-educated investment banker, and his mother is a member of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party.

In February, Abdel Kareem Nabil, 22, a former student at Egypt's Islamic Al Azhar University, was jailed for four years for insulting Islam and Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on his blog.

Last month, another popular and outspoken blogger from the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Monem Mahmoud, was thrown into Egypt's notorious Tora prison, where he remains today.

On his blog, Mahmoud claimed he was tortured in an Egyptian prison in 2003. He had encouraged scores of other Muslim brothers to become bloggers and used the internet to organise anti-government protests.

Bloggers are not the only targets of the regime crackdown. More than 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood activists have been arrested in the past year, according to Human Rights Watch.

And on Wednesday, an Egyptian court jailed an al-Jazeera television journalist for six months for allegedly fabricating torture scenes for a documentary.

"We are in the midst of a broadening crackdown against a host of fundamental rights here," said Human Rights Watch's Egypt researcher, Elijah Zarwan.

The country's well-educated and internet-savvy opposition has seized on the internet to rally against the government, running blogs and websites to organise protests and publish anti-regime material free of censorship.

Initial ambivalence on the part of government security agents changed in November, said Mr Zarwan, when a cellular phone video appeared on dozens of Egyptian blogs showing two police officers apparently sodomising a detainee with a rod. A public outcry ensued and the officers are being tried for torture.

Hossam Hamalawy, who writes a Cairo-based blog called 3Arabawy, said that, despite the crackdown, the bloggers are growing bolder.

"Some people are intimidated but overall it's producing the opposite effect," he said. "It is radicalising the blogosphere even more. We have bloggers joining every day."

The Next Step

It has came to my attention that the reasons of my quitting were not clear for some people, which is probably due to the fact that I didn't exactly elaborate on why I did what I did or what it means. This is an effort to remedy that. This is not me coming back to blogging though: this wasn't me crying wolf or a publicity stunt, so fans and haters, don't raise your hopes up or don't get disappointed, respectively. This is a clarification, more than anything.

1. While it is true that I am currently in the States , it doesn't mean that I have "escaped" Egypt or have no intention of going back. On the contrary, come next week I will be gracing the Cairo International Airport with my fabulous presence again. I have no intention of letting those goons get me out of Egypt so easily; If I am to leave it will be on my terms, and not theirs. Me traveling to the US right after shutting down the blog was purely coincidental: the trip was planned for months in advance and the decision to shut down the blog was more of a spur of the moment decision. In retrospect, it probably would've been better and smarter- or at least less rumor inducing- to do this after I came back from the States, but alas, what's done is done. However , to make it clear once and for all, I maybe down, but I am not out.

2. I have stated two reasons for quitting, and the majority of the people took the first one and ignored the second one, even though for me the second one was one of the major reasons for doing what I did. The truth of the matter is, the secuirty situation and intimidation aside, this was a protest, my way of telling the Egyptian blogosphere that we need to focus. That we now have the media attention, the people's admiration or at least interest, and the "zeitgeist' is ours if you will, so it's time we use it wisely. Blogs actually allowed the world to listen to us, so now that we have this tool, the question is : what do we have to say exactly? It's personally depressing to see that very few, handful really, from those who command the attention, have anything to contribute to the debate, and even those are censoring themselves now. I am not saying that we should take ourselves too seriously, or start going on ego trips over our importance and role and believe that we are leaders and influential, but there are things to be done that we can easily do. At the end of the day, a blogger is purveyor of information: we can supply people with the information and the lessons they need to affect change and reform. Just think about it: None of the things we are demanding or calling for are exactly new. There has been countless civil rights movement, democracy movements, nonviolent activism movements, very successful ones, all over history and all over the world. We should learn from them. We should provide their lessons to the public, think about how to apply their strategies to our situation, and see which things that they did are applicable to our situation and which aren't. We are not inventing anything new here: the knowledge is available and many amongst us know it already. Maybe it's time to share it.

And even if you do feel disheartened about the apathy or the lack of interest or activism on the part of the average Mo in Egypt, well that too needs to be examined and worked on. Let's face it, the average Egyptian is scared of political reform, and shies away from religious reform, so how do you get them involved? Well, there is still social reform, and they have shown keen interest in that. Take the anti-sexual harassment protest for example: For the first time ever you have had a protest that included foreigners, AUC students, regular University students, Hijabis, liberals, alongside your run-of-the-mill activist. Finally, something we could all agree on: Let's capitalize on that. The question becomes: Why did the campaign stop? Why didn't it go forward? We should've. If you draw the people in using social reform, than sooner or later they will become interested and active in political and religious reform as well, because it is all connected. That's an example of how to reel them in. And it can be done, easily. But do we do it? Nope! Some of us were too busy picking up cute AUC girls at the protest instead. It's shameful. It's time for us to stop being distracted about such things and focus: All of those people could've been mobilized , and instead the opportunity got wasted. We shouldn't allow this to happen again.

3. That being said and thus out of way, I am not saying that first reason is irrelevant either: Our security situation is dire, and not only in Egypt, but rather all across the middle-east. Bloggers have been intimidated by the authorities in Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, just to name a few. It seems like the period of hope and reform that the bloggers of those countries have pushed for and represented in the past 2 years is now coming to an end, with the authorities more and more focused and intent on shutting us up, using everything from intimidation to imprisonment. And we have no defenders, no one to protect us, or champion our causes or lobby for our rights and safety. There used to be the Committee to Protect Bloggers, but that went defunct due to lack of funding, media-pressure- only strategy and too large of a scope: To champion the causes of every single persecuted blogger all over the world takes incredible time and effort. Not to mention they relied heavily on the media, and the media is selective of which stories to publish and which don't, and even when they do mention it, there is heavy doubt on how effective the media is as a pressure tool against repressive regimes. But it's the only tool we had, and god bless them for trying in the cases in which they did. God knows that without the media and the pressure they applied, Alaa probably would've stayed a lot longer in jail. So don't get me wrong Media, it's not that I am ungrateful, thanks for all you have done, but it's starting to be not enough, and the Abdel Karim case has proven that so far.

So what now? What's the solution? Well, here is what I am proposing...read more

Rantings of a Sandmonkey-"The Next Step"

Farewell Freelunch !

As promised. After Ijok. THE END.

Jumpa lagi, di mana-mana.
It's been an amazing journey.

JED YOONG

Good Luck, take care !

Bolehland - new 'liar'

Nurul Izzah Anwar,‘Puteri Reformasi’, daughter of former DPM Anwar Ibtrahim, began blogging yesterday. Check it out on Zeitgeist... Semangat Zaman.

Welcome to Blogsphere !

Meet, probably the youngest blogger in Bolehland, 13 years old Andrea Yip here

Reining in on bloggers?

LOCAL bloggers have said “no” to any move to regulate blog sites. But at the same time they have called on their fellow bloggers to be more responsible with their postings and know the limits.

Blogger Ermira Faridah Mohd Said said banning blog sites is not the answer to curb improper content on the Internet.

From NST,Computimes :

“People should be given the freedom to express their feelings on the Internet, provided they also must know the limits as to not talk about inappropriate or seditious matters or posting negative pictures.”
She noted that out of the thousands of blogs out there, only a very small percentage talk about “bad” stuff; the rest are more of “diary-like entries”.

According to Ermira, it would be better for a blog owner to be more responsible in vetting the content before posting them, rather than risk a ban.

She said the concept of self-censorship by bloggers is a good move, but the subject of censorship is very subjective to each individual. Related parties such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission should come up with a general guideline on such censorship for people to follow, she suggested.
As for controlling blog sites with legislation such as defamation laws, Ermira said the Government can do that so bloggers know that there are laws that govern their activities.
“They should not worry if they are posting non-seditious material.”

Another blogger, Gerald Chuah, said while everyone has the right to communicate and freedom of expression, the keyword here is not to abuse this right. “If the blog is used for hate mail and malicious gossips, then it can be a very damaging tool, and I think the powers that be have a right to ban it. I heard once from another blogger who put it correctly when he said that unlike a journal where you record your personal thoughts and ideas for yourself, a blog is different because when you publish it to the world you can be held accountable for what you say. So, it goes back to responsible writing and journalism.

“Also, we should consider who the blog is targeted at and who you are writing for. I haven’t come across a negative blog, and if I do I will shun it, unless it has some critical information that I must know.”

Chuah also said it is better for the blog owner to be responsible in vetting their blog. “If everybody does their job, there would be no problem. But the question here is about abuse. And the offender takes no thought of being responsible. That’s how it started.”
Chuah pointed out that controlling blog sites with legislation instead is possible because it tells people to be more responsible for what they say, otherwise people can talk nonsense and get away with it.

The legal fraternity noted that legal action against blog owners does not infringe on freedom of speech and information in the country. Such a move instead will help make sure that bloggers are more responsible for the content of their blogs to prevent negative implications to any individual, organisation or country.

Meanwhile, blogger Siti Rosman said bloggers should take responsibility for what they publish for public viewing. That said, it is also just as important that people who leave comments on other people’s blogs to be responsible and provide their real identity instead of signing off as “Anonymous”.

“There are a number of blogs out there that discuss dangerous topics such as do-it-yourself bomb-making and suicide pacts that may influence gullible minds and others who have no grasp on critical reading and critical thinking.

“The cyberspace is much too vast for anyone to handle, so rather than taking the offensive, an alternative mechanism against these dangerous sites would be to remind yourself and the people around you to be selective in their reading and be careful when digesting materials on blogs.”
According to Siti, in certain aspects, self-censorship is necessary. Most bloggers are a responsible lot, but sometimes their blog visitors do leave malicious or defaming comments that need zapping.

“Blogging is a fast-growing trend – everyone who has an Internet connection can blog nowadays. Creating a blog and publishing a post take only minutes to complete, but enforcing law is rarely as fast nor as uncomplicated. A legislation may help, but more as a last resort,” she said.