Bar Council/Y4C’s continuing “Rethinking Malaysia” forum series hit a sour note last night when one of the panel speakers advised youth to seek “greener pasture” if the situation in Malaysia becomes untenable.

The advice was given by Datuk Paul Low, Secretary General of Transparency International Malaysia, when he cautioned the Malaysian Government against unjust policies in this age of globalization where people have high mobility.

Last night’s forum titled “Media and Civil Society” saw a turnout of about 60 people most of whom were below the ages of 20.

The first panel speaker Jeff Ooi, a prominent blogger in www. jeffooi.com. lamented the fact Malaysia media was controlled tightly by the ruling parties. As such the newspapers devoted all their effort one-sidely on pro-government news. The rest of it was the sentionalisation of rape, murder and robbery.

On a civil society, his wish-list would contain one where Malaysia would get rid of what he called “Merdeka 1234”—1 for Malay, 2 for Chinese, 3 for Indian and 4 for Others.

“Let us one day be colour blind in this regard,” he said.

The second speaker, Elizabeth Wong of Suaram and also a blogger under http://www.elizabethwong.wordpress.com/, pointed out that the “other news” which could balance the citizens’ exposure were unfortunately in the blogs. But the majority of Malaysians do not have access to that.

She gave the example of her experience during the Ijok bye-election. There was no broadband and she had to use the slow connection.

“When the bill came, it was more than a thousand ringgit for just the 7-day of usage!” she exclaimed.

Datuk Paul Low of Transparency International wanted all news touching on sensitive issues be banned from being published. He gave the example of “burning of a temple” and having the media asking and getting all the provocative answers.

“If these were to be published then we may have a riot. There will be a curfew and you and I will not be able to go about our business,” he said.

But the question is, in the Malaysian context where many of the actions are media-driven (Ask Michael Chong, he is an expert in this) would not silence create more frustrations and non-action.

A member of the audience put forth a query that given the unique Malaysian situation, would the “Rethinking Malaysia” called for a new social contract as the current one was creating a lot of frictions among the various races.

Paul Low replied a new social contract was unnecessary in this age of globalization as young people can easily seek “greener pasture” elsewhere.

When pointed out that he should not be giving such advice to the young impressionable minds but instead should tell them to stay to make this place better, Paul Low drew the example of the European Union where there was great mobility of people and labour.

If Asean thus become like EU then the movement would not be out of frustration. But it would definitely not happen in the next 50 years, and leaving Malaysia for “greener pasture” is a defeatist solution. The “Rethinking Malaysia” calls for a reflection on the past and a peek into what the future holds in the next 50 years. Those wanting a easy way out by leaving should not be participating in such a forum in the first place.

Those young people present when the altercation with Paul Low was taking place, instead of listening and then speak up their mind, bowed their heads in silence. Is this a good or bad omen for the future of Malaysia?.

Singapore Bloggers Shun Political Discussions

The cyberspace may offer opportunities for open political discussion but most Singaporeans are not participating.

This is according to the preliminary findings of a yet-to-be-completed study, conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), on the behaviour of Singapore voters at last year's General Election.

"There are some blogs that are politically engaged but, if you look at the content and the total number of blogs, they are not that many for a country that is so wired up and so high up in terms of computerisation," said IPS deputy director Arun Mahizhnan, during a discussion at the 16th Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (Amic) annual conference yesterday.

"With regard to the contents of the blogs, only a few can be characterised as serious political engagement," Mr Mahizhnan said, citing Mr Alex Au of Yawning Bread and Mr Lee Kin Mun, also known as mr brown. "But there are not many others like these two."

When it comes to managing new media, Mr Mahizhnan believes authorities face a dilemma.

He told TODAY: "On the one hand, it (the Government) wants to promote information communications technologies (ICT) in Singapore, but on the other hand, it is also concerned about ICT abuses. So, it tries to put certain controls, but unfortunately, the Internet is not easily controlled by any one government or one organisation."

Mr Mahizhnan believes the way forward is to accept that there will be a divergence of views in the digital world. As such, he believes the focus should be on building a socially immune system. Hailing groupings such as the Parents Advisory Group for the Internet (PAGi) as exemplary, he said: "The move for society to build its own defences has to be a many-pronged approach, both top-down and bottom-up."

But will new media have any impact on regulations governing the mainstream press in Singapore?

Another panellist, Associate Professor Tey Tsung Hun who teaches at the National University of Singapore's law faculty, takes a cautious stand. He said: "It is unlikely that we will see any changes in the legislative framework governing the print media in the next two to three years. There is no reason to change the law unless there is evidence that it is not conducive to the Government's aspiration to develop Singapore as a media hub."

But panellist Au was hopeful. Citing the advent of gay websites, he said at the session: "Here is maybe an example where new media can lead to social change which, in turn, in due course might lead to a loosening of regulations governing mainstream media."

Full exposure...
The Star...
Testifying as the first prosecution witness, he said the political analyst had never instructed him to hurt anyone before.
"I would have lodged a police report if anyone asked me to kill someone else," he said.


Full exposure...
The NST said...
Suras had also allegedly issued threats that he was sent by Razak to throw them out of the window to make it look like a suicide.
Asked by Kamarul if she understood what the threats meant, she said she did because of his "hostile" body language and his "scary face".

Kamarul: So he came in the room and slept?

Uuriintuya: He entered the room, put his helmet on the floor and slept on the bed.

Kamarul: Did any of you try to leave the room and tell the hotel management or lodge a police report while he was asleep?

Uuriintuya: No.

She said Altantuya decided to lodge a police report on Oct 19 after the threats became too much to bear.



To be able to work another day...
The Star...
Living up to his ‘private’ eye credentials...
ANG Chong Beng, the 56-year-old private investigator hired by the late Altantuya Shaariibuu last year, is a private man indeed.
So private is he that he managed to evade press photographers throughout the seven days of the murder trial.

The moral of the story is: Get Indian for PR and get Chinese for PI.

The Latest & Most Creative Internet Con Job

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They were ridiculed that such a bank did not even have a website and had to rely on free Yahoo email. They got the cheek to reply that the website was under construction.

The objective of NEP is to be lauded. However its implementation has left much to be desired.

Instead of benefiting the privileged few with the connections the allocated share should be given to Malay cooperatives where all Malay employees should belong. This way the benefit would be spread to benefit as many Malays as possible.

At the moment the privileged few would have to resort to Ali Baba arrangements in which only the few non-Malays with connections benefit.

So the many non-Malays complain unfairly blaming the many Malays who have only their jobs to cling to.

With a shrinking economic cake the country is now experiencing as more and more foreign investors bypass Malaysia for other Asian countries such as China, Vietnam and Singapore, the dissatisfaction and frustration are growing at the expense of the many non-Malays and Malays.

Therefore it is imperative that a more equitable economic policy and formula be drawn up to benefit the many Malays and non-Malays for the continued wellbeing of the country.

In the Malaysian context, any meaningful dialogue should begin with the unequivocal acknowledgement of Malay political dominance and institutions in the country to allay Malay phobia.

An analysis must then be made to government contracts and tenders, transportation (it has been decreed as a Malay preserve), manufacturing (many non-Malay plants are unlicensed for obvious reasons) etc for the most effective and equitable ways to benefit the many Malays and non-Malays.

Without such a starting point we can talk until the cows come home, inflaming emotions unnecessarily all along the way.

Now that PI Bala has finished giving his examination-in-chief and subjected to cross-examination, one glaring gap has emerged.

What the Tamil-speaking Bala has said in the examination-in-chief was actually nothing new as most of it was already in Razak Baginda’s affidavit. What was eagerly anticipated was that the Defence lawyers could get more out of him by way of cross-examination. But what a let down.

The issue of how he could identified Azilah Hadri as the driver of the red Proton Wira which took Altantuya away on the night of Oct.19, was not pursued at all. Bala identified Azilah as the driver without hesitation and yet did not know the other two persons in the same car. Unless Bala had known Azilah before. If not then the three in the proton wira came to him as total strangers and yet pointing out Azilah was that straight forward to him. Was there any prompting.

Instead the cross-examination was taken up on Bala’s opinion why Razak Baginda need not make the police report on extortion. This would not carry any weight at all because it was not an opinion of an expert or legal person. If Razak’s personal lawyer were to give the same opinion then he may be in trouble with the law and the Bar Council because extortion is a criminal offence and has to be reported as such.

Another discrepancy was the fee he said he charged Razak. During examination-in-chief he said it was RM4,000. Then during cross-examination he said it was RM600 per day or RM7,000 per package of 20 days. The conjecture is that he was paid much more otherwise how can he afford “MAH82 Merz my car”.