Screenshots

Desperate people take desperate measures. I used to worry for the bloggers but not as much now. Those desperados upstairs have forgotten the art of winning war is not by confrontation but by winning the bloggers over. Too bad, the shot was fired.

I'll buy you a hanky.

JEFF OOI says: I am vindicated. I said the qualiity of discourse among Malaysians has dropped. That includes the boys who can't be mistaken for men.

Jeff,

I am very sorry but you keep reminding me about the time I gave up reading of NST,that was when honourable A.Jasin Kadir was the boss-man there,I could not even find one article critical of PM,BN and government in general.

They are still all on record in the library,so there was no articel critical of government at all when he was the big boss.

Jeff,

I worry about this blog...

Instead of weeping or moaning, how about a dialogue with the authorities for what it is worth? I advocate that the initiative be from the government but if they are reluctant why not it be from the blogs that matter, like yours? Interested to start a dialogue and discuss an armistice?

This is great news. I will spread a rumour about some civil unrest and get jailed and fed on taxpayers account. By the time I am released after some rehab, the economy may be better and I may be able to ride the wake. Abdullah's warning I think is not to bloggers like you jeff, but because I think discussion on issues such as islam is being discussed openly on other forums (maybe overseas forums and it is trickling into the local ones).To me it is a good thing. Unfortunately, local muslims with a good higher education prefer to put their fate in the next life on the clerics. Good luck to them.

When Pak Lah ask the rakyat to tell him the truth, and not what he wants to hear, there was a lot of hope. And now the rakyat has been fooled again by Pak Lah. When the truth hurts, Pak Lah gave out this warning. As the newspaper can't really tell the truth, everyone turns to the internet.

Pak Lah has failed in his job as PM. Please go away.

A: i have a problem.

Neil: groan, not again; she back to soothe away those woes, mr. old romantic?

A: next week only; no, Neil, it's not about her absence which brings these pangs of pain; it's about what's happening to our nation. Let me give you an example.

You know i don't buy the papers. Saves the coins for dulcolax, emulax and senokot instead.

Neil: what're those?

A: Anyway, i wait for my old neighbour Salleh to finish his paper and pass over to me in the evening; ...you know he brings me his worldclass durians from his old orchard, and i buy him a worldclass nasilemak when i finish marketing; that's ethnic relations 101 for you....

My problem, Neil, is the headline in one of yesterday's papers, the one that says "Bloggers beware".

Neil: oh, that one. What's wrong with it?

A: For one, it said that the authors would be detained for investigation if information in blah-blah were incorrect, bordered on slander, caused disturbance or compelled the public to lose faith in the nation's economic policies.

Let me ask you and anyone else who cares to listen - if Badawi thinks so, why doesn't he apply to this issue the same method he's applied to Mahathir's questions? That is, get his agencies to rebut them? If this Umno govt thinks that information in blah-blah is incorrect, the simplest expedient would be to rebut what is written with facts and figures. Rather than try to control and thereby create even more suspicion that there's foundation for the socalled misinformation. After all it has been said there's no smoke without fire. In our case, you can add there's no fire without smoke. Once something smoulders, it can ignite. And the fact things smoulder implies there's something wrong about them, and if you try to control the smouldering, isn't that indirectly trying to propagate what's wrong that's causing the smoke, to condone status quo, to deflect attention?

Neil: you mean the basic principles of nation-building? do what is right, and right the wrong, not do what is wrong and wrong the right?

A: exactly, Neil! Let's take this case; if it's not about Mahathir going blogging, could it have been what has been written about KJ that has elicited such a reaction from him? Either way, the simplest expedient is to rebut without clamping.

Neil: hey you can't expect the govt to rebut everything written; they'll be doing nothing else than rebuting!

A: well, they can be a bit less sen-wise, ringgit-foolish about how they can go about it. Hire some ultrasmart unemployed graduates and get them to chase his people for the facts to comment back in those blah-blahs some of which comments had caused his 'perception' of the ahem socalled 'disturbances'. He wants transparency and clean governance? Let that be his walking-the-talk. Heck, some of these local graduates could even take the stint to gain additional wisdom useful when they become real leaders later on. They will be the ones getting the really intelligent pulse of the nation, not like those halfbaked opportunists.

Neil: ok, i read you; what's next?

A: that part about causing disturbance and the public to lose faith in the govt's national economic policies. Well, i won't have a problem with these if he comes out to say that those are national economic policies and not umno economic policies; for one, what is umno is not necessarily for the full interest of the community it deems to represent; and for two, what is in the full interest of that community is not synonymous with the full interest of the nation, let alone the supra-national interests of the other communities, if you want to come down to that. But will he, Neil? Nyet, as they say in russian.

Neil: some have perceptively said that social injustice is the thorn; others will add the lack of transparency; almost all will not disagree that we're in a paradox box where the govt that was returned with the highest majority ends up not being trusted by the voters who returned it, many of whom also concluding that it no longer represents all the communities, but only its own tinted, tainted and tampered perception of what are the flashpoints of the nation. To save its own skin, was the question hanging at the lips, it seems.

A: And that is why, Neil, when you turn the page of that daily to the next, you will also get another headline "Adapt to change to be successful".

I have a problem with that one too.

Neil: ..and that is?

A: If he's asking people to adapt to change to be successful, why can't he and Zam and the others see that their Umno policy makers overriding the BN follow exactly that - adapt to change? Don't they know that blogging is to the web what sms was to the mobile?
Everyone can blog, create a forum, open an ongoing virtual dialogue; even corporations and industries are starting to see how blogging can create peer-to-peer connectivity to their customers as a platform to move up from customer-relationship management to customer-managed relationships. And that's what govts need the most with their customers, the rakyat, when they're so disconnected from them. Let me make it plain, you can't solve the ailments of a human being by pandering short-term to just what you think are the overriding interests of one component while the other components are left to fluster, fester and fulminate. As my old friend Salleh will agree with me through-and-through, this country is a melting pot, and those who want to use the word 'metropolitan' best know how the rest of the world defines it, not how they think it can be coaxed to fit their own puny self-interest agendas.

So in that flip-page article, his speech at that Global Leadership Forum (wah!) talks about hikmah (wisdom):

"In all cases, there will be groups that agree with you and groups that don't. No matter how well considered there will never be universal concurrence, for change exacts costs."

If that be the case, why is he taking a stab on websites et al then, when they're some of the alternative agents for change of a nation, some say national conscience?

By the way, did he use the same speechwriter for the two speeches?

Neil: that's mischievous again, A and the only person who can 'control' your mischief as i know will only be back next week!

A: ah, i miss her, so excuse my barbs these days.

Neil: are we finished here?

A: Neil, i would like to say we're finished, full-stop, since we all will finally have a common exact destination; it's just the journey which has been so crummy for too many. You know, a true measure of developed status is that the citizens don't have to come to that stage of thinking. And we've receded too far away from that utopia to even nurture any hope anymore.

No, Neil; there's one more from the same daily.

The Adapt article was on page 3; turn that page thrice and you'll get another article: "RM30,000 reward for info on killers".

What do you think citizens, and you don't have to race-type them, will conclude of the police on beats that they should be doing are reported to have said:

"They are told that the incident was a result of their own carelessness and that they shouldn't trouble the police with 'small things' like that."

followed further down by:

"Give us the date....and we'll take action."

Neil, let me ask you, is this what Malaysia has become? To expect innocents to die so that their bereaving families can then report for reactive actions?

Slashings, killings, rapings, murders, snatches, and they want to talk about returning faith in national economic policies by blocking comments in websites that deal with those national social policies so dependent on money saved from abuse, misuse and theft in projects of national economic policies?

Let me ask you, Neil, would anyone in his right mind expect a bereaving parent to 'adapt to change', make a report, chant on the streets, even write a letter to the Editor, when s/he's wrenching guts out as to how fate could do such a thing? Create a blog on the event, write a comment in a website forum, burn an effigy off KLCC? Spare me the hikmahs.

Neil: i read you again, A; yes there will be others who can write across the entire landscape of this nation, who can hope that their well-intended actions won't be misread as mainstream anarchy against a govt that has disenfranchised so many of its moderate citizens.

A: yes, it can be as interesting as sudoku, this looking for contradictions in the dailies; really, they should make it a national pastime - a contest to see how many inanities are groomed to tunship in this country.

Neil: shall i go and pack some lunch for you, A, seeing how we'll still be missing her marvellous dishes for the next few days?

A: thank you, Neil, just make sure you don't go under that billboard.

Neil: which billboard?

A: the one that says "Sayangi Kuala Lumpur" in front of TTDI.

Neil: what about it, the return of UDA, and cronyism?

A: No, Neil; i just wonder what was going on in the head of whoever approved that monstrosity. For one, why say it? Does it mean the one who approved had thought the people of KL didn't love KL? And if yes, can he assay some reasons? For two, how would putting up this brain polluter help in creating a love for a city that's gone down the tubes completely? I know about love, and she doesn't need to put up a megabucks billboard to coax me to care for her, as i do after all these years. And three, look at the design - they don't care, that's the problem, they don't care. The font type and size are completely wrong; it would be easier on the eyes if it were the signboard outside a detention camp, not what it tries to portray. Now, if i were to add that it spells kickback, some people will be in a hurry to pack me to the nearest eye hospital, or worse, give me a courtesy stay in Sungei Buluh. Being poor and all, i don't mind but the nasi lemak there is only so-so.

Neil; i heard some people have died crossing that heavy-traffic road; should they have instead hurried with a pedestrian overhead?

A: careful, Neil; don't let the MTEC come down on you; oops, i forget, they think different portfolios will divide the peoples' attention, just like forming councils and committees will create deflection switches from fiduciary misdemeanours.

Neil: so where are we now on this issue? shall we go boinging?

A: you mean bonking?

Neil: heavens no. I mean boing-boinging!

http://tinyurl.com/lry7o

The best way to stop gahmen fooling around with the media control is by pressure the gahmen controlled media. Nothing works better than pressure the media with boycott, cutting their income. Just use your pocket.

For example, if everyone boycott buying paper everymont start on 1st-2nd, 11st-12nd and 21st-22nd. This is the only way will make the stubborn gahmen listen. Imagine 20,000 reader doing this, it will cut off RM40,000 revenue monthly and force advertiser withdraw ads campaign on designated day.

BTW, I stop buying local newspaper since Y2K.

The timely updates of Kota Baru on July 28 by screenshots after the pepper spray attacks was timely and actually have saves a lot faces for Pak Lah Administration, especially for those at overseas. When the incident happened, sms’es beep across the continents and with the limited number of characters per sms is not able to tell the whole pictures but turned to be rumors.

Thought Bernama do published the attacks instantly, but left people in the other side of the world to ponder, deep and negatively. Is Screenshots that the people are relying upon and to understand the whole incident correctly. Though the result of the findings are coming from Malaysiakini, but how many of the 36,000 hits have subscribes to it.

I salute to you Jeff! Once again, I know that you are not the hero behind the screen, what I see is that, you have to put aside all your daily work routine, and is the emails and sms’es that rushed you to have all correct views that you put it in your weblogs. I admire you that you can run your owned news portal by yourself alone in your Newsroom Operation Center. And by the time the mainstreams hardcopy newsprint came out in the evening, you have already iron out all the untruth and rumors for our Nation, especially for Pak Lah Administration, and so for your BN. Salute!

The utilization of technology in a positive attitude and timely manner could contribute to the world peace. But if these gadgets were in the other hands, disastrous.

JEFF OOI says: Precisely the point. I did receive unsolicited SMS alerts, some even allegedly "pinpointed" the culprits when the Police hadn't even started the investigation on July 28. I sensed the damaging effect o such SMS -- and SMS is definitely virally more widespread than blogs -- so I stayed on the Net and made many, many phonrcalls to journalists and civilians in Kota Baru, and to update readers with information updates. I HAD TO DO THIS as the Bernama news portal did not have any newsflash until much later in the day, and the NST didn't have any breaking news/updates on it portal at all. I hope I had helped neutralise this info vacuum on July 28 and did my share of national service for the country. I have not bragged about it until now. ;-)

instead of forging ahead, the PM, government seems to wan to take a step bckwards!

We wonder what has happened to the authorities!

Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure. -- Samuel Butler

Maybe?
I think so

Pak Lah was shocked on July 28 incident, the whole nation were also shocked the same. Many of them are still dizzying with the aftershock, not yet recovered. So is excused from being unable to distinguish on who is who really.

Is like waves and waves of tsunami shocked, and helplessly blame on the rescuer.

Jeff, you blogs have done a good deed to the Nation, better than the day the Tsunami strike. But sorry, you can’t get a Datukship instead, you know there’s the 5th plot going-on on you by the spinner.

A poem inspired and likes to share with AKJ,

[ DELETED by Jeff Ooi ]

Oh my poor PM, have you lost everything?

Bloggers who blog without anonymity are more credible then those who don't. The reason is that we know who could be held to account if a mistake was made or a slander/libel was said. Threatening these bloggers because of a few misdeeds by bloggers who hide behind anonymity is just another form of 'collective punishment'. This doesn't help the current administrations case in pushing a more transparent government. Not only that, the government would push these blog (which stand out in the first place because they don't hide in anonymity) to obscurity.

These bloggers who are at least have incentive to tell the truth (because they put their names on the line) will now be no different then any other bloggers. Because these bloggers would be more likely to embrace anonymity to avoid prosecution. Why is this bad?

Because it would be harder to sift through the rubbish on the net(the internet always have been full of rubbish) to find the right information. How do we know which blog on the internet is more credible then the other? If the people like us who are well versed in finding information on the internet find it harder, how much effort would it take for the ordinary net citizen or those ordinary rakyat who has not yet embrace IT?

Is this how you push the country into a IT hub?
Is this how you embrace technology?
Is this how the government move to become more transparent?

You might as well just take the whole Malaysian grid off from rest of the world and watch the other countries pass us by in MACH 3!

Vision 2020 seems to be farther then ever.

hey can bloggers like say "ooppps, i made a mistake" can i retract that statement as used oftenly by the politicians when they erred?

Somehow it is better for AAB to have his ELegant Silence mode 24/7. Cos when he talks, I no faham already. We cant take his words 100% cos he has yet to live up to his words thus far.

Like I had earlier pointed out, Malaysia cannot ride the Information Technology wave - not because of inadequate resources, but because we as a Nation are stuck on the one track third world mentality. Coupled with this, the power hungry Opposition parties are acting as a catalyst in our regression into oblivion.
All these factors contribute to Badawi warning the bloggers - guess he is pressing the panic button instead of pressing the flush button to get rid of the bunch of idiots surrounding him!

“AMATEUR Bloggers or “Meta REPORTERS” are SELF-Indulgent; OPINIONATED Folks Reporting on WHAT has been Reported and depend on mainstream media for talking points and whose OBLIGATION is to be INTERESTING compared to the professional journalists who get accurate information about something new, disseminate and analyse issues.” From STS

But in reality on many issues the spin is always introduced for the professionals to give the “necessary emphasis and image”

As for the accuracy, many local papers & Mijisters have committed their “unforgettable mistakes”. Even in the recent “spraying incident” of Tun Mahathir the STAR and Bernama accounts are not that accurate

Check out this account and others from STS in
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2006/08/bloggers-or-meta-reporters-self.html

The PM said BLOGGERS that gives inaccurate news will face actions.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA should be what the public should trust because they reports accurate news.

Mr. PM, I read in the mainstream media at one moment reported Zainuddin Maidin's said will regulate the internet, then the next moment, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik said internet will not be regulated. So, which is which?

The mainstream media is giving me inaccurate news within a week. Will the mainstream media be suspended pending investigations?