Screenshots

Yesterday, I was worried that I couldn't get the picture I wanted badly.

Somehow, managed to get several shots, not entirely to my liking, but suffices for a novice's first encounter. Look at the pictures, and having overcome the initial wariness, is it a case of mind over matter?

LensaPress pictures by Jeff Ooi

More pictures in LensaMalaysia Forum.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 01:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Selangor MB Dr Khir Toyo has merely taken a ride on the Sultan's advice to state assemblyman to quit his councillor's post. In Wong Chun Wai's words, it's serious when the Sultan has to step in when governance fails.

The menteri besar has been lame, besides continuing to "back-peddle, twist and turnor waffle art regular intervals" when handling the 'Istana Zakaria' issue, that's how I read R Nadeswaran's tone in his article summising the issue today. Spot on.

Howcould Khir Toyo demand Datuk Z to resign from his councillor post by November 8 when the latter's term as a councullor had judicially expired end of September?

What have we learnt? Is this all about the controversy of the Port Klang assemblyman and Klang municipal councillor who had built his four-storey mansion without council approval? Is this but an isolated case that, unfortunately for Datuk Z, got the cover blown? Can other politically-annointed local councillors continue to cari makan from now on?

That will be another issue for a different topic

A thing that's very pertinent is that, when meting out the royal reprimand, the Sultan mentioned something that relates to adat.

According to The NST, Zakaria was told that as a Malay, he must be polite and courteous always.

"The Ruler had another advice – bersopan santun and berbudi bahasa (be polite and courteous) - in an apparent reference to complaints that Zakaria was rude and arrogant," ays Chun Wai.

Datuk Z was the Umno state assemblyman who slapped Bandar Klang assemblyman Teng Chang Khim at the state assembly building several years ago because he was reportedly not happy with the word haram that Teng had used to refer to factories squatting on agriculture land.

Even Umno had problems with this Datuk Z when he was implicated among 13 Umno members who were found guilty by the party's disciplinary board for breaching party ethics during the party polls. He was issued with a warning and spared the rod.

Recently, a group of councillors, including Datuk Z, had backed a RM10.4mil project proposed to site on the Pandamaran green-lung in Klang.under the pretext of generating revenue for the Klang Municipal Council (MPK). Khor Toyo scrapped the project when it became a tusslebetween Umno and MCA at the local level.

Now that Datuk Z has violated the law, will be the law be lenient to the lawless?

Instead of slapping him a RM24,000 compound fine for erecting his 4-storey mansion without the local council's approval, why didn't Khir Toyo get hisstate legal advisor to look into ways how this Datuk Z is to be prosecuted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 Section 61 that carries a maximum penalty of RM500,000 and jail sentence not exceeding two years, or both.

Last but not least, is Umno willing to stand by law-breaking Yang berhormats like Datuk Z to be the hallmark of what Abdullah Badawi stood for in his 2004 General Election manifesto?

Meanwhile, Screenshots confirmed with Pati Gerakan Selangor chairman Datuk Lum Weng Keong that, from this term onwards, his party willnot nominate state assemblyman as local councillors.

"Gerakan also wants to make sure our councillors serve the peopleand not themselves," Lum adds.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (65) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the finale of Taoists' Nine Emperor Gods Festival, and I haven't captured the picture that I had wanted. I am feeling very nervous now.

LensaPress picture by Paul Choo

It has been a photoshoot inspired by Vincent Thian.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The little girl in the old poster, top left-hand corner, has grown. So has the fan-club of the kopitiam.

We have two Malaysian home-bred brands, Kluang Railway and this one in Kemaman. Get to know them well.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

This is today's NST frontpage, reminding people of the 19th Anniversary of Operation Lalang to juxtapose Mahathir's claim that Malaysia, now under the Abdullah administration, has been plunged into a climate of fear, aka Police State.

Ops Lalang 1987 -- a Police operation that scoured 106 Opposition leaders, academics, NGO activists and dissidents to mainstream politics under the Internal Security Act (ISA), coupled with the suspension of several newspapers including The Star, Sin Chew and the defunct Watan -- is a double-edge sword that may hurt current Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Abdul Razak, very badly.

Najib was then the head of Pemuda Umno which, history testifies, had played a critical role that culminated in Ops Lalang. Here's an insertion of the wikipedia that points to that ugly chapter in Malaysian history:

In 1987, as UMNO Youth Chief, Najib threatened to bathe a keris (dagger) in Chinese blood shortly before the government launched a crackdown on extremist elements termed Operation Lalang. At the same rally, banners were hoisted carrying phrases such as "revoke the citizenship of those who opposed the Malay rulers", "May 13 has begun" (referring to the May 13 racial riots in 1969), and "soak it (the keris) with Chinese blood".

By reminding Malaysians of Ops Lalang wihout giving it a full historical context at a time when Najib is poised to take over from Abdullah, is The NST aiming at the No. 2 for some reasons that we do not know?

Haniff Omar the IGP

If you remember well, Ops Lalang was a police action executed at the command of the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Haniff Omar. The Royal Malaysian Police, the independent law enforcement authority, had to effect a crackdown in order to prevent an imminent racial blood-shed perpetrated by racist politicians from happening. For that, we Malaysians are eternally grateful.

To be fair, let me hasten to put on record that many ISA internees, historians and researchers have concurred that the Executive, then under the Mahathir administration, played an influential role in allowing the course of police action to take place the way it did 19 years years ago to the date.

Since The NST feels it convenient to invoke Ops Lalang to suit the occassion, let's now take a look at the cause and effect of the chronicled events that developed into Ops Lalang, lest you get diverted by The NST's latest spin, which highlighted only the end result -- the Crack Down -- anr not the why and how it happened.

Someone had inserted into the wikipedia relevant to the 1987 incident, and as a working person who had experienced the build up through the mass media, I have little doubt to dispute its accuracy. Quote from the wiki:

According to the White Paper explaining the arrests, various groups who had played up "sensitive issues" and thus created "racial tension" in the country had exploited the government's liberal and tolerant attitude. This racial tension made the arrests necessary and further, forced the government to act "swiftly and firmly" to contain the situation.

The sensitive issues were brought on by what appeared innocuously enough as Education Ministry appointments of some 100 senior assistants and principals to vernacular Chinese schools. This provoked a storm of protest when it was learnt that those appointed were not Chinese (Mandarin)-educated. Politicians from the MCA, the DAP and GERAKAN, the major Chinese-based parties joined the protests and on 11 October 1987, the Dong Jiao Zong (Chinese educationists) held a 2,000-strong gathering at the Hainanese Association Building, beside the Thian Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, which evoked racially provocative speeches from the Chinese politicians present. The meeting resolved to call a three-day boycott in Chinese schools if the government did not settle the appointments issue.

In the event, even though the boycott was called off, albeit at the eleventh hour, the stage was set for a mirror response from the Malays, led by UMNO Youth. A mass rally of 10,000 was held at the TPCA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur and, by then, UMNO politicians had began to condemn MCA leaders for their collusion with the Dong Jiao Zong and the opposition DAP. Amidst calls from both sides for the resignations of MCA Deputy President and Labour Minister Lee Kim Sai and UMNO Education Minister Anwar Ibrahim, UMNO announced the holding of a mammoth rally in KL to celebrate its 41st Anniversary, which it was claimed would see the attendance of half a million members.

The proposed UMNO rally was the ostensible reason for the Inspector General of Police to precipitate the 27 October crackdown. Had the rally been held it was not improbable that racial riots could be sparked by the incendiary speeches of UMNO politicians. To make matters worse, a tinder box situation was already created by the rampage of a Malay soldier who killed a Malay and two Chinese with an M16 rifle in the Chow Kit area, straddling two large Chinese and Malay communities.

The 1987 Ops Lalang was bad, but the cause that precipitated it was even worse -- Pemuda Umno and chauvinists on the opposing side of political divide had all left their finger-prints all over this ugly chapter in modern Malaysian history.

Sekali bah, sekali pasir berubah. Anwar Ibrahim, then Education Minister, is politically gone. So is Muhammed Taib Muhammed, then Selangor menteri besar regarded as an ultra. Lee Kim Sai, then MCA Youth chief, is now retired.

Among the culprits of Ops Lalang left living and standing right in the power corridor today is none other than Najib.

Najib is the 'crown prince in-waiting' for the coveted Prime Minister's post should Abdullah go wrong, or choose to retire for health reason ala Hussein Onn.

Reading the tea leaves, Najib's chances to claiming the political throne is left entirely dependent on how he plays subservient to the incumbent, for now, and how he uses the magical wand to command an erasure of the role he had played, and played up, that led to Ops Lalang 19 years ago.

That is Najib's archilles heel, politically speaking, and spins-doctors worth their salt should have seen that clearly.

That said, for The NST to raise the issue of Ops Lalang without underscoring its cause will only cast a negative effect on Najib's political fortunes. He may be the one who wanted the memory of Ops Lalang deeply buried.

Let me summise by quoting the concluding part of the wiki entry I just mentioned which, among others, states that:

In any case, the incident provided Mahathir's government with the excuse to further tighten the executive stranglehold on politics by further restricting fundamental liberties. In the following year, the Printing Presses and Publishing Act was given more bite by a requirement that printers and publishers had now to apply for new licenses annually whereas they were only required to renew them yearly before. In addition if any license is revoked, it could not be challenged in court. A prison term was added that publication of false news could land a publisher in jail for up to three years.

Thus far, we have not seen any efforts during this Abdullah administration to abolish the ISA (read: Imprisonment without trial) and the Printing Presses and Publications Act, to name a few of those draconian laws. They are expected to be readily invoked should convenience suffice -- mark my word for that.

So talking about Ops Lalang, where's the beef? You may like to ask The NST that. For a start, why don't you get Abdullah to repeal ISA and PPPA and stop perpetuating all that's perceived as Mahathir's evils.

Abdullah could and he should. He has the People's 2004 mandate.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (61) | TrackBacks (0)

On 1 Syawal, we discovered baby turtles greeting the blue ocean at Cherating.

Leatherback turtles are as good as extinct on Malaysian beaches. here's our hope, the Green Turtles. Cherish it.

LensaPress pictures by Jeff Ooi

More pictures in LensaMalaysia web forum: Glimpses of the East Coast.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

We have lost some friends because the religious enforcers insisted on waking up a Christian couple at 2am in Langkawi, accusing them of committing khalwat (close proximity).

A news report says retired American policeman Randal Barnhart, 62, and his wife Carole, 61, are now reconsidering their plan to make Malaysia their second home.

The couple, who were on a six-week sailing holiday in Malaysia, have been married for 42 years.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (0)

Whoever that dragged the Sultan of Johor into the media-hounded Abdullah-Mahathir tussle must have made a major strategic blunder.

In a 4-paragraph dispatch on October 24, national news agency Bernama quoted a third party and attributed Sultan Iskandar al-Marhum Sultan Ismail, the reigning Sultan of Johor and a former Agong, as saying:

"If one has already been pensioned, just behave like a pensioner, what is the use of making more noise?," said a source who repeated the quote to Bernama.

Giving it a firm context, the Bernama dispatch underscored that the Johor Sultan "was Tuesday reported to have publicly said that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should start acting like a pensioner and stop criticising the government".

As if reading from prepared script, PM Abdullah Ahamd Badawi took the cue and fell for the blade sharpened ready for him, as evident in this transcript of his Kepala Batas interview in The Star:

Q: What are your views on the Sultan of Johor’s statement that Dr Mahathir should behave like a pensioner and stop making noise?

A: The Sultan’s comment reflects the people’s opinion. Many people have said so. ...

But was that really, really the case?

Mukhriz, Mahathir's son, spoke up today to give an insider's view of an ugly media ploy. Quotes from Malaysiakini:

He added that the media also coaxed Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail of Johor into commenting that Mahathir, as a pensioner, should just keep quiet.

“We know of a (television presenter) who approached the Sultan asking a prepared question that merely asked whether pensioners should meddle in government business or not. The connection to Mahathir was made later,” he said.

Mukhriz, who is also a Umno Youth exco member, added that his father was made to look bad by the media

“It’s such a concerted effort now by the media. They’re doing their very best to demonise him. The spinning is amazing!”

In summary, Mukhriz contended that the government-controlled mainstream media was now ‘going all out to get’ his father. Quote:

“The media has gotten the Sultan (of Johor) and commoners against him,” said Mukhriz.

“The media is pressuring my father. On Sunday (after the meeting with Abdullah), they (reporters) were chasing him down, and they were (waiting) at his home. He gave the press conference, but was described as passing out venom instead by the media,” he added.

Now, why do I say that it was foolish of the Umno-controlled mainstream media to implicate the Johor Sultan, who is constitutionally non-partisan to politics, into the Abdullah-Mahathir political tussle?

If you remember well, the Sultan of Johor was the country's 8th Agong who reigned from April 26, 1984 to April 25, 1989, that's during the time when Mahathir was the incumbent Prime Minister.

Records have it that the Johor Sultan was implicated in a case of serious assault of a golf caddy. He was also implicated for assaulting a hockey coach and teacher, Douglas Gomez, in 1999. Here's a quote from the wikipedia:

"...(that) sparked a constitutional crisis between the government and the Malay Rulers which culminated in the removal of the legal immunity from prosecution of all the rulers in March 1993.

Sultan Iskandar, however, continues to be immune from prosecution for his previous offences as the law which provides for the rulers to be stripped of their legal immunity was not made retroactive.

If anything, Abdullah's mainstream media has inadvertently glorified Mahathir as the only Prime Minister in Malaysia who has stood astute in taming the rulers so that they can be tried in a court of law for any wrong-doings. Similar to the commoners, if the royalties violate the law, they have to face the music. And history shows that that could only happen because Mahathir weathered the constitutional crisis and put the law in place in 1993.

So,let the question be asked: For good or for bad, which Prime Minister can perform the same prowess in dismantling the power of the constitutional rulers inherited from age-old feidalism, if not the statesman who is now being demonised by the Umno-controlled mainstream media?

So, who actually is passing out venom that ultimately puts Abdullah's leadership in question?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)

Mahathir told the Associated Press in an interview today that he is ashamed to have hand-picked Abdullah as his successor. Quotes via Malaysiakini:

“My judgment of people is faulty,” he said.

“I had this man whom I thought is quite harmless. I thought he would continue, maybe improve on what I have done,” said Mahathir.

“I fully expected him (Abdullah) to administer the country well, not (try) to prove that he is better than me by showing how bad I am,” said Mahathir. [...]

“If Khairy is out of the way and does not influence him, it is quite likely he will not make such (bad) decisions,” said Mahathir. “Not only Khairy but others — his son, his cronies.”

The ensuable shall ensue.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATED VERSION. Today, Mahathir gave an interview to Associated Press. Quotes via Malaysiakini:

In the interview, Mahathir said that people who criticise Abdullah run several risks — they may receive threatening phone calls from the police, have their business contracts cancelled, or be asked by banks to repay loans.

“There is a climate of fear,” he said, repeating what he had said in his statement this morning.

“I am taking a certain degree of risk by criticising the government. But since there is nobody else who would want to stick his neck out I have to do it,” he said.

Original blog entry...

The Deputy Prime Minister can't.

Cabinet Ministers can't.

TV stations and radios can't.

Print media can't.

Pre-paid telephones can't.

Internet can't -- it's electronically bugged and action taken against websites.

Royalties, many, and beggars, aplenty, also can't.

But Saidina Abu Bakar, Islam's first Caliph, had asked to be corrected if he does something wrong -- not by foreigners, but by the Muslims themselves. So says Mahathir.

"Muslims should know that even the Imam can be corrected by those he leads in prayers if he reads or does something wrong," he adds.

So what could Mahathir do if no one can criticise the Prime Minister? Hear it from the man who takes the brutal brunt from the "Prime Minister's henchmen... hatchetmen and the mainstream media":

In a situation where no one can criticise the Prime Minister, I have to voice my criticisms on matters that do not concern my personal being, but only those that concern the interest of the religion, race and country.

Because of this I am abused by the Prime Minister's henchmen including component party leaders, the mainstream media that is controlled by Kali and Brendan and all other Government apparatus.

The questions and issues I raised have not been answered. What is being questioned is my right to comment and criticise. Attempts are made to disparage me so badly that I am made out to be of unsound mind. Repeatedly, allegations were made that the administration during my time was worse.

Their media make out that my criticisms of the Prime Minister are despicable and reprehensible.

That said, Mahathir rubs in further in his written statement dated Friday, October 27, 2006 and titled: Why did I criticise the Prime Minister?

But the current Prime Minister cannot at all be commented upon, criticised or advised. He is almost a saint who is free from any human weaknesses or wrongs.

My meeting with him should be kept secret from the rakyat. And because we have met, I can no longer criticise whatever is done by the Prime Minister.

Because of my statement that I would continue criticising if something that is not good for the religion, race and country is done by the Prime Minister, all sorts of condemnations and insults are thrown by these hatchetmen and the mainstream media towards me.

Because all avenue for criticising the Government has been shut, therefore I am forced to come up with this written statement so that it is not spun by anyone.

He addresses his statement to Citizens of Malaysia and signs off as,

Sincerely,

Let it be known that all of us not walking the power corridor of Putrajaya, are indeed Malaysian Citizens and Commoners of this country.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Citizens of Malaysia,

Because no one else is able to criticise the Prime Minister. He cannot be criticised by his Deputy, his Cabinet Ministers, Umno Supreme Council members, Menteri Besar, Chief Ministers, Members of the Dewan Rakyat, Members of the Senate, Members of the State Legislative Council, Umno members at all levels, Government Officers and anyone from royalties to beggars.

The mainstream media including radio and television are not allowed to admonish the Prime Minister. Pre-paid telephones are now required to be registered so that anyone who transmits SMS will be known by the Government and action can be taken.

The internet and the websites will be electronically bugged and action taken against anyone who criticises the Prime Minister.

Anyone who attempts to hold any function that may involve criticising the Prime Minister will be harassed and threatened by the police and Government leaders to force them to cancel the function.

I myself have been blocked using all sorts of means to stop me from criticising the Prime Minister.

1. I cannot be invited by Umno, non-Government organisations, associations of Government officers or non-Government officers, univerisities or any other institutions.
2. Umno members and the public are prevented from and advised against attending any functions or meetings where I am to speak.
3. All sorts of threats are meted out by police and political leaders to scare anyone who refuses to comply.
4. Everytime anything that involves the public takes place, the Deputy Prime Minister and certain other quarters w~ll forcefully advise that any criticism, comment or debate should stop.

Actions that are taken or threatened to be taken include sacking, transfer to remote areas like in Sabah, retraction or cancellation of contracts, harassment by the banks, call-up by the police, the Anti-Corruption Agency and other Government enforcement agencies, detained and interrogated repeatedly.

A climate of fear has enveloped this country.

No one dares to comment, criticise or oppose anything that is done by the Prime Minister.

In a situation where no one can criticise the Prime Minister, I have to voice my criticisms on matters that do not concern my personal being, but only those that concern the interest of the religion, race and country.

Because of this I am abused by the Prime Minister's henchmen including component party leaders, the mainstream media that is controlled by Kali and Brendan and all other Government apparatus.

The questions and issues I raised have not been answered. What is being questioned is my right to comment and criticise. Attempts are made to disparage me so badly that I am made out to be of unsound mind. Repeatedly, allegations were made that the administration during my time was worse.

Their media make out that my criticisms of the Prime Minister are despicable and reprehensible.

Muslims should know that even the Imam can be corrected by those he leads in prayers if he reads or does something wrong.

Saidina Abu Bakar, Islam's first Caliph, had asked to be corrected if he does something wrong, not by foreigners but by the Muslims themselves.

But the current Prime Minister cannot at all be commented upon, criticised or advised. He is almost a saint who is free from any human weaknesses or wrongs.

My meeting with him should be kept secret from the rakyat. And because we have met, I can no longer criticise whatever is done by the Prime Minister.

Because of my statement that I would continue criticising if something that is not good for the religion, race and country is done by the Prime Minister, all sorts of condemnations and insults are thrown by these hatchetmen and the mainstream media towards me.

Because all avenue for criticising the Government has been shut, therefore I am forced to come up with this written statement so that it is not spun by anyone.

Sincerely,

October 27, 2006

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (0)

Apparently, there are unrestrained parties within Abdullah Badawi's camp that do not want the Umno president patch up with his predecessor. You saw it over TV3 and ntv7 on October 22 -- -- didn't you? -- on how the Umno-controlled mainstream media tried to handcuff Mahathir's next-step manoeuvres over his 2-hour meeting with his nemesis.

I picked up a copy of the East Coast edition of Utusan Malaysia the morning after. This is how Utusan had wanted hoodwink the Malay readers in the East Coast that Mahathir was satisfied with the meeting -- not to mention the choice of an unflaterring frontpage picture of the old man in a less-than-graceful posture.

Let me tell you, most hotel guests and men-on-the-street I talked to in Kuala Terengganu had thought that 'perkara dah selesai' between the two Umno men!

It was not.

I was told that, in an immediate response to the media when the 4-eye meeting ended, Mahathir had stated his stand very clearly, quote: "I can't say I'm happy. I am satisfied I have been ableto say these things directly to him... If I find something is wrong, I will reserve my right to speak out."

To be fair, the East Coast edition of The NST has used that paragraph on its frontpage blurb, though the context, salient in the post-2004 modus operandi of Jalan Riong, was to portray Mahathir as an insatiable, spiteful political has-been.

But it was no 'peace talk'. after all. Hence, Mahathir had to call for a second press conference to rebutt the spin-doctors' distorting. No newspapers, except The Star, had printed the close-to-verbatim transcript of Mahathir'ssecond press conference on October 23. theSun only has it in snippets online later.

Notably, Mahathir harped consistently and persistently on what he has been saying since April... sluggish economy, nepotism as encased in the son and son-in-law, spin-doctors as encased in Kalimullah and Brendan Pereira, AP scams as encased in the Fat Lady etc. The only new thing that Mahathir added spice on was the late Endon's manoeuvres in setting up a rival to Bakti, a Siti Hasmah legacy.

Is this Endon element that is what Abdullah described as "doses of venom" yesterday? But isn't all this part of the script?

Blogger AMLG of Cuit Sikit observes that not even Wanita Umno stalwarts in the league of Aishah Ghani, Fatimah Hashim, and Zainun @ Ibu Zain had the honour of having a dewan in PWTC named after them.

Oh dear, when will this Umno debacle stop unsettling the whole country further?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

A press release from Reporters Wiithout Borders:

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS URGES INTERNET USERS
TO JOIN IN 24-HOUR ONLINE DEMO AGAINST INTERNET CENSORSHIP
Where: www.rsf.org
When : 11 A.M. on 7 November to 11 A.M. on 8 November (Paris time)

No one should ever be prevented from posting news online or writing a blog, but they are in the 13 countries singled out by Reporters Without Borders for a 24-hour online protest against Internet censorship.

The defence of online free expression and the fate of bloggers in repressive countries concern everyone. So Reporters Without Borders is offering Internet users tools to campaign against Internet predators and is calling on them to participate in an INTERNATIONAL CYBER-DEMO.

Everyone is invited to support this struggle by connecting to the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org) between 11 a.m. (Paris time) on Tuesday, 7 November, and 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 8 November.

Protests will also be staged by Reporters Without Borders bureaux around the world to condemn Internet censorship and ethical misconduct of the Internet giants when operating in one of these countries.

Reporters Without Borders will publish the list of the 13 Internet enemies on 7 November and at the same time will launch its blog platform, rsfblog, and an Arabic-language version of its press freedom website.

The agency Saatchi & Saatchi has created an Internet ad calling on the entire Internet community to take part in the 24-hour campaign. All media, websites and blogs that want to support this large-scale protest are invited to get in touch with Cédric Gervet at +33 1 4483-8474.

See full text here.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Saw this magnificient view in Kemasek. Have you been there!

It reminds me of the 12 Apostles in Melbourne south.

>

More images of the Kemasek Rocks, we fondly call the 'Twin Apostles', in LensaMalaysia forum's Glimpses of East Coast.
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Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I saw the earlier blog titled Rezeki has drawn some diverse comments. It is in fact part of a 14-picture human interest series I took for LensaMalaysia's "Glimpses of East Coast".

Here are another two images, showing a boatman who attracts my eyes for wearing a Barisan Nasional cap, hard at work in the open.

The boatman stretches his body to position the boat for the commuters' berthing.

Go to this thread in LensaMalaysia to view more pictures. Other contributors willcontinue to upload new images as wemove along.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I trekked along with LensaMalaysia photographers on a "Glimpses of East Coast" trip over the festive season, and we drifted to Sungai Lembing on 1 Syawal.

I was off-guarded with the wrong gear on my camera while this scene happened -- I just didn't have time to change into a telephoto zoom and I was standing some 30 feet away from my subject! So pardon the cropped pictures. They show folks in their Hari Raya attire crossing path with their brethren, who willingly gave way when all were caught along a narrow suspension bridge.

How's your Deepavali and Hari Raya mood today? Here's some more pantuns we received through the SMS for the Screenshots-LG Pantun Greetings contest. Keep sending them in, the contest ends November 9.

16 ) From 6012xxx7056:

Coklat merah cantik sekali, Coklat putih tiada tandingan, Di Aidilfitri dan Deepavali ini, Marilah kita bermaaf-maafan.

17 ) From 6019xxx5033:

Istana Zakaria tersergam indah,
Mahligai Mazlynoor sama menyerlah,
Bersama beraya perpuasa sudah,
Perayaan majmuk beraneka juadah.

18 ) From 6012xxx7733:

Dendang perantau syahdunya irama,
rendang ketupat pembuka selera,
Raya dan Deepavali dirai bersama,
tanda muafakat sekelian bangsa.

19 ) From 6012xxx3029:

Hari raya kita bertamu,
hari deepavali pesta cahaya;
menjelang raya pm bertemu,
menghenti sengketa mengusai punca.

20 ) From 6012xxx7733:

Dendang perantau syahdunya irama,
rendang ketupat pembuka selera,
Raya dan Deepavali dirai bersama,
tanda muafakat sekelian bangsa.

21 ) From 6013xxx3484:

Riang bermain bunga api,
pelita dipasang tujuh likur,
semua berkumpul bersatu hati,
menyambut Syawal dengan bersyukur.

22 ) From 6012xxx3029:

Baiklah baik pasang pelita,
pasang pelita di malam raya;
baik-baik bertentang mata,
jangan kita terikut kata.

23 ) From 6012xxx3029:

Asam paya buahnya manis,
bawa dari sungai klang;
pagi raya duduk menangir,
nasihat sendiri tak diterima orang.

24 ) From 6012xxx7520:

Wap ke cecair namanya kondensasi,
Bertukar rupa air tetapnya,
Sambut DeepaRaya syirikkah kami,
Sedangkan kita semua manusia.

25 ) From 6012xxx3656:

kulit lain darah sama
bahasa lain jiwa sejagat
deeparaya diraikan bersama
suasana ria hati terpikat

26 ) From 6012xxx3919:

Sini Deepavali sana Raya
Rakyat Malaysia sibuk bersama
Belanja mengikut daya upaya
Merai tanpa mengkira agama

27 ) From 6012xxx1425:

Merpati putih dan pelangi,
terbang tinggi mencapai langit,
DeepaRaya semangat berkongsi,
bangsa bermaruah pasti bangkit.

28 ) From 6013xxx5098:

pantun memantun sebagai alasan,
di hari raya atau deepavali,
RM1 se sms bukan ratusan,
handphone LG simpanlah sendiri.

29 ) From 6012xxx2803:

Sirih dijamu pelita dinyala,
Dimakan teman berserta ketupat;
Mari sekalian bersambut sama.
DeepaRaya meriah teramat.

30 ) From 6012xxx7855:

hari raya dan deepavali,
juadah enak jadi sarapan,
akhir tahun jerebu menanti,
musim hujan jadi harapan.

31 ) From 6019xxx1388:

mahligai haram dibina sini,
tanpa mematuhi undang-undang,
sempena DeepaRaya ini,
jerebu bagaikan tetamu tak terundang.

32) From 6012xxx1730:

Dodol dikacau sedap rasanya,
Muruku pula sudah dibeli,
Hari Raya dan Deepavali menjelang tiba,
Warga Malaysia bertuah sekali

33) From 6012xxx3919:

Daun sireh daun ketupat
Bau kari sungguh menawan
Api pelita di rata tempat
Jom ke rumah hi kawan

34 ) From 601xxx25516:

rakyat malaysia datang dan pergi,
membeli-belah di Kota Raya,
berucap selamat aidilfitri,
serta sejahtera deepavali

35 ) From 601xxx13656:

dodol ada papadam pun ada
lepas makan minum sirap
janji adil kepada semua
pasti harmoni kita harap

36 ) From 601xxx68128:

Kaum Muslim Menyambut HariRaya,
Kaum Hindu Menyambut Deepavali,
Bangsa Malaysia Menyambut DeepaRaya,
Orang Munafeegun Menyambut Irihati.

37 ) From 6012xxx2304:

Bulan Syawal kembali lagi,
Lebaran disambut dengan penuh erti,
Mohon kemaafan seikhlas hati,
Moga Aidilfitri dirahmati Illahi.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Bloggers suddenly woke up to new awareness some four months after the NST-Jaring operations started. Via MidniteLily.com:

The monsterblog that mainstream newspaper the NST runs is a blatant exploitation of the bloggers who've kindly volunteered their time and service to it. And I don't think the bloggers involved realise it at all.

From where I stand, knowing that none of them are being paid for their contributions to the blog, it's hurting the industry for genuine writers out there. First of all, writers in Malaysia do not have the privilege of being protected by a union or standard rate card like in many developed countries. They struggle to earn 20sen a word from local newspapers, or even get paid by magazines for their meagre RM300 which they spent sometimes a week working on an article. Secondly, Malaysian business people, the publishers or anyone requiring content don't realise the amount of time and effort put into writing an article. The creative industry suffers from that kind of third world attitude. Just because the article is merely

Thanks the regular Little Bird who alerted me on this. I need to ponder on this new dawn of subverting the budding creative content industry. I want to munch and digest especially the solution part that Midnite Lily has proposed: "Don't be stupid. For the sake of the rest of the writers out there who work for a living, if not for yourselves."

Admittedly, I am a blogger too. As a pioneer blogger in Malaysia, I don't want to look stupid. Or taken to be stupid.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

This is one picture I like while on a photography trip to Kuala Terengganu two days before 1 Syawal.

The time is around the deepest heat of the afternoon, the man shows immense endurance of the fasting month. I was stalking at the bazaar along Jalan Zainal Abidin, and he pops into the lighting zone that I have been anticipating for a while, securing the generous rim light on his physique.

His joyous face, sorely missing on those of the Umnoputra tycoons, earns much of my respect.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you sent in your SMS pantun greetings yet?

The Top Prize for this Screenshots-LG Pantun Greetings contest is a brand new LG Chocolate KG800 of any colour of your choice -- pink, white or classic black. The runner-up will get a chocolate basket.

SMS your Pantun Greetings to 36989. Details are available here. Contest ends November 9.

Here are the entries received yesterday (October 20)...

1) From 6012xxx2803:

Padi di bendang bertabur selerak,
Det dan Pak saling berkelahi;
Musim Raya berbicara sejenak,
Aman majmuk wujud bergenerasi.

2) From 6012xxx2803:

Padi tuai bertabur selerak,
Det dan Pak saling berkelahi;
Musim Raya berehat sejenak,
Majmuk kian terus bergenerasi.

3) From 6012xxx0434:

Asal kapas menjadi benang,
Dari benang dibuat kain,
Semangat bersatu kita yang menang,
Sambut yang sama sahut yang lain.

4 ) From 6012xxx8284

Baju kurung maupun sari;
Cantik berseri di hari bahgia;
Deepavali maupun Aidilfitri;
Kita bersama berkongsi raya

5) From 6012xxx8284:

Pulut dan lemang juadah asli;
Kari dan rendang menambah selera;
Selamat DeepaRaya ucapan diberi;
Buat semua seluruh negara.

6) From 6012xxx1266:

Dua tiga kucing berlari,
Lama lama kucing penat,
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri,
Sorry tak dapat hantar kad, Tapi SMS pun ok wat!

7) From 6016xxx7291:

Makan coklat manis ke hati,
Suap sungguh dimajlis kenduri;
Coklat LG memikat sijantung hati,
Hadiah satu raya bertambah seri.

8 ) From 6012xxx1266:

Membeli belah di pasaraya,
Sambil mengurat anak Pak Ali,
Kalau puasa Selamat Hari Raya,
Tak puasa sambutlah Deepavali!

9) From 6012xxx6500:

Bunga raya berwarna-warni,
memikat hati Si Rama-rama.
Selamat Hari Raya dan Deepavali,
perayaan untuk bangsa Malaysia.

10) From 6012xxx5302:

salam ku kirim beriring doa,
menyambut syawal menjelang tiba,
maaf bermaafan sesama kita,
keredhaan ilahi penentu segala.

11) From 6016xxx4425:

Jauh disana bersinarnya pelita,
Cahaya iman menyelubungi jiwa;
Kemeriahan, kegirangan menjadi tanda,
Rakyat Malaysia meraikan Deeparaya.

12) From 6012xxx2463:

Menjunjung kasih keramat Aidilfitri,
Cahaya suci menjelang Deepavali,
Kegemilangan saudara-saudari,
Amat bermakna sekali

13) From 6012xxx4088:

Hari Raya disambut meriah,
rakyat Malaysia bergembira selalu,
Malaysia aman makmur selalu ceriah,
melupakam segala yang pahit dan pilu.

14) From 6019xxx0853:

Selamat tinggal diucap jangan,
Ucapkan hingga bertemu lagi,
Bermaafanlah rakan dan bukan,
Agar sengketa dapat diketepi.

15) From 6012xxx7349:

Pelita-pelita dipinggiran taman,
Simbol cahaya, simbol DeepaRaya,
Marilah pulang ke kampung halaman,
Mengubat rindu yang tertanya-tanya.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

After a month of fulfilling Ramadan...

Takbir menjelang... Have a safe journey home to all my friends.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The LG-Screenshots Pantun Greetings contest is open now!

Remember, your pantun should be in it's classic form -- four lines per pantun in the a-b-a-b rhyme scheme, a good pembayang maksud and maksud, all within 8 to 12 syllables per line.

If in doubt, visit archive in Screenshots' Pantun channel for guidance.

The Top Prize for this Screenshots-LG Pantun Greetings contest is a brand new LG Chocolate KG800 of any colour of your choice -- pink, white or classic black. The runner-up will get a chocolate basket.

SMS your Pantun Greetings to 36989

Here's the process:

1. Use your SMS from any mobilephone network operator (012, 013, 016, 017 or 019).


2. Type LG, space, followed by your pantun greetings relevant to Deepavali or Hari Raya.


3. Send to shortcode 36989.


4. Each successfully sent pantun greeting will receive a confirmation SMS from Screenshots<


5. Each SMS pantun greeting received willbe billed RM1.


6. All pantuns received will be compiled and published in Screenshots without revealing your mobilephone identity.


7. In view of the festive season, this contest will run for three weeks from October 20 to November 9, 2006.

The SMS Gateway is sponsored by Ionnex Sdn Bhd and the Top Prize Chocolate KG800 is sponsored by LG Malaysia

Just to trigger your creative juice, here are the pantuns recited by TNB CEO Che Khalib Mohamad Noh at the dodol-making session yesterday:

Terbang Merpati Ke Kuala Langat
Tiong Berehat Tepi Empangan
Satu Hati Satu Semangat
Kerja Berat Menjadi Ringan

Daun Palas Gugur Ke Tanah
Pohonnya Redup Jadi Teduhan
Hati Ikhlas Jujur Amanah
Kerja dan Hidup Diberkat Tuhan

Terbang Rendah Si Rama-rama
Burung Tempua Tepian Kali
Kerja Bersama Maju Bersama
Buruk Sangka Jangan Sekali

Pucuk Paku Si Daun Pandan
Dipetik Dara Untuk Santapan
Kisah Lalu Jadi Teladan
Untuk Kita Maju Kedepan

Semanis-Manis Rasanya Dodol
Lebih Manis Dibuat Bersama
Kerja Yang Berat Sama Dipikul
Itulah Hasrat Paling Utama

Bunga Raya Sekuntum Cuma
Mekar Melur Disiram Embun
Aidil Fitri Akan Menjelma
Tangan Dihulur Maaf Dipohon

Here's Screenshots wishing all Malaysians a Happy Deepavali & Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitiri.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

The sight of anyaman ketupat and dodol making reminds us that Hari Raya Aidil Firtri is around the corner.

LensaPress photos by Jeff Ooi

The pictures were taken this morning at the dodol-making session at TNB Corporate HQ. Speeches ended with a recital of pantun empat baris by the CEO.

Can you think of a pantun for this when I start the LG-Screenshots Pantun Greetings contest shortly?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

How many of you realised that yesterday's blog: Chocolate, anyone? was in fact a teaser to a yummy feast?

I am such a fan of pantun -- you should know by now -- that I managed to convince LG Malaysia to give away an LG Chocolate phone to any Screenshots reader who can come out with the best festive SMS greetings -- Deepavali and Hari Raya -- in the form of classic pantun.

The Top Prize in this Screenshots-LG Pantun Greetings contest is a brand new LG Chocolate KG800 of any colour of your choice -- pink, white or classic black. The runner-up will get a chocolate basket.

So, would you like it pink?

White?

Or plain classic?

But before this, you have to brush up your pantun skills the classic way -- four lines per pantun in the a-b-a-b rhyme scheme, a good pembayang maksud and maksud, all within 8 to 12 syllables per line.

Like these few examples, very much in the mood of Dendang Perantau, vividly longing for the loved ones to come back home for reunion during the festive season:

Sirih Aceh warna perang,
Kuntum melati sukar digubah;
Bercerai jauh kita sekarang,
Di dalam hati jangan berubah.

Or this one:

Datanglah tukang dari kota,
Anak jentayu mandi berendam;
Dakwat bercampur air mata,
Ubat rindu penawar dendam.

Or this one:

Di kiri jalan di kanan pun jalan,
Tengah-tengah pohon mengkudu;
Dikirim jangan, diemail jangan,
Sama-sama menanggung rindu.

Stay tuned to the details tomorrow. The contest is to run for two weeks from October 19.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBacks (0)

PRODUCT REVIEW
KG810 courtesy of LG Malaysia

When I received a new review copy of the LG clamshell, KG810, I decided to pass it on to my 9-year-old to set it up for me. It’s an acid test on the user-friendliness of the device, if an average girl like her can do it, viola!

Well, she got it up and running with my SIM card in less than 10 minutes. Perhaps, she has an advantage after acquainting herself with the LG Chocolate KG800 (see Screenshots Toolkit reviews here), which I reviewed several months ago. This new device shares the same concept as the KG800 with a slight change in the form factor: A solidly-built clamshell with a micro-LCD on the flap. Set to the multimedia mode and flip the flap to open or close it, and you are greeted with “Aye, Chocolate yo!” She was wowed, and the subtle idea for a Christmas present seems unavoidable.

Form Factor. The clamshell KG810 comes with specifications found on the LG Chocolate Black Temptation, but with something extra: an FM radio that is capable of playing loud music despite its demure and petite look (imagine 92 x 47 x 14.9 mm at 82 gram).

Carrying the traits of the LG Chocolate Family, KG810 has a touch-sensitive keypad under the external screen, a further statement that says you need no real keys, just press the touch-sensitive indicators and you are on your way to communicate. It is a tri-band GSM/GPRS phone that synchronises well with your regular USB and PC Sync for data connectivity.

Multimedia Features. The KG810 shares the same features and functions of the LG Chocolate to deliver its multimedia capabilities, and that’s assuring news to people who live a digital lifestyle. The assortment comes with a 1.3-Mpixel camera at 4x digital zoom, MP3 player, Bluetooth, USB Mass storage, and 128MB of internal memory.

One thing I find rather adequate about this device, which I didn’t discover in depth when I was reviewing KG800, is that the Li-ion battery seems to support up to 3 hours of talk time and about 200 hours on stand-by. To enhance the battery efficiency, there is a thoughtful function to tone down the LCD screen for power saving. Translate this into enjoying the MP3 Player, it gives you extended moments of music that are encoded in various formats, such as MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, JAVA MIDP 2.0 and MIDI 64 files. Though it plays loud, I would prefer the treble spectrum to be muted somewhat for subtlety.

The other thing I missed out when reviewing the KG800 is that this device packs a CMOS for the camera sensor, which theoretically handles low-light digital noise averagely better. And it is capable of snapping a 1280x960 image though one seldom goes that far to capture an image on the cellphone.

For all the multimedia capabilities, there is a menu function that allows “My Stuff” personalized utilities to store settings for Games and Apps, videos, images and sounds.

Use it a digital lifestyle device, KG810 packs nicely as an FM radio, a still and video camera, a voice memo recorder, and a musical jukebox. That’s more than sufficient to keep me company while on the road, or just to take bloggers’ snapshots whenever something amusing gets into my eyes. If a simple conclusion is called for, it means I am well equipped for generality.

Utility Features. Yes, mobile device being a personal belonging, we are talking about a digital organizer that stores up your contacts, calendar, memo and to-do list. LG is apparently contemporary as all these thoughts are already catered for. Like all LG Chocolates, this KG810 can store phone 500 contacts on the phone itself so you don’t have to dig into the SIM card for more contacts. I simply love this big feature in a small physique.

There is a little feature in an affordable cellphone that I find quite useful, especially for a person who often travels across multiple time-zones – the “World Time” feature. It’s a thoughtful gesture that I appreciate as I don’t have to re-set the time whenever I arrive at or depart an alien city.

On the Internet, browsing through GPRS connection is adequate and I can fault the phone as much as my cellular service provider. Viewing websites on the crystal clear LCD embedded outside the flap for Chocolate KG800, which I consider a breakthrough for LG, has always been a pleasant experience. This feature has been retained on KG810. Nevertheless, I seldom browse the Internet on cellphone exception during emergency occasions when I have to check up my blog for offensive commentaries by the readers. And neither do I use emails on the phone, so this is a good-to-have feature that won’t bog me down for more.

After a few weeks of usage, KG810 gaveme the impression that it is on par with most other marques of the same price-points in providing all utilities that a cellphone should have.

Wish List. This is still the only one area that keeps bugging me, the Operating System. Like KG800, I find the OS in KG810 cumbersome. Compared to the Number One seller, you need two more steps in order to reach a final function. This can be irritating when you are caught in a tight-spot trying to manoeuvre the keypad swiftly.

As I was reviewing this, I was told that LG has announced an extended Chocolate Family. LG Chocolate now comes with design variations with enhanced specifications: the White and Pink Chocolate in addition to the Black Temptation.

This year-end shopping season is gonna be a yummy experience. But meanwhile, take a look at the Screenshots-LG Pantun Greetings contest that may let you walk away with one of these LG Chocolate KG800 -- choose one from pink, white or classic Black Temptation.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

It looks like religious zealots do not only breed in Takaful Malaysia. Even Surau Menara TM (Telekom Malaysia) is infected.

Screenshots received another alert on the confusion caused by the imam who delivered his Friday sermon on October 13 in which the issue of greetings to non-Muslims during the festive season was raised.

The is the context given by a Screenshots reader who requests anonymity:

From: DELETED BY JEFF OOI
To: Jeff Ooi ( jeffooi.screenshots@gmail.com )
Date: Oct 17, 2006 7:30 PM
Subject: Fwd: FW: PENJELASAN ISU KHUTBAH JUMAAT DI SURAU MENARA TM

Jeff, don't use my name if you want to highlight this.

This is even worse than the takaful email. During khutbah Jumaat, as far as I understand, the muslims cannot correct the imam even though he is wrong in his kutbah. The email we can respond back.

I got this as a fourth person since I did not pray there.

For your information Surau TM is under the care of TM.

From: Mohd Zakuan Tak
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 1:19 PM
To: .All
Cc: Zainuddin Ishak, Hj; Dayang Wahida Hamzah; Dato' Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar; Junaina Mohd Yusof
Subject: PENJELASAN ISU KHUTBAH JUMAAT DI SURAU MENARA TM

Adalah dimaklumkan bahawa terdapat pembetulan keatas kandungan teks khutbah Jumaat yang lalu, 13 Oktober 2006 bersamaan 20 Ramadhan 1427H di Surau Menara TM yang berkaitan dengan ucapan selamat ke atas perayaan kaum-kaum lain di negara ini.

Untuk makluman, pihak kami telah merujuk perkara ini dengan YBhg. Dato' Abdul Majid Hj. Omar, Timbalan Mufti Negeri Selangor dan dimaklumkan bahawa umat Islam boleh mengucapkan perkataan tersebut dengan niat untuk menghormati rakan-rakan / masyarakat yang bukan beragama Islam dan ianya sama sekali tidak bercanggah dengan akidah umat Islam.

Oleh yang demikian, pihak kami memohon maaf diatas kesilapan yang tidak disengajakan ini dan berharap ianya tidak lagi menimbulkan sebarang kekeliruan di kalangan semua anggota TM.

Sekian. Terima kasih dan salam hormat.

USTAZ HJ MOHD ZAKUAN BIN HJ TAK
Penolong Pengurus
Hal Ehwal Islam
Shared Services Organization
TELEKOM MALAYSIA BERHAD
Aras 13 Selatan, Menara TM
Jalan Pantai Bahru
50672 KUALA LUMPUR.

Is religious intolerance running so deep among us? Will I offend anybody if I greet my Muslim brethren by saying Selamat Hari Raya, something I used to do since time immeorial? Will they still greet me Happy Chinese New Year?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (53) | TrackBacks (0)

After coming under a week of public protests, Takaful Malaysia Syariah department head Mohd Fauzi Mustaffa today withdrew an inflammatory email circular directing staff not to convey greetings to Hindu clients during religious festivals.

Mohd Fauzi reiterated that the contents of the circular represented his personal opinion and not those of the Islamic insurance company.

This is the fax from the Takaful CEO's office at 15:58hr today.

Image courtesy Lim Swee Kuan

Malaysiakini says the statement came an hour after several NGO representatives, led by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, held a meeting this afternoon with Takaful CEO Mohd Azmi Abu Bakar.

Takaful's Syariah department resides in its CEO's office, while Takaful Malaysia is a subsidiary of Bank Islam group.

Here's the context to the controversy,quoting from Malaysiakini:

On Oct 11, media reports highlighted the email from Mohd Fauzi, which said Hindu festivals involved the worship of deities and greeting Hindus was therefore akin to practising polytheism, which goes against the tenets of Islam.

He added that Takaful’s corporate culture was rooted in the Syariah, which forbids greetings involving gods in Hinduism and other religions.

“Muslims who have inadvertently wished Hindus Happy Deepavali, Happy Durga Pooja or Happy Lakhshmi Pooja must immediately repent and not repeat it in future," he said in the email.

The Takaful circular had come under fire from many quarters, including MIC president S Samy Vellu, Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Abdullah Md Zin.

Malaysia Hindu Sangam president A Vaithilingam had earlier called on Takaful to give Mohd Fauzi.the boot.

Earlier last week, Screenshots was forwarded copies of the offending email by several readers -- see PDF here. Thank you for alerting me.

Mindful that Mohd Fauzi has ealrier urged his colleagues to 'bertaubat', I hope he does the same so that such nonsense of religious intolerance wouldn't happen again to cause disharmony and disunity among fellow Malaysians.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (0)

Time for chocolate!

You like it pink?

White?

Or plain classic?

Let me find a pantun to say it chocolately.

All chocolate pictures courtesy LensaMalaysia member Tepee Choo.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

The Umno ministers are still behaving like most blog commenters, who rant and whine, but fail to shoot straight at the question that matters.

And the question that matters is: Is race-based methodology to determine equity share of the nation'sstakeholders relevant for Malaysia? Is the methodology used by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), an agency within the PM's Office, to caliberate Bumiputra equity in the corporate sector by basing it on the par value, and not market value of shares, defensible by international norm?

Look at the disputing methodologies used by the EPU and ASLI-CPPS in the illustration below:

SOURCE: Malaysiakini

Now I don't have to reinvent the wheel, but let's look at Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang has reasoned it out in his blog:

EPU’s Methodology is seriously flawed!

It’s very normal for a company to start with a paid up capital based on par value and remains so for a long time. It doesn’t need to increase the paid capital (as long as the company is not short of new capital injection) because the accounting and business fraternities value the shares on market value. Par value of shares have little significance except for a archaic company law disclosure requirement.

For example, a company starts with a paid up (par value) capital of $1 million in 2006, and is awarded a 10 years contract to build a bridge. Say, it makes a profit of $10 million for the duration of 10 years and keeps the profits intact. The market value of the company in 2016 is $11 million but its par value still remains intact at $1 million. The shareholders of the company can extract the profits through directors’ emoluments, dividends, management services, etc

EPU’s methodology of calculation of bumi equity is shrouded in secrecy. From what has been disclosed in the press, it is gathered that the methodology uses the par value of shares and exclusion of GLC companies.

Until things can be clarified, basing on generally accepted accounting principles and present accounting norms, EPU’s methodology is seriously flawed as demonstrated below.

Example 1 :

Ali owns 100 Tenaga shares. Par value $100 ($1 per share). Market value $1,000 ($10 per share).

Ah Chong owns 1,000 Farlim shares. Par value $1,000 ($1 per share). Market value $430 ($0.43 per share).

EPU Methodology :

Ah Chong is 10 times richer than Ali. Therefore, Ali needs help to be on par with Ah Chong.

Flaw:

Par value has no relation to the actual value of shares. In fact, Ali’s is richer than Ah Chong. If EPU does not take relative wealth into the equation, how does it know who to help to redress the equal distribution of wealth? Obviously, as this case shows, EPU may be helping the wrong guy!

Kit has several more examples to point at the flaws of of the EPU methodology. But you tell me, for now, shall we take this PM talk at par value or otherwise?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (56) | TrackBacks (0)

Two weeks past, the Government has yet to rebutt ASLI-CPPS's findings on Bumiputra equity with its own hard facts and metholodoly except, perhaps, an open-ended hint from DPM Najib Abdul Razak.

But beware, all that he had said was that "If there are still doubts (on the figures), we can reveal the methodology used." No timeline was given, and seeing how things go with Malaysian politicians lately, there's no guarantee that he won't come back and say he has been misquoted by the media.

However, doubts will certainly prevail till the next general elections should the Government decide to deal with the people intellegently and beyond Muhyiddin's 'rubbish' claim.

Last week, Dr Toh Kin Woon, who is a Parti Gerakan central executive committee member, a Penang state executive councillor and a former academic, has hit out at the Government for criticising ASLI-CPPS findings of bumiputra equity ownership in Malaysian companies.

Dr Toh said the Government seemed to have sent out the wrong signal in that dissent was not to be tolerated and honest pursuit of knowledge discouraged.

“This is indeed a sad development and seems odd with the Government’s professed aim in wanting to make our country more open, transparent and liberalised,” he said in a statement.

Dr Toh repeated in theSun today by saying that the Government cannot shut people up!

Similarly, government backbencher and Kota Baru MP Zaid Ibrahim is equally less forgiving.

Meanwhile, intellectuals in the the Chinese-Malaysians community have advertised in the Oriental Daily News their support for Dr Lim and the integrity of academic research.

I an intent on seeing how Muhyiddin clears his rubbish at the end of the day.

Excerpts of Dr Toh's statement in theSun:

He gave the premise for voicing his support for former colleague Dr Lim Teck Ghee, director for the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS), who quit last week in defence of the institute's study on the bumiputra corporate equity.

Toh said even if Lim had not been known to him, he would have spoken out just the same as a matter of principle, adding he was not afraid of reprisals for speaking out, as he felt compelled to say his piece.

"I feel it is ridiculous for the government to say Asli's methodology is rubbish and inaccurate despite it being prepared by a multi-racial combination of scholars who are experts in their field.

"Basically,I feel that people who want to carry out research and do their own work on certain issues which are reckoned to be important, should be given the space to do so,"said Toh, a former university lecturer, who is also a Gerakan central committee member.

"Everyone, including the government, does not have to agree on the outcome, but they do not have to resort to shutting them up.

"In this instance where the CPPS study is concerned, the government or any other party can disagree after looking at the methodology used, but there must be space for debate on that.

"The government also has to be transparent and explain why its methodology is deemed right, and prove it.

"I'm not saying Asli's findings are correct, the methodology derived could be wrong but he (Lim) had the right to pursue his findings and publish his methodology.

"The government should show its methods and name its sources and we can have workshops and discuss this rationally.

"Don't shut the door and say what we say is right and don't question us. That is not right at all,"said Toh.

"The efforts of those who have worked hard to come up with the findings should not be belittled and it is very wrong for anyone to try to shut everyone up," said Toh, stressing on the importance for space to debate to be made available for the free flow of ideas.

Excerpts of Zaid Ibrahim's statement in The Star:

“This must be about the sixth time we've been told we can't talk about something this year.”

“The issue here is that the NEP (New Economic Policy) is supposed to help people who have been left behind economically to catch up.

“We are told that we will one day reach the NEP target; does that mean we can only talk about it then?

“I would have thought that, if the CPPS bumiputra equity figure of 45% is accurate, the government and Umno should be pleased that their policies have succeeded and take credit for that.

“The irony is maybe they don't want to reveal the actual figure so that they can keep on asking for more.

“I just came back from Prague where we were discussing something more 'sensitive' – co-existence among Jews, Muslims and Christians.

“It was a shock to come back and hear we aren't supposed to discuss or dispute the government’s equity figures.

“What will it be next time – no discussion on the haze and the API because it would affect national security?” asked Zaid.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (44) | TrackBacks (0)

Saturday, Jimin Lai gave a lecture on 'Emotions Behind the Pictures' at the TNB-LensaMalaysia Photo Talk series. It was a full-house.

LensaTalk with Jimin Lai... LensaPress picture by How Fooyeen

View pictures and attendees' review of the Jimin Lai LensaTalk here.

Next 2nd Saturday of month, we will have Associated Press Picture Editor Vincent Thian to talk about 'Telling Stories through the Lens'.

Vincent's LensaTalk will be the last in the series related to photo-journalism, though he will touch on a broader base of photography styles and forms. Following that, LensaTalk will feature other photography genres.

Earlier, September 30, LensaMalaysia featured renowned photographer Arthur Teng in conjunction with its 1st Anniversary Celebrations.

The 2nd Saturday of December will showcase 'Street Shooting in Penang' with OT Ch'ng, known by his nick MyBest, who will be sort of helping you draw up your shoot-list for Penang. The December LensaTalk will be followed by a street-shooting outing around Penang as we close in to saying farewell to 2006.

Keep track of LensaTalk if you are interested in photography as the 12-episode series runs from October 2006 through September 2007. If you had missed the kick-off with Jimin Lai, please note that seats for LensaTalk will be on a first-come-first-served basis as we had wanted to keep the audience size to 50 people to maintain speaker-audience intimacy and eye-contact.

RSVP will open soon after Hari Raya at LensaMalaysia.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

This is Ramadan time, and Malaysia's premier and his predecessor take to global TV to seek out their audience almost concurrently via pre-recorded interviews.

Over CNN, Abdullah Badawi tells Anjali Rao in the Talk Asia programme:

"No, no, no, I don't think it's a political suicide. He has been saying a lot of things, I've decided to keep quiet and to go on doing what I want to do.

"And the people want me to do what I want to do. And I have and I still command majority support today."

Over Bloomberg TV, Mahathir accuses Abdullah of endangering Malaysia's economic growth:

"I don't see any new projects coming in which would boost the economy," the former premier said in his office in Putrajaya, south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

"The last few years, I don't see any change for the better. It is affecting the nation and the growth of the country. It is not personal.''

Let's mull over this: "I''ve decided to keep quiet and to go on doing what I want to do. And the people want me to do what I want to do."

In late 2003, Abdullah wanted to tackle corruption big time, set up IPCMC, enhance the government's delivery system. Does he still want to do them all, three years on?

I am glad Abdullah has confessed that he shares Mahathir's Vision 2020. Quote:

Vision 2020, his biggest achievement, that's my target too. That we share, I share the vision. I have developed what I call a national mission. The mission is very big in order to achieve that vision..

Is that the reason Abdullah has to inherit and keep the bulk of deadwoods in his extra-large Cabinet though his predecessor has openly disavowed many of them, including the Number One?

As per economic growth, oh dear for the Joe Public, Klang Valley water tariff has just increased by 15% for most households, and expressway toll increase is expected soon after Hari Raya, and there are no promising promises on fuel price next year.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)

Jaring CEO Dr Mohamed Awang Lah (MAL) is beginning to see the point of pioneer dial-up users who grew with Jaring in the early 1990s, and outgrew it to embrace broadband but decided to keep Jaring jaring as back-up.

This is his latest reply to reader YW Loke, the co-administrator of BeritaMalaysia mail list.

From: Mohamed b. Awang Lah ( mal @jaring.my )
To: "Y.W.Loke" ( ywloke @tm.net.my )
Cc: "Jeff Ooi [GMail]" ( jeffooi.screenshots @gmail.com), ( enquiry @jaring.my)
Date: Oct 15, 2006 6:33 AM
Subject: RE: Jaring new dial-up package

Thank you again for giving more detailed feedback.

I agree that the new dial-up package is not designed for users who just want to keep their email address or to use JARING dial-up for backup purpose only. I will keep this in mind and we will definitely study your (and other people like yourself) request. I cannot promise anything for now, but we will make certain decision before 15 November 2006.

In the mean time any other suggestion is welcome.

Best regards,

---mal

I wish to see that my 5-digit Jaring account is maintained till the cows come home.And certainly, people like Uncle Yap, Patrick Tan, Albert Bohlmeijer and those with 3-digit account number and earlier Jaring adopters than me will have their wish come true. Jaring management must remember these are the pioneers Internet users who made Jaring what it is today -- some 12 years ago.

Read on to see how Loke had reasoned to MAL last week that triggered the CEO' s new thinking process. I admire intellect could triumph over rant and whine when it comes to reasoning.

Mean time, MAL welcomes any other suggestions from you before Jaring makes its final decision on November 15. Make sure you respond with ample reasoning.

But we don't know if MAL enjoys good advisory from his financial, strategy and marketing guys. As far as I can see, Jaring only resorts to corporate PR services on an occassional and seasonal basis. MAL has to evaluate and balance inputs from these four domains, if not more, but there should be nothing political to it.

If I were MAL's advisor, I will tell him to keep these loyal Jaring pioneer users with a view to converting them to Jaring broadband when MAL has a better solution than the current SOMA to ward off DSL's pervasiveness in Malaysia.

From: Y.W.Loke ( ywloke @tm.net.my )
To: "Mohamed b. Awang Lah" (ma l@jaring.my )
Cc: "Jeff Ooi [GMail]" ( jeffooi.screenshots @gmail.com ), ( enquiry @jaring.my )
Date: Oct 14, 2006 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: Jaring new dial-up package

Thank you for so promptly responding on the matter.

Firstly, my apologies for the typo error, I had intended to type "200MB". But the point is that the increase in mailbox size, while nice, is essentially meaningless in view of the 2.5 times increase in the cost of Jaring's new dial-up package when there are free 1-2 GB webbased e-mail accounts available.

As for how the "2.5 times" figure arose, it stems from the fact that the new dial-up package starts off with a basic monthly subscription of RM5, or RM60 annually, that comes with 10 hours of surfing time each month [c.f. old package: RM20 in annual subscription fee to maintain an active account, and access is on a pay-as-you-surf basis].

I do not use my Jaring dial-up account for Net access nowadays; I only maintain it as a backup in case my "broadband" account is unusable and also because I wish to keep my Jaring address, which is one of the oldest e-mail addresses I have.

So whether I like it or not, I would end up paying 3 times as much every month under the new Jaring dial-up fee structure.the free 10 hours every month. The free 10 hours packaged with the new scheme are of no use to me
under normal circumstances. However, they were factored in to arrive at the "2.5 times increase" figure.

It is thoughtful of Jaring to have included an "extra 100 minutes for the first RM5 (600 instead of 500 minutes which effectively means 20% extra access time) every month", but for Jaring subscribers like me [apparently there may be quite a numberwho are in a similar position], those extra minutes are of no use.

Similarly, while it is good of Jaring to offer free subscription to GRID Authenticator, a free 6-month subscription to JARING SurfRight and the LetzHop edutainment portal to members who migrate to new package, all those do not mean much to old members like me.

Perhaps it bears highlighting that there is are a number of old Jaring subscribers who feel that they are being forced to migrate to the new dial-up package, and that decision has been made unilaterally by Jaring without adequate consideration for old members who signed up with Jaring under terms which are significantly different from the terms of the new dial-up package.

There has been some feedback on Jeff Ooi's Screenshots blog [www.jeffooi.com]. Indeed the copies of our earlier communications which were cc'd to him have been posted on his blog. Perhaps you may want to take a look at the postings and comments to guage the feelings of some old Jaring members with regards the forced migration?

I think Jaring deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to accusations of trying to unilaterally force old users to pay more. But may I suggest again that Jaring reviews the new dial-up scheme?

Regards,

ywloke

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Mailbag

From: Mohamed b. Awang Lah mal@jaring.my
To: "Y.W.Loke" ywloke@tm.net.my
Cc: "Jeff Ooi [GMail]" jeffooi.screenshots@gmail.com, enquiry@jaring.my
Date: Oct 13, 2006 10:45 PM
Subject: RE: Jaring new dial-up package

Thank you for the feedback on our new package. And thank you for being a loyal member of JARING. We appreciate it very much.

Every product and service will have its own life. Our dial-up service hasbeen there for many years. Over the years many packages have been introduced. It is time for us to streamline these packages and give more benefits to our subscribers.

I am not sure how do you come to the figure of 2.5 times more expensive. The usage charge remains the same at 1 sen/minute. In fact we are giving extra 100 minutes for the first RM5 (600 instead of 500 minutes which effectively means 20% extra access time) every month. Most dial-up users spend more than 10 hours per month. The new package in fact provides additional access time.

In the old package, we charge annual renewal fee which does not carry any access time. In the new package, we have abolished this charge. Based on the old scheme, RM20 annual fee and RM3.33 per month (total of RM60) will give you a total of only 4,000 minutes of usage per year compared to the new scheme where you will get 7,200 minutes. Using the old scheme, 7,200 minutes per year would cost a total of RM92 (assuming similar usage every month).

The new package also comes with 200 Mbytes (not 20 Mbytes as stated by you) of mailbox, a ten-fold increase over the old package.

We are also offering free subscription to GRID Authenticator to protect JARING members against phishing spam which is now becoming more rampant. Free 6-month subscriptions for JARING SurfRight (a special browser for family use) and LetzHop edutainment portal are also provided for members who migrate to new package as well as new members who signed up before 31 Dec 2006.

We believe our new dial-up package offers much more benefits for our subscribers.

Thank you and best regards,

---mal

For context read earlier blogs here and here.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Mailbag 1

From: Y.W.Loke
To: enquiry@jaring.my
Cc: "Jeff Ooi [GMail]" jeffooi.screenshots@gmail.com, mal@jaring.my
Date: Oct 13, 2006 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: Jaring new dial-up package

I herewith wish to strongly protest against your unilateral decision to convert dial-up package users.

I have been a member since the early days of Jaring; my Jaring address is ywloke8@pc.jaring.my. I do not agree with the conversion and i wish to keep my status as it is!

On the balanxce, I see NO BENEFIT to users from the new package which involves raising charges by 2.5 times. The very high increase is not offset by the increase in user's mailbox to 20MB, especially when there are Web-based e-mail account providers like Yahoomail and Gmail which offer free 1GB - 2GB accounts

I think Jaring should review its decison to unilaterally raise the Internet access costs for dial-up users by 2.5 times.

Thank you.

Regards,
ywloke

Mailbag 2

From: Dr Azmi Mohd Tamil azmitml@pc.jaring.my
To: enquiry@jaring.my
Cc: Lim@ktak.gov.my, jeffooi.screenshots@gmail.com
Date: Oct 13, 2006 11:52 PM
Subject: Forced Conversion of Jaring Account 19769

Dear Sirs,

I hereby wish to strongly protest against your unilateral decision to convert the packages subscribed by your members without their agreement.

Since I am a member since the early days of Jaring, I think that as a member my opinion should matter in what you do.

I do not agree with the conversion and I wish to keep my status as it is. In case you change the status, I reserve my right to raise this matter in the consumer court, since it is an increase of charges by 3 times (from the minimum of RM20 per year to RM60 per year) + the threat of cancellation of membership.

As you've noticed, a copy of this email is being forwarded to Minister Lim Keng Yaik to show my unhappiness with your unilateral decision.

My membership number is listed in the email heading.

I hope you will turn back on this illegal unilateral decision and leave my account alone.

Azmi
--
Dr Azmi Mohd Tamil
Senior Medical Lecturer & Consultant
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Department of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Jln Raja Muda Abdul Aziz
50300 Kuala Lumpur,Wilayah Persekutuan
Malaysia

Jaring CE0 Dr Mohamed Awang Lah has replied to reader YW Loke, here.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not happy with Jaring? A Little Bird from the mainstream media emailed me this:

If you're thinking of signing up for Maxis' new wireless broadband service, take note of these horrendous terms and condition. (2 screencapts enclosed).

In particular:

4.8 Maxis may, at its sole discretion, automatically disconnect the customer's internet session after a period of inactivity, which may vary from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. This automatic disconnection is to allow maximum network performance.

5.3.1 Each customer's total usage per month shall NOT exceed 3GB of data volume transmitted (total upload and download usage). This is to ensure that no individual hogs the bandwidth at all times.

the T&C is available at:

http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/broadband/termncon.asp

In case they change the link, look for something called "Maxis Broadband Fair Usage Policy", which particularly singles out users of P2P applications such as Bit Torrent, eDonkey, Gnutella.

So-called broadband, that is.

And it was only September 26 that Maxis told you it is to invest RM700 million on broadband. There you go, your MyICMS886, Dear keng Yaik.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (0)

Has digital divide caused by non-affordable access of Internet been resolved, and is it time to raise the price?

On the quiet, Jaring will make each and every individual dial-up users pay at least THREE TIMES more than what they used to pay regularly, effective November 15. And you can't opt out.

It is understood that, under the new personal dial-up package, Jaring will exert a month subscription of RM5, or RM60 annually, that comes with 10 hours of surfing time each month.

In the past, the individual dial-up users are required to pay RM20 in annual subscription fee to maintain an active account, and access is on a pay-as-you-surf basis. Under the new rule, the annual subcription fee will cumulatively escalate to RM60 annually.

Under the existing terms and conditions, a dial-up user who surf lightly, or people like who maintain a Jaring dial-up account as back-up, maintaining a Jaring account could be as low as RM45 per year (RM20 annual fee + RM25 minimum access credit to be depleted on a pay-as-you-surf basis). Now, you need to pay more even when you don't hog and snarl-up the Jaring pipe.

All this is going to change as Jaring dished out its stern reminder In UPDATE 20061012 that::

if you do not convert by the due date (November 15) your account will be automatically changed to the new package by 16 November 2006.

In the case where your account balance is insufficient, your account will be suspended and if not topped up within three (3) consecutive months it will be terminated automatically.

Interestingly, Jaring sweetens its announcements by stating that Excess Usage Charge will be 1.0 sen/min on PSTN line, and 4.0 sen/min on ISDN line. It, however, avoids telling the customers whether there are other charges levied by other service partners in the value-chain.

Rubbing salts to the wound, the embedded URL to the "New Dial-Up Package" contained in the reminder email that Jaring broadcast to personal dial-up account holders points to the Business Dial-Up package, which charges a much higher fee structure.

Is Jaring now also being run by one of those OxBridge cikus?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the little red dot on the palm that will bleed you RM20,000 in the pocket.

LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

Only for those who belong to the class who deserve it and appreciate it... and I wished to be one, some day when my wife won't stranggle me for being esoteric in purchasing power.

Leica M8. Details in LensaMalaysia Forum.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Dr Edmund Terence Gomez, who co-wrote ASLI-CPPS report on Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy,writes to Malaysiakini to to stress an important point that issue of the corporate wealth owned by bumiputeras was neither the study's primary nor motivating concern. Quote:

In fact, the point that the volume of publicly-listed corporate wealth attributable to bumiputeras may even be as high as 45% was only raised in the conclusion.

The report's sole basis for bringing up the issue of bumiputera equity ownership was to argue that there was a serious methodological flaw in the government's calculation of wealth distribution along ethnic lines.

By adopting a different methodology, that is by assessing equity distribution among owners of publicly-listed stock, the study wanted to show to the government that this alternative tabulation raised serious doubts about the government's figures.

So, here is the 'rubbish' Umno vice president to answer this question of the day:

Undue emphasis was being given by the government to achieving the 30% bumiputera target.

Tell us, what have been the important transitions that occurred in Malaysian society in the past 35 years?

It is still necessary -- or even relevant -- to have policies concerned with redistributing wealth along ethnic lines?

Dr Gomez also highlights that the ASLI_CPPS report's sole basis for bringing up the issue of bumiputera equity ownership was to argue that there was a serious methodological flaw in the government's calculation of wealth distribution along ethnic lines.

And the flaw nakedly lies in the Prime Minister's skepticism of the ASLI-CPPS report

1. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government's figures were based on an assessment of 600,000 companies nationwide, while the CPPS study was merely an evaluation of publicly-listed firms.


2. Abdullah said the government's tabulation was based on the par value of the shares of these 600,000 firms, while the study's was based on an appraisal of the market value of listed stock.


3. Abdullah said while the study attributed equity owned by the government-linked companies (GLCs) to bumiputeras, the government did not include ownership of these shares in its tabulation. He also argued that GLC-owned stock is not to be listed as equity attributable to bumiputeras.

The points raised by the prime minister drew attention to two important issues that needed to be addressed, Gomez says.

Read him in full, and email that rubbish minister-- muhyiddin@agri.moa.my -- what your expect to respond, rationally with facts.

Dr Gomez's response to Abdullah Badawi's remarks:

The first concerned the government's tabulation of stock based on its par value. The argument in the CPPS report was that the official methodology for computation of corporate equity distribution - used first in the 1970s and continued until today - was unrealistic and had resulted in an underestimation of wealth attributable to bumiputeras.

There is clearly wide support for the argument that wealth distribution patterns cannot be accurately, and fairly, determined through this method. The report's tabulation, based on market capitalisation of equity, a more reliable indicator of wealth distribution, was precisely to draw attention to this point. This evaluation of wealth distribution of quoted stock along ethnic lines suggested that the government's figures were probably inaccurate.

Second, the prime minister disclosed a very important new point when addressing the issue of GLC ownership of equity - that the government had not included in its tabulation the equity owned by these companies. If the government is to include in its calculation the equity owned by the GLCs, the value of stock attributable to each ethnic community would vary considerably, presenting a fairer and more accurate indication of wealth distribution patterns.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (36) | TrackBacks (0)

It's a season that political theatrics triumph over rational reasoning.

So, apart from Dr Terence Gomez, will Malaysia's academics and researchers in social science, who are worth their salt, rise to give their perspectives on how to get the Bumiputra equity formula transparently right?

You can't simply call rubbish a report derived from empirical data, and pretend that the case is closed, can you?

How many people realised Dr Lim Teck Ghee earned his Ph.D by making in-depth study on Malay poverty?

As the records show, Dr Lim has to his credit several important publications, including two books, namely ( 1 ) Origins of a Colonial Economy: Land and Agriculture in Perak 1874-1897 (Penang, 1976), and ( 2 ) Peasants and Their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya 1894-1941 (Kuala Lumpur, 1977)..

There is a tribute for his winning the Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies, 1979, when he was Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Policy Research of Universiti Sains Malaysia. It reads:

His scholarship is informed by a deep sensitivity to the problems of rural society in a rapidly changing world, and tempered by the rigors of social science. His work demonstrates an admirable ability to balance fact and interpretation, and an objectivity that resists transforming human beings into statistics and data.

That was some thirty years ago and, as far as i know, Dr Lim has not wavered from his continued studies on the issue wealth distribution among the Bumiputras, especially the Malays in the last three decades, though he chose to classify them as reace-neutral peasants.

Thirty years have gone past but you know and I know, the poor Malays continue to be poor. Where has the money gone?

In an October 4 interview with theSun, Dr Lim gave his observation -- as a non-partisan scholar -- why the poor Malays continue to be poor. Quote:

There are many poor Malays and they continue to be poor. And we should prioritise this issue but continuing with the system of corporate equity distribution doesn't help the poor Malays. Giving places in the elite schools, scholarships to middle-class and upper-class, the children of middle-class and upper-class Malays who have benefited from the NEP does not help the poor Malays.

So, what the centre (for Public Policy Studies) is advocating, and we're not the only ones, is that we need to change our strategy of development which is race-based to one which is race-neutral and more class-based.

In the interview, Dr Lim was asked whether he was surprised at all by the findings after the report, namely Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy, was completed, that the Bumiputra corporate equity could be as high as 45%? Quote:

Well, yes and no. I must say that, we thought that the government figure of 18.9% was underestimated, but we didn't expect to find, using our definitions, that high an achievement.

And I must say that this high achievement shows that the government has been successful in redistributing wealth as defined by equity. So, it's something that the government should be proud of, and it's a finding which shared with the rest of the country, can allay some of the concerns and insecurities (of some groups).

So, we're a little surprised that our critics have accused us of having a particular agenda. The only agenda that we have is that of a non-partisan analysis of scholarly inputs into policy-making.

(We're saying that) in terms of the corporate equity share objective, that very specific target - using our methodology - has been achieved.

The other important context is that the 45% equity is the corporate equity share target that the Bumiputras have achieved. This shouldn't be clouded with political rhetorics that NEP has achieved 45% equity for the Bumiputras.

We will never know how big the Bumiputra equity is unless the authorities adopt a transparent policy by revealling its methodology, and define and quantify the Bumputra equity ownership in the GLCs, statutory bodies like Tabung Haji and MARA. This, at least for the time being, you can only pray for it to happen.

In relevance, Dr Lim gave us a perpective on the dictinct difference between the corporate equity share target versus the larger NEP equity target. Quote:

The corporate equity share target has been achieved. We're not saying that the NEP, you know, in all its fullest ramifications has been achieved. But in terms of the corporate equity share, it has, to my mind, reached its target and been successful.

But, quite apart from that, the point that I'd like to stress is that, in no other country in the world, has a marginalised community such as the Malays come up so quickly and attain this position of, economic and social and political, I wouldn't use the word "dominance", but success. Amongst all the countries in the world, the rise of the Malay middle-class and upper-class has been unrivalled.

So, are the criticisms that GLCs (government-linked companies) shouldn't be used as part of the calculation of corporate equity ownership valid? Dr Lim gave his perspective on this:

You know, if you want to go into the calculation of it, if you take out the GLCs, like they said. If you take the Malay share of it, of companies, limited companies, and if you add in the Malay part of the nominee, it's 18.9% plus another four or five already. So, you're bringing it up to about 23% or 24%.

And also that doesn't take into account the foreign part of it which may have Malay proxy shares - Malay ownership using foreigners as proxy.

I am not saying a pot calling the kettle black, but I read in Malaysiakini that the Son-in-Law advising ASLI to be more careful when publicising future reports that touch on issues of race and other sensitive matters.

Meanwhile, let's resign to the fact that the poor Malays continue to be poor.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBacks (0)

At last night's public forum with only bloggers as panel speakers, we discussed the options to set Pak lah free from the dysfunctional traits in his 3-year-old administration.

Multi-racial audience... Pictures courtesy Lim Swee Kuan

My central thesis was that many of us bought into his spin-doctors' well-orchestrated publicity stunt, trusted him as a refreshing change to Mahathir's 22-year rule, and gave him a 92% majority mandate in the Parliament.

I recalled that Pak Lah's spin-doctors had also packaged him as a modern day Justice Bao (999 - 1062), a legendary take-no-bribe justice during the Song Dynasty, to send home the message Pak Pak would be distinctly different from Mahathir. Many took the bait.

Problems started when back-peddaled on his promises -- including fighting corruption and enhancing the delivery system in the public service -- and many other broadstroke promises which were entombed in the Barisan Nasional Manifesto for the 2004 General Election.

I told the audience that the acid test to better delivery system in the public service shouldn't be looked at how swift you get your MyKad or passport done at the Putrajaya counters. You should instead look at how the local governments -- typical ones are MBPJ, MBSA, MPSJ, MPAJ, MP Selayang, MP Klang which are among the municipalities that collect biggest revenue through various rates and taxes -- are being run by the Little Napoleaons that Citizen Nades has tirelessly highlighted for donkey years.

A true parliamentary democracy should have all the governments at the federal, state and municipal levels elected by the constituents through public voting. Hence, let's not talk about enhancing the public service delivery system if the local governments are not elected by the people to hold them accountable for good governance once every five years.

I was also of the opinion that, as a self-professed Prime Minister of all Malaysians and not just the Malays, Pak Lah should free himself from the intra-party politics in Umno -- inheriting Mahathir's cabinet members is one of the many bad signs -- and work for all Malaysians regardless of race and breeds.

But controversies in the recent months -- typically the Son-in-Law's racists remarks against his non-Malay brethren in the ruling party, and the opaque methodology in quantifying Bumiputra equity -- are crystalising the fact that it would be a futility to expect Pak Lah setting himself free from the dysfunctional encumbrances in the next two years of his mandate. I asked the audience what they should do, thinking out of the box, when faced with such reality.

Fellow speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Pak Lah was already 'free' to act when he obtained his 92% landslide mandate, but he screwed his political capital by spending it unwisely over the last three years.

In the end, as the night drifted, I had the impression that nobody can possibly set Pak Lah free but himself.

I'd like to thank the audience who made time to listen to us bloggers, and appreciate those who came up to say hello.I appreciate that.

I am waiting for an opportunity to speak at a similar blogger forum organised by Umno. I will make sure I will speak in Bahasa Malaysia if no Oxford/Cambridge graduates are attending.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Dr Lim Teck Ghee (picture below), director of Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS), has resigned after ASLI backed down under severe intimidation from parties which disputed its findings on Bumiputra's equity share of the country's wealth.

Dr Lim says he is resigning because he cannot agree with ASLI president's statement in justifying the back down, and that there is a need to defend the position and integrity of independent and non-partisan scholarship.

Read Dr Lim's press statement (in PDF) here.

Screenshots earlier blogged that ASLI president, Mirzan Mahathir, had said that on re-examining the methodology and conclusions of the report, "ASLI has concluded that there are shortcomings in assumption and calculation that led to conclusions that cannot be vigorously justified."

However, theSun quoted sources as saying that consultants and researchers at the CPPS involved in putting it together are standing by their work. They, nevertheless, accept that the political reality left the institute no choice but to back down in order to stop the attacks on ASLI.

In his resignation statement, Dr Lim says, as Director of the CPPS, he takes full responsibility, and stands by the findings of the study and the other studies that were submitted in a comprehensive report to the Government on the 9th Malaysia Plan in February 2006.

However, Dr Lims adds that since he cannot agree with Mirzan's statement, and because of the need to defend the position and integrity of independent and non-partisan scholarship, he will be stepping down from his position as Director at the end of October. Quote:

I hope the public space opened up by the Centre’s work on this particular, as well as other important, issues will be expanded on and vigorously defended by others. It is the fundamental right of the Malaysian public to question all government statistics and policies, more so when these are not transparent or defensible.

Dr Lim is a former UN regional advisor and World bank senior political scientist. He is also a recipient of international academic awards.

For context, read Dr Lim's response to critics' queries on the mechanism and the purpose of the study compiled by ASLI-CPPS.

At a public forum held on September 27, Dr Lim said that "the NEP is a very divisive instrument and race-based affirmative action that will jeopardise our economic growth and social cohesion".

"The government needs to move on. What we need is to foster inter-ethnic partnerships based on competitiveness and merit," he added.

Verily, where Dr Lim falls, the country's dignity stands monumental.

CPPS response to comments in malaysiakini on corporate equity distribution study

The CPPS would like to take the opportunity to respond to various comments on its recent study on the corporate equity issue.

Firstly, the study was undertaken by a multi-racial group of scholars and consultants as part of work in connection with the Ninth Malaysia Plan. It was submitted to the prime minister, cabinet ministers and other government leaders in February 2006 as part of a bigger report which included findings of studies on education, the civil service, low-income communities and Penan.

Following initial release of the report to the government, the report was made widely available to various political, social and economic bodies in the country.

The corporate equity study was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. The study found that the official methodology for computation of corporate equity distribution – first used in the 70s and continued till today - is narrowly based, unrealistic and has resulted in an underestimation of the true volume and value of bumiputera equity.

Using alternative methodologies, the study has estimated that the bumiputera corporate share is considerably higher than the official figure of 18.9 percent in 2004 – in fact it may be as high as 45 percent. This is because, besides the original listing requirement of 30 percent, the bumiputera share has been considerably augmented by that held by government-linked companies (GLCs), which are among the major holders of equity in corporate Malaysia.

Other findings of the study are that the government has played an effective role in redistributing wealth more equitably among all Malaysians. The study also provides evidence of one important new development, that is, the emergence of business partnerships forged along inter-ethnic lines.

A number of these partnerships comprise bumiputera from the new middle-class, created through their access to human development opportunities that has provided them with skills in the corporate sector.

The emergence of such inter-ethnic partnerships, most of which started as small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), was not fostered through government directive. These partnerships were based on the coming together of business people in endeavours where each partner has contributed to the development of the new enterprise. The rise of such inter-ethnic partnerships augurs well for the promotion of national unity in Malaysia.

The study concludes that the focus of the government on racially-based affirmative action programmes to redistribute wealth is misplaced and is jeopardising economic growth. It is clear that selective patronage has resulted in serious intra-ethnic Malay cleavages, while also undermining inter-ethnic social cohesion and equitable socio-economic development for the country as a whole.

The focus of the government should be on policies that transcend a racial dimension and which address issues from a structural perspective. The study recommended that for the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the government should focus on promoting the development of SMEs, where genuine entrepreneurial capacity is to be found and encouraged.

The centre welcomes the opportunity to discuss its findings with other non-partisan bodies and individuals. The centre also hopes that the findings of the study and the larger report (several chapters focus on marginalised Malaysian communities) can generate thoughtful and rational discussion on the country’s social and economic development strategies.

In this connection, we would like to point out that casting aspersions and questioning motives based on race is not helpful. In particular, we are concerned with the comments attributed to Prof Shamsul Amri Baharuddin.

Using his own logic which questions the ethnicity of those involved in the study, it would appear that all government data/studies (and his too) cannot be taken seriously because they are undertaken by a Malay bureaucracy or academics to promote a particular Malay agenda.

Dr Lim Teck Ghee
Director, Centre for Public Policy Studies

SOURCE: Malaysiakini September 28, 2006

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (54) | TrackBacks (0)

Details in my CNet Asia blog, Lemak Lemang.

Can someone rescue me on the redundancy of low-capacity CF cards?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I would to give context to theSun's editorial of October 5, which says:

The most basic of weaknesses (in the way the authorities measure bumiputra participation in the corporate sector) is that ownership is based on the par value of companies in Malaysia which effective represents the original capital put into a company. It takes no account of future losses or future retained profits. A much better measure will be shareholders' funds, which represents the net book value of assets attributable to shareholders or in the case of listed companies, the market value of these companies.

But for reasons known to only itself - probably related to political expediency - the government prefers to stick to the par value of companies.

Key words: Par Value.

Khoo Kay Peng, my fellow panel speaker at tonight's bloggers' forum themed "How to set Pak Lah free', has a take on this in Malaysiakini recently. He made Deputy Director-General of ISIS Malaysia and oft-quoted economist Dr Zainal Aznam Yusoff his sample for analysis.

Earlier, Dr Zainal Aznam went to The NST to express his skepticism of ASLI's findings that the bumiputera equity ownership is 45%. Khoo says the economist had failed to substantiate his argument with convincing counter arguments. If anything, Aznam's response in the mainstream media "has created doubts about his real motive because a truly professional economist like himself would not have made such weak technical arguments".

Khoo says:

Firstly, Zainal argues that Asli’s use of the 1,000-odd companies listed on Bursa Malaysia is not indicative of the actual equity ownership situation. This is linked to his subsequent argument that Asli’s use of market capitalisation is wrong. Instead, he insisted that the calculation should be made on the basis of the number of shares held, or the par value.

It is unfathomable for someone who is a leading economic advisor to the government for failing to understand the simple logic of calculating wealth on the basis of market capitalisation, or the market value. In this regard, Zainal indicates that the value of holding a unit of Tenaga share is equivalent to a unit of a small-medium entreprise share.

More than 90% of all companies registered in Malaysia are small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Almost 75% of all the SMEs are either owned or controlled by Chinese Malaysians. However, the SMEs are responsible for less than 10 percent of the nation’s gross domestic products.

Using the par value as a basis of calculation is erroneous because it does not indicate the real level of wealth ownership, which is a better indication of economic well-being. Hence, this explains why the stated bumiputera ownership is at a low18.9% although the actual ownership of wealth could have been as high as 45% or more.

Zainal’s argument leads to more questions. What is the real motive of using the par value as a basis of calculation? Is the government trying to hide the fact that the affirmative policy has benefitted and enriched only a few people and left many stranded under the jaws of poverty? Who control the majority of the wealth attributed to the bumiputera community?

More worms that Aznam has uncanned, and Khoo asks:

• If the New Economic Policy (NEP) has been a great success, what has contributed to the contraction of the income pie of the lowest 40% of the society?


• The drop of almost 2%, from 15% to 13%, is recorded in the Ninth Malaysian Plan. The richest 20% has expanded their wealth by almost the same quantum.


• Is the government trying to hide from the fact that it has failed to build a bumiputera commercial and industrial community, to expand the individual/private bumiputera's participation in the economy?

So, coming back to Aznam's central thesis, if there was one, is Zainal worried that if the market value-- as opposed to par value -- is used as a basis of calculation, the government may be facing a difficult time in trying to explain to the truly marginalised segment of the society, which consists of largely the bumiputera community, why the 45% of wealth ownership did not help to alleviate their living conditions?

We expect some answers here.

Next, Zainal alleges that ASLI had included all ownership by government-linked companies (GLCs) into their estimation as bumiputera.

Evidently, the government has systematically removed GLCs from its figures.

But on the part of ASLI, it had estimated 70% of GLCs ownership as bumiputera. The institute argues that this is done from their observation of the procurement contracts and projects awarded to bumiputera companies.

Khoo gives a context to this:

It is a fact that GLCs are used to support and implement the pro-bumiputera public procurement policy. In the recently announced regional economic corridors, the GLCs are tasked with the development of the economic zones with an objective to increase the participation of bumiputera companies in the economic sector.

All GLCs have made it mandatory to deal with only bumiputera majority-owned companies. The boards of these companies are made up of almost 85% bumiputera directors. The employee composition of the GLCs also reflect similar trend. Hence, it is difficult for anyone to justify that these GLCs represent our national interest.

So, between using par value and market value to determine the true state of bumiputra equity, which one is more convincing?

Khoo says Aznam as an economist must answer this:

1. First, since he supported the use of par value as a justified method of calculation, would he be willing to propose to the government to swap one Tenaga share for two Farlim shares, as an example? This way the bumiputera community will be able to double up their number of share holding almost immediately.


2. Second, is he willing to propose to the government to restructure the GLCs to truly represent the interest of our multiracial nation? For the GLCs to be truly representative, they should open up their tender process to all Malaysian companies.

In conclusion, Khoo echoes many people'ssentiments -- including those from Dr Lim Keng Yaik, theSun and Aznam -- that the government should come out with a more accurate, credible and sensible method to calculate the ownership of wealth in the country.

Needless to say, this is a Great Malaysian Malaise and Umnoputras had succeeded in concealing their greeds for the natioinal wealth by championing it from the Malay-bumiputra point fo view. Rare among them are seen approqaching it with a genuine interest to address the continuous marginalisation of the poorest 40% of our society, which consists of Malaysians of all communities.

With national wealth unevenly distributed amongthe Malays, it breeds perpetual corruption. Thus far, there is little effort seen from the present administration going after the preferred "individuals and rent-seekers who have enjoyed the forbidden fruits of nepotism and corruption".

And Khoo puts it succinctly: "Zainal’s respond to my questions will determine whether he is an apologist of the corrupt elites or not."

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)

ASLI has backed down under severe intimidation from parties which disputed its findings on Bumiputra's equity share of the country's wealth.

According to Bernama, its president, Mirzan Mahathir, said that on re-examining the methodology and conclusions of the report, "ASLI has concluded that there are shortcomings in assumption and calculation that led to conclusions that cannot be vigorously justified."

Meanwhile, theSun quoted sources as saying that consultants and researchers at the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) involved in putting it together are standing by their work. However, they accept that the political reality left the institute no choice but to back down in order to stop the attacks on ASLI.

In February, ASLI-CPPS submitted to the Government five research papers that integrally made up a comprehensive proposal entitled "Proposals for the Ninth Malaysia Plan". One of the five research papers, tiled Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy, had used statistics from the Bursa Malaysia Corporate Equity’s 2005,and estimated the amount of bumiputra equity ownership to have reached 45%, or RM325.08 billion, of the RM715.4bil worth of stocks on the stock exchange.

Initially, nobody gave the ASLI findings a meaningful mention until it was politicised in the mainstream Malay press.

October 5, theSun ran an editorial urging the Government to review how the bumiputra equity is measured -- a mathematical equation that Screenshots said all Malaysian prime ministers had failed to resolve since the implementation of the NEP in 1971. Excerpts:

Without a doubt there are many weaknesses in the way the authorities measure bumiputra participation in the corporate sector. These weaknesses are so serious that one wonders whether a purpose is served at all by attempting to measure bumiputra equity participation in the corporate sector.

It is terribly unfortunate that the 30% target for bumiputra participation in the corporate sector, measured so inaccurately, has become politically charged so as to almost decide whether economic policy-making is successful or not.

The most basic of weaknesses is that ownership is based on the par value of companies in Malaysia which effective represents the original capital put into a company. It takes no account of future losses or future retained profits. A much better measure will be shareholders' funds, which represents the net book value of assets attributable to shareholders or in the case of listed companies, the market value of these companies.

But for reasons known to only itself - probably related to political expediency - the government prefers to stick to the par value of companies.

The other thing is that the stakes of government-owned companies are not included under bumiputra on the reasoning that the government represents everyone in the country. This can be overcome by de-segregating government ownership in proportion to the racial composition of the country.

Again, one wonders why such simple measures have not been taken since the introduction of the New Economic Policy in the seventies, and whose tenets continue to have a huge impact on economic policy-making.

What perhaps grates the most is that as a result of economic policies that seek to right this perceived redress - which is so inaccurately measured - companies are regularly required to satisfy 30% bumiputra equity participation each time they have to get government approval on restructuring or expansion plans.

And what galls even more is that if bumiputra investors have already been brought in before at a concessional rate to satisfy that 30% bumiputra equity requirement and if they have now sold out, the whole process has to be repeated again - and again.

That is surely a terribly unfair arrangement which the government should have rectified long ago.

Incidentally, October 8, Parti Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik told the press in his Bruas constituency that, to fully convince the people, ASLI and the Government should clarify their respective methodologies used to determine their equity share in the nation's wealth, and this must be done transparently.

SOURCE: Oriental Daily News (October 9, 2006Page A4)

"The people's eyes are razor-sharp, so ASLI and the Government must reveal their methodologies and benchmarks, and let the people decide for themselves," Dr Lim said in Oriental Daily. "It's a waste time to keep arguing on whether it's 18% or 45%."

"Arguments like this is an attrition and it does not benefit the country's development," he added. "On the contrary, we should spend more effort in enhancing our competitive power in the global arena. Once we stopprogressing, we will be eliminated."

Dr Lim was alos quoted in The Star as saying that, in the controversy, the rich were merely squabbling amongst themselves as to who had more shares.

“The rich are arguing over what they have. What about those who don’t have anything?

“In my 30 years of political experience, the issue of racial equity usually crops up only when the country approaches a recession.”

Recession or no recession, thus far, the MCA leaders have played safe and none of them have offered any clue how they face the issue.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Mainstream press editors at The Star and The Edge/Option who carried news on art collector/critique Dr Jolly Koh had better work harder to reference their articles.

Koh, 65, a Singapore-born former Malaysian who takes advantage of Malaysia's My-Second-Home offers and now resides in Kota Kamuning, Shah Alam, has come back to make a scene out of the art world in his former home-country, Malaysia. He used words like ‘Third World’, ' shoddy kitsch', ‘feudalistic’ and ‘impoverished cultural environment’ when he talked about Malaysian cultural life in his interviews with the local mainstream press.

And Sunday Star (here and here) and The Edge/Option were too willing to print them. This draws a strong reaction from local multimedia artist Victor Chin.

Chin raised the issue of an anthropological crime, and asked whether Malaysia is a place for xenophobia seen from the eyes of an Australian.

Screenshots was made to understand that Chin's letter to StarMag was canned, while his second one to The Edge/Option is pending.

Read Chin's blog -- Mixblood - at vicchin.wordpress.com.

By the way, a web search on Australian painter John Olsen provides interesting readings on Olsen's artshop, which was once many a budding painter's nestling place.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Today, a group of Malaysians who submitted a memorandum to the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur in protest of the deteriorating air quality in Malaysia caused by haze originating from Indonesia were greeted with sarcasm from its First Secretary (political affairs), who goes by the single name Mudzakir:

“If you can guarantee the wind will not blow (in this direction), then I can guarantee it (haze) will not happen again.” [...]

“When we export oxygen, you don’t say anything; when we export haze, you complain.”

Malaysiakini says the Indonesian diplomat appeared to have repeated similar remarks made yesterday by Indonesia's Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban, who was quoted by Reuters as saying:"We have forests producing oxygen and bringing clean air to them but they don't thank us. Now there's smoke and they complain. There must be a balance."

This draws a remark from DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who led the group to submit the memorandumofprotest: “I am disappointed. I think I will have to visit the embassy again next year.”

When contacted by Malaysiakini later today, Mudzakir confirmed he had made the remarks that had annoyed the DAP delegation.

“This (haze) is not just a man-made phenomenon, but also involves natural factors. Yes, I said that if I had the power to direct the wind not to blow here, then I could give them an assurance - but I can’t, right?” he argued.

Is this Indo-diplomacy? Is this in their Indonesian blood and adat in diplomatic lingo? You don't need enemies when you have friends from Seberang like this.

Let me tell you this. Our actual brothers from Seberang are those who work in the newsroom. Read this editorial in Jakarta Post: A bad neighbor.

More than 600 fire "hot spots" have been burning on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands since July, yet the government seems to be doing little to remedy this problem. Much as last year it did little, or the year before and so on.

Is there any sense of urgency for what has become a yearly grief over the past 20 years? Hardly. For these 20 years we have been doing an injustice to our neighbors and to our own people, since the first big forest fires in 1982.

Singapore suffered its worst air quality readings for more than nine years over this past weekend. Malaysia was forced to declare a state of emergency at its biggest seaports, Port Klang and Kuala Selangor, in August last year. Yet the authorities in Indonesia just sit back and relax.

It has become something of a mantra for our officials, the claim that there is nothing to be done about the fires until the rainy season comes to the rescue. Then the issue goes away only to come back with a vengeance the following year.

Once the issue dies with the arrival of the rain, key proposals by experts on how to deal with the scourge are conveniently shelved and the root causes of the problem go unaddressed.

All of this is often accompanied by mudslinging, as officials here blame any and all parties for the problem, from traditional farmers to illegal loggers, handily forgetting their own role in the recurring environmental disaster.

What is wrong with us? Who do we think we are, as a nation and a government, to cause such suffering to our neighbors and our own people? We would hate to think that because we are the biggest country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) we believe we can do as we please. [...]

Regionally, the 10-member ASEAN has signed the so-called ASEAN Agreement on Trans-boundary Haze Pollution. A useful devise for fighting forest fires, it has been largely ignored for four years. And coincidentally, Indonesia is the only country that has not ratified the agreement.

Indonesia should immediately ratify the agreement to enable it to fight forest fire together with neighboring countries. It is a comprehensive devise that stipulates the setting up of an ASEAN center for that purpose. It is time for the government to admit it cannot deal with this scourge alone. It should be modest enough to admit this and be willing to cooperate with other countries to stop the haze.

By cooperating with ASEAN countries, the government would be implementing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's favorite motto: "We can overcome anything by working together." It only takes political will to stop exporting the haze.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (31) | TrackBacks (0)

Little Birds confirmed with Screenshots that there was a strike outside Menara TM after office hours today over VADS' takeover of TM call centres.

From this internal memo (PDF available here) circulated from the office of the Group CEO this morning, it is obvious that Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar (Dawo) was informed of the employees' sentiments.

Dawo describes the VADS take-over, which are worth RM254.6 million involving the transfer of contact centre business, asset and staff of TM Retail contact centre operations, as an in-sourcing exercise.

Switzerland-based Union Network International had picked up news about the strike by NUTE/TM members some four hours ahead of this blog. It carried a statement by Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal, President NUTE Malaysia.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No.It's not about the vital statistics of a Malaysian beauty, or else you will see a grotesque figure -- small bust, famined waistline and a big, big ass.

It's actually a mathematical equation that ALL Malaysian Prime Ministers since Abdul Razak Hussein had failed to address for over 35 years -- the Bumiputra equity share of the nation's wealth.

To be exact, none of our Prime Ministers since the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971, has managed to empirically, and judicially, quantify the Bumiputra share equity in the country.

Looking at the way the issue has been fanned up in the media, it's highly unlikely that the present Number One is of a better creed to solve this 35-year-old mathematical riddle. There is no official figure on the Bumiputra equity, and yet anything that's quantified by independent bodies using published data -- included those compiled based on official data published by such bodiesl ike the Economic Planning Unit and Bursa Malaysia -- has been damned as rubbish.

Now you see. I am talking about the ASLI-CPPS report titled: Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy that has exposed yet another chapter in the Great Malaysian Malaise.

The controversial ASLI-CPPI report is but one of the five research papers published in February 2006 that integrally made up a comprehensive proposal entitled "Proposals for the Ninth Malaysia Plan". The five research papers are, namely

1 ) Towards a More Representative and World Class Malaysian Civil Service
2 ) Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy
3 ) Achieving Higher Performance in Tertiary Education
4 ) Ensuring Effective Targeting of Ethnic Minorities: The Case of Low Income Malaysian Indians
5 ) Towards Equity for Bumiputera Minorities: The Case of the Penan

If you are as ill-informed and hopelessly lazy as most of our politicians -- who don't seem to have read the reports in full but depend on the Malay mainstream media for the staple feeds -- which are mostly equally ill-informed and hopeless lazy to research -- at least try to take the trouble to read the Overview (executive summary of sorts) and the Key Findings and Recommendations contained in the ASLI-CPPI report.

The ASLI-CPPI report essentially cited statistics from the Bursa Malaysia Corporate Equity’s 2005, in estimating the amount of bumiputra equity ownership to be at 45% of the RM715.4bil worth of stocks on the stock exchange, or RM325.08bil.

However, the Government’s estimate of bumiputra equity ownership in the 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) was only 18.9%.

The NEP targeted a 30% share of the economy for the Bumiputra by 1990. The timeline was missed and blaims were hurled at all and sundry except the targetted beneficiaries.

Meanehile, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he has read the ASLI-CPPI report and and dismissed it as inaccurate.

“If the information used (in the survey) is wrong, how could you get a correct conclusion? It will be wrong,” he said.

Hence rattles the echo chamber (while some say the echo chamber rattles the PM -- your call on this.)

While economists -- and economists are a creed whose validity is subject to past grooming and present vocation -- are unable to rebutt the ASLI-CPPI report with their own set of empirical figures, another Umno chieftain said it will confuse the Malays and make them complacent.

And political rhetorics currently make the spin. None of the Umnoputra had ventured to shed lights on bumiputra equited accumulated through Tabung Haji, MARA and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), just to name three big ones.

October 7, Oriental Daily deputy editor-in-chief and head of the business desk Ko Kerk Hock offered another interesting perspective of the Great Malaysian Malaise.

這里有個最簡單的精算法，每家公司上市前都得讓出三成股分給土著（由政府指定的土著），只要持有這些股份的土著沒把股權轉手的話，股市里由土著持有的股權，至少有30%，對嗎？

In summary, he said it has been a mandatory requirement for all listing companies to provision 30% equity shares to preferred Bumiputras selected by the Government. So long as these preferred Bumiputras di not dispose off their shares, corporate equity held by the Bumiputras in the stock market should have reached a minimum of 30%.

And that's basically the central thesis to the ASLI-CPPI report on Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy.

So the numbers game. Was it 30%? 19% Or 45%?

TO BE CONTINUED.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)

After days of market speculation, it was announced that Google will acquire YouTube for US$1.65 billion.

It's a significant development for Web2.0 as bootleg videos will be another Google asset, indexed and systematically searchable.

It also means that Google has a formula to overcome the barrage of copyright-infringement lawsuits that YouTube has faced.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This Wednesday night, I will join fellow bloggers -- Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Khoo Kay Peng, Tony Pua, Sharizal Shaarani, MP Fong Poh Kuan and Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang -- to speak at the Young Malaysians' Forum about our love for Malaysia, and things that should be improved to make this country tick again.

Please come. We are NOT those bloggers who blog behind anonymity. The moderator is blogger Oon Yeoh.

Date: October 11, 2006 (Wednesday)
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
1, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur

Here's the context to the Malaysian Bloggers' Forum:

Theme: "How To Set Pak Lah Free?"

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi Ahmad Badawi, more affectionately known as Pak Lah, started his premiership with promises of openness in society, focus on anti-corruption, integrity in governance, public service efficiency reforms and other such positive measures.

However, everything seems to be "faltering" at this point of time, with many getting disillusioned with Pak Lah's leadership. Key pledges such as the IPCMC appears to have been sidelined indefinitely. The initial euphoria over arrests of several prominent personalities for corruption ended abruptly with apparent lack of political will to charge other more senior figures. Suddenly it was a case of “let's forgive and forget”.

More! Many initial policy liberalisation seems to have been reversed as press freedom clamp down with veiled threats by the Internal Security Ministry to newspaper editors, the restriction of carrying out forums to discuss constitutional issues affecting all Malaysians such as the now infamous Article 11.

There is, therefore, an apparent disjoint between his rhetoric, and possibly even intent, with his actions, or more accurately, inaction.

The question we would like to ask is whether Pak Lah is shackled by his own indecisive nature, hence making him an ineffectual and weak leader?

Or is this really his consensual style of politics whereby he takes into account everyones interest, even if they contradict his statements and intent?

Is this just his style, or does he still have anything left up his sleeve? Or is Pak Lah's hands tied by unseen and evil forces, forces so powerful that Pak Lah risks his entire Mr Clean reputation built over years?

Thus far, it's only the DAP who is proactive anough to invite Malaysian bloggers to be panelists for this sort of forum to represent the views of Malaysian people.

These young Malaysian bloggers will discuss the above issues and identify how Pak Lah can be set free so as to pursue the reforms promised in all sectors of government and society which had won him an overwhelming 91% parliamentary victory in the last general elections.

We hope this forum will attract young Malaysians to take part in the discourse to help Pak Lah find the solution to “break free” to deliver what was promised to us in the last elections.

The future of Malaysia belongs to young Malaysians, and it is absolutely appropriate for these same young Malaysians to deliver this message to him.

Read on for the profile of bloggers who would be panel speakers for the night.

Details of Forum:

YOUNG MALAYSIAN'S FORUM:
HOW TO SET PAK LAH FREE?

Invited panel speakers:

1. Jeff Ooi

Jeff Ooi is the founder of USJ.com.my, a grassroot-managed community portal, launched in 1999, targetting Malaysia's K-generation. He is an e-business consultant for vertical industries, an Open Source advocate, and a columnist in Malaysian Business. Jeff is a blogger recognised internationally. He has won many recognitions and awards for his blog at JeffOoi.com including being voted asthe FREEDOM BLOG ASIA by Paris-based Reporters Without Boundaries (RSF). Jeff has been invited to speak and moderate at various international functions including to Harvard Law School as a panel speaker for Internet & Society organized by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society (2004), the “Expression under Repression” event at World Summit of Information Society in Tunis (2005) and the Global Voices Summit held at the Reuters Headquarters, Canary Wharf, London (2005).

2. Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad blogs at www.niknazmi.com. He earned his LLB from King's College London and was previously educated in the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar. In the UK he was active in the UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) Federation of Students Islamic Societies and the National Union of Students, UK. His commentaries in current issues have appeared in Malaysiakini, the Sun, the Edge, Channel News Asia and the BBC World Service. Nik Nazmi currently works in Kuala Lumpur, as a special assistant to a politician and director of a listed company. Previously, he was a legal executive in a Malaysian corporation.

3. Khoo Kay Peng

Over the last 8 years, Khoo has served as a management consultant with several world-class consulting firms and top local organisations. He consulted in the areas of business planning, market study and marketing strategy. In the last three years, he has served as a political and policy analyst at a local think tank. His views, comments and articles have appeared in both local and regional publications and online news websites e.g. the Star, New Straits Times, Singapore Straits Times, Bangkok Post, Asia Times, CNBC, Oriental Daily, Radio Singapore International, Malaysiakini, Singapore Today, AFP and others. Khoo holds a degree in Economics from the University of Malaya and a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Warwick, UK. He is a Bristish Chevening scholar.

4. Tony Pua

Tony is currently a Malaysian CEO of a public listed IT company. He graduated from Keble College, Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). He is among the minority of ASEAN Scholars who has chosen to pursue his career and settle in Malaysia, as well as a former MTC Foundation Scholar. He worked for a multinational consulting company for two years prior to starting his own company. When he is not bogged down by work, he spends his time being an economic analyst as well as an Education blogger at educationmalaysia.blogspot.com.

Other speakers include Sharizal Shaarani of Sharizal.net, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, YB Lim Kit Siang and MP for Batu Gajah, YB Fong Po Kuan who blog at blog.limkitsiang.com and pokuan.blogsome.com respectively.

The forum will be moderated by Oon Yeoh. He is a columnist for The Edge (Malaysia) and Today newspapers (Singapore). He is also the host for Freetalk (klstream.com), a podcast on current affairs.

For more information, please contact: DAP HQ (03-79578022/8127), Ng Wei Aik (019-2459305) or Lau Weng San (016-3231563)

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Read this in theSun (October 9, Page 7) as I was leaving for KLIA this morning. The entire Indonesia from Kalimantan to Sumatra is hopeless with the exported haze menace.

But their people can appeal to God for mercy, demand money, while totally forgetting that they could prosecute their forest/plantation arsonists for treason in the first place:

"We have run out of operational funds. Without funds, it is impossible for us to combat the fires. We need to buy fuel for extinguisher tools and for transportation," Agung Catur, head of the fire-fighting task force in central Kalimantan province, told the state-run Antara news agency. [...]

Governor of South Sumatra, Syahrial Oesman, had admitted defeat and is hoping for rainfall to douse the forest fires.

"Only the rain can put out the fires. So, let us pray and hope to Allah for an immediate rain, Oesman was quoted as saying by the daily Media Indonesia.

While the lone I can exit the country via the departure lane, there will be thousands of foreign travellers who will greet Malaysia -- gasping for fresh breath -- when they walk the last steps of the arrival lane in KLIA.

Look at some pictures I took from 07:45 to 08:15hr at KLIA this morning. The foreigners have eyes, can breathe and ain't fools.

For consistency of picture quality, all images were captured with Nikon D200, Nikkor 17-55mm F/2.8, Manual Mode, Aperture constant F/3.2, RAW, ISO 100, Auto White Balance, 0 EV for exposure compensation, No flash, handheld, no Photoshop re-touching.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)

As I laid invalidated trying to pursue my regular outdoor photo-shoot over the weekend, reader EXiang pointed me to a computer-generated composite image:

Haze is now an annual affair that is more certain than the monthly menstrual cycle.

Yes, we have an agreement approved by ASEAN in 2002, called the Transboundary Haze Pollution (THP), but unratified by Indonesia thus far.

We have a deputy PM who wants an ASEAN haze fund as if we are preparing for the first pregnancy..

We have a VIP who suddenly wakes up with an idea to raise the haze issue at the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMTGT) meeting. He thinks his position as the Islamic World Malay World could help.

We also have a minister (thanks for your API which says our air pollutant index has improved) who can afford only jumping mad at the neighbours from Seberang. He says he won't even protest.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Vice-President M. Jusuf Kalla conveniently pulled out an old script used in 1998 by rubbing it in yet again: "Measures should be taken so that we will no longer be known as a ‘haze exporter’ and as a country of floods."

As all diplomacy and technologies had evidently failed in the last eight years, can we ask PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to lead a prayer again? The last time when we were hazed, he did wonders when he prayed. Quote The Age Australia (August 12, 2005):

"When something like this happens, we have to ask for God's help," Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying in the Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysia.

Though the weekend's race horses had run as per scheduled, I can't even take a good hazy picture that the kind reader had showed me, above!

Meanwhile, media which report on the haze has been blamed for sensationalising untruth, and the bureaucrats vow to fight back.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (34) | TrackBacks (0)

It's high time the former Selangor menteri besar who told Australian court years ago that his English was lousy to take a refresher course in the language.

According to Bernama at 16:31hr, Umno Information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib said his party welcomed Singapore's founding father Harry Lee's apology for his recent remarks over the systematic marginalisation of the Chinese in Malaysia.

According to Bernama, mements later at 22:40hr, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Lee's "apology" contained in a letter to PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is for the "discomfort" caused by his comments about how Malaysia treats its Chinese community, and not for the remarks he made.

"It is not an apology. He is just saying that he is sorry for causing the discomfort, not that he is sorry for saying that (the controversial remark)" Syed Hamid said.

Syed Hamid's stand has since become the stance taken by The NST. "Malaysia does not consider Lee Kuan Yew’s apology an apology," the first para said.

Mat Tyson should have save his embarrassment had he read Screenshots earlier, which is always written in layman's English. Even an idiot would know the context Screenshots had tried to highlight, that Harry Lee already had Abdullah in his pocket.

Don't forget to read the Annexe to Harry Lee's letter to Abdullah. That's where the stinger is, and Syed Hamid had better advisors than Mat Tyson, obviously.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (50) | TrackBacks (0)

Blog updates might be scarce in the next few days.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 03:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skilz Digital Arts Experience Centre and John Ishii have come out with an innovative way of taking and appreciating low-light photography.

Make yourself available for a session of 'low-light survival tips', pack your gears, go shoot some stage celebrities -- for four straight nights of Jit Murad, Harith Iskandar, Joanne Kam, Alan Pereira & Indi Nadarajah, Faridah Merican and Joe Hasham -- at the Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Centre.

The low-light tips include:
1 ) Shooting real actors in a real studio environment for their comp cards
2 ) Shooting real actors in real performance
3 ) Knowing what and how to shoot
4 ) Learning to use your camera gears to capture the desired shots
5 ) Understanding lighting conditions
6 ) Knowing the golden rule of stage photography
7 ) Knowing the stage characters and getting the emotionson stills
8 ) Technical know-how: what lens and shy; shutter speed, aperture and ISO

The fearured show is a mic comedy titled: "Free Flow". You will also have the opportunity to do live shoot of 'Comeback Kings', a group of upcoming comedians.

After the four nights of live shoot, get together, compare your shots, and get thrilled (or grilled, depending on who took the shots) by your peers. But learn you surely will.

Here're the details, if you are interested:

Celebrity Stage Shots and Low Light Photography
Date of Class: 19 October 2006
Time: 11am - 5am
Venue: The Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur
Covers: Lecture, Demo and Practical Session
Trainer: John W. Ishii
Registration Fee: RM320

To register, please contact Renee / Doreen at (603) 2094 1918 or email inquiries@skilz.com.my. Or visit Skilz website for more details.

My friend at LensaMalaysia, Moriazi-san, has started a thread on the topic. He has also signed up for the John Ishii course.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 02:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Some images I took at the Shah Alam Ramadan Bazaar recently. I focussed on people and life.

More of my higher-resolution pictures are available on this LensaMalaysia thread (also look for the 'Ayam' series).

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 02:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATED VERSION. So you think Harry Lee has apologised to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for causing our PM much discomfort, and that "after a decade of troubled relations with Abdullah's predecessor (Dr Mahathir Mohamad)" it was the last thing he wanted?

No, Harry Lee didn't retract what he said -- which implies that he stands by what he earlier said about Chinese-Malaysians being marginalised -- the same way the Son-in-Law didn't retract his racial slant against the non-Malay component parties within Barisan Nasional.

More, Harry Lee took a swipe at his arch-rival, and Abdullah's current nemesis, Mahathir, when he replied to our Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Singapore veteran journalist Seah Chiang Nee has a different take, and subscription-based Singapore Straits Times has made it free reading -- they want you to read it without miss!.

NOT all Singaporeans regard everything Mr Lee Kuan Yew says or does these days as superior logic - and the furore he has raised in Malaysia is one of these split issues.

Some people feel his reference to marginalised ethnic Chinese in Malaysia was unnecessarily provocative.

I am one of those who believe that some of Mr Lee's ideas have become outdated for today's Singapore, but on the current controversy I am fully behind him.

I am sure his message was not aimed at a Malaysian audience. It was targeted at the new generation of Singaporeans, a reminder that being citizens of a small country will sometimes mean being subjected to irrational demands.

It was a message about good governance. To potential leaders his message was 'learn to say no' to unreasonable demands.

He said this on the eve of his 83rd birthday and this sort of reminder can only serve the country well.

In fact, the reaction of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad explains the validity of Mr Lee's concern about the vulnerability of Singapore, given its small size.

The querulous Dr Mahathir said: 'Singapore is a tiny country. Don't talk big.' [...]

But because Tun Dr Mahathir, the boss, was anti-Singapore, some of his underlings probably thought they could show him their loyalty.

As a journalist reporting on Malaysia for many years, I feel Mr Lee's reminder about the realities of regional politics is crucially important - especially for young Singaporeans who believe if you are a nice guy, others will always treat you nicely.

From the tone of Harry Lee's left-jab on Mahathir, Singapore would certainly continue to host Abdullah for more golf outings these days.

Ayam sabung jangan ditambat,
Jika ditambat alah laganya;
Asam di gunung ikan di tebat,
Dalam belanga bertemu juga.

Someone foreign is helping Abdullah push the sail? Or is someone thinking that he already has Abdullah in his pocket?

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (43) | TrackBacks (0)

TM Net/Streamyx is currently beta-testing its IPTV services in selected areas within the Klang Valley.

There are about 560 spots available for those who wanted to participate in the IPTV trial transmission, which will have an 8Mbps link to your home. The trial is open to existing Streamyx customers and non-customers who are currently residing in the apartment or condominium blocks that have been identified in the list below:

For further information on the Trial Program, please contact 03-26870088, daily 9am to 9pm, and inform TM Net that you are refrerred to by jeffooi.com.

Note that registration for the IPTV Trial Programme is available up to end of October 2006 only.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Saturday, September 30, saw the launching of the TNB-LensaMalaysia Photo Gallery and the community kick-off of "Malaysia @50" national photography contest organised in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Merdeka by the Ministry of Culture, Arts & Heritage.

It was also LensaMalaysia's 1st Anniversary.

Some photo highlights:

At the launch... LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

LensaMalaysia co-founder Mat Zain Abdullah with TNB senior management team, with Dato' Ir. Aishah Dato' Abdul Raof, Vice President (Distribution) next to him. Arthur Teng is seated on the left, second row... LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

Mat Zain delivering his welcome speech on behalf of LensaMalaysia... LensaPress photo by Ahmad Faizal

Dato' Nik Ibrahim Nik Mohamed, Vice President (Investment Management) of TNB) delivering his keynote address... LensaPress photo by Ahmad Faizal

Dato' Nik launching the TNB-LensaMalaysia Photo Gallery by taking a photo of the audience... LensaPress photo by Ahmad Faizal

Dr Ng Alina of Creative Commons Malaysia giving an overview of the digital licensing structure...LensaPress photo by Ahmad Faizal

Distinguished photographer Arthur Teng giving a 40-minute photo-talk and showcasing his work... Picture courtesy LensaMalaysia member Dr Chen WS

Taking a tour of the TNB-LensaMalaysia Photo Gallery... LensaPress photo by Alan Ang

LensaPress photo by Arwen

LensaPress photo by Steven Sum

(From L-to-R) Ho, publisher/editor of CLICK! photography magazine, and Azizzi Mohd, CHIP Photo and Video Digital managing editor, respectively... LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

Mat Zain with Ted Adnan, the camera-shy moderator from PhotoMalaysia forum... LensaPress photo by Steven Sum

Sidek Kamiso, TNB Head of External Communicatioins at the President/Group CEO's Office, talking to photographers from Bernama and NSTP...LensaPress photo by Paul Choo

More pictures by LensaMalaysia moderators and members are available on the LensaMalaysia Web Forum.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 06:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It seems the basement carpark at Menara TM, reserved for the GMs' big cars, can never get emptied to accommodate its customers who find parking a nuisance there.

The fact is, effective October 1, TM had yet another round of re-org and more General Managers are being appointed to fill up thebasement carpark. More GMs' positions are yet unfilled. See attached document here.

The three head honchos, namely TM Retail COO Adnan Rofiee, TM Wholesale COO Baharum Salleh and TM Net CEOMichael Lai, are now grouped under TM Malaysia Business CEO, Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa.

I was told that, with the re-org, the TM Net GM for Strategy and Corporate Planning Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek has been relocated into TM headquarters, reporting to Group CFO, Bazlan Osman, in Group Finance Division.

Is this the foreshadow that TM Net will ultimately be selling Internet servbices and content only, and the access and infrastructural roll-out will be assumed by TM Wholesale? Anyway, this has been in the grapevine for quite some time and no longer a trade secret.

The original team who remain at TM Net are Ghazali Omar (GM, Sales), Zainab Hashim (GM, Marketing), Ithnin Othman (GM/CTO, Technical Development) and Badrul Hisham Ahmad (GM, Technical Operations).

New recruits at TM Net are Khaidir Elias (Assistahnt GM, Corporate Strategy and Services), Theresa Wong Lai Har (Assistant GM, Finance and Account), Rohaya Samad (Assistant GM, Human Capital & Support Services) and Emily Wee (GM, Content and Digital Home).

Meanwhile, DAWO (Dato' Abdul Wahid Omar) still has an opening for Senior VP for Group Regulatory -- Legal & Compliance.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Ho Kay Tat (read: The truth of newspaper readership) declares that theSun has increased its daily circulation from 230,000 copies to 265,000, effective today.

Of the 265,000 copies, dropping in the Klang Valley will be increased from 195,00 to 215,000 copies per day.

By so doing, Ho says his free paper will "reinforce our No.1 position in the country's top consumer region".

What has The Star, which publishes Star Metro with the largest base for classified ads in the country, got to say losing the pole position -- considering that Ho's claim may be gospel and indisputable ?

I have another question for the Audut Bureau of Circulation (ABC). Have you started to round up your Audited Average Net Circulation figures, and HOW do you round-up your figures normally?

Answer me straight. What's your audited average net circulation for theSun during the period January through June 2006?

Was it 200,973, or was it 230,000 as claimed and published-- cukup-cukup and ngam ngam ho 230,000?

By the way, this is what theSun has claimed (October 2, Page 3):

Question Time: Can I get my maid to rise early to collect more copies of theSun everyday -- now that there're more free papers to go around with -- so that when the Old Newspapers Man comes around my neighbourhood every month, I will carry more weight, and my maid can earn extra pocket money?

Don't get me wrong, ABC Malaysia.

I just want to do my part to make sure that you guys could gladly help theSun claim that it will have an ABC Malaysia-audited Average Net Circulation of ngam ngam 265,000 copies per day -- yes, rounded-up figures and all -- for the period July through December 2006.

Deal?

Again, to folks at ABC Malaysia, can you give us your straight answer to our simple question by the end of the week?

SOURCE: ABC Malaysia website

By the way, please update your website statistics urgently. Your last circulation update was for the period ending December 2005. theSun's historical figures weren't in there!

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

It takes a journalist to know the other better.

I still feel one of the greatest feats Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has pulled off in his three years was to convince his spin-maestro to become a haji last year. Seek and ye shall find.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATED VERSION. It was a night where we four had too much to share and too short the time.

At the studio after the live telecast...(L-to-R) Siad Huey, Jeff, YB Lau and Kuik

Anchorperson Siad Huey was forthcoming when she named Noh Omar in her quotes about the controversy related to Chinese schools the deputy education minister recently stirred up in the Parliament. She said mainstream media, especially those catering to the Chinese community, was put on a tight spot when issues such as this was anticipated by the readers, but due to sanitised reporting -- not knowing whether it was due to media control -- people resort to the online media such as Merdeka Review, for alternative views.

I had a lot of respect for Kuik, the senior editor at Sin Chew. I had expected him to be an echo chamber in support of media control as he works in Malaysia's largest circulation Chinese newspaper,whose printing and publications licenses were suspended for months during the Lalang Operation, 1987. However, when I 'challenged' him and the mainstream media, instead of clamping down on online media, to fight for more freedom under the Print Presses and Publications Act, he said the 'struggle' has been a sustaining process, albeit behind the scene. However, he said controlling the media is a practice no longer tenable as the world is moving towards a higher level of transparency.

Often times, he said, whenever there were instruction from the power that be to kill-off certain stories, or whenver ministers said they had been misquoted by the Press, it was done in a manner of haste, and readers were left clueless of what actually happened, and doubts prescipitated. It's here that mainstream media must manoeivre to protect its credibility, he said.

Lau, on the other had, advocated regulating the media, be there mainstream or online as prevailing laws are already sufficient in dealing with issues that violate law and order. Hwoever, he thought that controlling and monitoring the media is bad as the country moves towards the Knowledge Economy, an area he had researched in the last ten years. You can Google him on this.

As a blogger, I said you can't make a broad stroke to demonise all bloggers and online media operators.There is a distinction between the penembak curi and those who blog with full-blown public identity, people like me, A Kadir Jasin and Ahirudin 'Rocky' Attan. That's credibility in action. Bloggers like us have been professional and ressponsibility since Day One we started blogging in the belief that we could use Internet positively to connect with our readers.

When Siad Huey related to tussles with The NST in 2004 and early this year, and with theSun recently, Lau jumped in to say that if bloggers were to be kopitiam operators, should the customers misbehave, who would you prosecute -- the kopitiam owners or the customers?

The producer ended the segment by airing the results of a street poll related to the live telecast topic conducted by the What Say You crew. It indicates that 53% vs.36% of the people tend to trust the online mediamore than the mainstream media.

I thought that was an encouaging statement about what has taken place on the ground.

Original Blog

This blogger will speak in the What Say You ( 你怎么说 Mandarin Forum) live telecast from 7 to 8pm tonight over TV2.

The topic is on Mainstream vs. Online Media: The Question of Credibility and Responsibility.

Fellow speakers are Johor State Assemblyman (BN: Gerakan) for Pemanis, Lau Chin Hoon, and Sin Chew Daily Deputy Executive Editor-in-Chief Kuik Cheng Kang.

Lau, who was trained in molecular genetics, is an Internet visionary who wrote about the concept of 'Internet Biologists and the Continuity in Virtual Knowledge Network', while Kuik and I first met way back in 1994.

The anchor/moderator is Lee Sian Huey, a practising lawyer.

There is call-in interaction with the viewers.

Outlines for discussion (问题)：

Part I 要点：讨论为什么可以或不可以取代？

1．大马政府在今年年初呼吁大众不要利用网络媒体的沟通工具 如部落格（BLOG）来发表具恶意、诽谤或煽动性的文章在网上，否则政府将监管网络的部落格。此举动引起了许多部落客（BLOGGER）的回应。他们认为监管部落格是不切实际及浪费公款。你同意他们的意见吗？你对此事的意见如何？

2．那如果说政府真的要监管部落格，技术上是否有能力呢？部 落格是免费开设的，即使封堵“网际网络通讯协定”（IP ADDRESS），网友还是可以在其他国家开设或用匿名来发表文章。监管计划是否可以在大马有效实行呢？

3．在大马，网络媒体的发展和崛起已经得到了大家的认同和关 注。各种各样的网络媒体工具如电子报、部落格等等会不会 有一天取代好像报纸这类传统的主流媒体呢？你怎么说？

4．主流媒体的标准有许多说法，但归结起来有这样几项：权威 性、公信力和美誉度；能够影响那些掌控社会主要资源、具 有较强行为能力的主流人群，如政府官员、企业家、知识分 子、白领等；对社会意识起主导作用。针对这一点，你觉得 大马的传统主流媒体有没有比以前更具公信力呢？

5．继续前一个问题，那是不是因为传统的主流媒体的公信力不 够，所以人民才需要一个更公平和透明的资讯平台，从而促 使了网络媒体的出现？

Part II 要点：有需求就有供应，探讨一下网络媒体存在所带出的 社会角色和价值

6．看过了公民的意见，你们认同他们的看法吗？你怎么说？

7．有专家指出，言论自由应该在传统主流媒体如报纸上实现， 因为报纸新闻和专栏作者是公开的，有自律的防线。相对的， 网络媒体作者的言论并没有受到法律的管制，其文章真实和 准确性会有被大家质疑的可能。你认同这说法吗？

Part III 要点：不管你是网上作者还是纸上作者，只要是有责任感 和有良知就是好作者

8. 有专家指出，由于报纸杂志等传统媒体长期由部分人把持话 语霸权，普通人进入的门槛太高，所以其言论自由只能是部 分人的言论自由。而网络媒体因为门槛低，参与性广，所 以 网络的言论自由才是更加广泛、更有实际生活内容的自由。 你认同这说法吗？

Part IV 要点：言论自由是部分人的权利还是全民众的权利其实并 没有那么大差别吧？

9．有一位名人肖伯纳曾经说过：‘自由意味着责任’。网络媒体 比主流媒体更自由是不争的事实。然而这是否代表说网络媒 体的作者必须更具有一份自知之明的责任感，所发表的文章 的立场必须更清楚、更透明及正确呢？

Part V 要点：蜘蛛侠电影里有一个对白：‘当你的权力越大，你的 责任越大’（Great power comes with great responsibility）。网络 虚拟的言论自由某程度上象征了言论权利

10．最后一个问题，建议和忠告: 如何去选择一个好和对的媒体管道来获 取资讯呢？

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATED VERSION. The SJ Alert SMS Crime Alert System was launched at Subang Parade this afternoon.

SJ Alert initiator Christopher Ng presenting a token of appreciation to IGP Musa Hassan for the offical launch of SJ Alert. Looking on is Subang Jaya state assemblyman Lee Hwa Beng.

LensaPress pictures by Jeff Ooi

The event has also been narrated in my CNet Asia Blog, Lemak Lemang.

ORIGINAL BLOG

The USJ-Subang Jaya neighbourhood, the place where I stay, is still fighting what we have been fighting for since 1999. Crime and crime prevention.

LensaPress picture by Jeff Ooi

July 23, the USJ Residents Association (USJRA) grouped the residents together to hold a dialogue with the OCPD of the Subang Jaya District Police (picture above). As usual, the residents ranted their grievances, and the Police voiced their shortcomings in infrastructure and manpower, but promised to partner and support the residents in their grassroots initiatives in crime prevention.

LensaPress picture by Jeff Ooi

Subsequently, Raymond Tan, the community activist who pioneered the Neighbourhood Watch campaign in USJ, and with the patronage from Subang Jaya State Assemblyman Lee Hwa Beng, organised a movie premiere to raise fund to purchase 2 Perodua Kembara and 4 motorbikes, which had been donated to the Subang Jaya District Police to beef up their patrol frequencies in the neighbourhood.

The USJ-Subang Jaya grassroots initiatives moved a step further. The residents, led by Christopher Ng and Robert Chan, have come up with their own SMS alert system to jointly fight crime with the police and tackle issues affecting the local community.

The self-funded SMS alert system was very well received, and to date, the service has about 1,900 registered members who reside in the area.

The success prompted the USJRA, currently chaired by PC Yeoh (seated centre, picture above) to take the initiative a step further. In mid-August, the fragmented grassroots initiatives were put on a collective platform via USJRA, an NGO registered with the Registrar of Societies, and the residents carried out a soft launch for a full-fledged SMS Crime Alert service, called the SJ Alert.

Assemblyman Lee also provided a seed fund of RM5,000 towards the crucial project take-off and the subsequent running of the service. This blogger has been honoured to be an eye-witness to this noble deed.

Under the service, SJ Alerts issues alerts via SMS to registered subscribers on crime, emergencies, disruption of services and even community events in Subang Jaya, USJ and Putra Heights.

This afternoon, Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan (picture left) will make himself available to officially launch the project.

Screenshots was made to understand that Tun Haniff Omar (picture below), the former IGP who now resides in USJ, has been instrimental to help conenct the residents to Bukit Aman.

LensaPress picture by Jeff Ooi

Visit www.sjalert.com.my for the details.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A Screenshots reader discovered that MCMC, Malaysia's Internet regulator, has its website hacked again when he was surfing after having 'sahur' this morning.

This is the screenshot he captured:

The reader who captured this wanted to be anonymous

This is what I saw at the time of blogging this entry:

Today enters October 1. Welcome to the last quarter of 2006.

Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)