Blogs... And yet another 'penembak curi'
In Temerloh, Deputy Information Minister Zahid Hamidi urged the mainstream media, including the official government media, to play a role in deflecting wild allegations and slanders spread through the internet and blogs, especially if the allegations were targetted at the government and its policies.
Ahmad Zahid also advised bloggers to be ethnical and responsible in their writings.
"They should have ethics ... everyone have ethics and self-respect. We hope the bloggers will also have ethics and self respect," he said.
Rocky's Bru asks what ethics and self-respect when the mainstream media and the official mouthpieces lied and plagiarised?
And in Rocky's Bru, A Kadir Jasin responds:
Pada hemat saya, yang lebih utama bukan media massa arus perdana lawan media massa alternatif. Tetapi wartawan profesional lawan wartawan payung terjun. [...]
Saya bersimpati dengan sesetengah pengarang media massa arus perdana yang terpaksa berdepan dengan bekas-bekas ketua dan guru-guru mereka yang kini mengendalikan blog atau menulis untuk blog dan laman-laman berita Internet.
I read AKJ's definition of 'wartawan payung terjun' not so much 'parachute journalists' as mercenaries, hired soldiers who prostitute their trade for a price. Evidently, these mercenaries don't necessary have to all reside in Jalan Riong, for a start.
In August, in the Dewan Rakyat, Shaziman Abu Mansor, Dr Lim Keng Yaik's deputy at the ministry in charge of Communications, had called anonymous bloggers 'penembak curi'. He also challenged the faceless bloggers to come to the to the fore to debate current issues they hold dissenting views to.
Fighting shadows in Malaysia while others embrace Internet and blogs, and variants that come along -- and benefit from it. And here, you have the deputies, your future national leaders, just knowing when and how to ridicule Malaysia beyond redemption.
Meanwhile, a media cartel to consolidate the Utusan Melayu Group and NSTP under one Umno roof has been mooted. Is there a line that separates mainstream media and the official government media that Ahmad Zahid so defined?
'Good Night, and Good Luck'
Now that there are identifiable bloggers, and snipers who sniped them from the Parliament and the mercenaries' newsrooms, shall we say "They (the bloggers) took on the Government with nothing but the truth"?
Persist, and Mahathir who says this country is gripped in a climate of fear, will be vindicated. He must have watched the 2005 movie that sloganeered this immortal line: "In a nation terrorised by its own government, one man dared to tell the truth."
"We will not walk in fear of one another," so says the tagline in Edward R. Murrow's Good night, and Good Luck.
Comments
Is Malaysia finally going to emulate China's repressive internet regime? See this latest news also:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/3/nation/16212999&sec=nation
Posted by: howsy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 09:54 AM
Folks
These UMNO Ministers are running scared like hunted animals. They cannot defend themselves for their atrocious actions and speeches, and now they come out with intimidating remarks, making veiled threats.
What is he going do to bloggers and commentators around the around world. Stop licencens of internet websites???
The Deputy Minister of Information, Zahid Hamidi thinks he is giving his intimidating advice to a group of children wasting time blogging on the internet.
I wonder what qualifies him to be a Deputy Minister incharge of Information (besides being elected, possibly with some NON Malay votes added in) and from UMNO), for having such silly attitudes on the different of media modes of information diffusion.
He is another typical example of the poor choice of Ministerial qualities by Pak Lah, the other is that internationally infamous amok-prone, mouth frothing and racist-bent Minister of Education.'
Now we know why the country is going to the dogs, day by day, not only on foreign investments etc, even in declining of overall Governmental intelligence in running the country.
Posted by: Frank&Honest![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 11:24 AM
Folks
It is time Ministers with questionable intelligence should stop preaching and pontificating to Malaysians, most if not all are smarter than these Ministers, on ethics, integrity and patriotism.
These Ministers should spend more time earning their salaries and perks from hard-earned tax payer's money, in making sure their half-baked bureaucrats work harder and the Depts and Ministries are efficiently run. Instead of bumming around the country pontificating about Malaysians' ethics and integrity.
The MInisters are the last people to pontificate to Malaysians. In fact, some of them should be screened by ACA.
Posted by: Frank&Honest![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 11:29 AM
"...Mahathir who says this country is gripped in a climate of fear..." ?
Deja vu. Memories of Ops Lalang?
Who was behind Ops Lalang, I wonder.
Who has been already been accused of furthering the "In a nation terrorised by its own government, one man dared to tell the truth" concept more than anyone else in Malaysia?
Posted by: Leithaisor![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 11:58 AM
Pardon me:
It should have been "Who has been already been accused of furthering the need for "In a nation terrorised by its own government, [only] one man dared to tell the truth" concept more than anyone else in Malaysia?
Posted by: Leithaisor![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 12:01 PM
Responding to a barking dog with you barking at it, makes you a dog. I ,therefore, refrain from responding to our Malaysian politicians who comment on blogs, bloggers, and blogging and their hopes of curtailing it lest I become a dog myslef!
Posted by: Observer![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 12:04 PM
to Ahmad Zahid,
if bloggers have ethics, you don't need to advise them a single time.
if they don't have ethics, it's useless for you to advise us 1000times!
++++++++++=
i'm glad that nowadays they realised the yet-confirm-truth -- there are more subscribers of blog than paper!! haha
Posted by: Vertebrato![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 01:12 PM
"They should have ethics ... everyone have ethics and self-respect."
....I think he's been missing the newspapers for the past decade or so, if he's even thinking about the MPs in this country.
Posted by: aput83![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 3, 2006 03:06 PM
11 million Malaysians online.
46% online bloggers = 5 million Malaysian bloggers.
This will be something fun to watch...
Posted by: TheFalcon![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 4, 2006 11:34 AM
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
--Mahatma Gandhi
Posted by: moo_t![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 5, 2006 01:40 PM