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UPDATED VERSION. CORRUPTION is hurting the national economy, and Abdullah Badawi must be held solely accountable for his pledge on fighting corruption big time.

That seems to be the strongest thought among concerned Malaysians, here and abroad, who are active online and converging on a borderless opinion poll run on Screenshots.

They also appear to feel strongly about the erosion of civil rights under the Federal Constitution, and the judiciary is being looked up as the bastion to prevent Syariah Law from casting legal jurisdiction over non-Muslims.

Besides, they largely think that, as an imperative from the human rights perspective, the Internal Security Act (ISA), which mandates imprisonment without trial, should be abolished.

Incidentally, the three key issues related to economy, judiciary/religion and ISA all come colossally under the multi-portfolios held by Abdullah Badawi in his capacities as the Finance Minister, chief of the Prime Minister's Department and the Internal Security Minister, respectively.

INITIAL READING... Over 1,100 readers responded within the first eighteen hours after the 2007 Year End Poll was launched on Screenshots at 3.00pm yesterday.

Though all issues are of equal importance, readers are tasked to pick their Top 3 out of the 10 major topics blogged in Screenshots throughout 2007, covering critical governance issues in judiciary, police, human rights, economy and civilians' security.

We want them to sound out, along the principle of collective intelligence, what they think should be the priority areas that say Malaysia can do -- and must do -- a lot more better, a lot more urgently in 2008.

Results after the first 18 hours with 1,156 votes returned indicate that the initial Top 3, in descending sequence of priority, are skewed towards:

1. ECONOMY: Abdullah Badawi must be held solely accountable for his pledge on fighting corruption.


2. JUDICIARY PROTECTION OVER RELIGION: Don't subject Non-Muslims to Syariah Court


3. HUMAN RIGHTS: Abolish ISA

The poll runs for one month till January 27. The trend may change in the next 30 days.

INTELLIGENTSIA DIASPORA? Interestingly, in-coming traffic on Day 1 of the poll indicates respondents are skewed towards intelligentsia from urban centres in Malaysia, predominantly west coast of the peninsula, and cosmopolitan overseas, predominantly from western Europe, east and west coasts of USA, and the south-eastern coast of Australia.

Are these respondents from urban Malaysia and global cosmopolitans to be taken as probable diaspora of our K-Generation who still bear high hopes for change in the country? Do their voices get a fair hearing by the Big Ears?

The geographical trends shaped by the locality of the respondents may also point to a new knowledge environment, in that the digital divide precipitated by Internet access has resulted in the polarised worlds between the info-rich and the info-poor.

We will, however, wait out the run-time for the poll and determine later if these hypotheses could be established convincingly.

Meanwhile, let's do a national stock-take over the quality of governance in this country, and stay on course as to how we, in a unity of purpose, should make 2008 more focussed in our quest for change at the right places.

Poll Mechanics. The poll is independently hosted by a San Francisco-based company, which guarantees total privacy of the respondents, including non-disclosure of their personal information.

Please note that Terms and Conditions apply for respondents' conduct and accuracy of information. Screenshots does not, and cannot, intervene to hold sway on polling trend and its outcome -- YOU stake your opinion in confidence and you take charge of the space for THINKING ALLOWED, THINKING ALOUD.

The poll is AJAX-enabled. You can get fresh results on-the-fly every time you log on to Screenshots or whenever you refresh the browser.

Fellow bloggers who would like to collaborate on this poll can copy the code and publish it on their respective blogs.

Thank you.