MARBC: More in common than differences

After returning from Sarawak election the Monday before and while still recuperating to write a comment of the concluded Sarawak Election, it was time to be back in the heat of things to help organise the 1MARBC.

The two days conference was just concluded on Sunday night and it's time to be back to my usual blogging.

Kudos to the real organisers of the event; Tony Yew, Syed Akbar, Rocky, Bigdog and others I may not know off. The rest of us were just lending a hand and pitching in here and there.

As a member involved in organising the event, I am obliged to write something about the event. But it is quite hard for me because since the early days of the blogging explosion, I haven't been writing much on the subject of blogging for quite sometime.

Kind of grown shy or "segan" for a blogger to write about blogging. It is more appropriate for others able to see it from afar to give their view. Nanti orang kata perasan dan syok sendiri pulak.

Maybe this will be an exception.

1. The establishment of an Asean social media and blogging network to promote understanding, good relations, unity and cooperation for regional betterment and progress of the new media practitioners in the spirit of mutual respect;

2. To assist in achieving and promoting the common values and aspirations of goodwill and to promote greater understanding and familiarity of the social media;

Our second and third points below expressed not only that common aspiration of the Asean bloggers but it went well also with other participants on the next day when only one blogger put his hand up to agree with Internet censorship.

3. To promote the freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom from persecution;

4. To promote ethical and responsible blogging through positive engagement;

Lastly, we agreed that we should meet more often, know each other better and engage each other better to be able to do more things together. Tak kenal maka tidak cinta. Thus:

5. To meet regularly and promote the growth and progress of social media in Asean

Interestingly, the Phillipines delegate raised something really pertinent and in-sync with my own thoughts that is second nature to Internet communities.

They are not comfortable with any form of attempt to form rigid organisational structure or any particular body to claim representatives of blogger.

That would mean the Kuala Lumpur Resolution is not something to be imposed on others and obliged upon on member countries to adopt but a resolution for each individuals to ponder, deliberate and consider.

The Kuala Lumpur Resolution made me reflect back on current happening on the Malaysian blogophere, specifically amongst the socio-political blogging and social media.

It has taken a sad turn over the last few years to become too partisan and padded with partisan agenda that the political divide seemed impossible to bridge (unlike the heydays of blogging to knock-off Tun Abdullah).

What happened to the much said words in those day to agree to disagree?

Just because they are on a political objective to conquer grounds from BN, does it mean they can't eat, drink and share a few laughs with those of differing political affiliations.

Tun Dr Mahathir attended the BUM 2009 and the "usual suspects" stayed away. By 2010, when BUM organisers attempt to have a more neutral discussion, the partisanship grew more obvious.

In one session where Zulkifli Nordin was heard to participate on the issue of Allah, every other person - politicians to activist - wanted a crack at him.

Someone in the committee or sponsor changed it from a balanced set-up to a three against one lop-sided session in favour of the Christian use of the word Allah. They think we do not notice and buy into such cheap excuses. Don't think we are too dumb not to be able to counter such cheap trick.

Such is the situation in the blogophere since these overzealous and intellectually insecure and immature dimwits start to learn of partisan affiliation. They begin to sneek only their own agenda as though the opposing views does not matter.

It as though they are the only citizen against divisiveness in society, corruption and misuse of power, curbing of freedom and human rights, concern with building a united nation, etc.

The MARBC gathering dedicated to blogging, seeking commonality and having a positive attitude of moving forward - without the presence of loud Sunday morning TV evangelist in the likes of Harris Ibrahim, sneeky self interest of Dr Lim Teck Ghee's agenda, and overzealous presence of Pakatan politicians - is indeed refreshing.

It is time we stop allowing politicians (both side of the divide) steal the bloggers meet with their convoluted spinning and hypocrasies.

Politicians should be held from the rostrum and stage at bloggers meet and be made into audience. It is time they hear and learn from the voices of bloggers aka rakyat.

For one, the rakyat are sick with excessive politicking. Fed-up, meluat and menyampah. They are supposed to administer and manage the state and country to make it better and not spending time with endless blame game.

At MARBC, we talked of blogging as something to bridge people to people in this country and region only divided by seas and straits.

Yes, we spoke of the "boring" subject of blogging (exclusively to me) but that boring subject will hopefully unite the people of Aseans despite the seas and straits that divide it.

Taking a page from MARBC, the Malaysian SOPO bloggers should realise that there is more to life and blogging, than socio-politics and their party affiliation.

Disagreement on certain viewpoints or political philosophies should not make someone into permanent enemies.

There is more in common than differences between bloggers than you can think off. It is a matter of your maturity.

Now back to the groove of things.

* Edited 8:30 AM 27/4/2011 Click Here to Read More..

RCI: DAP is not off the hook

You ask for it, you got it!

There was an interesting twist on Tuesday at The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that was much demanded by DAP but when formed, was boycotted by them and Teoh Beng Hock's family (on DAP lawyer's advice).

It is indeed a relief for DAP after Lee Wye Wing admitted in court that he paid money into DAP accounts for local community projects. Lee also admitted using Bumiputera frontman and companies to secure the projects.

That is what can happen at an RCI. Everything spilled out irrespective if there is legal relevance and case to make out of it.

DAP wanted an RCI and they've got it.

Lee's statement at the RCI highlighted two offense of "corruption" by DAP. One for channeling money from project into political party. That is the offense that got the popular late Dato Harun Idris in the slammer in late 70s. Secondly, it is an abuse of power to collude with Bumiputera to secure contract for DAP contractors.

Those offenses skew heavily on possible motives that DAP is involved in murdering young Teoh. Kit Siang should do his premature excitement on Mummy Foo than on an Ean Yong "acquital".

Click Here to Read More..

The first ever 1st Malaysia - ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference kicks off today.

The objective of this conference is to bring together regional bloggers from the ASEAN region, and to highlight the obstacles faced by these bloggers as well as the adversity that bloggers might experience in their day to day tackling of various issues.

p/s You could still register HERE to listen to the Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's keynote address and to catch a glimpse of Malaysia's NUMBER ONE BLOGGER and Statesman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday.

Spot Rais Yatim Contest

Do you see him in this picture?

A magpie wrote in his blog that "it is your (blog) house so you can invite or not invite anyone that you like or not like". Read here. Reminds me of what the Minister of Information purportedly told the Istana Budaya people recently, here.

In any case (and this is not the Blog House Malaysia's official statement), we did not invite Rais Yatim also to protect him. We wanted to avoid any unpleasant experience (for the minister). There were pro-Rais bloggers at the conference but there were also those who have been/are being sued by the minister and I am sure a few more who will be sued in good time. Rais has also lodged police reports against some of the bloggers. We don't want him to get booed or something like that ...

But we did invite some friends from the Ministry of Information and the MCMC to the conference.

Tricubes or Pos Malaysia's 15,000?

A SWEET DEAL FOR TRICUBES, A POTENTIALLY BITTER PILL FOR 15,000 EMPLOYEES OF POS MALAYSIA. How is that so? Tricubes' 1Malaysia email, a government-sanctioned project, could result in Pos Malaysia's mail volumes reliant on government notices falling to levels that would trigger layoffs in the postal company. Sure, it's a sweet as honey deal for Tricubes: the distressed loss-making company even got the RM5.3 million to start up the project from the 100 percent government-owned Mavcap, which means Tricubes' risk at every level is borne by the taxpayer. For the postman, though, there will be sleepless nights.

The government has to do the right thing. It should ask Pos Malaysia, myeg and other financially-sound companies to submit fresh proposals for the 1Malaysia email project.

Remember, 15,000 angry mostly-Malay postmen could swing any election in the rural Malay heartland.

Double-tracking the Indians and the Chinese

DISCRIMINATING THE CHINESE, ARE WE? It'd be interesting to see if CREC, the China company that was given two Letters of Intent by Malaysian government when Mahathir was PM to undertake the double-track Gemas-JB project, would be disappointed for the third time during bilateral talks today.
It's been rumored that the Economic Planning Unit in the PM's Department has suddenly become keen to award the project through open tender instead of direct nego.
Why not?
Why NOW?
The India parties undertaking the same project got theirs through G-to-G arrangement. Direct nego. Took them only two years to secure the deal.
The China company has waited 10 years! And now someone in the EPU wants to ...

The powers that be may want to look at this very, very closely.

POLITIK "ORANG BUTA PEGANG GAJAH" DI SARAWAK

Dalam perjalanan pulang dari Sebuyau semalam, seorang anak muda memperkenalkan dirinya sebagai seorang yang datang dari Semenanjung untuk melihat kempen pilihanraya Sarawak.

Saya tanya sudah berapa lamakah di sini dan anak muda itu memberitahu dia sudah berada di Sarawak baru dua hari. Setelah berbual panjang di atas feri Batang Sadong, anak muda itu memberitahu itulah kali pertama dia dan kawan-kawannya ke Sarawak.

Puncanya mudah, dia ingin melihat melihat sendiri kempen pilihanraya di negeri ini. Rasa ingin tahu yang memuncak menyebabkan dia mengambil tiket Firefly dan terbang ke sini.

Walaupun telah pergi ke beberapa kawasan DUN dan melihat sendiri pilihanraya Sarawak, beliau masih ingin tahu pandangan saya mengenai pilihanraya ini. Setiap hari, pasti akan ada orang yang bertanya soalan yang sama - mereka ingin tahu bagaimanakah saya melihat pilihanraya Sarawak.

Seringkali, saya mengelak untuk memberikan jawapan. Seperti orang lain, saya juga cuba mencari petunjuk dan berusaha memahami arus politik di kalangan rakyat di negeri ini. Saya makan di gerai, berbual dengan anak-anak muda dan cuba "memancing" sesiapa saja yang ditemui untuk mendapatkan maklumat.

Saya melihat dan cuba memahami apabila melihat anak-anak muda menggantung banner dan poster parti. Saya cuba mentelaah apakah maksudnya apabila ada rumah yang menggantung bendera dua parti politik lawan di rumah yang sama. Mata saya mencari melihat bagaimanakah rakyat negeri ini menzahirkan sokongan kepada parti lawan.

Pulang ke hotel, saya menerokai internet dan melihat perbahasan. Saya melihat bagaimanakah pembangkang melakukan psywar (psychological warfare) dengan mengatakan mereka telah "menawan" bandar-bandar tertentu walaupun pengundi masih belum membuat keputusan. Kalau membaca Twitter Timbalan Presiden PKR, Azmin Ali atau Ketua AMK, Sdr Shamsul Iskandar, saya tidak menyalahkan anda sekiranya anda membuat rumusan bahawa BN tidak akan menang satu kerusi pun dalam pilihanraya negeri ini!

Saya juga membaca perbalahan anak-anak muda dari kedua-dua belah pagar politik. Apa yang saya tidak dapat lihat ialah debat di kalangan pemimpin politik Sarawak. Saya menggunakan beberapa alatan pemantauan media sosial (social media monitoring tool) untuk "mencari" perbahasan politik di kalangan rakyat Sarawak. Apa yang saya nampak ialah ia tidak banyak. Bukan tidak ada, cuma tidak banyak. Kebanyakannya berlegar di sekitar orang Semenanjung yang ghairah dengan politik Sarawak.

Melihat keadaan dan minat ini, tentulah tidak salah kalau ada pihak yang mengatakan pilihanraya Sarawak ini diwarnai oleh aktor-aktor politik dari Semenanjung. Bukan itu saja, malah hero dan heroin juga dari Semenanjung. BN Sarawak bukan berhadapan dengan cabaran dari pemimpin politik negeri ini, tetapi dari pemimpin DAP, PAS dan PKR dari Semenanjung. Peranan pemimpin pembangkang dari Sarawak adalah bersifat tokenisme. Parti pembangkang tempatan seperti SNAP kelihatan tidak bermaya, kecuali di beberapa buah tempat.

Saya cuba memahami mengapakah pemimpin politik pembangkang Sarawak tidak menonjol dan berpuas hati sekadar menjadi "orang kedua" atau "orang ketiga" (second fiddle). Adakah mereka tidak ada kemampuan dan tidak ada keyakinan diri yang tinggi? Atau, adakah mereka juga ingin meniti arus persaingan politik Semenanjung yang dibawa ke Sarawak?

Apa sekali pun, saya menghadapi kesukaran untuk menjawab soalan mengenai kedudukan parti-parti politik yang bertanding di sini. Sarawak ialah sebuah negeri yang paling besar  dan pada masa yang sama ia juga mempunyai kepadatan penduduk paling rendah di negara ini. Taburan penduduk yang merata menyebabkan cara berfikir dan bertindak juga berbeza. Ini adalah merupakan cabaran paling besar kepada parti-parti politik yang bersaing di sini.

Apabila diajukan soalan tersebut, saya seringkali memberikan analogi orang buta pegang gajah. Yang pegang belalai, akan kata gajah itu panjang. Yang pegang badan, akan kata gajah itu besar. Manakala, yang pegang ekor akan kata gajah itu halus!

Begitu jugalah dengan politik di Sarawak. Bergantung kepada di manakah seseorang melihat kempen, ia mencorakkan cara beliau melihat politik Sarawak. Sebagai contoh, orang yang melihat kempen DAP di bandar-bandar besar akan merumuskan bahawa tsunami melanda Sarawak. Kehadiran - terutama sekali di kalangan masyarakat Cina - dalam ceramah yang diterajui DAP agak tinggi. Sementara, mereka yang melihat kehadiran di ceramah PKR di Asajaya semalam akan membuat kesimpulan, "Bungkuslah PKR selepas ini!"

Sama ada kedua-dua pendapat itu benar atau tidak, kita tunggulah pilihanraya pada 16 April nanti. Sekiranya anda baru sehari dua berada di Sarawak seperti anak muda yang saya temui di atas feri Batang Sadong semalam, usah terlalu cepat membuat rumusan - lebih-lebih lagi sekiranya anda hanya berada di sekitar bandar Kuching, Miri dan Sibu.

Pada masa yang sama, saya berharap kita tidak memandang politik Sarawak sebagai sesuatu yang simplistik. Sarawak sudah melahirkan ramai cerdik pandai. Sistem pendidikan Sarawak berjaya melahirkan pemimpin-pemimpin politik hebat di kedua-dua belah pagar politik. Menyelusuri senarai nama calon-calon pilihanraya sama ada di sebelah BN, atau pembangkang, kita akan dapat melihat ramai profesional ditampilkan sebagai calon. Saya pernah menyebut bahawa sebahagian besar calon di Sarawak adalah jauh lebih baik dari sesetengah calon di Semenanjung!

Saya juga tidak mahu menjadi orang buta memegang gajah dalam "melihat" politik Sarawak. Hari ini, saya akan meneruskan perjalanan ke Sri Aman dan Beting Maro serta kawasan-kawasan sekitarnya. PAS dikatakan kuat di Beting Maro dan banyak pihak mengatakan sekiranya PAS akan menang dalam pilihanraya ini, ia adalah di Beting Maro.

Semalam saya di Sadong Jaya, Muara Tuang dan Sebuyau - tiga kawasan yang ditandingi PAS. Saya tidak melihat PAS akan memberikan saingan kuat di Muara Tuang dan Sebuyau (walaupun PAS Kedah mempunyai "rumah" di sini). Kempen PAS di Sadong Jaya agak agresif, namun saya tidak dapat mengukur penerimaan masyarakat setempat kepadanya. Di Tanjung Dato, saya tidak fikir PAS memberikan saingan sengit kepada BN.

Oh ya, terlupa nak tanya - bahagian gajah yang manakah yang anda pegang dalam melihat politik Sarawak?

Adakah belalai?

Atau, kaki?

Atau, adakah anda memegang gading?