Newsmakers of 2007, Malaysia, plus a confession

Hey, there is good news and there is bad. First the bad. I got a confession to make which may make the Circulation Manager of theStar newspaper a teeny weeny little bit happy. I broke my self-imposed boycott of the newspaper today. I did that because I had to go to the UMMC (University Malaya Medical Center. As a pensioner with still one son to put through college, I can't afford to go to Subang Medical Center or Pantai Medical Center where the queues are shorter. That means a long wait. What to do? Sheepishly sneak to the what do you call it - shop? and pray no one will see me buy a copy of theStar.

Now with the bad news over, here is the good news. The Malaysia Bar made it to theStar "StarSpecial YearEnder" in the "Newsmakers of 2007"!!!! Surprised? Of course I was. They put a big photo of the Malaysia Bar members holding 2 banners leading the March for Justice - one that says "NO TO CORRUPTION" and the other one alongside "STOP THE ROT. STOP THE PATRONAGE". Even though it is hidden in the middle of the papers and not on the front page, it is still something. Maybe someone send a copy of a campaign to boycott the papers to theStar Circulation Manager or the editors.

Obviously I cannot copy and put their photo here, so here is my version from the post Long March for Justice (click BACK button to get back to this page).



Unfortunately mine had only one banner - "BERSIHKAN BADAN KEHAKIMAN" which in plain English is "Clean up the Judiciary". Well, can't beat the professional photographers from theStar. The above was a photo of the Malaysia Bar members holding up one banner leading the troop from the police road block on the way to Putrajaya. By the time I reached the boulevard leading from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister Department, my digital camera had ran out of juice. So got nothing to equal or beat the photo by theStar. Still, I had something similar, without the aid of their financial clout.

Good enough, don't you think? And just in case the editors of theStar says I scrapped the photo from some people's website, I have the original, uncropped, large format version of the photo stored.