What caused all the killings & destructions

 Source: Author unknown - from WhatsApp forward

A donkey was tied to a tree. One night a ghost cut the rope and released the donkey free.

The donkey went and destroyed the crops in an adjacent farmer's land. Infuriated, the farmer's wife shot the donkey and killed it.

The donkey's owner was devastated at the loss. In reply, he shot dead the farmer's wife.

Angered by his wife's death, the farmer took a sickle and killed the donkey's owner.

The wife of the donkey's owner got so angry that she and her sons set the farmer's house on fire.

The farmer, looking at his house turned into ashes, killed the wife and children of the donkey's owner.

Finally, when the farmer was full of regret, he asked the ghost as to why did it kill them all?

The ghost replied, "I killed nobody. I just released a donkey that was tied to a rope. It is all of you who released the devils within you which resulted into everything bad that occurred thereafter."

Today's media is like that ghost. It keeps releasing donkeys on a daily basis. And people react and argue with each other, hurt each other, without having a second thought.

In the end, the media dodges all its responsibilities. So, it's our responsibility to not react to every donkey released by the media and preserve our relationship with our friends, relatives and communities

Boycott Star newspaper, unfair portrayal of BERSIH 3.0

When the Star newspaper had a free 1 month subscription, I despite my many years of boycotting the paper, I had decided to subscribe.

However, after extensive readings of what transpired before, during and after BERSIH 3.0 rally, I regretfully decided to continue my boycott and hope many more potential subscribers will join me in efforts to restore some semblance of true journalism.

Protest support Chou Z Lam sacked Bakun documentary

PROTEST AT RTM – AGAINST POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

We the 528 Media Action Group，WAMI & CIJ, urge members of the public, political parties and NGOs to participate in a demonstration at RTM in response to the sacking of Chou Z Lam, who produced a documentary about the impact of Bakun Dam on indigenous people. Chou was sacked after he made public that his documentary was axed and that his superior in RTM has told him that “it would have negative impact on the (just-concluded) Sibu by-election”.

Please join us to make a stand that political interference into media industry, particularly in state broadcaster running on taxpayer money is unjustifiable!

Date : 19th May 2010 (Wed)
Time : 11:00am
Venue : RTM, Angkasapuri.
Organizers : *528 Media Action Group, WAMI & CIJ

Email : 528mediaaction@gmail.com
Blog : http://528taknakpotong.wordpress.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=122474034436151&ref=ts
Online Petition : http://www.petitiononline.com/20100430/petition.html

Note : 528 Media Action Group was formed after the resignation of NTV7 senior producer Joshua Wong and the revelation by Chou Z Lam, TV2 producer on interferences in newsroom. We had jointly organized a series of flash mob, distribution of flyer with WAMI and CIJ in support of Wong & Chou. Our coming up event is “Malam Tak Nak Potong 528″ that has the support of 13 civil society groups. Coordinator is Ng Yap Hwa.

Location Map, Angkasapuri

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Is Printing Press Act history? No more need for Printig Permit?

Wong Chin Huat, an activist claimed he found a loophole in the Printing Press and Publicationss Act. Wong Chin Huat referred to Section 25 91) of the the Printing Press and Publicationss Act which says "Nothing in this Act shall extend to the publication or making of any documents or periodical by or for the Federal or any State Government or any statutory body." This implies a newspaper pulished by a PR (Pakatan Rakyat) controlled State Government is excempt from draconian Printing Press and Publicationss Act.

Wong Chin Huat proposed a PR controlled State Government grant an authorization letter to the recently banned Makkal Osai newspaper as a test case.

Note: Wong Chin Huat is the chairperson of WAMI (Writer Alliance for Media Independence) started in 2001 when as a protest of MCA taking over the Nanyang Press Holding Berhad, 90 writers banded together and stopped contributing articles to the Chinese media.

Violation against media freedom, freedom of expression, Malaysia 2007

Below is the report by the Center of Independent Journalism (click BACK button to get back to this page) on some serious violations against media freedom to report news as they are, violations against freedom of expression. This is for the year 2007. The words are hardly legible as it is. If you want to read it, click the button highlighted by a red arrow as well as the mouse cursor (which changed from the standard "arrow" to a "gloved hand"):

Read this doc on Scribd: Violations against media freedom and FOE 2007

Media Monitoring of Malaysia General Election 2008: Results

Editors of various media have been invited to a Press Conference on the final results of the CIJ-Charter 2000-WAMI Malaysia 2008 General Election Media monitoring. CIJ is Center of Independent Journalism and WAMI is Writers
Alliance for Media Independence. Charter 2000 I believe is an initiative of Aliran. They have joined force to monitor the coverage of various print media for political parties between 25th February to March 8, 2008 (March 8 is polling day). They will be announcing the results of their findings at the Press Conference.

I suppose that include untrained "editors" of alternative media like blogs, so I supposed "editors" of blogs are invited to the Press Conference too. Details of the Press Conference is as follows:

Date: 29th March 2008 (Saturday)

Time: 11.00 am

Venue: Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ),
27C Jalan Sarikei,
off Jalan Pahang,
53000 Kuala Lumpur
(behind Tawakal Hospital)

Further details can be obtained by calling Yip Wai Fong at 03-40230772

For map to CIJ (Center of Journalism) and directions as to how to get there, refer to CIJ's Deeparaya dinner and movie night

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.

BERSIH: Was an alternative site for Bersih November 10 rally offered?

Now it looks like there are 2 versions of what happened when BERSIH, a coalition of a huge list of NGOs and a few political parties, applied for a police to hold a
Rally for a clean and fair Election on November 10, 2007 (now fondly referred to as our version of the series of elevens. USA have their Seven-Eleven, 10/11 (the attack on the Twin Towers), and now Malaysia have our 10/11 too (11 November 2007), a significant event where a huge turn out of marchers turned out to participate in a march from 4 alternative gathering sites (the original assemble point, Dataran Merdeka, was expected to be inaccessible as the police had already issued stern warnings that anyone found within the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka on that day will be arrested. Despite many serious warnings by many people in authorities, including the Prime Minister of Malaysia himself (don't challenge me), and despite many road blocks set up days before the planned rally, the rally still ended successfully with a very satisfactory turn up.

According to a newspaper report I read some time ago, someone, either the IGP (Inspector General of Police) or the PM (Prime Minister) of Malaysia himself, was reported to have said that they offered Merdeka Stadium as an alternative place for the rally, but BERSIH, but BERSIH rejected it. I immediately emailed my contact at BERSIH to verify, but was told they are in the process of preparing a press statement regarding this so called offer. I now read in AWSJ (Asian Wall Street Journal) what seemed to be the press statement released by Sivarasa Rasiah of the Steering Committee Member of Bersih, Kuala Lumpur.

Sivarasa was reported to have said: "The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) would like to respond to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's recent op-ed ("Malaysia's Democracy is Strong," Dec. 7), in which the Prime Minister alleges that police
had offered us an alternative venue for our rally in Kuala Lumpur on November 10, 2007. I am unaware of any such offer. Upon the advice of the police, Bersih representatives met with the Chief Police Officer of Kuala Lumpur and 14 other senior officers on Nov. 1. No options for an alternative venue were discussed. We submitted an application for a permit on November 3. On Nov. 5, we met again with the police to discuss our program -- and again, no change of venue was offered. The next day, our
application to protest was denied. We filed a written appeal, as provided for under the law. On Nov. 9, a day before the rally, the appeal was turned down by letter."

Now we have two versions. One said an alternative site was offered. The other said no alternative site was offered. Both cannot be telling the truth. One must be lying. Who to believe? Well, I dare not offer a public opinion as I am do not have access to facts to venture a public opinon and have no wish to be sued for voicing an opinion which in the end proved to be wrong. Of course I have my own private opinion based on how the main stream media report events, but those are my own private thoughts not to be shared with others. You will have to judge for yourself. One must be lying. Who? It is your call.

Can the Star redeem itself?

I published a post Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary reforms (click BACK button to get back to this page), complaining about the Star not putting Sultan Azlan Shah's speech at the Law Conference on its front page, and instead chose to put a full page on Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi smiling away and officially opening the Eastern Corridor. I understand that Petronas, our national oil company is involved in this corridor. Our Prime Minister had said that the savings from increasing the petrol and diesel prices will be used for improving the public transport, which is in urgent need to improve if Malaysia is to wean our residents from using their own transport. Have the public transport improved? I don't know. You judge for yourself. Perhaps you may even do a little digging to see where the savings went to. Will the savings from the next inevitable petrol price increase be used to fund the Eastern Corridor? Time will tell, but I do not know if I would be privy to the information.

Back to the Star. I said I will copy-paste the post Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary reforms (click BACK button to get back to this page) and send it to the editors of the Star and MCA, the owner of this newspaper. The email to MCA bounced. To my surprise, I got a response from the editor of the Star, saying that it was an editorial judgment mistake, and they will try to rectify it, plus put the full speech of Sultan Azlan Shah online. I decided to do a little checking.

I found this on thestar.com.my:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/1/nation/19347283&sec=nation

The article was titled "Rulers to discuss CJ’s position" by Dato WONG CHUN WAI. I dare not put the URL as an active (clickable) link to that page because I think online articles in thestar.com.my get shoved into the archives eventually, and if I make it an active (clickable) link, one day the link will become a dead link and the search engines will get sore at me. Also, if I just paste the long URL into the post, it will become a long unbroken line and can cause problems. That is why I put it into a scroll box.

If you want to read the article, you got to click on the inside of the scroll box, press the ctrl+A keys to highlight the whole URL and then press ctrl+C to copy it into clipboard. Then, preferably, using a browser like FireFox with tabbed browsing, open a new tab, and paste the URL from the clipboard into the address bar and press ENTER.

Here are others:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/31/nation/20071030170340&sec=nation

Sultan Azlan Shah's Address at the Opening of the 14th Malaysian Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 29 (full speech).

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/31/nation/19327719&sec=nation

Judging the judges (COMMENT BY DATO WONG CHUN WAI)

There are others. If you want, you can search for them yourself. There is a site seach box at thestar.com.my and then make your own mind if theStar have done enough to redeem themselves from their horrible oversight at our best hope for bringing positive changes to Malaysia.

Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary Reform

I just got the newspapers from the newspager vendor and Seven-Eleven this morning. The headlines that stared at me in the whole of front page the Sun was "Sultan Azlan speaks out". This place is normally reserved for a full page advertisement which theSun sacrificed to put this very significant speech and thus lost advertising revenue. The Sun is a free paper which depend only on advertising revenue to survive, and perhaps to thrive.

In the front page of New Straits Times was "Sultan Azlan Shah calls for Judiciary Reform" sharing half of the front page with a report of our Prime Minister opening what I think is the Eastern Corridor.

In In the Star? I think it was something about the Eastern Corridor" or something taking up the whole front page. No sign of that very significant speech by a highly respected former Lord President, former Agong, and current Sultan of Perak.

Why only "I think"? From habits of old, I have been buying the Star, and also some of my children wants to read the printed newspapers. I have resisted the temptation to boycott the Star for a long time and have resisted it because of my children, but this morning was the tipping point. Here is the most important issue of our country today and the Star chose not to put it on its front page. Is it inside? I don't know. I didn't buy the Star as usual. I bought New Straits Times instead. I hope someone who reads the Star tells me if it is there inside relegated to a tiny obscure column or not there at all.

I would like to know so that I can update this post, but I don't want to do that by buying the Star. I want to try to make this my small contribution to making my unhappiness with the Star known to the editors and/or the owners. In fact, I am going to copy-paste this and send it to the editors of the Star and probably MCA as well if I can find the proper email address to send it to.

The Star started out like the Sun these days. It has changed tremendously since. The New Straits Times lost its readers leadership by doing about the same thing as the Star today, and I look forward to seeing the advertising revenue of the Star and its readership falls. Here is my small contribution goes towards that end.

Now on to my other tasks as I am not really a political blogger.

Update 1.01pm 30 October 2007: Someone did respond saying now the speech by Sultan Azlan is neither in
http://thestar.com.my (the Star online)
http://www.nst.com.my (New Straits Times online)

See comments.

Looks like a cat and mouse game and someone using some strategy to boost the readership of the New Straits Times. Now got to decide what I should do