BUM 2008 Coverage

BUM 2007 edition was a big success and given of insufficient time and big demand in food, this year's edition was expanded with more speakers and more lamb as what people said last year.

Of course this time, the amount of lamb is twice than last year in addition to the same food as of last year's round - crab meat beancurd, spring rolls, fried rice, noodles..the most important of all is that everyone enjoyed the show, except of a slight altercation where there was a party gatecrasher later.

Last year, there are quite a number of Malay bloggers including Mahaguru, but this year, it was different, only a few. but the turnover was far beyond the limit, today it was around 130.

The list of speakers, chaired by Zorro and Desi (outgoing and chaired last year) are (in order):

First session:

1. Ahiruddin Atan - Rocky's Bru
2. Former judge Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid
3. Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
4. Dr. Azmi Sharom - UM Law Associate Professor
5. Jackie Ann Surin - ex The Sun Columnist

The first half literally deals with the theme of fostering civil society and of all the speakers who presented their points, Datuk Syed gave the most impressive of points that bloggers will play an important role in helping to form the civil society with the necessary effort. Many had asked him to set up a blog and post the infamous poison letter that he wrote to the late AG Mohtar Abdullah in 1996 - the answer is still the wait and see.


In addition to meeting the usual bloggers that I've met, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Datuk Syed and his son, Syed Mohammad, who was a fan of Canon cameras and was willing to source out for a good deal in future. I also had the chance of being introduced to the Cap's partner, The Mindful Mariner. Patrick Teoh came over by surprise and we were talking a bit including his shirt and I gave him the chance to speak to my mother, a friend of his.

In some cases, some people told me in functions that I look familiar to someone else. My impression is that the other person looks like me but taller than me. I had to admit that when I look at Syed Mohd, it reminded me of Kalimullah or my friend Daim, but he said he look like someone else (can't remember the name).

Initially, the guest list includes Jeff Ooi and Steven Gan, but as said, Jeff could not make due to a trade mission for the state government in Vietnam but did left a video to be played and Steven was in Bangkok.

Second Session:

1. William Leong - Selayang MP
2. Haris Ibrahim - People's Parliament
3. R. Nadeswaran - Columnist, Citizen Nades
4. Raja Petra Kamaruddin - Malaysia Today

Each of the speakers is given 15 minutes and in the second half, they speak of the existence of the fifth estate - bloggers - the influence and the successor of the fourth estate, given of their failure to present the news accurately. There is a debate of reporters failing to give the accurate views of the news that they wrote and there is a counter that editors are the ones behind the mess. The answer to this problem lies on the removal of the draconian Publications Act 1988 and the OSA Act 1972.

The message is clear: that blogging is a phenomenon and critical to society building.

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