There's More Than Just What Petra Says Plainly

I had seen many people who have either bashed or expressed total frustration in light of Raja Petra's (RPK) interview with the New Straits Times early this week. He did underline that he would only grant interviews if any media is willing to take word by word (whatever is said from his mouth), not twisted or manipulated by any other means apart from him. And when this was published in the papers, people and the now opposition, Pakatan Rakyat keeps bash him left and right since to them, Pete was considered a double-dealing son of a bitch, to an extent PKR Sec-Gen called him a blogger hired by UMNO.

First thing, I wanted to retrace some history way back.

Frankly speaking, since I started writing in 2007, right after I started having my own internet connection and the confidence to write and blog, I started to love the present habit of cussing and whacking United Malays National Organisation kingdom come for their shear arrogance and blunders. I got to admit that it happened when I started reading his series of things he writes in both columns, and then later during the Permatang Pauh by-election, the funny writings of Hishamuddin Rais even raised my anger up and along the way I started to feel cynical about that damn bloody political party. Along the way, I wanted to meet the man in person so whenever there were any functions or parties just to say how I really enjoyed reading his material, that has occasionally full of wit and sarcasm at times. 

And so by chance, I was invited to some soirees / parties / dinner by a mutual friend that from that on, I happened to have some encounters with the man himself. At times the group of people had some food, listening to some interesting things he had to say and it was kind of interesting and great to remember some moments. This went on until the last time I encountered him in person was during the 2009 New Year's party (he remarked how I was so hungry that I was eating my meal that mad, as I just finished work late) - the next month he left - as I learned of what could happen had he not left. At least from meeting a part of the man's personality can show what's said plainly and what's said indirectly.

In the last three months (or you can go back further if you want), Petra keeps quoting things from Sun Tzu's Art of War. The first chapter alone had a few things that were quoted. For instance, 1:18-22 says:

All warfare is based on deception. #

18

The truth of this pithy and profound saying will be admitted by every soldier. Col. Henderson tells us that Wellington, great in so many military qualities, was especially distinguished by "the extraordinary skill with which he concealed his movements and deceived both friend and foe."

19

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. #

20

Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. #

All commentators, except Chang Yu, say, "When he is in disorder, crush him." It is more natural to suppose that Sun Tzu is still illustrating the uses of deception in war.

21

If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. #

22

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant

Here we are right now.

If Pete quotes things like that above, then I was certain that there is a definite hidden reason of why he would eventually do the interview with News Straits Times in Singapore. The interview, having read most of it is a duality in nature. 

It can be a real weakness in Pakatan Rakyat. Many have forgotten that a party can function well with stinging and nudging criticism even from their own supporters. As if a person is walking on a tight beam, a hand counterbalances the other hand and if the other hand is not put out, a person is high likely to fall off balance. PKR is always since the last three years remain the weakest link of the coalition, particularly because it still carries the relics of the UMNO mentality. And if you are in the party, you will need to understand (read: sizing) the clear relationship between Azmin and Anwar during their heydays in the Finance ministry. While some ex-UMNO men have already turned into a new leave, there are still things that are remain the same as the opposite.

I don't want to repeat or summarize whatever Petra has said in the papers. Of course this has given the UMNO-owned media ammunition to whack the opposition again and again, resulting in many of fans calling him a sell-out. There are people who have tried to tell you of holes in your turf, but you turned them away. There are people who are offering help to make it better, but you turn them away. There are people who want to air grievances to alternate media to let you know, but you don't bother...so where can the people turn to, huh?

But along the way, if you can picture how an pro-UMNO supporter (we're referring to the butter-boys as a case in point) think and feel with that you would notice how some things that Petra quoted from Sun Tzu comes into the fore.

No sooner later when he did say in "Which Category Are You In?", where he did pointed out that "I expect to get whacking", I have a good idea and a reason why Pete would be up to that. If I am to look at the opposite of the coin, there's a feeling and false sense of relief. The underlying theme in the game of poker is deception. It's really up to us to use our heads well and think where the game of politics is like cards on the table. Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington was also noted to be a master of the game to outsmart his opponents including Napoleon, which was why he was an integral person in fighting the Napoleonic Wars.

Until today I didn't really buy into the feeling of others about the man their idol double-crossing and selling himself out to the enemy. For instance, I read a few comments in Facebook of some people expressing their disgust and they being let-down from the event. Or even someone, like Paula, (a.k.a Masterwordsmith) whom I've met many times before was giving an interesting expression of frusration title a few days ago - "Why....RPK?". So it turned out to say there are some people who don't really understand clearly what's the intended statement, apart from you need to maybe read a few rounds to get the drift and the other meaning, if you're aiming for the advance level of mindset thinking.

The enigmatic Snape, from the Harry Potter series was also a clear literary case study of a character playing both sides of the game with deception. But along the way it has an ugly side of making your friends feeling cheated and unhappy along the way. Since Pete has made it clear from the beginning, then I don't have anything to whine about but at least can figure a few ways to pick up from the trail here. 

I've repeated many times that I am no fan of Anwar Ibrahim although there are things in Pakatan that I like about. But right now, I am in very sarcastic and cynic mood to see how UMNO, their partners, party-related NGOs, Perkasa, Braheng Ali making a fool of themselves with their almost immature nonsense statements and blunders. True, we got to move on and Petra's statement indirectly nudges everyone to go on the goal of Anything But UMNO. At Melewar last month, the message relayed was not to be afraid of BN or UMNO but to bury them 6 feet under. 

Since these mob groups spend their money like if it's nobody's money but theirs, we might as well ask them to pay us up to $50 million if the lose in the GE, ain't so?

Anecdotes and Annotations of Bersih 2.0 Rally

Author's note: This is the final part of the companion piece of the Bersih rally coverage. Consists of the transcript of the live coverage recorded on 9 July, following by a pics gallery (rest on Facebook album). It is advisable to refer to the transcript and coverage before reading on.

Because this posting will eat a lot of space if most pics are included, I will put in comments based on pics number. Key for looking pic numbers is from (left to right, top to bottom, 4 in a row).

1 - 5: Hopping off from Bandaraya LRT station. I overheard the police telling the LRT personnel there to shut down the place no later then 12 noon. Direct entrance to Sogo was blocked off, so the security guard said to use the side entrance at the basement. I saw some people around the main street of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. From those pics I took, it was I was sitting while at the same time I was turning on the Cover It Live feature, which many of the audience have tuned into it. Most cops do not have numbers and names on uniforms simply I have the suspicion of people remembering the names. But the squad that was at Sogo was from the Sentul branch, judging from the FRU shields seen in #5 and #8.

6. The cops where doing a short marching drill up to the street and coming back down. 

8. Sitting in front of the Sogo main entrance.

10. At Masjid India. At least there are a few stalls up, and at least there is some fire sale that can be made from there.

13. At the end of Merdeka square, it's definitely sealed off, but obviously no one is going there, so technically it's an empty field there.

11-12 - It's a ghost town along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman

15 - MPSJ councillor Michael Tamil and Masjid India Bumi Traders Association Chairman Muhd, Hafifuddin - who was wildly stating of "wanting to know the extend of losses happened on that day".

16 - 23: It's around noon time and scores of people were arrested in Masjid Jamek area. While being here, I was told that scores of people arrested in Brickfields and in Sogo area. Hundreds in Brickfields while people got beaten in batons and rotans, as I was informed.

18 - Masjid Jamek LRT just closed its doors. 

24 - 33: FRU trucks on the ready from Merdeka Square junction / Tun Perak. They got word of the convergence at Kota Raya later on. 

34. Squad of cops at the junction

40: Lawyers monitoring the proceedings. They took note when Mahfuz Omar and Salahuddin Ayub was arrested.

41. Truck is on standby -ready to move at Hatta Ramli's group later on. 

44 - 47: Shouts of "Takbir" and "Allah" were heard that loud and every reporter / photographer would rush to there in front of Standard Chartered Bank. Hatta Ramli was giving a few words to the crowd surrounding there. I am told that Chegubard was there, but could not see whether in the crowd or not.

49 - 57: The cops and FRU squad are ready to come after Hatta's group in case they decide to go down into Jalan Melaka, but it didn't happen, they bypassed the road and the crowd later showed up in front of Maybank HQ.

58: Jalan Tun H.S Lee is pretty quite quiet at that time.

59 - 70: The crowd at Maybank HQ swelling. At the same time, Chegubard and Hatta was giving a few more words on a loud bullhorn. Suhakam and Lawyers were seen in the scene as well.

71 - 72: Crowd from Petaling Street and Tan Cheng Lock converging together. 

80 - 88: Crowd with DAP leading coming from Jalan Bukit Bintang converging to Jalan Pudu heading towards Maybank HQ. The numbers swelled a lot, forming an estimate of 32000 by the time all are in (see pics 89-93).

94: Tear gas fired with water cannons first time. They are from the truck convoy first spotted at the start of Jalan Tun Perak. There were warnings given by the FRU squad commander.At this point of time between 1.30 to 3.00 pm, I was unable to do live coverage as the phone signal strength at Maybank HQ was weak.

95 - 99: The crowd would move back and forth just to make sure that the FRUs are not firing more tear gas and water cannons. After a pause, they would move to Jalan Pudu, intending to reach the Merdeka Stadium. 

100 - 101: MP Ipoh Barat M. Kulasegaran

102 - 107: Moving along Jalan Pudu towards Times Square. 105: Shamsul Iskandar PKR Youth chief drinking a dunk load of water.

108: It's raining and when I was sheltering at Tung Shin - it's quite heavy.

110: DAP's Ngeh Koo Ham and Fong Kui Lun

111 - 116: Walking along Jalan Pudu

118: The other end of Jalan Pudu was blocked by FRUs preventing anyone from reaching Times Square. This is just after the other end of Tung Shin Hospital

119: Sheltering in the parking lot due to heavy rain, not because of cops coming in from left and right.

121: Standing at the hospital main entrance. After this was taken, two canisters of tear gas were fired in the surrounding area of the hospital. Many bear witness to that moment, so that would be no lying from other officials.

124: With the rain reduced to drizzle, I decided to move out and fortunately two Al-Jazeera reporters where walking right at the entrance, so I managed to blend in with them. Fortunate though. The two guys are seen in # 126. I must say that this part is my close call section. I couldn't find a power outlet to recharge my iPhone as I am also doing live coverage. Fortunately to find one and recharged it to half-strength full.

127 - 135: FRU squads are closing in on the hospital area.

136: Ngeh and Sivarasa were trying to negotiate with the police to let the rest move out. But there was no dea in the end. Ngeh and Sivarasa taken to the police station. #137, partially hidden is Sungai Petani's Johari Abdul, whom I bumped into him in KFC after that. #138, Sivakumar from Perak

139: Water cannon is being fired again.

144 - 150: Pics of those FRUs who those arrested in front of the hospital.

151 - 152: A squad of cops charged into the hospital and simply arrest those who have yet to leave the hospital. 

159 - 162: More footage of those arrested after the raid.

163 - 164: At 4 p.m, the event was called to a close as indicated by the organizers. A Samad Said that they were unable to hand over the details of the memo to the Agong as the police blocked them 200 yards

165 - 169: 4.45 pm - press conference by some of the Bersih sterling committee members at Midah Hotel.

Everybody Hates Rais The Senile One

Bersih 2.0 chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan denied today all links between the recent spate of cyber attacks on government websites and her electoral reform group raised yesterday by Datuk Seri Rais Yatim, saying his conjecture is an attack on Malaysians.

 

A group of hackers calling themselves Anonymous mounted an attack on at least 200 websites last Thursday, saying they are against censorship of websites by the government.

“It’s a wholly unfounded, unreasonable, preposterous suggestion made by a Cabinet minister who should really know better than to make such wild accusations,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

She added that Rais’s comment was an attack not just on Bersih but on Malaysian citizens’ constitutional right to assemble peaceably.

“I am entirely surprised by the raving of a few members of the government against Bersih 2.0 and their attempts to demonise Bersih; and I view Rais Yatim’s comments as one of these attempts.

“I consider this an attack on the people and it is a shame they chose to do this rather than listen to the people,” the former Malaysian Bar president said.

Rais, who is the information, communication and culture minister, had linked yesterday the mass attacks on some 200 local websites to the upcoming Bersih rally on July 9 after Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili told reporters initial investigations showed 90 per cent of the hackers were based in Malaysia.

Rais further described the cyber attacks as politically-motivated and intended to disrupt the workings of the government, but did not provide details as to how the denial of service attacks were related to the July 9 rally that is pushing for electoral reforms.

Read more here

*********

No, it's not Everybody Loves Raymond but the title alone is opposite to what's happening right now.

I simply cannot understand how a minister with a PHD certificate would say something crap and nonsense as above. This has clearly demonstrated that he is unable to discern the clear difference of the real purpose of those attacks by Anonymous group and the purpose of Bersih 2.0 rally holding on. This also demonstrates that he is not worth living with the title given. Instead what is seen is jumbling things up, and trying to connect both as one. From what he said above, it seems clearly he has been probably wrongly advised by his advisers or other colleagues and bringing into his kind of conclusion.

Prior to this, he did say that Malaysia was unperturbed by attacks shows how ignorant can a minister be and chose to remain eye-closed to the reality.

Anonymous's intentions is clear: they, on behalf of Malaysia netizens want to send a message to the government of the clear displeasure of the MCMC, acting on the request of the Domestic Consumer Affairs Ministry, (Ismail Sabri a.k.a. Ayah Dafi) to block 10 file sharing sites, which includes some that are legit, and it got mixed with some that are famously the bane of some parties (e.g The Pirate Bay). They also want to send a message that the Najib administration has violated the promise of no Internet censorship, and blocking those websites is also considered a violation to that promise.

Note: If you have read the text they have sent - there are absolutely no references to Bersih. Unless it was deliberately skewed.

So Anonymous' intentions has totally nothing to do Bersih's objectives and intentions. Both Bersih and Anonymous are two different eggs, yet Rais puts them in one basket.

Until today, there are thousands of youngsters that are very angry at not only this senile old man but other ministers and parties that are behind their problems and inconvenience. Six minutes ago at this time of writing, the number of 1M Malaysians Don't Want SKMM Block File Sharing Website on Facebook hit 32000. Meaning, there are 32000 Malaysian netizens that angry at these people. Not only that, in the last two days, there are many tweets out there with the tag #yorais that vented anger at that imbecile.

Here's a screenshot to show the thousands of tweets focusing anger at that man.

A friend of mine recently lamented of the thesis that Rais wrote previously about the evils of ISA and other things that needs to be repealed that in later on, Rais's stance is a complete opposite of what he stood and wrote for. He did questioned of whether it's the matter of his own principle being compromised for the political stand and having his own principles run down. This was one of his observations regarding him and he summed  / rant one conclusion: "Someone should strip him the PhD certification."

There are still some people to this day call him "Rape Maid" Minister because of his scandal involving the rape of an Indonesian Maid , although it is a matter of time yet to be seen whether those being sued by him over that claim would be able to proof with many things that indicate that what actually happened is contradicting Rais' claims. This is still one of the skeletons remaining in his closet.

Maybe it's time for him to be dropped from the Cabinet, as what Abdullah Badawi did to Zam Maidin previously - but already too late.

You see below is the excerpt of an open letter written to the senile old man by the name of Rais "Ayah Dino" Yatim. There are many youngsters out there very angry at that old man. 

Assalamualaikum Datuk Seri. Hari ini saya ingin mengajukan beberapa soalan. Dimana , tidak semua yang mengetahui asal usul penyekatan yang dibuat. Dan saya memerlukan jawapan yang terperinci , bukan yang disebarkan oleh media-media akhbar , tetapi dari mulut Datuk Seri sendiri.

 Soalan pertama , Why block us?. Dan jika Datuk Seri cakap tentang Violation , What violation? If the malaysian citizens are downloading Local Artists music , video and others , you should compare that to what they gain. Even without us downloading their work , some of us wont even download it , "Why?" do you say? Because , i would rather HEAR Justin Bieber instead of hearing some of the locals. You should get a download statistic. Compare the downloads between locals and foreign.

If File-sharing is illegal , then am i sharing my notes to my friend , illegal aswell? Some of us , is working for a foreign company , but they are working inside of Malaysia , and sometimes they need to send a large files. So how do they do it if not through a file-sharing websites.?

No censorship for the internet was stated on the Bill of Guarantees and was said TWICE by both of our Prime Minister , that is Tun Dr. Mahathir dan Dato' Sri Najib Razak. Yet this line was crossed.

Local artist have a low income because of File-Sharing sites? And was it our fault? First of all , the quality standard , and the attitude of some local artist , i would say that it is BELOW average. That is NOT good.

To love the local artist? AS soon as you hear foreign artist , you would be throwing local away. Im talking about modern artist. Comparing V.I.P under KRU , with Rebecca Black , I would still rather HEAR Rebecca Black sing.

Dan apa pula KAITAN Bersih dengan hacker? Isnt the hacker that attacks the website is called Anonymous , which is a foreign hackers while the Dragon Force Malaysia , Rilekscrew and other hackers is NOT EVEN a political party hackers. Why would you even go THAT far to think about hackers involved with politics! I myself, is learning Software Engineering. I THINK like engineers and i THINK like those hackers as those hackers was also once a Programmer , a Software Engineer , a Networking Student. We IT student THINK alike , as we LOVE the same thing. My MIND doesnt even COME with politic, yet you said that those Hackers are involved with it.

AND! you said , the hackers have been identified , but yet you STILL accused Bersih to be having or IS the hacker. We need you to give us a proof please.. EVERYONE would like to know this.. Who is the hacker and Why do you still Accused Bersih if YOU HAVE the hacker already.

Read more here.

The New Robin Hood Playground: Sarawak!

I have read many exposes of the corruption and mismanagement under the Taib Mahmud administration in Sarawak, that Sarawak Report has prominently spoke of. Someone called Taib as somewhat "immune" or in Malay "kebal" meaning that no one, not even the MACC nor even Najib is able to touch Taib Mahmud mainly because he amasses more money that could even match the amount of reserves available in Malaysia alone.

I find this state elections very interesting though it brings back memories of the 2008 election campaign though not as big as it is right now. It also allows to test the change effect that will happen with the main factor being the "Hate Taib" factor. After all, people have pointed Taib in many parallels to the deposed Hosni Mubarak, with two things in common: both men have been running the state for 30 years and have amassed a huge fortune that gets stashed in other places including the Swiss bank. The "Hate Pak Lah" factor was the main reason why PR won unprecedentedly that year, and denied Barisan Nasional 2/3rds.

It has become public knowledge that Taib used bomohs (read black magic) as a part of the play dirty way to win elections. Even one of his relatives, Salleh Jafaruddin have started to make noise the moment the blonde bomoh, which was brought in by Raziah Mahmud to her brother Taib makes the appearance last night. This too, not only does seen in Taib's circle, but in Alfred Jabu's. Whenever a PR ceramah that happens in Jabu's territory, the police was hell bent on stopping ceramahs there. It gives a tell-tale sign that they were acting under Jabu's directive - a baruah, shall I say.

No, that's not the main point I would want to say. I came to notice, that as we've gone into the second day of campaigning in Sarawak, it has already started to become the playground that harks to the days of the legend of Robin Hood and Nottingham. In Sarawak, it is very similar to the legend, where the people of Sarawak must undertake the quest to free the country from the tyranny of despots. In this case, Taib Mahmud was very similar to King John himself. And as the story goes like John, Taib would robbed the natives land rights, people's wealth, and give it to the rich barons allied to him and in the process, people were poor and the state never prospered where people would reap its rewards. Not at all.

A conventional main villain always has its number twos and Taib always has his deputies - George Chan, also one of his brother-in-laws, and Alfred Jabu whom is very similar in role, capacity like the Sheriff of Nottingham. Any child or those who remembered stories and tales would know that the Sheriff would do the dirty work, going out with crew under him to harass the poor people, rob the riches and whack people who do not conform to their definition of norms.

George Chan and SUPP recently said the Chinese that they would lose representation if Pakatan Rakyat were voted into power. DAP there's it down, saying it is equivalent to harassment. Don't you notice that George Chan is like the Sheriff? Like MCA, SUPP are playing second fiddle behind PBB, which means if SUPP gets whacked out all together (29 seats) - there will be no 2/3rd majority that Taib wants. DAP is right on one thing - SUPP is selling out the Chinese as it was reported here.

And this of course leaves to the Sarawakians that they can play stock characters from the protagonist faction. People can play Robin Hood, Little John or the other merry men, Christians, recently muddled in the Al-Kitab bible crisis with the federal government can play as Friar Tuck if required, while the ladies can play as Marion. But as the story goes, the struggle to win the fight against King John's army and the bandits cannot be done alone - it must be done in the unified fashion, and in this case - a 60 seat win for PR would be very much convincing, and overwhelmingly send a message to Najib and Co that 54 years of BN is enough already, and at the same time Taib could end up the same fate as Hosni Mubarak. Again, it only happens if people are not swayed by BN's words and temptations (some might mirror it as the Devil's temptation).

The Magna Carta signing in 1215 is very unique as it is a starting point of a charter and it also points out that the role of king is not absolute like an Egyptian Pharoah. It is only through the struggle of Robin Hood, as the story says that the Magna Carta was finally forced on John to sign it, explicitly saying that no man can be punished by other means except by the law of the land.

If you see from top to down, it is very same. The only problem is there are people who are not willing to listen and would want to keep it again and again. No, the conventions have changed, that kind of mentality must be stopped and shed. I have observed how the campaigning is going on the first two days and PR's campaign was very similar as to Robin Hood leading citizens. It is also agreed and noted that PR is very hard in debunking such claims that BN would say here and as to answer the claim that "Opposition has no track record" the answer is clear: they can't show the record because they were never put into office for once and remained in opposition. If you want to see it, you have to put them to judge it!

Oh, it's going to be a Robin Hood style play right now in Sarawak!

PPPA: When People Get Angry at Senile Old Men

It's already clear that with the recent events of introducing extending the scope of publishing controls to encompass online media as well as gagging a blogger over the "rape maid" scandal clearly implies that the access of information more than what is usually seen is reaching to the point that they were unable to bear to see their control is slipping out of their fingers. Instead of going for information transparency, the government with such dementia is resorting to tightening the noose on citizens, including the cyber community that is expanding exponentially. No doubt, the main excuses used to state their decision includes: that a lot of false information and lies out there, and of course to have more control of what information goes out or not since the Wikileaks disaster that put America to its knees.

How Far Can People Stand Before Reaching The Boiling Point?

Generally, the people who mostly does the writing on online avenues are mostly formed of youngsters and those who are less than 50 years old. The numbers and statistics do speak for themselves. These group of people are more Internet savvy and they now do have the right to talk whatever they want. The moment if a group of senile men decide to impose such controls on them, what does that imply to all of us? It means to simply catch people for a crime that does not make sense, which is to talk anyway. 

The Sedition act charge against the Sri Muda assemblyman simply tells us that Malaysia is still a neo-feudalistic country with people from NGOs who know nothing much about the advancement of human civilization open their mouths and shooting at the person who has legit points to say in reply to a subject or an occasion that arises. As what the ex-Mufti Dr. Asri previously said - rulers are not on the level as with the famous prophets that we read in the Bible or the Quran. Humans do have flaws, and to say that people that fall under the group of rulers as omnipotent is a misconception and wrong. Since 2010, Britain has abolished Sedition laws mainly because the reality is that you can't catch a person just because he talks. 

If the controls persist there, how long do people can bear before they say that such laws are nonsensical and decide that enough is enough and the hell with the men who wanted those controls? Egypt is the perfect example - people, like the young are angry at senile old men for blocking access to what they want to say online. Online social and blogging sites like Facebook, Twitter, and etc..got blocked. People get angry, they would find a way to bypass the block and do whatever they want. To them, the message to be conveyed is "the hell with you."

This same case also applies to the attempt by the government to go after people who do illegal downloading. But to do that without solving the root causes of the problem - unrealistic censor laws, poor services in the cineplexes, the high cost of buying a video from the store is to invite more anger from the cyber-savvy community. Can you imagine blocking a 18-year person off from Internet because he's just writing diaries or things he want to talk? 

Go To Prison Because of Talking?

Thus, if the number of people in prisons for illogical petty crimes - talk, get stuff, participate in gatherings, etc.. surpasses the number of prisoners,  who are in there for murder, theft, white-collar crimes, and violent-nature crimes, then something is really wrong with how the country is run. In this case, you might need to build more prisons to house thousands of people guilty of petty crimes. 100,000 petty against 5000 violent - you do the math and conclusion! 

Online Privacy Invasion

Many people too believe that such controls is tantamount to privacy invasion. Remember back in 2007 where our former Information Minister Zam Maidin wanted to do blogger classification? Similar thing to what the government is bent to do. It's like wanting to know what a person is doing, event privately? There's the case of where people get Chinese New Year greetings from Najib. How do people's e-mail addresses or phone numbers in particular reach the hands the men who relayed Najib's message out? Aren't the telcos bound by the privacy clause that the personal information is strictly confidential and only used for their internal marketing purposes - not to be given to other parties? 

People do not like to be intruded upon and to scrutinize what people write is to see the big scissors on top of the ceiling ready to come down on people for nothing.

Information Branded A Lie But Factually True and Vice-Versa

That thing is a problem to contend with. The scenario is like: if Bernama writes news that is not entirely accurate but someone who write reveals information that was deliberately withheld and turned around by the news agency, where does that news landed into? An outright lie? A truth covered up as a lie?

But then, the lie disguising as a truth can be more venomous in nature because it misleads people into thinking that the lie has distorted many things and make people believe of some stupid things. For example, Article 153 in paper and word never talks about Malay rights at all, but it has been fanned into a political issue by NGOs and those affiliated to UMNO themselves. It is very misleading if you are told of a lie but never bother to investigate further by tracing the source materials that are claimed to back up a statement.

Senile and Unqualified Old Men

So who's to blame for all of this? Look at Zam Maidin and Rais in example. These are old men (all in the 60s) that said of the desire to control access to information. But are they really qualified to do that? Do they have the knowledge of the information technology discipline to say that? Zam is an old-fashioned reporter before becoming a politician. Rais doesn't have much knowledge of things like e-mail, social networking and yet wants to do that? Do the other politicians have a familiarity with those modern technology materials?

In fact, to do those various print control amendments, retain sedition acts, monitoring petty things unravels their paranoia and dementia of people looking for information in cyberspace. Britain, who originated Sedition Act, has thrown it away to the bin because of the reality that you can't simply catch people for talking. Same in school, you can't stop a person from talking and asking questions. 

The young and educated community in Egypt are very angry at senile old men that attempt to turn off information and attempting to control cyberspace and talk. They have responded with street demos and various bypasses to the blocks. The American government tries to stop organizations from supporting Wikileaks, they got hit back with hacks and DDOS attacks..those have one thing in common - to snub senile old men who run and try to introduce nonsensical policies. 

Makes Everyone Angry, Ain't So?

I am not going to add further to what I say, apart from what Najib is saying in the morning above, but surely this would violate the MSC agreement signed in 1998 between the MNCs and Dr. M's admistration at that time. But with a lot of skeletons in Najib and his ministers closets, they need to cover things up. But in other countries, that doesn't happen. MPs and even Presidents get sent to jail for crimes and corruption committed. But in Bolehland, just because of their King Kong style behavior, it is the other way round. Up is down, black is white....

A.N: Cakap-cakap Mat Mongol

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today warned of the effects of unregulated Internet use, and said unfettered access to Western culture would decimate Asian values and heritage.

His comments are expected to renew fears that the government may still renege on its pledge to not censor the Internet as part of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), after it was reported that the Information Ministry had previously evaluated the possibility of a blocking out “undesirable websites”.

Political foes had then attacked the proposal as an attempt by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government to quash online political dissent.

Following public outcry, the Cabinet later abandoned the proposal, which was subsequently described as only a feasibility study.

Today, the prime minister stressed that cyberspace must be managed to protect Asian society from exposure to the “negative influences” of Western culture.

He said that governments must formulate a code of ethics for Internet use to ensure that is remains “governable”.

“Indecency and anarchy can seep in into any environment that is not anchored on any cultural roots and our values.

“Our culture and our heritage are what make us unique and it is important that we educate our peoples never to abandon what makes them uniquely Asian,” he said during his keynote address at the tenth Asean Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministers Meeting.

He said that that Asian values must not be compromised in the name of development.

“Our children and future generations of Asean should retain their Asian cultural values and they must be protected from the threats on the Internet,” he said.

He added that the public must be educated on how to use the Internet in a responsible manner.

Aside from the controversial Net filter — said to be in the vein of the “Great Firewall of China” — the ruling administration has also called for a registry of bloggers, many of whom are said to be anti-establishment.

Ayah Dino Still Doesn't Know Internet!

The Malaysian government has warned against excessive use of micro-blogging sites like Facebook and Twitter, arguing that they could erode the country’s culture, a report said on Sunday.

Rais Yatim, the information and communication minister, said Muslims and other religious groups must be wary of the Internet as it was introduced by the West.

Note: For this case, I will refer to this bloke as Ayah Dino.

There is still a problem with Ayah Dino. He whined that Malaysians are addicted in those tools like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Friendster. And then he added that the mainstream media is still relevant in today's society.

When Ayah Dino said that to people especially youngsters from Generation X and Y, they feel a kind of being told by a cheong hei person. As you can see, this is the newer way to communicate rather than spending many hours and money talking over the phone. All you need is a broadband connection and a chat program, and you're off to go to chat with a lot of people without the phone.

Was Ayah Dino really thinking that of being a big brother to jaga over all people who are hooked up to the Internet, whereas he still clings to the old conventional method? Hey, I asked a few youngsters around including my very own brother and asked whether they read newspapers when they are on their own. Their answer was hell no. They usually read and get news online now. At least people are getting more info on the net rather than the papers because in Malaysia sometimes the info is distorted and not exactly accurate as they claim to be. And sometimes, sometimes info can't be found on print.

In the last 15 years those who are really used to the old system who was trying very hard to adapt to the new system of information technology were called dinosaurs. But at least they tried very hard and many got it running. But in this case of Ayah Dino, I was wondering whether he doesn't even know what is e-mail, Internet, Web 2.0 and so forth.

This is the second time that Khairy laid the smackdown on Ayah Dino on Twitter again, as according to Malaysiakini. The last time around back in mid-August last year, Khairy was telling a reporter something similar when he whacked Ayah Dino again. He said: ""While we're on the green dam, do you think Rais knows what email is? Forget FB (facebook), Twit (twitter), etc. Is he even 1.0? I think he kolot."

True, Ayah Dino deserves to get whacked left and right from youngsters in he whines about this thing. This is somewhat different from his predecessor Mamak Maidin who got scolded left and right over blogging and the Bersih thing which everyone in the world was laughing at him on that Saturday evening of 10 November 2007.

But it's not too late, Dino can and should teach him everything about e-mail, Web 2.0, Internet, Facebook and so forth. After all, politicians are using this, even his own ministrial colleagues are using this, and he has the son who is very good in IT to teach him. Maybe he might want to go into that before making another whining again, ain't it?

Cops Questioned Zorro: Flashback - 8.8.2008

I was told yesterday that Zorro was questioned over a one-year-old posting on August 8 2008, entitled Childish Police Bullying Again. The Star was quoted that the police questioned him over the defaced police logo with a dog on it, but inaccurately said of the posting was dated on 13 August 2008.

The intention of the post was dig at the police for hauling in Penarik Beca (Bakaq) over one of his postings that got him investigated under the Sedition Act. I was there the night Bakaq was questioned by the same department (CCID).

If the cops have not hauled in Bakaq on that day one year ago, this and that posting that Zorro put up would not have existed. Anyhow, disregarding that logo, public perception of the police force still remains at the low due to the higher crime rates until now.

Wanted By Cops: Zorro

While attending the Budget forum in PJ, my friend Lokman called me up. He asked me whether I have received an SMS saying that our old buzzard blogger Bernard (Zorro) was called up to by the police to appear at the Commercial Crimes Department complex tomorrow at 3.

I told Lokman that I did not get any SMS messages and asked him why was he summoned. I was told that this was in related to the lawsuit over the Kelana Jaya condo related matter, but a check on the Star paper (also carrying an article) reveals no details over why he was summoned.

We both knew that Bernard's antics could end up in trouble, as like in the May 7 fiasco in Ipoh.

Haris will accompanying him and I left a caution to him to watch out for in case the cops could take him as well as Bernard. It's the saying of killing two birds in one stone.

It seems that whatever was discussed or revealed do not go well with 'Rosmah's wife' and his hardcore followers. Malaysia has been embarassed several times over some articles discussed by the international media, notably Bersih, Kartika's caning and the confiscation of the Bible

Malaysia Today Blockade Extended to All ISPs

Yesterday, I have mentioned that the MCMC has ordered a total block of Malaysia Today following the PKFZ leak. However, as of this time, the blockade has been extended to all other ISPs including Maxis, P1, etc.. as they found that people are able to access them outside Streamyx.

Apparently the directive was also issued to them on this matter which is starting to get out of hand.

And the police are now going for the shoot the whistleblower path, despite the fact that it is a cover up of the real mccoy.

For some reason, I managed to find out briefly that the main page of Malaysia Today has been removed no doubt by hackers. On further checks, the No Holds Barred and Corridors of Power segments have articles as prior to the expose of the PKFZ documents there. This was about an hour ago until even both segments have been blocked.

There is a user's right to anonymity.Article 12 of The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

Let's present ourselves a dilemma: if you are a person who has the military intelligence on a murder of a foreigner that can bring a leader down, will you expose it to the world? You know this involves other countries, the World Court in Hague, an other parties investigating including the United Nations, FBI, etc..the scale is higher than PKFZ..what will you do?

Remember: you can't kill the news.

Update: 5.45 pm - I am able to access the website. Anyone from streamyx able to do so?

You're No Computer Expert, Rais..So Back Down!

The Malaysian Insider reports that Rais Yatim's ministry is evaluating the feasibility of the Green Dam software as part of the aim of filtering unwanted content from the Internet.

But as said, the idea will draw flak as it violates the MSC bill of guarantees.

Rais, listen to the IT experts. You are only a politician. There are technical people out there including myself who thinks that taking this idea is a waste of time and still will not be able to accomplish the objective.

"The move comes on the back of proposals to register bloggers, most of whom are said to be anti-government, and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition parties to have a larger Internet presence."

Look....we criticize not of we don't like you...but the mistakes that you're committing and you don't bother to listen at all. Who is to blame later on?

Even other people, who writes blogs, will start getting very angry and bash you down the moment they hear some illogical idea. Just back down, will you?

Blogging Is By Passion, Not A Must.

The approach to blogging seems to be taken wrongly by certain quarters with for the sake of communicating with people and other readers alike.

As I remembered during the BUM 2009 event, a speaker (whom I can't recall) said that blogging of something of interest is born out of the self-interest and passion of someone. My blog friend, De Minimis told me before that he would write if there is something interesting to share or interesting to write, otherwise, he would not write at all.

As for myself, I have thought of several pieces of things to share with fellow readers and etc, and if I do not have something to write or being too tired from work, I would not write at all for that day.

You do not hire people to write a posting in a blog. That is the wrong approach, the case in point is that the Pahang government employing retirees to write and blog - it's not by passion, but it's by the money...wrong. And the next one coming is the Kedah state BN women's wing which according to Berita Harian tends to train them to blog. It's okay to train, but the question there is do they have the interest or do they required to answer every nook and cranny of whatever is happening in Kedah?

Snippets From Dr. M's Speech at BUM 2009

At yesterday's Bloggers United Malaysia 2009 event in Subang Jaya, special guest Dr. M has no doubt blasted his successor, Abdullah Badawi as well as the former media baron Kalimullah Hassan over the blockade of the media in Malaysia and claimed that he did not instruct any media editors to limit their coverage / criticism.

Noted snippets from yesterday's speech:

1. “But mainstream media such as New Straits Times or Utusan Malaysia sort of second guessed what kind of things they want to print (about the leaders). Sometimes they were wrong. But this time it was more interesting because there was a supremo."

He keeps referring Kalimullah as the man with the Indian god name.

2. “I had at least 14 invitations from UMNO members to give a talk but these people were later told to withdraw their invitations, which they did. So I was cut off from being able to give my views even to members of my own party.”

3. "The Johor people asked for a bridge that will allow them to travel to and fro Singapore. This was agreed upon (including the water and sand deal) with the Singapore government. But then my successor decided to withdraw it."

4. Also a reference is also mentioned to Muhyiddin Yassin over the CIQ complex where in my opinion, the complex is worthless without the new bridge.

5. "The double-railway project from Johor Bahru to Padang Besar was originally costs at $14 billion, but now the cost from Ipoh to Padang Besar costs $12 billion, which we lost a lot of money."

6. "There were accusations thrown at me, saying that I was worse during my time. But I would like to say that newspaper editors are very sensitive people especially those in mainstream media.They self-censor because they believed I would not like (what they report) and that I would object – that was all. Other papers said nasty things about me but I never stopped them. "

“The situation was moving towards (racial riots of May 13) 1969″. “It was increasing to a point that UMNO wanted to have 500,000 people to show their strength and I thought it would escalate, that was why we had to take action. If I had told them not to, they would soon feel that I was not very supportive. The police have the guns and the power, and we don’t. When managing people with guns, you have to be very careful.”

7. "My biggest regret is that I am unable to convince the Malays to change their ways. I keep reminding them during every UMNO general assembly."

Majority of the points is on bashing Abdullah Badawi and Kalimullah Hassan.

He also gave his opinion on regulating Internet in Malaysia. But admittingly, he said that it is almost impossible to impose Internet censorship in Malaysia.

8. "If you wish to do so, then I wish you good luck."

Indirectly I admit that the point mentioned is a dig at Rais Yatim who earlier said "Self-Regulate or else" to bloggers (see Malaysiakini).

9. Last piece of advice - "Bloggers are VIPs and they should behave."

At BUM 2009

At BUM 2009

Still it's quite a good crowd turning up for BUM 2009 the annual event of bloggers and non-bloggers alike who wish to know those people. Following the success of last year's edition, the organizing team is making it bigger with three sessions, instead of one and of course more food....yum.

This time, the Perak Network bloggers, whom I met at Bukit Gantang also showed up.



Covering from morning to evening, it's the drinks and coffee that makes people awake although some skipped the BM session.


Well some of the speakers invited could not turn up but nonetheless most came. Many people awaited with bated breath when Dr. M showed up and talked for one hour followed by a press conference at a separate room.

Morning speakers with opening speeches by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and Desi YL Chong:

Phillip Koh, Art Harun, Dr. K.J John

Afternoon speakers hosted by Helen Ang:

Datuk A.K Jasin, Fathi Aris Omar, Fahri Azzat and Faizal Mustaffa

Evening speakers hosted by Dr. Lim:

Steven Gan, Jeff Ooi, Nik Nazmi Ahmad, Rocky, Citizen Nades

A few things that were mostly discussed is regarding the anonymous identity on blogs dispute on whether to use your name or otherwise, then the quality of content in internet over popularity and of course, mainstream media failing the citizens with second guessing methods (as in Melayau) and NST, and finally, Dr M's message is that if the government chooses to regulate Internet, do it at their risk of violating the international laws agreed after the MSC.

A good head start is a piece by Sim Kwang Yang seen here.

Media coverage can be seen at either Malaysiakini or The Malaysian Insider.

I had taken a good deal of pictures there, and they showed up well minus flash, dang the noise

You can view the rest of the pics at my Facebook link here.

But do watch out later for a special posting on snippets of Dr. M's talk yesterday, seems a bit funny and interesting to hear about. (will update you when it's done.)

Liberty In Malaysia Is Dead Starting With Perak

It was pretty terrible out there. Shouting matches, interference from outside, speaker's removal via unconventional way, 64 people arrested including bloggers, what a horrible end to the day which is no doubt in infamy as Black Day in Malaysia.

What happened today in Perak is a foregone conclusion, pre-meditated, pre-planned. In the end, it's Big Mama stamping on the people, killing Liberty, raping the Federal and state constituition. It's just like a game of football except that the match is rigged or Barisan Nasional keeps moving the goal post everywhere, althought they knew that they are going to get whacked 10-0 from other sides.

There are actually two ways of the crisis can be solved, either by returning to the basics of Constituition as Mahathir said earlier or following the law of the jungle. The latter path was taken by Barisan Nasional simply because for one main reason. They want to maintain their hegemony that was achieved via coup engineered by Najib.

"Oh, I forgot, I am talking about what happened in Ipoh today. And what happened in Ipoh is about race. It is about ensuring that the Malays do not lose political power. And, as far as Perak is concerned, as far as Umno is concerned, Perak has fallen into the hands of the Chinese."

It's About Race, Stupid - Malaysia Today

There were some tiny details that I was told of what happened at the assembly. Moments after Sivakumar escorted Raja Nazrin out, the Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen were in sudden idle mode, didn't act on when the Barisan Nasional camp started the move to remove Sivakumar led by the 'prositute' called Hee. It was then I was told that this must be the jinx that was placed on the PR assemblyman after Idham Lim accused yesterday that a jampi was placed at the speaker's position.

Why the seargeant-in-arms refused to act on Sivakumar's command is pretty simple - there are Special Branch people inside the hall acting as officers, dressed as protocol men there. That's is why he could not act when ordered to remove the 10 (Zambry, the six and the renegade three). And spotted in the hall is Shafee Abdullah. Make no secret though that Shafee has always been (as allegedly by Pete) desiring for the post of Attorney General - and it is said that what happened today here was planned in advance by UMNO with him. I recalled there was an allegedment by Pete that Shafee was also involved in setting up Anwar in the sodomy case of Saiful - which was later resulted into a angry face off between the two men in the KL High court.


The iconic image of Sivakumar being dragged out by the police will tell the tale in future that democracy in Malaysia is dead on this day, and what was promised and propagated of the 1Malaysia concept is just a sick joke.

Sad to say God is not here today. And He has refused to help the innocent and those doing good. In Ipoh alone, there were 64 people arrested, even an old man doing his morning jogging also got arrested for although being an innocent bystander. The police, behaving like if it's their grandfather's place go into a coffee shop and arrest people for nothing? Look at a video from Malaysiakini if you're not convinced!


There's Helen and then of course Bernard arrested for just wearing black shirt. I thought being the a known top leader of local blogosphere, a leader should be acting on various plans on the head, not being held back at one corner...sorry, but I noticed that there is something amiss after reading various events.

As reported just now, 10 people were arrested in Kuching, one in Penang and 14 more in Brickfields by cops who have screwed their priorities upside down. Filling up the detention cells with unnecessary people , people who did nothing wrong. Yep..banana republic that is.

Is it likely for civil society filing a lawsuit against the police and demand damages of $100 million over unlawful arrests? After all, people who came here are not from any underground groups and anytime they could be suing the cop!

Candlelight vigils no longer work any longer. Instead, there's a need to think and act on the intellectual level, understanding the opponent's psyche and do a tactical move. It's no longer a brute move to outwit an opponent. If you are to compete head to head with Barisan Nasional, you need some players that will level the playing field. For instance if there is Shafee Abdullah - that is seen there, you will need someone as good as him on the other side of the ring to level the playing field.

And as for PR, where are the rest of the leaders who claimed to be great when there was chaos today? Apart from Kit Siang who came to support his DAP men and Sivakumar, where is Anwar? Where Tuan Guru Hadi? Did they show up? Are they really walking the talk of calling themselves the leaders of this Pakatan Rakyat? A great leader is someone who can lead, show and inspire people instead of sending people out to become their cannon fodders. Since Anwar and Hadi didn't show up today, do they consider themselves superior leaders?

But today's event is a blessing in disguise.:

1.For a few years, in light of the constituitional crisis in Kelantan, people endured much circus antics and bad moves from UMNO and they punished them from 1990 onwards until now, unforgiven for what they had done to Kelantan. Next time, if there's a GE or a state election, UMNO could be facing the same spectre as in Kelantan. Similar eye to eye punishment could happen in Perak. People in Kampung Simee or in town absolutely hated Zambry and badmouths Hee. Yes, it could provide a motiviation whack BN badly next round via balloting.

2. Sometime ago, Mahathir has called for the Perak crisis to be resolved via constituitional means. Indirectly, a warning was given to Najib that Najib was doing the wrong way to hold on to Perak. With this event today, it means to go against Mahathir and yes, we can see slowly that Najib and his men could even be booted out by his mentor. Najib, as some said is still unforgiven over what he did to Mukhriz at the UMNO General Assembly.

3. It also tells us that United Malays National Organisation, heading the Barisan Nasional coalition is responsible for all the mess that is happening here and there including arrests by their entities. Remember that the economic crunch is still not over although things are picking up in the last two weeks. But the next time a greater economic depression happens in Malaysia, the first word that Malaysians is going to utter is not FUCK but UMNO since their poor governing policies could bring to the fall of the nation economically.

I think I'd want to take a walk back home to see the damage over the weekend. I believe that that it ain't doing good for them but BN is digging a bigger hole to the ground.

We can still smell the devil's sulphur at Ipoh until now.

Six Bloggers Charged...Two More on Sunday

I received a text message forwarded, source from The Star that mentions of 6 bloggers to be charged tomorrow for the apparent insult over Sultan Azlan.

Rocky and Jed could be the among the six (unconfirmed) to be charged by under Section 233(1) CMA Act 1998 and Penal Code 34. But interestingly, the was one party that caught my interest which is basically the Perak State Secretary. My hunch is that the Barisan government which many said that they took over illegally, mostly because of Najib's brokering and Hamzah's buying are pissed off over the 'gossip' and damaging material.

I remembered that in the village of Kampung Simee, near my housing estate, people are absolutely disgusted by Mamak Zambry and once he came over, people hated him passionly as when he went to the Yuk Choy primary school in Hugh Low Street.

I stumbled upon a line by Hisham Rais on his piece "Ekonomi, bukan Raja atau Sultan" quote:

Kebelakangan ini tiba tiba kita mendengar kembali suara-suara untuk mengembalikan kekebalan Raja-Raja Melayu. Ini tidak menghairankan – pada satu ketika dahulu orang yang sama juga telah berkempen untuk melupuskan kekebalan ini. Hari ini mereka ini mengembalikan kekebalan Raja Melayu. Kenapa?

Jawabnya bukan kerana mereka cinta buta kepada Raja dan Sultan tetapi kerana punca ekonomi mereka semakin mengecil dan ada yang telah hilang dapor mencari makan. Mereka berharap Sultan dan Raja ( yang mereka tongengkan dahulu ) akan menjadi benteng untuk mempertahankan kepentingan ekonomi mereka.

Ekonomilah yang melahirkan budaya bangsa. Punca ekonomi orang Melayu telah berubah justeru kesetiaan mereka juga akan berubah sama. Manusia Melayu tidak mungkin lagi akan menyembah buta Raja atau Sultan. Zaman itu telah berakhir. Mengundurkan manusia Melayu kembali ke zaman feudal adalah mustahil.

The news piece also said that one from Penang could be charged. The other day, I asked OBE who are these Mighty Pen (sjsandteam) gang are. One phrase he said of is, if I recalled correctly: 'from Penang'. I thought just now that they could fit the description of the newspiece over two reasons, firstly how they address Sultan Azlan via remarks / titles and secondly given of them posting almost 20 posts per day, more than even top bloggers like Rocky. I thought those two things could invite the men in blue.

Maybe these guys can slow down a bit in writing. There's still time in writing posts...

A Sultan Entering Blogosphere!

Sultan Azlan Shah has just entered blogosphere a few days ago.

Stumbled upon the blog hosted by Blogspot a few days ago. It was setup a few days following the state constitutional crisis.

The official statement said this was setup as the alternative to the Dreambook guestbook which was disrupted.

I am not sure whether there's some sense of sincerity in this top first posting:

"His Royal Highness understands there are a lot grouses, grouches or even grievance on the recent BN/PR switchover debacle. It's hoped that a win-win-win (NB: It has to be TRIPLE WINS) solution can be attained through a direct dialogue such as this blog in the not too distant future.

Please therefore speak your mind freely, without fear or favour here."

The URL for the blog is here.

Dollah Macam Tak Nak Jumpa....But...

Hindraf and the civil-conscious group of people who opposed the ISA today grouped together to go to the PWTC for the PM's open house.

They came into PWTC with a message to be delivered to Dollah Badawi personally: release" all ISA detainees. We mean business."

I was tagging along with fellow bloggers and a few activists. I met them at Secret Recipe opposite The Mall before going there. Everyone is already dressed in red, black or orange T-shirts to express the message of rejecting the misuse of ISA. A little info from Malik Sarwar indicates that a second habeas corpus was filed. The first one was because of the police recommendation, while the second one is against the signing by Botak Albar.

Bloggers and some people gathered at Secret Recipe before going.

The Hindraf Group

At 11.15 a.m we started to move to PWTC. While we were moving, we saw many in orange, the HINDRAF group. They were intending to reach there with the same message. Compare to a dozen or two of civil-conscious group, the number of orange people was around 500.

At 11.30 when we reached there, the group was met with resistance from the men in blue. There, it was the same man, ASP Sydney Jeremiah that was telling them they were under instructions to not allow those wearing the shirts to enter into the building.

Of course this has attracted the attention of reporters and other passer-bys. Haris and Amarjit was haggling with the police and some of the officials. It took them 30 minutes and by intervention of some officials before they were allowed to enter in. As soon as we entered in, Hindraf came in a big group and tried to enter as well. They did.

Amarjit and Haris saying thanks to ASP Sydney Jeremiah after much of haggling.

You're going to have a hard time lining up.

As usual like last year, the crowd swelled, eager to meet Dollah and the ministers. But it seems that the PWTC people are trying to play a game of diverting the HINDRAF and the group from meeting them. I remembered at the point where there is a live feed, you usually take an escalator to go up - that's the route of going to the 4th floor. But going right just takes you to the food, and nothing else. Everyone went right. I think at that time, the VIP period wasn't over yet.

Of course it ended up as a false end. And we ended unable to go up to the 4th floor.

Anyhow, the crowd decided to try one more time using a different route. They used the staircase and discovered the VIP route. The routed ends up at Dollah and his entourage shaking hands with guests.

Of course, the HINDRAF group was caught in the melee. But I managed to sneak past them and followed behind someone. Thankfully, a PWTC guy allowed me - since I was tagging with a guy behind him to go inside the hall.

Finally, I managed to shake hands with a few ministers. Of course, it's Dollah, Jeanne, Najib, Nor Yackop and of course finally Hisham Hussein. Among them Kerishamuddin was the most cheerful of all, besides exchanging pleasantries, he asked me where I was from. I merely told him, "We're La Sallians!" He chuckled.

The anti-ISA activist who was with me told me how Dollah's face went plume the moment he saw HINDRAF and those wearing anti-ISA T-shirts. From the way the party was diverted it seems that he doesn't want to see them. The Malaysian Insider has one interesting line that was quoted from him that said: "I cannot have a special meeting with anyone. It is an open house." I thought it means it is against forgiveness that he emphasized the night before.

When he shook hands with Najib, the hand moves in a way of saying "go away". As for me, his head was turning away before he looked at me. I thought it's like saying no interest in meeting.

After a while, Haris and other people of the Hartal event met Dollah Badawi and told him: "Datuk Seri, please release all ISA detainees immediately. Please, please please." Hindraf would also come in to present gifts and a card for Dollah. Dollah reluctantly gave his Mr. Clean smile.

As a sign of protest, they did not touch food served to visitors in PWTC.

Mission Accomplished (pic by Malaysiakini)

We gathered at one corner after they entered. Mission accomplished.

They have sent a message to him. Now the ball is at his corner.

One Last Pic Before I Left

Haris has his posting up at his blog plus pictures.