The Selangor State government has decided to go ahead with building a temple in Section 23, Shah Alam. This is an addition to another temple to built to replace the infamous Kampung jawa temple. Read here.
This might bring about another round a chaos within the residents there. As I have written before, both Pakatan Rakyat and BN are just pandering to the newly found political power of Indians without thinking about whether there is such a need for another temple in this country.
It was reported before that there are about 18,000 Hindu temples in various sizes and locations around the country to cater for about 1.5 million.
Out of that, I believe, based on my estimates roughly only 10% visit temples on weekly basis consistently, the rest only go to temples whenever there are some religious and non-religious events and celebrations or when somebody decides to give free food or slaughter some cows in the name of sacrifice.
A decently sized temple cost roughly RM 2 Million. The more elaborate ones cost 2 or 3 times more.
I would rather be happier if the Selangor State government spent the money on children education. If they chose cheaply to focus on getting Indian votes, might as well provide financial assistance for Indian students or at least buy some books for Tamil School library around the state.
That would be a reasonable good investment that would certainly go a long way improving the social economical situation of the community.
While Hindu temple can be a sensitive issue. I don’t see a reason why any more Hindu temple to be built in this country.
What is a Hindu temple contribution to the Indian Community as a whole? Apart from providing a place for them to worship various deities of their choice, basically none.
It does not pay well to the priest, it is costly to maintain, it is usually headed manned by people with political interest, it has been proven to split local community into various factions.
Worst, power struggle in the past has resulted in frictions within groups resulting in violence and even deaths. Few thousand goats has lost it’s life at temples, sacrificed in the name of god, even though there is no such requirements in the first place.
Every year, annual temple celebrations are held costing a bomb, an event that last for a day. Multiply that by 18,000 and imagine how much of money are spent down the drain in one day.
If it could be proven that these celebrations and prayers do contribute to the well being of the community and enhancement of their life standards as well as wealth, I have no complains or disputes.
However, this cannot be proven if you look at the high crime rate, poverty and overall condition of sections of the community.
What is definitely proven is that, Indians and families who provide strong emphasis and invest in their children’s education has seen an overall improvement to their lives in the long term.
Spend more on vocational training, scholarship and entrepreneur development. This will ensure visible and positive returns and not some prayers and celebrations that are not proven to improve the Indian community.
Instead of building the temple in Shah Alam, why not go on a registration drive in Shah Alam to register all Indian school drop outs and enroll them onto some skill training.
Therefore, governments and Indian leaders should make full use of their brains rather than their heart when assessing Indian issues. It is the mindset that needs to be changed and the solution is certainly not building another temple or spending to maintain existing ones.
As for Pakatan Rakyat, they may succeed in becoming the ultimate Indian Champions but will certainly will be losers in the long term if they do not asses the issues appropriately and take proactive and pragmatic measures to assist the community.
Repeating the same tricks of charming Indians by building temples will not last long, have they not seen enough of BN using the same tricks for more than half a century? Don’t Pakatan Indian leaders have the guts and brains to do something more positive to change the mindsets of Indians.
At the moment, none dare to be the visionary and do something different for the community and assist them where it is needed most. At the moment, looks like they just want votes and support to stay in power.
When Pakatan Rakyat criticized BN government’s 100 Storey Warisan Merdeka tower, they don’t realise that they are also just doing the same here in Selangor by building 2 Hindu Temples that does not bring about any benefits to the Indian or local community. On top of this, millions of Ringgit of tax payers money are also being donated carelessly to temples in Selangor, just to boost the popularity of state government and certain Exco Leader.
At least, the Warisan Merdeka tower will certainly result in numerous economic spin off and benefits various sections of businesses and people as a whole. What does the hindu temple bring about if not more problems in the future!.
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Anwar Need Not Apologise...
Recently, Opposition Leader apologized to his audience during one of the ceramah. It is very rare to hear Anwar apologise to his supporters or the Malaysian Public. He never apologized for his Sept 16 Opera, which destablised the country for months. He also never apologized for all his conflicting statements and also his corrupt past when he was in BN.
Now all of a sudden he apologises for something petty such as selecting the wrong candidates for the past general elections. His hard core supporters will definitely forgive him, as Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’.
I think Dr Mahathir is the one who should apologise. He did the country no favours when he first invited Anwar to UMNO and as a result, the country political situation has always been unstable ever since Anwar was sacked in 1998.
No opposition leader has inflicted such damage to the country’s image as Anwar did. He criss-crossed the globe saying nothing nice about the country and its leaders. Never mind that he himself got elected by very same undemocratic election system. Never mind that for 16 years, he did nothing to reform the government’s various institutions, never mind that for the same number of years, he controlled the press and helped to build a ‘racist’ newspaper.
Never mind that using the same patronage system, he, his family and friends became rich. Never mind that he defended malay rights to the hilt, BTN, all the repressive laws and the NEP. Has he ever apologized, never. He just reformed himself overnight, just because he was sacked and could not achieve his ambition to become the Prime Minister. He would have never changed anything that was favorable to him if he eventually became the Prime Minister.
The weak opposition then took advantage to befriend him, knowing well Anwar has got substantial grassroots Malay support. Never mind that the first person to accuse Anwar of sodomy and abuse of power is none other than Anwar’s lead counsel for the current trial, Karpal ‘the lion’ Singh. For political power, anything goes. Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’, so Malaysian politicians can change their colours, minds and parties whenever they want.
Apart from Mahathir, the voters who blindly voted for PKR candidates should apologise. You deserve the candidates you voted for. Why ask him/her to step down now. Why no one demanded that the Bota assemblyman to quit when he first crossed over to PKR. Such hypocrisy in Pakatan Rakyat. Elected representative shall remain just that. If people vote for the party, then we don’t need candidates, just vote for the party symbol and let the political party place any representative and have options to change them as and when they like. With this, even by elections will become unnecessary and we can save loads of money.
Malaysia deserves a better opposition leader. There are many within Pakatan Rakyat but I think many talented leaders simply can’t talk and act dramatically like Anwar, hence they are sidelined. Some of them are doing impressive work in their constituency but as they say, in politics, perception matters, not facts. If one were to compile all the facts and track record, rather than rhetoric, Anwar’s achievement as Opposition leader is nothing but a disappointment.
He would probably get some Oscars or Anugerah Seri Angkasa for his stage play, dialogue and (mis)direction, but records show he has not done much since he became the opposition leader. Every state that is governed by Pakatan Rakyat has nothing significant to show eg The same system of political patronage is in place, local councils are filled by mostly local party leaders and race based.
Like Karpal Singh said (telling the truth, emotionally) Anwar should just step down and make way for others. Pakatan Leaders always ask government officials to quit even when they are just being investigated for something. Perhaps, they should ask Anwar to step down until his trial is over. Lim Kit Siang would have done a better job, of course if he avoids calling for Royal Commission of Inquiry for almost everything that goes wrong, everyday and if he can brush up his verbal communication skills.
Or rather, Pakatan Rakyat should emulate BN, where their leaders are replaced (except for Samy Velu) and more importantly, inclusion of young leaders. Except for Guan Eng, we are tired, forced to see and hear from the same old faces in Pakatan Rakyat.
In summary, Anwar need not apologise, Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’ voters should!, Pakatan Rakyat leaders should apologise, for accepting and supporting him all these years, knowing well his track record in BN and current performance and failures in Sept 16 project and losing Perak state government.
Now all of a sudden he apologises for something petty such as selecting the wrong candidates for the past general elections. His hard core supporters will definitely forgive him, as Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’.
I think Dr Mahathir is the one who should apologise. He did the country no favours when he first invited Anwar to UMNO and as a result, the country political situation has always been unstable ever since Anwar was sacked in 1998.
No opposition leader has inflicted such damage to the country’s image as Anwar did. He criss-crossed the globe saying nothing nice about the country and its leaders. Never mind that he himself got elected by very same undemocratic election system. Never mind that for 16 years, he did nothing to reform the government’s various institutions, never mind that for the same number of years, he controlled the press and helped to build a ‘racist’ newspaper.
Never mind that using the same patronage system, he, his family and friends became rich. Never mind that he defended malay rights to the hilt, BTN, all the repressive laws and the NEP. Has he ever apologized, never. He just reformed himself overnight, just because he was sacked and could not achieve his ambition to become the Prime Minister. He would have never changed anything that was favorable to him if he eventually became the Prime Minister.
The weak opposition then took advantage to befriend him, knowing well Anwar has got substantial grassroots Malay support. Never mind that the first person to accuse Anwar of sodomy and abuse of power is none other than Anwar’s lead counsel for the current trial, Karpal ‘the lion’ Singh. For political power, anything goes. Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’, so Malaysian politicians can change their colours, minds and parties whenever they want.
Apart from Mahathir, the voters who blindly voted for PKR candidates should apologise. You deserve the candidates you voted for. Why ask him/her to step down now. Why no one demanded that the Bota assemblyman to quit when he first crossed over to PKR. Such hypocrisy in Pakatan Rakyat. Elected representative shall remain just that. If people vote for the party, then we don’t need candidates, just vote for the party symbol and let the political party place any representative and have options to change them as and when they like. With this, even by elections will become unnecessary and we can save loads of money.
Malaysia deserves a better opposition leader. There are many within Pakatan Rakyat but I think many talented leaders simply can’t talk and act dramatically like Anwar, hence they are sidelined. Some of them are doing impressive work in their constituency but as they say, in politics, perception matters, not facts. If one were to compile all the facts and track record, rather than rhetoric, Anwar’s achievement as Opposition leader is nothing but a disappointment.
He would probably get some Oscars or Anugerah Seri Angkasa for his stage play, dialogue and (mis)direction, but records show he has not done much since he became the opposition leader. Every state that is governed by Pakatan Rakyat has nothing significant to show eg The same system of political patronage is in place, local councils are filled by mostly local party leaders and race based.
Like Karpal Singh said (telling the truth, emotionally) Anwar should just step down and make way for others. Pakatan Leaders always ask government officials to quit even when they are just being investigated for something. Perhaps, they should ask Anwar to step down until his trial is over. Lim Kit Siang would have done a better job, of course if he avoids calling for Royal Commission of Inquiry for almost everything that goes wrong, everyday and if he can brush up his verbal communication skills.
Or rather, Pakatan Rakyat should emulate BN, where their leaders are replaced (except for Samy Velu) and more importantly, inclusion of young leaders. Except for Guan Eng, we are tired, forced to see and hear from the same old faces in Pakatan Rakyat.
In summary, Anwar need not apologise, Malaysians ‘mudah lupa’ voters should!, Pakatan Rakyat leaders should apologise, for accepting and supporting him all these years, knowing well his track record in BN and current performance and failures in Sept 16 project and losing Perak state government.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Subsidy : One rate for whole economy is better
T.K. CHUA of Kuala Lumpur wrote this in today's Star
SOMETIMES I wonder how the Malaysian market economy is being managed. I am referring to your news report “Fuel Cap” (Sunday Star, Jan 17). My issue is not on how the fuel subsidy should be managed. My issue is should we have this kind of multi-sector and multi-categorisation subsidy system in the first place.
We know for a fact the Malaysian economy has been distorted and dissected into numerous groups and sectors already. Each distortion and categorisation has created more controversy, inefficiency and avenues for corruption. How we could have managed a market economy with total disregard for basic market principles is simply beyond my comprehension.
Malaysia is one principal customs area. If there is any subsidy or taxation, the rate should be uniformly applied throughout the whole economy.
To dissect, to discriminate, and to categorise into different groups or sectors for subsidy entitlement or taxation burden could only result in more hardship, unfairness, inefficiency, arbitrage and corruption especially by those administering such schemes.
We have fleet cards, subsidies for taxies, buses and boats for fishermen. As if this is not complicated enough, now we want to dissect passenger cars into different categories. We spent hundreds of millions in subsidy on fishermen. Did the amount of fish landed really increase?
How much of the petrol and diesel were really used by fishermen to catch fish? Did the subsidised fuel really translate into lower prices of fish in the market?
How much of the fish we consume were supplied by foreign fishermen who enjoyed no subsides from us?
When a subsidy is given, we can’t guarantee complete fairness. Sure, the rich and the wealthy may have gained more from the subsidy, but they have also contributed more in the form of higher taxes?
When they buy a vehicle, the extra taxes (in the form of sales tax, excise duty, and annual road tax) they pay is probably many times more than the extra fuel subsidy they enjoy. What fairness can we extract from them further? Don’t forget they have also paid higher income taxes.
In managing a market economy, we must allow capitalism and market mechanism to work.
We may tinker a little here and there to make it less painful for some but the objective is not really to achieve complete parity or equality.
Didn’t the communists try to do that but we know the result was disastrous for everybody?
They tried to make equality their priority, but the policies made almost everybody equally poor and today communism is history.
A market economy, albeit with limited government intervention, has made people unevenly rich, which is better than making everybody poor.
To minimise distortions and to enhance efficiency, the Government must first decide whether to subsidise or not to subsidise the fuel.
If the decision is to subsidise, it is better to have just one rate for the whole economy. Multiple subsidised rates for different sectors or different groups of citizens only cause high administrative cost, profiteering, inefficiency, corruption and arbitrage.
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I can't but agree with Chua's comment and arguements on subsidy and how it is managed.
The planned fuel subsidy based on mykad and car engine capacity is obiviously flawed and bound to fail especially knowing very well the capability of our enforcement agencies, level of corruption prevalent and the availability of world class, highly skilled home grown fraudsters in Malaysia
Those in high income bracket are already paying high tax rates and those luxury cars are purchased with one of the highest taxes ion the world, how fair is it that fuel subsidy is only given to those who don't pay tax and only pay considerably low tax and duties for the vehicle that they own. As it is only 15% individuals in Malaysia pay tax. The government should find out why is this the case, when based on per capia income figures, those in taxable range should have been substantially more. They should go after this group of people rather than try to figure out and mess up this multi-level subsidy plan.
Chua's questions on the effectiveness of subsidised fleet card to transporters and fishermen is valid and deserves a review. We should allow market forces to determine fish price and cost of transportation, never mind that public transportation is already subsidised in many other forms.
Looking at the Minsiters lack of clarity when replying to the questions on the subsidy plan, all points to a disastrous implemetation of the fuel subsidy plan in May, which will definitely shunned by the people, and Najib will end up like Badawi, whose popularity went down the drain when he drastically raised the fuel price.
In the end, no one will not die if we do not eat fish, especially those caught with fuel subsidy..
SOMETIMES I wonder how the Malaysian market economy is being managed. I am referring to your news report “Fuel Cap” (Sunday Star, Jan 17). My issue is not on how the fuel subsidy should be managed. My issue is should we have this kind of multi-sector and multi-categorisation subsidy system in the first place.
We know for a fact the Malaysian economy has been distorted and dissected into numerous groups and sectors already. Each distortion and categorisation has created more controversy, inefficiency and avenues for corruption. How we could have managed a market economy with total disregard for basic market principles is simply beyond my comprehension.
Malaysia is one principal customs area. If there is any subsidy or taxation, the rate should be uniformly applied throughout the whole economy.
To dissect, to discriminate, and to categorise into different groups or sectors for subsidy entitlement or taxation burden could only result in more hardship, unfairness, inefficiency, arbitrage and corruption especially by those administering such schemes.
We have fleet cards, subsidies for taxies, buses and boats for fishermen. As if this is not complicated enough, now we want to dissect passenger cars into different categories. We spent hundreds of millions in subsidy on fishermen. Did the amount of fish landed really increase?
How much of the petrol and diesel were really used by fishermen to catch fish? Did the subsidised fuel really translate into lower prices of fish in the market?
How much of the fish we consume were supplied by foreign fishermen who enjoyed no subsides from us?
When a subsidy is given, we can’t guarantee complete fairness. Sure, the rich and the wealthy may have gained more from the subsidy, but they have also contributed more in the form of higher taxes?
When they buy a vehicle, the extra taxes (in the form of sales tax, excise duty, and annual road tax) they pay is probably many times more than the extra fuel subsidy they enjoy. What fairness can we extract from them further? Don’t forget they have also paid higher income taxes.
In managing a market economy, we must allow capitalism and market mechanism to work.
We may tinker a little here and there to make it less painful for some but the objective is not really to achieve complete parity or equality.
Didn’t the communists try to do that but we know the result was disastrous for everybody?
They tried to make equality their priority, but the policies made almost everybody equally poor and today communism is history.
A market economy, albeit with limited government intervention, has made people unevenly rich, which is better than making everybody poor.
To minimise distortions and to enhance efficiency, the Government must first decide whether to subsidise or not to subsidise the fuel.
If the decision is to subsidise, it is better to have just one rate for the whole economy. Multiple subsidised rates for different sectors or different groups of citizens only cause high administrative cost, profiteering, inefficiency, corruption and arbitrage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can't but agree with Chua's comment and arguements on subsidy and how it is managed.
The planned fuel subsidy based on mykad and car engine capacity is obiviously flawed and bound to fail especially knowing very well the capability of our enforcement agencies, level of corruption prevalent and the availability of world class, highly skilled home grown fraudsters in Malaysia
Those in high income bracket are already paying high tax rates and those luxury cars are purchased with one of the highest taxes ion the world, how fair is it that fuel subsidy is only given to those who don't pay tax and only pay considerably low tax and duties for the vehicle that they own. As it is only 15% individuals in Malaysia pay tax. The government should find out why is this the case, when based on per capia income figures, those in taxable range should have been substantially more. They should go after this group of people rather than try to figure out and mess up this multi-level subsidy plan.
Chua's questions on the effectiveness of subsidised fleet card to transporters and fishermen is valid and deserves a review. We should allow market forces to determine fish price and cost of transportation, never mind that public transportation is already subsidised in many other forms.
Looking at the Minsiters lack of clarity when replying to the questions on the subsidy plan, all points to a disastrous implemetation of the fuel subsidy plan in May, which will definitely shunned by the people, and Najib will end up like Badawi, whose popularity went down the drain when he drastically raised the fuel price.
In the end, no one will not die if we do not eat fish, especially those caught with fuel subsidy..
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Lee Kuan Yew's Take On Chinese Education
SINGAPORE, Jan 5 — Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was interviewed by Mark Jacobson of the National Geographic in July last year. Read the full article here
While most of the social issues confronting Singapore may be the same as in Malaysia, such as growing immigrant population, insecure original Singaporeans, Race and Religious issues (he spoke about the rise of Evangelical Christians) and others, what caught my interest was his comments about Chinese Education.
Read excerpts from the article below ;
Bilingualism and Chinese schools
We’re losing part of (Chinese culture) because the Chinese schools have disappeared. We’re trying to preserve it in English-speaking schools, but the teachers now were also educated in English-speaking schools and have lost the old traditions. So we’re trying to get them to go to China and see how they preserve these qualities. But we find that in the (Chinese) cities, they’re also changing.
But (I’ve no regret emphasising English). I’m a pragmatist and you can’t make a living with the Chinese language in Singapore.
The first duty of the Government is to be able to feed its people. Singapore has no hinterland and no farming. You have got to trade. You have got to get people to buy your goods or services and get multinationals to come here and manufacture for export.
So we brought the semiconductor factories here. We became a vast centre for the production of computers and computer peripherals. But they all speak English — (including) multinationals from Japan, Europe.
The Chinese-educated were losing out. They were disgruntled because they got the poorer jobs and lesser pay. Eventually, our own Chinese-educated MPs said we have got do something. We’re ruining these people’s careers.
By that time, (Nanyang University) was also losing its good students. Because they took in poor students, they graduated them (with) lower marks and so the degrees became valueless. So when you apply for a job with a Chinese university degree, you hide your degree and produce your school certificate.
I tried to change it from within. Most of the teachers (at Nanyang) had American PhDs. They did their theses in English but they’d forgotten their English as they’d been teaching in Chinese. It couldn’t be done. So I merged them with the English-speaking university.
Great unhappiness for the first few years. But when they graduated, we put it to them: Do you want your old university degree or do you want the English university degree? All opted for the English university degree. That settled it.
(China’s ascent would) make no difference (to the emphasis on English). We are not going to tie ourselves to China to the extent that it makes us hostage. We have many investments there because the older generation are Chinese-educated, they feel comfortable. But the younger generation, they have enough Chinese to go there and do business and they can ramp up (their language skills) if they want.
And not everybody wants to go there. We’ve been offering scholarships to their top universities — Beijing, Qinghua — but very few takers. They say: “Nah, I want to go to America or Britain.” They know they’re coming back here and competing in English.
I can only wish that vernacular education champions back here in Malaysia, most of whom are in awe of Lee Kuan Yew, would realise that in the current century and decade, we are simply losing out. Lee’s assertion that feeding the people comes first makes lots of sense. What is the point of preserving and dying for language and culture if there’s no food on the table.
While we complain that taking away English Medium schools saw the beginning of the decline of education standards in Malaysia, coming from a national school, I could always argue that the rise of vernacular schools also contributed to the decline in English as well as unity in this country.
Further to the decline of English, we are fast losing our competitiveness. Having worked in a MNC before, I have had numerous negative comments on both English and education standards of our graduates. For them, apart from whatever degree that the students graduate in, leadership qualities and ability to communicate effectively (not just speaking English) is more important than say, whether you can count.
Even in National Schools back in 80s and 90s, the quality of English education was quite good as the teachers were from English Mediums. Now with each races segregated in 3 major school streams, we get 3 types of accents and not to mention, less united as a society. The rejection of Vision Schools and the end of teaching of Maths and Science in English can only further deteriorate the quality of our students and our overall competitiveness.
I also wonder why Chinese Schools never reject large number of Malay students in their schools. As champions of mother tongue education, they should have rejected Malay and Indian students and advised them to enrol in national and Tamil Schools.
On the other hand, while Singapore is open to accept more immigrants as their future citizens, we in Malaysia appears only interested in segregate ourselves further.
While most of the social issues confronting Singapore may be the same as in Malaysia, such as growing immigrant population, insecure original Singaporeans, Race and Religious issues (he spoke about the rise of Evangelical Christians) and others, what caught my interest was his comments about Chinese Education.
Read excerpts from the article below ;
Bilingualism and Chinese schools
We’re losing part of (Chinese culture) because the Chinese schools have disappeared. We’re trying to preserve it in English-speaking schools, but the teachers now were also educated in English-speaking schools and have lost the old traditions. So we’re trying to get them to go to China and see how they preserve these qualities. But we find that in the (Chinese) cities, they’re also changing.
But (I’ve no regret emphasising English). I’m a pragmatist and you can’t make a living with the Chinese language in Singapore.
The first duty of the Government is to be able to feed its people. Singapore has no hinterland and no farming. You have got to trade. You have got to get people to buy your goods or services and get multinationals to come here and manufacture for export.
So we brought the semiconductor factories here. We became a vast centre for the production of computers and computer peripherals. But they all speak English — (including) multinationals from Japan, Europe.
The Chinese-educated were losing out. They were disgruntled because they got the poorer jobs and lesser pay. Eventually, our own Chinese-educated MPs said we have got do something. We’re ruining these people’s careers.
By that time, (Nanyang University) was also losing its good students. Because they took in poor students, they graduated them (with) lower marks and so the degrees became valueless. So when you apply for a job with a Chinese university degree, you hide your degree and produce your school certificate.
I tried to change it from within. Most of the teachers (at Nanyang) had American PhDs. They did their theses in English but they’d forgotten their English as they’d been teaching in Chinese. It couldn’t be done. So I merged them with the English-speaking university.
Great unhappiness for the first few years. But when they graduated, we put it to them: Do you want your old university degree or do you want the English university degree? All opted for the English university degree. That settled it.
(China’s ascent would) make no difference (to the emphasis on English). We are not going to tie ourselves to China to the extent that it makes us hostage. We have many investments there because the older generation are Chinese-educated, they feel comfortable. But the younger generation, they have enough Chinese to go there and do business and they can ramp up (their language skills) if they want.
And not everybody wants to go there. We’ve been offering scholarships to their top universities — Beijing, Qinghua — but very few takers. They say: “Nah, I want to go to America or Britain.” They know they’re coming back here and competing in English.
I can only wish that vernacular education champions back here in Malaysia, most of whom are in awe of Lee Kuan Yew, would realise that in the current century and decade, we are simply losing out. Lee’s assertion that feeding the people comes first makes lots of sense. What is the point of preserving and dying for language and culture if there’s no food on the table.
While we complain that taking away English Medium schools saw the beginning of the decline of education standards in Malaysia, coming from a national school, I could always argue that the rise of vernacular schools also contributed to the decline in English as well as unity in this country.
Further to the decline of English, we are fast losing our competitiveness. Having worked in a MNC before, I have had numerous negative comments on both English and education standards of our graduates. For them, apart from whatever degree that the students graduate in, leadership qualities and ability to communicate effectively (not just speaking English) is more important than say, whether you can count.
Even in National Schools back in 80s and 90s, the quality of English education was quite good as the teachers were from English Mediums. Now with each races segregated in 3 major school streams, we get 3 types of accents and not to mention, less united as a society. The rejection of Vision Schools and the end of teaching of Maths and Science in English can only further deteriorate the quality of our students and our overall competitiveness.
I also wonder why Chinese Schools never reject large number of Malay students in their schools. As champions of mother tongue education, they should have rejected Malay and Indian students and advised them to enrol in national and Tamil Schools.
On the other hand, while Singapore is open to accept more immigrants as their future citizens, we in Malaysia appears only interested in segregate ourselves further.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
GST : Focus On Tax Evaders First
I was amused with the comments above from readers of both Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini for this article
Comments
written by maha, December 16, 2009
the implemintation of GST by the B.N govt clearly shows to what extend the govt of the day is interested in the welfare of in particular the middle and lower income group. So I beg rational voters to bring in pakatan in 13 GE &. we will see what pakatan CAN DO. Pakatan have proven in Kedah, penang,selangor,kelantan and to certain extend in perak.KEEP IT UP PAKATAN!
written by siong, December 16, 2009
GLCs making lost. BN now worried all the economics corridors they promised will bring development, hitting big rock and sink. So, go and collect money from poor rakyat to bail out GLCs linked with BN politicians. 1Malaysia rakyat diutamakan, I mean first to get robbed.
written by i_love_malaysia, December 16, 2009
When come to collecting money, the BN govt is super efficient!!! The govt should stop all the leakages and not just want to collect more and more and more!!! No wonder the Thais and Singaporeans drivers and smugglers are laughing all the way to the banks for our generousity out of govt stupidity!!!
written by lowxinpui, December 16, 2009
Bloody well make sure all the PR MPs are present when the votes are taken.
written by Ahmad Ismail, December 16, 2009
BN is short of money?
then how come can pay so high dividend to Amanah Saham Bumiputera?
GST will be a waterloo for BN inthe next election.
written by Apa Khabar, December 16, 2009
What GST to Najib may just turn out to be like Badawi's petrol price hike, with its repercussion on the next General Election.
No worries, mate!
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From Similar Article in Malaysiakini
by kgan - 30 minutes ago
Some proponents of GST have touted the 4% rate as lower than the 10% Sales Tax which it will replace. But sales tax is levied at source on manufacturers and importers on nett prices so the GST rate must be multiplied by the markup from source to consumer. Furthermore, GST will affect a far wider range of goods and services than sales tax. Don't forget 4% is only the starting rate, it is set to go up as oil revenue decreases and BN needs ever more money to fund its corruption.
by Habib RAK - 41 minutes ago
Tony Pua from DAP had already articulated this matter very well. He has clearly pointed out that it is not timely to introduce GST as this juncture. What needs to be done first is to get rid of the all the wastages, overpricing, plundering, stealing from the national coffers. The savings from these areas will generate more revenue than from GST.
by M'sian - an hour ago
From next year onwards we can expect more opposition politician to change camps. Government will have more money to buy these people, while tax paid is wasted for white elephant like PKFZ, double rail project and this will be additional income for thief & team (PM & Team).
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If this is the quality of their cyber troopers, don't expect much when Pakatan takes over the country, as these stupid cyber troopers will hardly object any wrong doing by Pakatan in future as these cyber troopers appears to be dumb enough to be taken in by anything that Pakatan does. There's hardly any intellectual debate on the GST issue in the comments section except for one Habib RAK. These rest are just some emotional outburst from hardcore Pakatan Rakyat supporters. Just look at the comment by Ahmad Ismail and you would realise how stupid can Pakatan Cyber troopers be.
i_live_Malaysia is also completely wrong, Malaysian government is pathetic is collecting taxes, hence the introduction of GST. While we do not know much of the impact of GST, we should hear more on what the experts have to say rather than what politicians like Tony Pua has to say .
I agree completely with Tony of saving money elsewhere but there's never a wrong timing of GST implementation. Even if the economy has recovered, nobody likes taxes, hence it will be still opposed by those who like to oppose. Will Pakatan Rakyat implement GST when the economy recovers. They are likely to do so, when pressured by economist and foreign experts. See some expert views here, , here , and here
I suspect after the second reading of the bill in March, and if ever Najib decides to implement the policy, Pakatan Rakyat and NGO's aligned to them will take to the streets (as they did against PPSMI policy) The politicians who are strongly against certain government policies could well do something wiser that will be well accepted by Rakyat.
They moan about increased prices all around resulting in higher cost of living. They could well go to the streets when traders increase prices. Why not take consumer's concern to the streets. They could well mobilise consumer association and their hardcore supporters to boycott certain unscrupulous traders, companies and monopolies. Why can't they do that? Why only take the streets only if they do not agree with BN. This is where Pakatan loses its credibility and aptly supported by idiotic comments by their hardcore supporters and cyber troopers, clogging comments section of all online news sites.
They do go to the ground and investigate, unlike LHDN who sits in the office and assess tax submissions just based on documents presented, never mind those duplicate / imitation documents such as DOs. Invoices, Bank Statements, salary slip, EPF statement, EA Forms are easily available for a fee. Have we ever heard someone being charged for tax evasion in Malaysia? LHDN appears no to realise the well known fact that Malaysian fraudsters are one of those in the World's best category.
If taxes are effectively collected, apart from improving the nation's coffers, it would reduce our dependence of oil money and corporate taxes.
As for GST, again how sure are we that traders and businessman don't cheat by increasing their prices. This is something that was raised by opponents of the policy. I think more pertinently, we have ask how sure are we that these traders do not cook up their sales figures and swindle whatever GST meant to be remitted to the authorities. If we do not have an efficient system to track all these possible abuses and without proper monitoring system, we ought not to have the GST in place.
Comments
written by maha, December 16, 2009
the implemintation of GST by the B.N govt clearly shows to what extend the govt of the day is interested in the welfare of in particular the middle and lower income group. So I beg rational voters to bring in pakatan in 13 GE &. we will see what pakatan CAN DO. Pakatan have proven in Kedah, penang,selangor,kelantan and to certain extend in perak.KEEP IT UP PAKATAN!
written by siong, December 16, 2009
GLCs making lost. BN now worried all the economics corridors they promised will bring development, hitting big rock and sink. So, go and collect money from poor rakyat to bail out GLCs linked with BN politicians. 1Malaysia rakyat diutamakan, I mean first to get robbed.
written by i_love_malaysia, December 16, 2009
When come to collecting money, the BN govt is super efficient!!! The govt should stop all the leakages and not just want to collect more and more and more!!! No wonder the Thais and Singaporeans drivers and smugglers are laughing all the way to the banks for our generousity out of govt stupidity!!!
written by lowxinpui, December 16, 2009
Bloody well make sure all the PR MPs are present when the votes are taken.
written by Ahmad Ismail, December 16, 2009
BN is short of money?
then how come can pay so high dividend to Amanah Saham Bumiputera?
GST will be a waterloo for BN inthe next election.
written by Apa Khabar, December 16, 2009
What GST to Najib may just turn out to be like Badawi's petrol price hike, with its repercussion on the next General Election.
No worries, mate!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Similar Article in Malaysiakini
by kgan - 30 minutes ago
Some proponents of GST have touted the 4% rate as lower than the 10% Sales Tax which it will replace. But sales tax is levied at source on manufacturers and importers on nett prices so the GST rate must be multiplied by the markup from source to consumer. Furthermore, GST will affect a far wider range of goods and services than sales tax. Don't forget 4% is only the starting rate, it is set to go up as oil revenue decreases and BN needs ever more money to fund its corruption.
by Habib RAK - 41 minutes ago
Tony Pua from DAP had already articulated this matter very well. He has clearly pointed out that it is not timely to introduce GST as this juncture. What needs to be done first is to get rid of the all the wastages, overpricing, plundering, stealing from the national coffers. The savings from these areas will generate more revenue than from GST.
by M'sian - an hour ago
From next year onwards we can expect more opposition politician to change camps. Government will have more money to buy these people, while tax paid is wasted for white elephant like PKFZ, double rail project and this will be additional income for thief & team (PM & Team).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this is the quality of their cyber troopers, don't expect much when Pakatan takes over the country, as these stupid cyber troopers will hardly object any wrong doing by Pakatan in future as these cyber troopers appears to be dumb enough to be taken in by anything that Pakatan does. There's hardly any intellectual debate on the GST issue in the comments section except for one Habib RAK. These rest are just some emotional outburst from hardcore Pakatan Rakyat supporters. Just look at the comment by Ahmad Ismail and you would realise how stupid can Pakatan Cyber troopers be.
i_live_Malaysia is also completely wrong, Malaysian government is pathetic is collecting taxes, hence the introduction of GST. While we do not know much of the impact of GST, we should hear more on what the experts have to say rather than what politicians like Tony Pua has to say .
I agree completely with Tony of saving money elsewhere but there's never a wrong timing of GST implementation. Even if the economy has recovered, nobody likes taxes, hence it will be still opposed by those who like to oppose. Will Pakatan Rakyat implement GST when the economy recovers. They are likely to do so, when pressured by economist and foreign experts. See some expert views here, , here , and here
I suspect after the second reading of the bill in March, and if ever Najib decides to implement the policy, Pakatan Rakyat and NGO's aligned to them will take to the streets (as they did against PPSMI policy) The politicians who are strongly against certain government policies could well do something wiser that will be well accepted by Rakyat.
They moan about increased prices all around resulting in higher cost of living. They could well go to the streets when traders increase prices. Why not take consumer's concern to the streets. They could well mobilise consumer association and their hardcore supporters to boycott certain unscrupulous traders, companies and monopolies. Why can't they do that? Why only take the streets only if they do not agree with BN. This is where Pakatan loses its credibility and aptly supported by idiotic comments by their hardcore supporters and cyber troopers, clogging comments section of all online news sites.
What we need to tackle seriously in the immediate terms is to ensure those who are actually taxable pay taxes and this will immediately increase the nation's coffers. And to appease those who swore to live by rule of law, we should charge those who deliberately evade tax.
It was estimated that only 7% Malaysians actually pay tax. That's rather pathetic as I believe many who are in the taxable range are not paying tax at all. Efforts must be made to ensure those who are supposed to pay tax do so. It is so unfair that only salaried people are tracked and forced to pay tax. There are many more out there, such as hawkers, retailers, self-employed individuals (including professional such as lawyers, Doctors, Accountants, Engineers who run their business under Enterprise license) who do not pay tax at all. They evade tax by simply cooking up their accounts, aided by chartered accountants every year. They do pay nominal amount which is usually not reflective of their income.
I am also disgusted that while I pay maximum tax, and many people, who speak loudly about abuse of power, corruption and human rights do not actually pay tax. This includes many of the so-called proponents of rule of law, those who question police's credibility, those who cry about PKFZ and other scandals without any sense of guilt that they are also cheating the authorities. I have, in the past, have been asked to submit documents for audit purposes by LHDN after filing via E-Filling. I asked around those who always under declare taxes, none of them have been asked to do the same. This is why I mentioned that LHDN is pathetic on collecting taxes.
Many people I know that participated in the Bersih and Hindraf rallies do not pay tax at all. Some of them live luxurious life with fast cars and have the cheek to proudly claim that they do not pay much tax. I always feel cheated when I see my pay slip with huge amount of deduction especially when knowing well that people who earn more under-declare their income and some do not pay tax at all.
LHDN will have to improve their monitoring system and ensure that those who are taxable declare their income accurately and pay the required taxes. LHDN should be as tough as their counterparts in the west. In US for example, Inland Revenue are more feared by the public than any other government agency. They work their way to ensure taxes are paid.
They do go to the ground and investigate, unlike LHDN who sits in the office and assess tax submissions just based on documents presented, never mind those duplicate / imitation documents such as DOs. Invoices, Bank Statements, salary slip, EPF statement, EA Forms are easily available for a fee. Have we ever heard someone being charged for tax evasion in Malaysia? LHDN appears no to realise the well known fact that Malaysian fraudsters are one of those in the World's best category.
If taxes are effectively collected, apart from improving the nation's coffers, it would reduce our dependence of oil money and corporate taxes.
As for GST, again how sure are we that traders and businessman don't cheat by increasing their prices. This is something that was raised by opponents of the policy. I think more pertinently, we have ask how sure are we that these traders do not cook up their sales figures and swindle whatever GST meant to be remitted to the authorities. If we do not have an efficient system to track all these possible abuses and without proper monitoring system, we ought not to have the GST in place.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
We Are All Racist!!
It’s quite funny to see Malaysians accusing each other of being racist. This, is from the Ministers right up to the working class ( the cow head group).
I think we Malaysians are in denial. We are all racist. I will outline below why I say so..
All Malaysian political parties are somewhat race based; this includes those who claim to be multi racial. Multi-racial political parties while claiming to be all equal, conduct their ceramah targeting particular race at various spots usually frequented by a particular race.
For example, DAP, MCA and Gerakan have their ceramah at Chinese restaurants, complete with dinner and drinks. UMNO and PAS like to have their campaigns near mosques and open areas within usually a Malay majority area while MIC and Hindraf like to do this in Indian Majority areas and even temples.
The only time these political parties do otherwise is when they campaign for candidate from another party, only then they share the same stage. This is quite evident during by-elections where campaigns are more focused one various ethnic groups apart from the customary door to door campaigning.
Why is that certain political party leaders give their speech in Mandarin and Tamil, aren’t we supposed to be communicating in Bahasa Malaysia or English. The whole objective cannot be other than delivering messages targeted at certain race.
We have various school streams based on mainly race and not really actual mother tongue. We have so called vernacular school champions, whose statement and overall outlook are racist in nature, supported vehemently by MCA, MIC, and not surprisingly self appointed multi-racialist, Gerakan, PKR, DAP and various other mosquito parties.
Why PKR and DAP supports vernacular schools, even to the extend of marching the streets in pressuring government to reverse the Maths/Science in English policy, is beyond me. They were also the first to denounce single stream school idea put forward by a racist party, UMNO (Mukhriz brought it up first in the parliament).
Of course, everyone, including UMNO, MIC, MCA and multi-racial parties often rely on the clauses in the federal constitution which guarantees vernacular education as well as special privileges for the Malays. While Multi-racial parties wants Malay rights to be abolished and the government to treat everyone equally, they are unwilling to accept the idea of having children study in the single school system, even though Mandarin and Tamil will still be taught.
When Vision School idea, a compromise of sorts to maintain Chinese and Tamil schools in it’s current form while sharing a common venue/building, the same racist vernacular school champions objected and not to our surprise again, their objection were supported by so-called multi-racial parties such as DAP. Why, because DAP’s support is mainly derived from one race, hence race is a main factor in DAP’s political strategy. Why is that there are hardly any Malays in DAP, the answer is the same, the actual focus is on RACE, RACE and RACE.
What is the reason for Selangor state government, helmed by a multi-racial party back track on their decision to appoint a Chinese as the head of PKNS. Why is that their representative line up for EXCO and councilors are various local council in all states (including those helmed by multiracial parties ) is based on racial quota, not on basis of experience and competency.
Why do ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ leader Lim Guan Eng, who want equality, and champions ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency appoint a Malay and Indian Deputy Chief Minister, who have no administrative experience, if not for the reason none other than the candidates RACE!
Why is that DAP is very much focused on the PKFZ scandal and not say MIED or Maika or even the roof collapse of the stadium in Terengganu, if not for the fact that the scandal is linked to MCA, their arch-enemies in vying for Chinese votes.
It’s also normal for all these politicians to take advantage of certain incidents to become champions of certain race. Good example is Kugan and Teoh Beng Hock’s death, though Malaysians as a whole deplored such tragic events, certain politicians found it fit to use it to their advantage and in the process, become hero of the particular race.
In Kugan’s death, Indian politicians from both opposition and BN came to the fore but when innocent and not so innocent Indians are dying on almost daily basis due to violence perpetrated by fellow Indians, these Indian Champions are no where to be seen. I am not exaggerating here, almost one Indian is killed everyday by usually fellow Indians, due to fights, gang fights, crime gone wrong etc. Those who read Tamil newspapers will agree. In fact, I had a relative who became a victim, whose case is never resolved until today.
The same applies when known criminals are shot dead by police, more than usual, only politicians of certain race comes forward to slam the police but when policemen are killed or injured while on duty, the same racial heroes are nowhere to be seen. You must have realized that similar scenarios prevailed in Teoh Beng Hock’s case.
Actually I need not go far to illustrate this point, just go and have a look at the vernacular newspapers. They are full of reports on certain race only. A non-record breaking Sea Games gold medal win by an Indian were glorified by all 3 Tamil newspaper while a double gold medal win by A Sarawakian were left in a small column of the back page in two of the 3 newspapers. Another just highlighted it in the summary.
I pity most of our Malay friends who can’t read these vernacular newspapers. Even for Chinese or rather Mandarin newspapers, one need not know the language; you can know what’s going on, where the focus is, what the main issues etc are by looking at the generous amount of pictures in the pages. You will never go wrong if you conclude that the main issues are about Chinese and key personalities are none other than MCA, leaders as well as Chinese leaders from the so-called multi-racial parties.
In Tamil newspapers, you can also easily detect the media conduct of Indian politicians from so-called multi-racial parties. People like Manikavasagam, Sivanesan, Gobalakrishnan and even Dr Ramasamy (DCM, Penang) . They pander to Tamil media, appearing almost daily basis on stories exclusively focused on Indians. The war between politicians in the Tamil newspapers, who are generally more independent than English or Malay mainstream papers are quite ferocious and these politicians from so-called multi-racial parties use the papers to slam MIC and BN leaders. It is so obvious that the only reason they do this is of course to slam BN but on the other hand, to be seen as a hero to their own race. They hardly invite Tamil Media to cover events involving other races.
On a personal basis, it is common for Malaysians to criticise and make racially insensitive comments about another race when their own kind get together. We would be lying if we deny this. We deplore the habits of certain race and the only opportune time to talk about it is when the same race get together. We make all kinds of accusation against another race when we can easily find similar deficiencies or weaknesses within our own race.
It was apparent in the case of Indians, where all the blame for their misfortunes are leveled against the government and Malays in general when the actual fact, most of the problems faced by the community is their own doing but none of the racial heroes have come forward to criticise their own community for their failures.
I had similar feeling when reading ‘The Chinese Dilemma’ where the community, despite being quite well of in general, was portrayed is being in denial of their own weaknesses. Most of the facts presented were quite true, says a Chinese friend of mine.
In summary, we are all racist and politicians should accept this fact and stop accusing each other of being racist. No country in the world is without racist or people with such tendencies. We just have to minimise such rhetoric’s and focus on bridging the divide.
I think we Malaysians are in denial. We are all racist. I will outline below why I say so..
All Malaysian political parties are somewhat race based; this includes those who claim to be multi racial. Multi-racial political parties while claiming to be all equal, conduct their ceramah targeting particular race at various spots usually frequented by a particular race.
For example, DAP, MCA and Gerakan have their ceramah at Chinese restaurants, complete with dinner and drinks. UMNO and PAS like to have their campaigns near mosques and open areas within usually a Malay majority area while MIC and Hindraf like to do this in Indian Majority areas and even temples.
The only time these political parties do otherwise is when they campaign for candidate from another party, only then they share the same stage. This is quite evident during by-elections where campaigns are more focused one various ethnic groups apart from the customary door to door campaigning.
Why is that certain political party leaders give their speech in Mandarin and Tamil, aren’t we supposed to be communicating in Bahasa Malaysia or English. The whole objective cannot be other than delivering messages targeted at certain race.
We have various school streams based on mainly race and not really actual mother tongue. We have so called vernacular school champions, whose statement and overall outlook are racist in nature, supported vehemently by MCA, MIC, and not surprisingly self appointed multi-racialist, Gerakan, PKR, DAP and various other mosquito parties.
Why PKR and DAP supports vernacular schools, even to the extend of marching the streets in pressuring government to reverse the Maths/Science in English policy, is beyond me. They were also the first to denounce single stream school idea put forward by a racist party, UMNO (Mukhriz brought it up first in the parliament).
Of course, everyone, including UMNO, MIC, MCA and multi-racial parties often rely on the clauses in the federal constitution which guarantees vernacular education as well as special privileges for the Malays. While Multi-racial parties wants Malay rights to be abolished and the government to treat everyone equally, they are unwilling to accept the idea of having children study in the single school system, even though Mandarin and Tamil will still be taught.
When Vision School idea, a compromise of sorts to maintain Chinese and Tamil schools in it’s current form while sharing a common venue/building, the same racist vernacular school champions objected and not to our surprise again, their objection were supported by so-called multi-racial parties such as DAP. Why, because DAP’s support is mainly derived from one race, hence race is a main factor in DAP’s political strategy. Why is that there are hardly any Malays in DAP, the answer is the same, the actual focus is on RACE, RACE and RACE.
What is the reason for Selangor state government, helmed by a multi-racial party back track on their decision to appoint a Chinese as the head of PKNS. Why is that their representative line up for EXCO and councilors are various local council in all states (including those helmed by multiracial parties ) is based on racial quota, not on basis of experience and competency.
Why do ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ leader Lim Guan Eng, who want equality, and champions ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency appoint a Malay and Indian Deputy Chief Minister, who have no administrative experience, if not for the reason none other than the candidates RACE!
Why is that DAP is very much focused on the PKFZ scandal and not say MIED or Maika or even the roof collapse of the stadium in Terengganu, if not for the fact that the scandal is linked to MCA, their arch-enemies in vying for Chinese votes.
It’s also normal for all these politicians to take advantage of certain incidents to become champions of certain race. Good example is Kugan and Teoh Beng Hock’s death, though Malaysians as a whole deplored such tragic events, certain politicians found it fit to use it to their advantage and in the process, become hero of the particular race.
In Kugan’s death, Indian politicians from both opposition and BN came to the fore but when innocent and not so innocent Indians are dying on almost daily basis due to violence perpetrated by fellow Indians, these Indian Champions are no where to be seen. I am not exaggerating here, almost one Indian is killed everyday by usually fellow Indians, due to fights, gang fights, crime gone wrong etc. Those who read Tamil newspapers will agree. In fact, I had a relative who became a victim, whose case is never resolved until today.
The same applies when known criminals are shot dead by police, more than usual, only politicians of certain race comes forward to slam the police but when policemen are killed or injured while on duty, the same racial heroes are nowhere to be seen. You must have realized that similar scenarios prevailed in Teoh Beng Hock’s case.
Actually I need not go far to illustrate this point, just go and have a look at the vernacular newspapers. They are full of reports on certain race only. A non-record breaking Sea Games gold medal win by an Indian were glorified by all 3 Tamil newspaper while a double gold medal win by A Sarawakian were left in a small column of the back page in two of the 3 newspapers. Another just highlighted it in the summary.
I pity most of our Malay friends who can’t read these vernacular newspapers. Even for Chinese or rather Mandarin newspapers, one need not know the language; you can know what’s going on, where the focus is, what the main issues etc are by looking at the generous amount of pictures in the pages. You will never go wrong if you conclude that the main issues are about Chinese and key personalities are none other than MCA, leaders as well as Chinese leaders from the so-called multi-racial parties.
In Tamil newspapers, you can also easily detect the media conduct of Indian politicians from so-called multi-racial parties. People like Manikavasagam, Sivanesan, Gobalakrishnan and even Dr Ramasamy (DCM, Penang) . They pander to Tamil media, appearing almost daily basis on stories exclusively focused on Indians. The war between politicians in the Tamil newspapers, who are generally more independent than English or Malay mainstream papers are quite ferocious and these politicians from so-called multi-racial parties use the papers to slam MIC and BN leaders. It is so obvious that the only reason they do this is of course to slam BN but on the other hand, to be seen as a hero to their own race. They hardly invite Tamil Media to cover events involving other races.
On a personal basis, it is common for Malaysians to criticise and make racially insensitive comments about another race when their own kind get together. We would be lying if we deny this. We deplore the habits of certain race and the only opportune time to talk about it is when the same race get together. We make all kinds of accusation against another race when we can easily find similar deficiencies or weaknesses within our own race.
It was apparent in the case of Indians, where all the blame for their misfortunes are leveled against the government and Malays in general when the actual fact, most of the problems faced by the community is their own doing but none of the racial heroes have come forward to criticise their own community for their failures.
I had similar feeling when reading ‘The Chinese Dilemma’ where the community, despite being quite well of in general, was portrayed is being in denial of their own weaknesses. Most of the facts presented were quite true, says a Chinese friend of mine.
In summary, we are all racist and politicians should accept this fact and stop accusing each other of being racist. No country in the world is without racist or people with such tendencies. We just have to minimise such rhetoric’s and focus on bridging the divide.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
How Things Have and Have Not Changed
Further to the March 8 elections, leading to the anti-climax on Sept 16 last year, things were looking good for Pakatan Rakyat, where we also saw Pakatan winning most by-elections and it’s leader Anwar Ibrahim, returning to Parliament. There also appeared to be too much of politics in the country leading to Sept 16.
Pakatan Rakyat as a whole was also in their element by setting up state governments in 5 states and handing out freebies while Barisan Nasional were in the brink of collapse, especially UMNO, while MCA took the opportunity to renew itself by the way of Ong Kah Ting not seeking another term. MIC became irrelevant with it’s leader going on a mission to re-brand the grand old party. MIC should have been renamed Samy Vellu & Family Party as part of the re-branding exercise.
One year later, we are seeing the situation reversed. BN’s win in Bagan Pinang brought back some cheer to Barisan, though it can be solely attributed to Isa long service to the constituency, more than a reflection of support for BN. It can be also said that Pakatan Rakyat was also disorganized throughout the campaign period.
Najib , who started with the lowest popularity ratings ever by a PM has regained some support of the Malaysians.Some of the policies changes and other economic measures received support from the corporate sector as well as the public. The upcoming budget is likely to have some people friendly measures that would definitely spur Najib’s popularity.
Pakatan Rakyat, on the other hand, is seen as in chaos. No discipline whatsoever, that would sum up the attitude of their leaders. Their decline started with the BN takeover of Perak. However unfair it may be, Pakatan Rakyat leaders behavior was nothing but crude, rude and unbecoming, no matter that they felt that they were victimized. Kugan and Teoh death brought back the anger of public, but then BN is not to be blamed entirely.
Conflicting statements from their Pakatan Rakyat leaders are nothing but an example of a coalition in distress. While Lim Kit Siang does, from time to time indicate that Pakatan Rakyat has to buck up, however their supreme leader has been forever in denial, claiming that BN and press are to blame for everything.
PAS revealed their true colours while PKR leaders continue to squabble in public, the recent being Zaid decision to take leave, when there is no need to, if ever he wants to concentrate on forming a formal coalition. PKR, whose leader dreamt of taking over as PM by the way of luring (or rather, buying) the support of mainly MPs of both Sabah and Sarawak, are now facing serious crisis in the very same states. DAP on the other hand, remains the only sane party in Pakatan Rakyat despite the drubbing they received over the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
From becoming a government in waiting, Pakatan Rakyat is now seen as a coalition that is found wanting. Nothing substantial has been achieved in the states that they govern. Election promises remains as texts in their manifestos while their leaders continue to behave like opposition. In the area that I am staying, I saw no substantial differences, except for increased dengue cases.
BN is also seeing crises within their coalition. MCA is still reeling from the decision of delegates to the EGM. No solutions seems to be in sight. I would have preferred the level headed reformist, Ong Kah Ting remained for another term. Chua Jui Meng headed for the problematic PKR. My prediction is he would not last long there as he is not the person who can survive rough politics. He should have joined DAP, where at least they would have respected.
PPP is also still affected by the continued defiance of Murugiah, who refuses to acknowledge that he is no longer in PPP or definitely not the President. Najib is also appears to be unsure as to how to handle Murugiah’s case. In general, Murugiah is seen to be effective and popular in his role as Deputy Minister, regardless of the problems with the party leadership.
MIC rebranding exercise last year has resulted in President renewing his term with the support of his own men at helm in the Central Working Committee. Samy Vellu was also pressured to leave, mainly due to the insistence of influential Dr Mahathir that he has overstayed his welcome. As defiant as he has been, Samy insists that he will hand over the reign to largely ineffective deputy before the next party elections.
Najib, not wanting to rely solely on MIC for Indian support, agreed to do something unprecedented, launching Malaysia Makkal Sakhti Party, run by a former Hindraf coordinator. The PM usually do not even attend AGMs of parties who supports but not a member of BN.
The recent UMNO general assembly showed that UMNO can also be rational when their leaders want to. No fiery speeches, except for the ones by Najib. ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ appears to have taken a backseat as this grand old party risk losing their grip on power for the first time ever if they do not change.
In summary, both BN and PR are in a mess and indirectly, the Malaysian public suffers due to selfish and irrational attitude of some leaders. Imagine how many policies, approvals and economic measures could have been stalled due to politicians holding government posts (both federal and state) distracted by internal political problems in their respective party. This is where party politics and democracy does not benefit the general population and we, Malaysians have seen a bit too much of this lately.
Pakatan Rakyat as a whole was also in their element by setting up state governments in 5 states and handing out freebies while Barisan Nasional were in the brink of collapse, especially UMNO, while MCA took the opportunity to renew itself by the way of Ong Kah Ting not seeking another term. MIC became irrelevant with it’s leader going on a mission to re-brand the grand old party. MIC should have been renamed Samy Vellu & Family Party as part of the re-branding exercise.
One year later, we are seeing the situation reversed. BN’s win in Bagan Pinang brought back some cheer to Barisan, though it can be solely attributed to Isa long service to the constituency, more than a reflection of support for BN. It can be also said that Pakatan Rakyat was also disorganized throughout the campaign period.
Najib , who started with the lowest popularity ratings ever by a PM has regained some support of the Malaysians.Some of the policies changes and other economic measures received support from the corporate sector as well as the public. The upcoming budget is likely to have some people friendly measures that would definitely spur Najib’s popularity.
Pakatan Rakyat, on the other hand, is seen as in chaos. No discipline whatsoever, that would sum up the attitude of their leaders. Their decline started with the BN takeover of Perak. However unfair it may be, Pakatan Rakyat leaders behavior was nothing but crude, rude and unbecoming, no matter that they felt that they were victimized. Kugan and Teoh death brought back the anger of public, but then BN is not to be blamed entirely.
Conflicting statements from their Pakatan Rakyat leaders are nothing but an example of a coalition in distress. While Lim Kit Siang does, from time to time indicate that Pakatan Rakyat has to buck up, however their supreme leader has been forever in denial, claiming that BN and press are to blame for everything.
PAS revealed their true colours while PKR leaders continue to squabble in public, the recent being Zaid decision to take leave, when there is no need to, if ever he wants to concentrate on forming a formal coalition. PKR, whose leader dreamt of taking over as PM by the way of luring (or rather, buying) the support of mainly MPs of both Sabah and Sarawak, are now facing serious crisis in the very same states. DAP on the other hand, remains the only sane party in Pakatan Rakyat despite the drubbing they received over the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
From becoming a government in waiting, Pakatan Rakyat is now seen as a coalition that is found wanting. Nothing substantial has been achieved in the states that they govern. Election promises remains as texts in their manifestos while their leaders continue to behave like opposition. In the area that I am staying, I saw no substantial differences, except for increased dengue cases.
BN is also seeing crises within their coalition. MCA is still reeling from the decision of delegates to the EGM. No solutions seems to be in sight. I would have preferred the level headed reformist, Ong Kah Ting remained for another term. Chua Jui Meng headed for the problematic PKR. My prediction is he would not last long there as he is not the person who can survive rough politics. He should have joined DAP, where at least they would have respected.
PPP is also still affected by the continued defiance of Murugiah, who refuses to acknowledge that he is no longer in PPP or definitely not the President. Najib is also appears to be unsure as to how to handle Murugiah’s case. In general, Murugiah is seen to be effective and popular in his role as Deputy Minister, regardless of the problems with the party leadership.
MIC rebranding exercise last year has resulted in President renewing his term with the support of his own men at helm in the Central Working Committee. Samy Vellu was also pressured to leave, mainly due to the insistence of influential Dr Mahathir that he has overstayed his welcome. As defiant as he has been, Samy insists that he will hand over the reign to largely ineffective deputy before the next party elections.
Najib, not wanting to rely solely on MIC for Indian support, agreed to do something unprecedented, launching Malaysia Makkal Sakhti Party, run by a former Hindraf coordinator. The PM usually do not even attend AGMs of parties who supports but not a member of BN.
The recent UMNO general assembly showed that UMNO can also be rational when their leaders want to. No fiery speeches, except for the ones by Najib. ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ appears to have taken a backseat as this grand old party risk losing their grip on power for the first time ever if they do not change.
In summary, both BN and PR are in a mess and indirectly, the Malaysian public suffers due to selfish and irrational attitude of some leaders. Imagine how many policies, approvals and economic measures could have been stalled due to politicians holding government posts (both federal and state) distracted by internal political problems in their respective party. This is where party politics and democracy does not benefit the general population and we, Malaysians have seen a bit too much of this lately.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
1Malaysia Overdose
I am increasingly irritated by the 1Malaysia campaign. Not sure why people are so into this slogan as if this is something new. Even the corporate sector joined the bandwagon and riding on the catchy slogan with their glossy advertisements in the mainstream television.
While Najib’s massive campaign may have been positively welcomed by the rakyat, it has become an irritant and more so when his own party members are still within the old mindset as reflected in some of their speeches and not to mention various articles in Utusan Melayu.
While everyone blames Utusan Melayu for racist centric articles, the same can be said with Tamil newspapers and I was told, even Chinese newspapers. It’s just that all Malaysians can read Utusan while not all Indians or Chinese Malaysian can read Tamil or mandarin newspapers, what more Malays.
Unless Najib’s own party members reflect the slogan in their actions, this 1Malaysia will soon end up like “Gemilang, Cermerlang and Terbilang” in the next general elections.
1Malaysia maybe nice and catchy to some people, especially the kids, but it’s pointless if people chose to segregate themselves and the fact that we have a system that segregates children from young. And we all know that this systematic segregation is well supported by the same people who champion for 1Malaysia, Malaysian Malaysia and others similar slogans that are not popular.
On the other hand, if Malaysians really wants to be united, not just be seen to be united, they have to make sacrifices, I mean big sacrifice here. That would be the current generation’s biggest contribution to the next, and they will certainly be remembered centuries to come.
I am, of course, referring to the single stream school idea which has been reignited, read here.
If Najib and Muyiddin is serious about 1Malaysia, they should do their best to float a workable idea towards establishing one single school stream. It may not be appealing to Chinese and Indian educationist, or rather chauvinist, but an attractive and quality national school may work to attract non Malays back to national school. This may include introduction of English medium schools, which I believe will definitely attract all races.
With the race and racist sentiments hitting high notes recently, I had a first hand look on old 1Malaysia in one small cowboy town called Paloh in Johor. I attended a function held by my father’s friend, an Indian Malaysian. Whilst it was a small function, it was well attended by multi-racial crowd within the neighborhood. What was surprising it that, the non-indians outnumbered the Indians.
I had the opportunity to have a chat with the folk there. I gathered that most of them work in saw mills, estates, factories, transportation and small businesses catering to the residents there. I also realized that being in a small town, they, regardless of race, depend on each other for job, business and daily needs.
When they started talking about politics, one of them turned to me and said that ‘you educated people are the ones who are creating all kinds of problems for this country’. He further added that there have not been any racial problems in the small town ever. He also mentioned that their biggest problem ever was with the communist insurgency back then when Paloh was known to be one of the communist stronghold back then in Johor.
I was taken aback but not surprised with the accusation against KLites as there are certainly lots of truth in that statement. Throughout the conversation, everyone showed genuine warmth towards each other, as they have been for decades, something that I hardly see in KL. Life there is simple and slow but people are enjoying themselves and would not want a complicated life such as in KL even if given millions of Ringgit.
So 1Malaysia is certainly not new, but an old wine in a new bottle. And according to the folks in Johor, educated Malaysians chose to deliberately crack and eventually break the old bottle over the years.
While Najib’s massive campaign may have been positively welcomed by the rakyat, it has become an irritant and more so when his own party members are still within the old mindset as reflected in some of their speeches and not to mention various articles in Utusan Melayu.
While everyone blames Utusan Melayu for racist centric articles, the same can be said with Tamil newspapers and I was told, even Chinese newspapers. It’s just that all Malaysians can read Utusan while not all Indians or Chinese Malaysian can read Tamil or mandarin newspapers, what more Malays.
Unless Najib’s own party members reflect the slogan in their actions, this 1Malaysia will soon end up like “Gemilang, Cermerlang and Terbilang” in the next general elections.
1Malaysia maybe nice and catchy to some people, especially the kids, but it’s pointless if people chose to segregate themselves and the fact that we have a system that segregates children from young. And we all know that this systematic segregation is well supported by the same people who champion for 1Malaysia, Malaysian Malaysia and others similar slogans that are not popular.
On the other hand, if Malaysians really wants to be united, not just be seen to be united, they have to make sacrifices, I mean big sacrifice here. That would be the current generation’s biggest contribution to the next, and they will certainly be remembered centuries to come.
I am, of course, referring to the single stream school idea which has been reignited, read here.
If Najib and Muyiddin is serious about 1Malaysia, they should do their best to float a workable idea towards establishing one single school stream. It may not be appealing to Chinese and Indian educationist, or rather chauvinist, but an attractive and quality national school may work to attract non Malays back to national school. This may include introduction of English medium schools, which I believe will definitely attract all races.
With the race and racist sentiments hitting high notes recently, I had a first hand look on old 1Malaysia in one small cowboy town called Paloh in Johor. I attended a function held by my father’s friend, an Indian Malaysian. Whilst it was a small function, it was well attended by multi-racial crowd within the neighborhood. What was surprising it that, the non-indians outnumbered the Indians.
I had the opportunity to have a chat with the folk there. I gathered that most of them work in saw mills, estates, factories, transportation and small businesses catering to the residents there. I also realized that being in a small town, they, regardless of race, depend on each other for job, business and daily needs.
When they started talking about politics, one of them turned to me and said that ‘you educated people are the ones who are creating all kinds of problems for this country’. He further added that there have not been any racial problems in the small town ever. He also mentioned that their biggest problem ever was with the communist insurgency back then when Paloh was known to be one of the communist stronghold back then in Johor.
I was taken aback but not surprised with the accusation against KLites as there are certainly lots of truth in that statement. Throughout the conversation, everyone showed genuine warmth towards each other, as they have been for decades, something that I hardly see in KL. Life there is simple and slow but people are enjoying themselves and would not want a complicated life such as in KL even if given millions of Ringgit.
So 1Malaysia is certainly not new, but an old wine in a new bottle. And according to the folks in Johor, educated Malaysians chose to deliberately crack and eventually break the old bottle over the years.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Guilty Unless Proven Innocent & Kickbacks
Details in the mystery letter received by Gobind appear to be flawed and inconsistent. It says that the alleged preparator, a senior MACC officer left the MACC building at around 6.10 while pathologists who testified clearly said that Teoh could have died anywhere between 8am to 9.30pm. Blogger Jebat Must Die has the story here.
It is quite mind boggling how the law works here, at least according to Gobind, although the Pathologist listed various reasons why Teoh’s death could be due to suicide, Gobind wants conclusive prove that it is not a homicide but a suicide.
When MACC revealed that commission were given to several DAP branches, he wanted it expunged from the records but he did not ask for the same when he put it to the client that MACC killed Teoh. His line of questioning continuously implies that MACC deliberately killed Teoh. But when, upon investigation, it was revealed that DAP did received kickbacks from several projects, Gobind was fuming. Hey, what double standards.
Here’s a comments by Malaysiakini reader, “It is easy for the police and the chemist to say there is no evidence to support a claim. But in such an important case, we would want them to prove it, what with all the materials in their possession’
It appears that the notion ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is applicable to Pakatan Rakyat and their lawyers only, while for the rest it’s “guilty unless proven innocent”.
It may still be found that a MACC officer may have been involved, but to blame the whole organisation (MACC) is like blaming the whole of DAP of being corrupt, where in this case, it is likely to be.
If DAP and their representative wants us to believe that they are squeeky clean, they must be either joking or dreaming. This is Malaysia, commission or kickbacks are a norm. Ask DAP members, supporters or sympathisers to swear (like how Gobind asked the MACC officer to put up his hand and swear) that they have never given or taken commission, you will hardly see any hands up. Even if you refuse, the giver will insists, it is part of our culture.
The same applies to other parties, organisation and normal people. It's just that the opposition and their supporters are hypocrites. We have an economy that runs on commission and anybody would be foolish enough to deny this fact.
It is quite mind boggling how the law works here, at least according to Gobind, although the Pathologist listed various reasons why Teoh’s death could be due to suicide, Gobind wants conclusive prove that it is not a homicide but a suicide.
When MACC revealed that commission were given to several DAP branches, he wanted it expunged from the records but he did not ask for the same when he put it to the client that MACC killed Teoh. His line of questioning continuously implies that MACC deliberately killed Teoh. But when, upon investigation, it was revealed that DAP did received kickbacks from several projects, Gobind was fuming. Hey, what double standards.
Here’s a comments by Malaysiakini reader, “It is easy for the police and the chemist to say there is no evidence to support a claim. But in such an important case, we would want them to prove it, what with all the materials in their possession’
It appears that the notion ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is applicable to Pakatan Rakyat and their lawyers only, while for the rest it’s “guilty unless proven innocent”.
It may still be found that a MACC officer may have been involved, but to blame the whole organisation (MACC) is like blaming the whole of DAP of being corrupt, where in this case, it is likely to be.
If DAP and their representative wants us to believe that they are squeeky clean, they must be either joking or dreaming. This is Malaysia, commission or kickbacks are a norm. Ask DAP members, supporters or sympathisers to swear (like how Gobind asked the MACC officer to put up his hand and swear) that they have never given or taken commission, you will hardly see any hands up. Even if you refuse, the giver will insists, it is part of our culture.
The same applies to other parties, organisation and normal people. It's just that the opposition and their supporters are hypocrites. We have an economy that runs on commission and anybody would be foolish enough to deny this fact.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
MACC Should Just Do The Right Thing
Based on the recent developments , MACC is under tremendous pressure on top of Teoh’s case which is under intense scrutiny at the moment.
While it must be said that MACC has been understaffed and does not have adequate resources, there’s no reason why MACC should stop investigations on politicians. They may have to change their approach, especially when dealing with opposition politicians. Maybe they should treat the politicians as VVIPs, complete with Kompang and Bunga Manggar when they visit politicians.
Lim Kit Siang’s allegation that MACC are using Gestapho tactics are laughable, from the video footage, it was clear that political aide, Wong Chuan How was not even handcuffed and appeared to have agreed to follow MACC officers to the car and suddenly he tried to set himself free and that’s when the commotion started. If he would have followed the officers, none of the commotion would have happened. The root cause here is Wong.
Pakatan Rakyat’s accusation of double standards has, in terms of investigating politician has been torn to shreds here, where it is clear that more BN politicians and sitting assemblyman has been hauled up and charged while not a single Pakatan Rakyat MP or state assemblymen has been charged this year. Even after Teoh Beng Hock’s case, MACC went about their work and arrested a BN Terengganu State Assemblyman.
MACC would do better if it informs public on what has happened to the case of former Selangor MB, Azalina and scores of other cases. Perhaps a public relations failure there exploited well by the opposition. When they can issue letter of release to Jawi Assemblymen clearing him of corruption (an allegation by fellow DAP member), why these are not followed in all other cases. Even former Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Fairus was investigated and later cleared by MACC, again the allegation came from his own party members.
MACC has also appointed a 30 man team to investigate PKFZ issue, hence Guan Eng’s reasoning that MACC is slow on BN related cases is simply not valid. The silence of the MACC advisory board in all these issues is puzzling though. Aren’t they supposed to defend their own men.
Recently, the state assemblymen for Seri Delima R.S.N Rayer said that all probe in relation to accusation of land scam has been dropped. Why so, with all DAP’s rhetoric’s of in pursue of justice and truth. Why Lim Kit Siang did not call for formation of Royal Commission of Enquiry to investigate the alleged land scam. What happened to their internal investigations headed by Deputy CM, Ramasamy, or Do Guan Eng has something to hide?
Selangor MB in the meantime also appointed a Internal Audit team to investigate all spending of all allocations to state assemblymen. Why he chose to do so is anyone’s guess since he claims those Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen are clean. What about Wee Choo Keong allegation, why has Khalid not formed a team to investigate Wee’s claims, Why the double standards?
Pakatan's Fellow ex-Perak MB Nizar also did the same when the then 2 PKR Assemblymen was arrested and charged for corruption. Nizar claimed that it was a trap set by MACC but immediately changed the tune when the 2 assemblymen chose to defect. What do you call this then.
Also when a BN man claimed that he was assaulted by MACC officers, wonder why didn’t Lim Kit Siang and gang kick up a fuss and call for Royal Commision of Inquiry? Why the double standards here.
Corruption is still corruption even though the amount is paltry RM 2,000 and there’s no reason why MACC should not investigate cases on Pakatan Rakyat’s assemblyman.
Pakatan Rakyat must realise that most of the allegation of corruption and impropriety came from Pakatan Rakyat members themselves and NGOs and not cooked up by BN, so there must be some truth in all these. If not, why worry if Pakatan Rakyat squeky clean members have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide? Time will tell.
While it must be said that MACC has been understaffed and does not have adequate resources, there’s no reason why MACC should stop investigations on politicians. They may have to change their approach, especially when dealing with opposition politicians. Maybe they should treat the politicians as VVIPs, complete with Kompang and Bunga Manggar when they visit politicians.
Lim Kit Siang’s allegation that MACC are using Gestapho tactics are laughable, from the video footage, it was clear that political aide, Wong Chuan How was not even handcuffed and appeared to have agreed to follow MACC officers to the car and suddenly he tried to set himself free and that’s when the commotion started. If he would have followed the officers, none of the commotion would have happened. The root cause here is Wong.
Pakatan Rakyat’s accusation of double standards has, in terms of investigating politician has been torn to shreds here, where it is clear that more BN politicians and sitting assemblyman has been hauled up and charged while not a single Pakatan Rakyat MP or state assemblymen has been charged this year. Even after Teoh Beng Hock’s case, MACC went about their work and arrested a BN Terengganu State Assemblyman.
MACC would do better if it informs public on what has happened to the case of former Selangor MB, Azalina and scores of other cases. Perhaps a public relations failure there exploited well by the opposition. When they can issue letter of release to Jawi Assemblymen clearing him of corruption (an allegation by fellow DAP member), why these are not followed in all other cases. Even former Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Fairus was investigated and later cleared by MACC, again the allegation came from his own party members.
MACC has also appointed a 30 man team to investigate PKFZ issue, hence Guan Eng’s reasoning that MACC is slow on BN related cases is simply not valid. The silence of the MACC advisory board in all these issues is puzzling though. Aren’t they supposed to defend their own men.
Recently, the state assemblymen for Seri Delima R.S.N Rayer said that all probe in relation to accusation of land scam has been dropped. Why so, with all DAP’s rhetoric’s of in pursue of justice and truth. Why Lim Kit Siang did not call for formation of Royal Commission of Enquiry to investigate the alleged land scam. What happened to their internal investigations headed by Deputy CM, Ramasamy, or Do Guan Eng has something to hide?
Selangor MB in the meantime also appointed a Internal Audit team to investigate all spending of all allocations to state assemblymen. Why he chose to do so is anyone’s guess since he claims those Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen are clean. What about Wee Choo Keong allegation, why has Khalid not formed a team to investigate Wee’s claims, Why the double standards?
Pakatan's Fellow ex-Perak MB Nizar also did the same when the then 2 PKR Assemblymen was arrested and charged for corruption. Nizar claimed that it was a trap set by MACC but immediately changed the tune when the 2 assemblymen chose to defect. What do you call this then.
Also when a BN man claimed that he was assaulted by MACC officers, wonder why didn’t Lim Kit Siang and gang kick up a fuss and call for Royal Commision of Inquiry? Why the double standards here.
Corruption is still corruption even though the amount is paltry RM 2,000 and there’s no reason why MACC should not investigate cases on Pakatan Rakyat’s assemblyman.
Pakatan Rakyat must realise that most of the allegation of corruption and impropriety came from Pakatan Rakyat members themselves and NGOs and not cooked up by BN, so there must be some truth in all these. If not, why worry if Pakatan Rakyat squeky clean members have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide? Time will tell.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Shame On You, Ronnie, Anwar, Kit Siang and Co.
What if the situation is reversed, I thought for a while and realized that the outcome would have been somewhat different.
What if an aide to a BN MP/Adun was found dead at the MACC building. The situation and events preceding the death would have been completely different. Police would have had no problems investigating and MACC would not have been blamed for the death without a shred of evidence.
Anwar Ibrahim, Lin Kit Siang would have never screamed for Royal Commision Of Enquiry. There would not have been any protest or candle light vigil in front of the MACC building. In fact, when a criminal suspect (Kugan) died in custody, only Indian Heroes from both end (Pakatan Rakyat and BN) made a big fuss but no Royal Commision Of Enquiry was ever demanded. In fact, no Royal Commision Of Inquiry has been ever formed to investigate any death in this country. Why now? Why Pakatan Rakyat never demanded Royal Commision Of Enquiry for release ofvarious individuals accused of murder, drug possesion etc due to technicalities of lack of evidence? Where were Pakatan Rakyat then, the so-called defenders of justice.
What appears to be a sudden death that has yet to be fully investigated, Opposition politicians certainly politicized and turned it into a racial issue. Theresa Kok’s reportedly accused MACC of being racist and that only Chinese politicians were targeted by MACC. What she did not realise is that by accusing others of being racist, she herself has acted like one. With due respect to Teoh, unnecessary memorials were held to stir public emotion and Anwar also used the issue in his rallies. And all of us know that the investigation has just concluded. The opposition has already declared MACC quilty and police of cover up.
In this case MACC appears to be the target, mainly due to various prejudiced views of the Opposition parties and their supporters, no matter that far more BN politicians has been investigated and charged this year. Not a single Pakatan Rakyat MP or assemblymen has been charged this year, according to checks by Malay Mail.
What if this happened soon after Anwar Ibrahim becomes the PM and Lim Kit Siang is his deputy. Would he demanded Royal Commision Of Inquiry before police completes their investigation? Would he accept full responsibility of any death in custody and blame institution under his own care? It is like asking ‘would you accept full responsibility for someone who somehow drops dead in compound of your house’?
What if even now, a DAP member (touch wood) if found dead in their headquarters, would Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng accept responsibility and blame? What if an employee of Selangor state government faces the same fate, would Khalid Ibrahim accept full responsibility for the tragic event even before the investigation is completed? What more with all the accusation of underworld links in Selangor and now Johor.
While no one, at this juncture knows what happened, is it wise to speculate and hurl accusations, especially when there are no evidence? When MP Wee Choo Keong claimed that certain Exco in Selangor has links to underworld, Ronnie Liu jumped and asked Wee to produce evidence. Where was the evidence when Pakatan leaders hurl numerous allegations against BN in their speeches and rallies, example the Saiful Bukhari, Altantunya affair etc.
I agree that MACC may have been slow or selective in their investigation of BN politicians but the fact remains that BN had more of it’s members investigated and charged this year This is apart from various head of government department being charged for corruption recently, something that is beyond the control of BN politicians, but they are impacted anyway in terms of public perception. If Pakatan is serious, they should have sent a memorandum to the Advisory Board of MACC, some of whom are eminent individuals respected by all. I maybe wrong, but I never heard or read that this was done by Kit Siang, Anwar and Co.
Knocking and breaking mortuary door is certainly not an act of a mature leader and clearly disrespect to the dead. They did the same in Kugan’s death. Even if a MACC officer is eventually found quilty, let law takes it’s course and that doesn’t mean the whole institution is to be blamed. It is as if saying if a Pakatan Rakyat member is guilty of corruption, the whole Pakatan Rakyat is corrupt. Would Mr lim Kit Siang accept the fact and declare himself to be part of a corrupt party if any of DAP member is found quilty one day?
This situation (Pakatan Rakyat member found quilty of corruption) will happen one day, let’s see how they react. It nearly did in Perak when two former PKR members are charged for corruption. Do you remember how MB Nizar reacted to this, “a trap by BN” and changed the tune when the two defected to BN. The fact remains that the two were charged for corruption as PKR members and also member of the state government helmed by Pakatan Rakyat, if anyone really care to remember!
There’s no reason for behave the way they did, taking advantage, playing mind games and scoring political points out of a tragic event, to bolster their flagging popularity, which is even more disgusting, shameful and tragic as compared to the actual death. Shame of you, Pakatan Rakyat..
What if an aide to a BN MP/Adun was found dead at the MACC building. The situation and events preceding the death would have been completely different. Police would have had no problems investigating and MACC would not have been blamed for the death without a shred of evidence.
Anwar Ibrahim, Lin Kit Siang would have never screamed for Royal Commision Of Enquiry. There would not have been any protest or candle light vigil in front of the MACC building. In fact, when a criminal suspect (Kugan) died in custody, only Indian Heroes from both end (Pakatan Rakyat and BN) made a big fuss but no Royal Commision Of Enquiry was ever demanded. In fact, no Royal Commision Of Inquiry has been ever formed to investigate any death in this country. Why now? Why Pakatan Rakyat never demanded Royal Commision Of Enquiry for release ofvarious individuals accused of murder, drug possesion etc due to technicalities of lack of evidence? Where were Pakatan Rakyat then, the so-called defenders of justice.
What appears to be a sudden death that has yet to be fully investigated, Opposition politicians certainly politicized and turned it into a racial issue. Theresa Kok’s reportedly accused MACC of being racist and that only Chinese politicians were targeted by MACC. What she did not realise is that by accusing others of being racist, she herself has acted like one. With due respect to Teoh, unnecessary memorials were held to stir public emotion and Anwar also used the issue in his rallies. And all of us know that the investigation has just concluded. The opposition has already declared MACC quilty and police of cover up.
In this case MACC appears to be the target, mainly due to various prejudiced views of the Opposition parties and their supporters, no matter that far more BN politicians has been investigated and charged this year. Not a single Pakatan Rakyat MP or assemblymen has been charged this year, according to checks by Malay Mail.
What if this happened soon after Anwar Ibrahim becomes the PM and Lim Kit Siang is his deputy. Would he demanded Royal Commision Of Inquiry before police completes their investigation? Would he accept full responsibility of any death in custody and blame institution under his own care? It is like asking ‘would you accept full responsibility for someone who somehow drops dead in compound of your house’?
What if even now, a DAP member (touch wood) if found dead in their headquarters, would Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng accept responsibility and blame? What if an employee of Selangor state government faces the same fate, would Khalid Ibrahim accept full responsibility for the tragic event even before the investigation is completed? What more with all the accusation of underworld links in Selangor and now Johor.
While no one, at this juncture knows what happened, is it wise to speculate and hurl accusations, especially when there are no evidence? When MP Wee Choo Keong claimed that certain Exco in Selangor has links to underworld, Ronnie Liu jumped and asked Wee to produce evidence. Where was the evidence when Pakatan leaders hurl numerous allegations against BN in their speeches and rallies, example the Saiful Bukhari, Altantunya affair etc.
I agree that MACC may have been slow or selective in their investigation of BN politicians but the fact remains that BN had more of it’s members investigated and charged this year This is apart from various head of government department being charged for corruption recently, something that is beyond the control of BN politicians, but they are impacted anyway in terms of public perception. If Pakatan is serious, they should have sent a memorandum to the Advisory Board of MACC, some of whom are eminent individuals respected by all. I maybe wrong, but I never heard or read that this was done by Kit Siang, Anwar and Co.
Knocking and breaking mortuary door is certainly not an act of a mature leader and clearly disrespect to the dead. They did the same in Kugan’s death. Even if a MACC officer is eventually found quilty, let law takes it’s course and that doesn’t mean the whole institution is to be blamed. It is as if saying if a Pakatan Rakyat member is guilty of corruption, the whole Pakatan Rakyat is corrupt. Would Mr lim Kit Siang accept the fact and declare himself to be part of a corrupt party if any of DAP member is found quilty one day?
This situation (Pakatan Rakyat member found quilty of corruption) will happen one day, let’s see how they react. It nearly did in Perak when two former PKR members are charged for corruption. Do you remember how MB Nizar reacted to this, “a trap by BN” and changed the tune when the two defected to BN. The fact remains that the two were charged for corruption as PKR members and also member of the state government helmed by Pakatan Rakyat, if anyone really care to remember!
There’s no reason for behave the way they did, taking advantage, playing mind games and scoring political points out of a tragic event, to bolster their flagging popularity, which is even more disgusting, shameful and tragic as compared to the actual death. Shame of you, Pakatan Rakyat..
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wanted : New Leaders For Pakatan Rakyat
Referendum?
When Pakatan Rakyat won the last few by-election, Anwar say that they are referendum on BN and when they won big in Bukit Gantang and Penanti, Anwar says that they are referendum on Najib. When PAS barely won in Manik Urai, where there were more spoilt votes than the majority, Anwar says that this is a small by-election and nothing to worry about while his cheer leaders in Pakatan Rakyat claims a win is a win. If PAS would have won by say 2,000 votes, he would have declared that Najib is unpopular and should be replaced by you know who.
They also chose to ignore that although BN lost in many by-elections before, they still commands support in big numbers, no matter that the majority won by Pakatan Rakyat is bigger.
When Centre For Merdeka Studies polls few month ago showed that majority Malaysians prefers Anwar over Najib as best person for the PM job, Pakatan supporters were jubilant and when the similar study recently showed Najib has gained some support, Anwar rubbishes it saying that these are Mainstream Media spins to glorify Najib while his partner Lim Kit Siang says that the survey results provides a challenge to Pakatan. So who is right and who is trying to run away from the issue.
Media Spin Or Pure Indicipline?
When there were few issues within Pakatan Rakyat recently, Anwar again reiterated that the media is at fault for blowing issues out of proportion. The fact is that Pakatan Rakyat leaders are the ones to call media for press conference and announce their stand or argument. Good example is DAP Kedah who invited press for the announcement of pulling out of Pakatan Rakyat Kedah.
Even PAS, UMNO unity talks reflected as ‘Crisis of confidence’ by Lim Kit Siang but Anwar in a statement says this is an attempt by BN to split Pakatan Rakyat and it is BN who is trying to manipulate the issue, when actual fact, the whole issue was started by PAS during their annual conference. When Anwar spoke, PAS president was sitting next to him, with no shame or sense of guilt whatsoever.
Pakatan Rakyat Leaders says that the recent liberalization announced by Najib is a copy of what they have proposed long time ago while PAS President opposed to the move saying that the Malays are not ready and wants the 30% quota upheld. On the other hand, Nik Aziz goes everywhere and preaches that there is no such thing as race in Islam. So who is spinning here?
Now that trouble has started brewing in Pakatan Rakyat Selangor, wonder who Anwar will blame now, perhaps NST, Utusan or the new kid on the blog, Malaysian Mirror. Azmin could have easily brought up any issues directly to the MB or if there are doubt about MB Khalid, he can go directly to Anwar. Azmin must have his own agenda to do what he did and Anwar probably behind it. Or is it times up for MB Khalid if Ex-Penang DCM Fairus resignation is taken as precedent.
In Penang, Jeff Ooi lashed out at two Pakatan Rakyat Councillor for their performance. Aren’t there any other avenues to raise this rather than through press. Everyone appears to behaving like loose canons protecting their own turf and somewhat forgotten what they promised before the elections. The same applies to various nonsensical outbursts by Kulim MP.
Talk Is Cheap But Rakyat Is Watching
And also see how they have played hide and seek in Kampung Buah Pala issue, blaming everybody except for themselves. Lim Guan Eng is certainly not winning any points for this. He may have not promised anything before the general elections but villagers there (in fact a PKR leader) claimed that senior PKR leaders certainly did and their ADUN even reportedly declared that the developer can only destroy the village ‘over his dead body’. Now is this some BN media spinning or a case of over- promise and under-delivering.
Lim was also taken aback by Anwar’s response of former Chief Minister Ahmad Fairus resignation as well claims that the new bridge should not be where it is while Lim earlier said that there are no issues with the bridge. Not sure who is spinning here.
Pakatan Leaders, especially Lim Kit Siang criticized Najib’s various goodies on his 100 days in Office but did he say the same thing when his son did the same soon after taking over the Penang State Government or when Selangor government announced lots of freebies such as free water etc.
Lack Of Leadership in Pakatan Rakyat
Pakatan Rakyat should realise that there’s absolutely no leadership in Pakatan Rakyat. There are no mutually understanding relationship between parties and no discipline whatsoever. Most of their problems now are their own doing and there appears to be lack of will or leadership to manage problems within the loose coalition and resolve it amicably rather than going to press all the time.
When press reports news as it is, like the DAP Kedah’s press conference on TV, they are still considered a spin by Anwar. As observed by many Pakatan Rakyat supporters themselves, they are behaving more like opposition and not the government of the day. Many supporters also agree of their ADUNs and MPs are of poor quality and may end up being a liability in the long term unless they are monitored and disciplined when necessary.
They should heed Karpal Sing’s outbursts that Pakatan Rakyat needs fresh leaders and they should forget Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Nik Aziz and Abdul Hadi as they have
clearly shown that they are only good in talking and not manage their party or discipline their members.
Anwar Ibrahim or Wan Azizah can even manage their own party, how do they expect Anwar to manage such a fragile coalition? Just imagine if they are the government of the day. They will end up contradicting each other every other day since they are the government and they will always be in the limelight.
A Clinical Psychologist used to tell me that you will see the true colours of a person or organisation when observing how they react and behave when in crisis. We saw some of it from BN component parties’ right after the general elections and throughout 2008 and we are seeing it now with the antics of Pakatan Rakyat leaders, led by their supreme demigod.
Teoh Death A Boost?
Certainly, no doubt about that, the impact if not similar, maybe bigger than Kugan’s death.
Pakatan rakyat seized the opportunity to turn Teoh’s death into a political issue and inadvertently united the squabbling faction in Pakatan Rakyat, which also boosted their image in the eyes on the public. But their statements and behavior of some leaders during the protest are anything but exemplary. Blaming the whole institution for the death is ridiculous especially when doing so without knowing any details of events, investigation or autopsy. Breaking down the door of the mortuary is certainly not an example to follow.
How long can this sustain depends very much of the outcome of investigation of Teoh’s death while if there are no efforts to manage their internal crisis well, they will lose credibility and support anyway.
As we are all well aware, Malaysians have short memory and if Najib can boost his popularity within 100 days in office, Pakatan Rakyat can either match him or go further down hill in matter of months. It all depends on good leadership, something that Pakatan is sorely lacking.
IPCMC must be brought to reality to prove that Najib and his cousin Home minister is serious about reforming the Police while several eminent persons, who sit on the Board of MACC must make their presence felt and take appropriate measures to restore the credibility of the institution. Take Teoh's death as an opportunity to clear the mess in these insitutions.
When Pakatan Rakyat won the last few by-election, Anwar say that they are referendum on BN and when they won big in Bukit Gantang and Penanti, Anwar says that they are referendum on Najib. When PAS barely won in Manik Urai, where there were more spoilt votes than the majority, Anwar says that this is a small by-election and nothing to worry about while his cheer leaders in Pakatan Rakyat claims a win is a win. If PAS would have won by say 2,000 votes, he would have declared that Najib is unpopular and should be replaced by you know who.
They also chose to ignore that although BN lost in many by-elections before, they still commands support in big numbers, no matter that the majority won by Pakatan Rakyat is bigger.
When Centre For Merdeka Studies polls few month ago showed that majority Malaysians prefers Anwar over Najib as best person for the PM job, Pakatan supporters were jubilant and when the similar study recently showed Najib has gained some support, Anwar rubbishes it saying that these are Mainstream Media spins to glorify Najib while his partner Lim Kit Siang says that the survey results provides a challenge to Pakatan. So who is right and who is trying to run away from the issue.
Media Spin Or Pure Indicipline?
When there were few issues within Pakatan Rakyat recently, Anwar again reiterated that the media is at fault for blowing issues out of proportion. The fact is that Pakatan Rakyat leaders are the ones to call media for press conference and announce their stand or argument. Good example is DAP Kedah who invited press for the announcement of pulling out of Pakatan Rakyat Kedah.
Even PAS, UMNO unity talks reflected as ‘Crisis of confidence’ by Lim Kit Siang but Anwar in a statement says this is an attempt by BN to split Pakatan Rakyat and it is BN who is trying to manipulate the issue, when actual fact, the whole issue was started by PAS during their annual conference. When Anwar spoke, PAS president was sitting next to him, with no shame or sense of guilt whatsoever.
Pakatan Rakyat Leaders says that the recent liberalization announced by Najib is a copy of what they have proposed long time ago while PAS President opposed to the move saying that the Malays are not ready and wants the 30% quota upheld. On the other hand, Nik Aziz goes everywhere and preaches that there is no such thing as race in Islam. So who is spinning here?
Now that trouble has started brewing in Pakatan Rakyat Selangor, wonder who Anwar will blame now, perhaps NST, Utusan or the new kid on the blog, Malaysian Mirror. Azmin could have easily brought up any issues directly to the MB or if there are doubt about MB Khalid, he can go directly to Anwar. Azmin must have his own agenda to do what he did and Anwar probably behind it. Or is it times up for MB Khalid if Ex-Penang DCM Fairus resignation is taken as precedent.
In Penang, Jeff Ooi lashed out at two Pakatan Rakyat Councillor for their performance. Aren’t there any other avenues to raise this rather than through press. Everyone appears to behaving like loose canons protecting their own turf and somewhat forgotten what they promised before the elections. The same applies to various nonsensical outbursts by Kulim MP.
Talk Is Cheap But Rakyat Is Watching
And also see how they have played hide and seek in Kampung Buah Pala issue, blaming everybody except for themselves. Lim Guan Eng is certainly not winning any points for this. He may have not promised anything before the general elections but villagers there (in fact a PKR leader) claimed that senior PKR leaders certainly did and their ADUN even reportedly declared that the developer can only destroy the village ‘over his dead body’. Now is this some BN media spinning or a case of over- promise and under-delivering.
Lim was also taken aback by Anwar’s response of former Chief Minister Ahmad Fairus resignation as well claims that the new bridge should not be where it is while Lim earlier said that there are no issues with the bridge. Not sure who is spinning here.
Pakatan Leaders, especially Lim Kit Siang criticized Najib’s various goodies on his 100 days in Office but did he say the same thing when his son did the same soon after taking over the Penang State Government or when Selangor government announced lots of freebies such as free water etc.
Lack Of Leadership in Pakatan Rakyat
Pakatan Rakyat should realise that there’s absolutely no leadership in Pakatan Rakyat. There are no mutually understanding relationship between parties and no discipline whatsoever. Most of their problems now are their own doing and there appears to be lack of will or leadership to manage problems within the loose coalition and resolve it amicably rather than going to press all the time.
When press reports news as it is, like the DAP Kedah’s press conference on TV, they are still considered a spin by Anwar. As observed by many Pakatan Rakyat supporters themselves, they are behaving more like opposition and not the government of the day. Many supporters also agree of their ADUNs and MPs are of poor quality and may end up being a liability in the long term unless they are monitored and disciplined when necessary.
They should heed Karpal Sing’s outbursts that Pakatan Rakyat needs fresh leaders and they should forget Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Nik Aziz and Abdul Hadi as they have
clearly shown that they are only good in talking and not manage their party or discipline their members.
Anwar Ibrahim or Wan Azizah can even manage their own party, how do they expect Anwar to manage such a fragile coalition? Just imagine if they are the government of the day. They will end up contradicting each other every other day since they are the government and they will always be in the limelight.
No Leadership Change or Renewal In Pakatan Rakyat
It must be noted that while BN had their leaders replaced and renewed many times over, including change of 3 Prime Ministers in the last 6 years and various changes in the the cabinet and components parties, except for MIC, Pakatan Rakyat are still helmed by the same old leaders, who don’t appear to be inspiring at all nor do they look like future national leaders. There are some promising young leaders in Pakatan Rakyat but they unlikely to be trust in the forefront as long as the current dinosaurs are still around.
A Clinical Psychologist used to tell me that you will see the true colours of a person or organisation when observing how they react and behave when in crisis. We saw some of it from BN component parties’ right after the general elections and throughout 2008 and we are seeing it now with the antics of Pakatan Rakyat leaders, led by their supreme demigod.
Teoh Death A Boost?
Certainly, no doubt about that, the impact if not similar, maybe bigger than Kugan’s death.
Pakatan rakyat seized the opportunity to turn Teoh’s death into a political issue and inadvertently united the squabbling faction in Pakatan Rakyat, which also boosted their image in the eyes on the public. But their statements and behavior of some leaders during the protest are anything but exemplary. Blaming the whole institution for the death is ridiculous especially when doing so without knowing any details of events, investigation or autopsy. Breaking down the door of the mortuary is certainly not an example to follow.
How long can this sustain depends very much of the outcome of investigation of Teoh’s death while if there are no efforts to manage their internal crisis well, they will lose credibility and support anyway.
As we are all well aware, Malaysians have short memory and if Najib can boost his popularity within 100 days in office, Pakatan Rakyat can either match him or go further down hill in matter of months. It all depends on good leadership, something that Pakatan is sorely lacking.
Prioritise Reforms
Najib’s so-called economic reforms are not likely to bring benefits immediately, although it may bring about some feel good factor. The earliest indication of benefits to the economic reforms are likely to be seen and felt only next year.
IPCMC must be brought to reality to prove that Najib and his cousin Home minister is serious about reforming the Police while several eminent persons, who sit on the Board of MACC must make their presence felt and take appropriate measures to restore the credibility of the institution. Take Teoh's death as an opportunity to clear the mess in these insitutions.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Day No One Listened To Rakyat
Please read here on MCA's proposal to fine tune the PPSMI policy.
What I don’t quite understand is that why MCA is barking on this now, not when the proposed changes where tabled at the cabinet meeting. As far as I am aware, they were previously against teaching of Science and Math in English and never proposed any alternative to boost English. Why now when the DPM says that the decision is final. Perhaps they are doing this further to severe backlash from parents as evident from many polls conducted recently, including those tens of thousands in Dr Mahathir’s blog.
This is what happens when politicians listens too much to NGOs and racist education groups. The same applies to Tamil education groups and headmasters. The same group of Tamil School Headmasters, who agreed to the policy change in 2003, reportedly welcome the policy change announced by DPM together with the mindless politicians in MIC.
We also hear grouses by DAP and others who are not so happy with the transition that is to take place in 2012 affecting students, especially those in form 4. Again why is this never brought up when they were busy protesting the PPSMI policies in cahorts with the Chinese Educations Groups, NGOs and fellow partners in Pakatan Rakyat. What is the difference if the policy is reversed effective next year or even immediately as proposed by Chinese Education Groups.
Everyone says” do not politicise education” but everybody, including BN and Pakatan Rakyat politicised the PPSMI issue to the hilt. Pakatan Rakyat even lead a march towards Istana Negara opposing the policy together with members of NGO, so-called nationalist and Tamil and Chinese education group.
When faced with backlash from parents, they now offer various forms of protest in disguise when the policy is finally overturned. Where was Lim Kit Siang when Anwar Ibrahim led the so-called 100,000 people gathering the protest in KL on March 2009?
These politicians (including BN) , NGOs and Educations groups monopolised the rountable discussions with the Education Ministry and deprived parents of their views. As Dr Mahathir’s blog has proven, majority urban parents would like the policy to continue. The mistake is that Dr Mahathir failed to undertake such a poll before the policy change was announced.
How come none of the so-called education groups or nationalist spoke about almost 70,000 non-Chinese students (Majority are Malays) who are enrolled in Chinese schools.Why is that it’s fine for them to study Maths and Science in Mandarin in Chinese schools as opposed to English? This was deliberately and conveniently left out from the public discussion.
The same applies to Malaysians whose mother tongue is other than Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin or Tamil such as Bajau, Dusun,Dayaks, Ibans, Bidayus, Punjabis, Malayalees, Telugus, even kelantanese and various ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak. Why is that these groups were left out and where were the defenders of the monority?
As a parent and employer, I feel disgusted and dissapointed with the failure of politicians (BN and Pakatan), so-called nationalist and education groups to listen to people. At least a referendum should have been undertaken, no matter how complicated the process could have been or the matter should have been left to vote by Parents Teachers Association of every school so that they decide and excess English teachers could have been redistributed accordingly elsewhere.
As for Pakatan Rakyat, this is certainly not a win for Makkal Sakhti (people’s power).
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
“People First, Performance Now” Applies to Voters employed in Private Sector Too
I detail some of my recent experience with major service providers in the country.
Telekom Malaysia
Went to Telekom Malaysia to relocate telephone line (which has a Jaring Broadband jumper on) within the same area. Explained to the staff on the relocating highlighting clearly that the line has a broadband jumper on and that Telekom may need to liaise with Jaring to relocate both the phone line and broadband jumper together. The person on the counter says that it’s not a problem at all. Paid necessary fees, promised relocation will be done within 7 days.
After 7 days, there’s no news from Telekom. When called they promised to return call and as expected no calls received. When called, another promise of 3 days to complete the relocation. On the third day, at least they called, only to be told that due to the broadband connection, they have have to liaise with Jaring and do the necessary transfer. Finally when these technicalities were resolved, they called and informed that the job is contracted out and that another fee must be paid to their contractor. Fine with that (although it’s unfair as relocation fee was paid to telekom as well) and finally appointment was fixed for weekend. Two days later the contractor calls from the front of the house wanting to do the relocation. When explained that the appointment was for the weekend, he claims that he was wrongly advised by Telekom. Finally, the job was completed, one month after submitting relocation request.
Telekom Malaysia's stated mission is” To provide total customer satisfaction as we strive to become a world class telecommunications company” I am touched by their commitment to customers!!
Jaring
Now it’s Jaring, Telekom’s partner in crime. Before phone line was relocated, enquiries made resulted in confusion whether I have to disconnect the wired account as they were unsure if they are able to get me connected at my new place. Finally they advised me to deactivate the account and reactivate once phone line is relocated. RM 100 was charged for relocation. Once phone line was relocated, informed Jaring with another promise of 3 days to complete the job. After 3 days, there were no news from them, so called in only to be informed the person in-charge is away and the personnel in the branch not sure what to do as they have never handled relocation. Had to make an official complaint and demand to be transferred to a senior person before someone actually took the initiative to solve the issue.
Jaring’s Mission and Core Values
Vision
JARING's mission is to cross borders and change lives. This illustrates JARING's efforts to open up or detach the boundaries in order that more freedom of choices and innovation for a seamless communications may be created.
Next, Courts Mamooth, ordered two simple chairs and a table. Was informed that they are able to deliver after 7pm, even on weekdays. They show up on delivered date only to deliver the table. When called, they explained that the table and chair is sourced from two different warehouse. I told them that’s none of my problem as they promised to deliver all items together. Complaint was escalated to a manager, who promised to deliver the item the next day. Rushed home to be there about 7pm, no one turned up. Called the branch (Mutiara Damansara) and got an apology from the manager who promised that the item will be delivered the next day. The ordeal continued as again there wasn’t any delivery. Called in again to speak to the manager, and was told that the manager was in a meeting. Asked the customer service staff to get the manager to return call. No calls received that day. Called again in the morning, again they are apparently in a meeting, asked to be referred to the store manager, was told that he was away.
Had no choice but to call group head office in setapak. The lady in charge informed that the store never have meetings during the operating hours. Now I released that the manager who handled my complaint was avoiding me. Finally the item was delivered, 5 days after the promised date. I demanded a written apology only to receive an e-mail apologizing but shifting the blame to the delivery company!. I gave up. No more Courts Mamooth ever.
From Courts Website, Their mission “ To be the most customer oriented, profit focused retailer making aspirational home products easily affordable”
Their Core Values
Intergrity – Doing what is right
Customer Focussed - Committed to delighting customers
Result Oriented - Committing to achieve defined goals for the company and yourself.
Innovation – Innovating through creative ideas
Leadership – Demonstrating ‘servant leadership’ through personal accountability.
Post paid customers are like slaves, apart from a insignificant discount of being a loyal customer, the monthly line rental, clip, statement etc are still being charged, up to RM 100, excluding call charges. When asked whether can I move to a prepaid plan, the answer is no, when I asked if there are any other post paid plans, the answer is no. Later, when told that I want to move to Digi (with the same number) they promised to call back, and after two weeks, they introduced the post paid value plans. This is how telcos exploit their customer and they appear not to be ashamed of this at all.
I still had my RM 400 deposit paid for post paid plan in 1997, but my credit line has been increased to RM 1,600 over the years . What is the logic of having a RM 400 deposit for RM1,600 credit line, I have no clue when other Maxis plans do not have requirements for deposits.
When demanded that my deposit is returned, they say it is not the procedure. When asked if they would at least pay me the interest since I have been paying promptly for 12 years, again no answer. I had to fight my way, escalating the issue all the way up before they decided to return my deposit, but without any interest or regrets! This is from the so-called world class and No 1 telco in Malaysia.
And try calling them 3 times with the same technical problem, you are likely to be placed on hold for at least 10-15 minutes and guess what, you will get 3 different answers.
By focusing on just three words we define ourselves.
This is what Maxis stands for.
SIMPLE
We aim to keep everything we do as simple as possible. For example, customers understand what it is we are telling them because we do it in a way that is straightforward and easy to understand.
We make things simple for everyone, including ourselves. Keeping things simple also means that everything we say is said in a clear direct tone of voice that is friendly and human.
To be trustworthy is a way of life.
Creative runs through everything we do and everything we say, it's in our DNA.
And all of the above incidents happened in a span of two months.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s fine to make mistakes at times, but to under deliver repeatedly, like the above organisations, they deserves no loyalty. But the problem in Malaysia is that, there are no viable competitors for all these services as they are equally pathetic, untrustworthy and certainly profit oriented with no long term sustainability in mind.
Even when I take the trouble to complain and speak to someone in authority, they appear to take complains lightly with no sense of urgency to resolve it.
Almost nothing gets done on time in Malaysia and we have to demand for good service. I have so far, yet to experience delightful service, can’t recall of any in Malaysia in the past.
And the best part is that Malaysians in general equate poor service to Government’s services and I can bet that some government departments are far more efficient than these so-called world class conglomerates.
And yet we think government services, provided free most of the time (despite claims that tax payers are paying their salary when in reality majority individuals in Malaysia do NOT pay tax) are pathetic. Actually the private sector is worse as we don’t even get decent service for the money paid.
Majority voters themselves are employed in the services sector and they should stop complaining of government’s efficiency and focus on improving their services to their customers, who actually pay their salaries but yet continue to be shortchanged.
I did come in contact with someone from one of the organisation, well known for poor service, who made fun of Najib’s “People First, Performance now”. I have no doubt that this nothing more than a slogan engineered to boost confidence of his government, Haven’t we heard many of these before!.
What this man did not realise is that, the same applies to him and millions of staff/voters (Opposition and BN supporters) who runs businesses and those who work for other service providers as well, not just BN or government!
Telekom Malaysia
Went to Telekom Malaysia to relocate telephone line (which has a Jaring Broadband jumper on) within the same area. Explained to the staff on the relocating highlighting clearly that the line has a broadband jumper on and that Telekom may need to liaise with Jaring to relocate both the phone line and broadband jumper together. The person on the counter says that it’s not a problem at all. Paid necessary fees, promised relocation will be done within 7 days.
After 7 days, there’s no news from Telekom. When called they promised to return call and as expected no calls received. When called, another promise of 3 days to complete the relocation. On the third day, at least they called, only to be told that due to the broadband connection, they have have to liaise with Jaring and do the necessary transfer. Finally when these technicalities were resolved, they called and informed that the job is contracted out and that another fee must be paid to their contractor. Fine with that (although it’s unfair as relocation fee was paid to telekom as well) and finally appointment was fixed for weekend. Two days later the contractor calls from the front of the house wanting to do the relocation. When explained that the appointment was for the weekend, he claims that he was wrongly advised by Telekom. Finally, the job was completed, one month after submitting relocation request.
Telekom Malaysia's stated mission is” To provide total customer satisfaction as we strive to become a world class telecommunications company” I am touched by their commitment to customers!!
Jaring
Now it’s Jaring, Telekom’s partner in crime. Before phone line was relocated, enquiries made resulted in confusion whether I have to disconnect the wired account as they were unsure if they are able to get me connected at my new place. Finally they advised me to deactivate the account and reactivate once phone line is relocated. RM 100 was charged for relocation. Once phone line was relocated, informed Jaring with another promise of 3 days to complete the job. After 3 days, there were no news from them, so called in only to be informed the person in-charge is away and the personnel in the branch not sure what to do as they have never handled relocation. Had to make an official complaint and demand to be transferred to a senior person before someone actually took the initiative to solve the issue.
Jaring’s Mission and Core Values
Vision
One Community, One Station, One Number is JARING's vision which depicts our integrated net technology of unified communications utility; thus ultimately producing seamless internet connectivity riding on technology waves which are capable of changing a new generation of internet users.
One Community constitutes communication through JARING as One Station in which every community member will have One Number that is reachable by others.
JARING's mission is to cross borders and change lives. This illustrates JARING's efforts to open up or detach the boundaries in order that more freedom of choices and innovation for a seamless communications may be created.
JARING's mission to shape the creation of global borderless unified community demonstrates its efforts to bring people from all walks of life as one, notwithstanding the different culture, language or ethnicity which co-exist in the virtual global community to communicate with one another.
My comment is ‘ just make things simple and deliver, and not talk about crossing borders and changing lives.
Next, Courts Mamooth, ordered two simple chairs and a table. Was informed that they are able to deliver after 7pm, even on weekdays. They show up on delivered date only to deliver the table. When called, they explained that the table and chair is sourced from two different warehouse. I told them that’s none of my problem as they promised to deliver all items together. Complaint was escalated to a manager, who promised to deliver the item the next day. Rushed home to be there about 7pm, no one turned up. Called the branch (Mutiara Damansara) and got an apology from the manager who promised that the item will be delivered the next day. The ordeal continued as again there wasn’t any delivery. Called in again to speak to the manager, and was told that the manager was in a meeting. Asked the customer service staff to get the manager to return call. No calls received that day. Called again in the morning, again they are apparently in a meeting, asked to be referred to the store manager, was told that he was away.
Had no choice but to call group head office in setapak. The lady in charge informed that the store never have meetings during the operating hours. Now I released that the manager who handled my complaint was avoiding me. Finally the item was delivered, 5 days after the promised date. I demanded a written apology only to receive an e-mail apologizing but shifting the blame to the delivery company!. I gave up. No more Courts Mamooth ever.
From Courts Website, Their mission “ To be the most customer oriented, profit focused retailer making aspirational home products easily affordable”
Their Core Values
Intergrity – Doing what is right
Customer Focussed - Committed to delighting customers
Result Oriented - Committing to achieve defined goals for the company and yourself.
Innovation – Innovating through creative ideas
Leadership – Demonstrating ‘servant leadership’ through personal accountability.
I have not seen any element of their mission or core values with my experience with them except for the fact they made some profit out of pathetic service.
Maxis
Post paid customers are like slaves, apart from a insignificant discount of being a loyal customer, the monthly line rental, clip, statement etc are still being charged, up to RM 100, excluding call charges. When asked whether can I move to a prepaid plan, the answer is no, when I asked if there are any other post paid plans, the answer is no. Later, when told that I want to move to Digi (with the same number) they promised to call back, and after two weeks, they introduced the post paid value plans. This is how telcos exploit their customer and they appear not to be ashamed of this at all.
I still had my RM 400 deposit paid for post paid plan in 1997, but my credit line has been increased to RM 1,600 over the years . What is the logic of having a RM 400 deposit for RM1,600 credit line, I have no clue when other Maxis plans do not have requirements for deposits.
When demanded that my deposit is returned, they say it is not the procedure. When asked if they would at least pay me the interest since I have been paying promptly for 12 years, again no answer. I had to fight my way, escalating the issue all the way up before they decided to return my deposit, but without any interest or regrets! This is from the so-called world class and No 1 telco in Malaysia.
And try calling them 3 times with the same technical problem, you are likely to be placed on hold for at least 10-15 minutes and guess what, you will get 3 different answers.
And this is what they say (or rather brag) about themselves
Maxis is about life enablement
We have three words to describe the spirit of Maxis, the things that should come across in every single thing that we do, for customers and for everyone who works together in the company.
By focusing on just three words we define ourselves.
This is what Maxis stands for.
SIMPLE
We aim to keep everything we do as simple as possible. For example, customers understand what it is we are telling them because we do it in a way that is straightforward and easy to understand.
We make things simple for everyone, including ourselves. Keeping things simple also means that everything we say is said in a clear direct tone of voice that is friendly and human.
Trustworthy
To be trustworthy is a way of life.
Creative
Creative runs through everything we do and everything we say, it's in our DNA.
Now, Simple, Trustworthy and Creative, hmm… the last few words are really a sham. They should have started with Maxis is all about making easy money, squeezing loyal customers and confusing customers (Mr Iswar of Maxis can testify to my statement) . Technology is never scary, their services are.
-------------
And all of the above incidents happened in a span of two months.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s fine to make mistakes at times, but to under deliver repeatedly, like the above organisations, they deserves no loyalty. But the problem in Malaysia is that, there are no viable competitors for all these services as they are equally pathetic, untrustworthy and certainly profit oriented with no long term sustainability in mind.
Even when I take the trouble to complain and speak to someone in authority, they appear to take complains lightly with no sense of urgency to resolve it.
Almost nothing gets done on time in Malaysia and we have to demand for good service. I have so far, yet to experience delightful service, can’t recall of any in Malaysia in the past.
And the best part is that Malaysians in general equate poor service to Government’s services and I can bet that some government departments are far more efficient than these so-called world class conglomerates.
And to think that they are world class and branching out worldwide is certainly scary, while local customers continue to be shortchanged. What makes them think that locals will not dump them one day, if services continue to be pathetic?
Or when government start liberalizing all sectors one day. For local companies, “we will cross the bridge when we come to it” applies. They are not worried that when the time comes, the bridge may not be there anymore for them to cross. What is more important to the leaders of these companies are current bottom lines.
And yet we think government services, provided free most of the time (despite claims that tax payers are paying their salary when in reality majority individuals in Malaysia do NOT pay tax) are pathetic. Actually the private sector is worse as we don’t even get decent service for the money paid.
Majority voters themselves are employed in the services sector and they should stop complaining of government’s efficiency and focus on improving their services to their customers, who actually pay their salaries but yet continue to be shortchanged.
I did come in contact with someone from one of the organisation, well known for poor service, who made fun of Najib’s “People First, Performance now”. I have no doubt that this nothing more than a slogan engineered to boost confidence of his government, Haven’t we heard many of these before!.
What this man did not realise is that, the same applies to him and millions of staff/voters (Opposition and BN supporters) who runs businesses and those who work for other service providers as well, not just BN or government!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Unmasking E-Democracy: A Study of the Malaysian Blogosphere
By Arlianny Sayrol
ABSTRACT
The 2008 General Elections in Malaysia is a historically eminent event, for not only has the ruling Barisan Nasional (or National Frontier) lost its two-thirds majority in the Parliament, it also reflects the revolutionary use of the online platform. Being termed as the ‘silent revolution’, the Malaysian oppositional parties and youths adopted a campaigning strategy that uses the latest Internet based technologies. Only one will be scrutinized in this thesis, the Malaysian blogosphere and specifically, the socio-political blogs.
Using Antonio Gramsci’s cultural hegemony framework, this thesis will attempt to
examine how the Malaysian blogosphere is able to provide a space in shaping counter
hegemony and to what extent it is capable of subverting the ruling regime’s hegemony. It will also analyze the potentials and barriers in the creation of new forms of intellectuals or leaders from the subordinate classes in leading this counter hegemonic power. This thesis will suggest that due to the fragmentary nature of the blogging content, counter hegemony is unable to hold fort as a strong and distinctive entity in convincing citizens to subscribe to. Hence, State hegemony will reign supreme.
The commonly held notion that blogging advances democracy will be re-examined
through the use of Axel Brun’s produsage model. This thesis questions whether socio-
political blogs are able to bring about actual societal transformations in Malaysia. It will also propose that, the idea of produsaging democracy oversimplifies and ignores the imperfections of reality. The prevalence of digital divide, citizens’ apathetic attitude towards socio-political matters and the State’s stringent stance on bloggers, greatly affects the “freedom” within the Malaysian blogosphere.
Chapter 1: Introduction
In this election, young Malays joined hands with other young Malaysians in making the argument for the Malaysia of the future. They followed the footsteps of their forefathers who fought for their country’s independence over half a century ago. By doing so, youths are sowing the seeds of success for their children, when Malaysia celebrates its centenary. By then, Malaysia will truly have come of age.
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, 2008, Malaysia’s State Assemblyman, in his article, The
Coming of Age of Malaysia’s Youth, Opinion Asia
1.0 Introduction
Blogs have emerged from modest beginnings and become a highly networked
mass of online knowledge and communication for the common people. It is ‘arguably
the most popular online personal publishing platform on the Internet’ (Brady, 2005,
p.4). All types of research could be done through blogs as the medium provides for
linking from site to site, leading to possible collaborations and knowledge sharing in a
fast, convenient and public manner. Moreover, blogs act as novel tools that allow
bloggers to mobilize their audience (ibid.) without the need for any formalized
leadership or control. On the other hand, blogging content have become so disembodied and stricken with provocative fabrications as well as political exposé, the power of the authority or government becomes largely undermined.
In Malaysia, politicians from the ruling party are upset with bloggers criticizing
local policies, accusing bloggers as liars and troublemakers. There are talks of forcing bloggers to register with the government (Masnick, 2007), in the attempt to discipline these errant netizens. This may lead to the institutionalization of the blogosphere that contradicts the e-democratic calls of ‘cyberspace is the space where individuals are, inherently, free from control by real space sovereigns’ (Lessig, 1998, p.3). Leveraging upon blogs’ qualities such as allowing for anonymity and ease of usage, blogs enable the voices of the repressed to be heard. Blogs provide for an alternative source of news in a country where her mainstream media is highly controlled by the state (Banerjee,
2008).
As aptly put by Nik Ahmad (2008), a prolific blogger and political commentator
in Malaysia, he maintains that new technologies have undermined Malaysia’s old
politics of divide and rule. The ruling party had depended on racially stratified
mainstream media in crafting different messages to the different racial groups,
‘allowing them to stoke the fires of communal discontent on the ground’ (ibid.). This strategy galvanizes citizens’ dependency for the government and hence, the legitimacy for its ruling. With blogs, citizens are able to search for other avenues in gaining different perspectives for a certain incident or issue that may have been concealed by the mainstream media. This is further heightened during the campaigning period for the Malaysian 2008 General Elections, where the oppositional parties and Malaysian youths actively blogged on contentious and anti-government content (Tan and Zawawi, 2008). What Nik Ahmad (2008) termed as ‘silent revolution’, has resulted in a historical defeat by the ruling Barisan Nasional1 coalition, from maintaining its two-thirds majority in Parliament and being unable to have complete control in amending the country’s Constitution.
Through this thesis, I will review how an average Malaysian citizen, with
neither political clout nor influence, gains autonomy through the Malaysian
blogosphere. In addition, I will look into the challenges he or she faces in attempting to practice democratic ideologies of freedom of speech and expression, in countering the State’s authoritarian ruling. Through their persistent and relentless questionings, these online political commentators have destabilized the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) consociationalist2 government’s hegemonic use of “cultural governance”.
The Government’s biased actions are justified by the notions of Malay special rights and supremacy or better known as, the Bumiputra policy, which undervalues all other non-Malay and non-indigenous racial groups (Kesavapany and Saw, 2006, p.24). However, to what extent such opposition has been able to effectively recast what constitutes the national interest is still dubious.
I question whether the new media platform is able to compel Malaysians to face
up to their longstanding problems of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, as stated by
Kanchana (2009), that had ‘became so deep rooted into society that it became part of
the Malaysian culture’. It has been argued that the usage of the online medium may
become a viable catalyst in the formation of a new ideology for the state where the
focus for a citizen’s well-being will be based on national interest, rather than the interest of certain racial groups. Nonetheless, I will argue that it can end up as an online extension for the reproduction of pre-existing offline ideologies and conditions heavily influenced by racial sentiments.
1.1 Research Questions
Freedom and democracy become the inevitable consequence of digital
technology, with the state having no authority over the online communities. ‘Digital
democracy will be decentralized, unevenly dispersed, even profoundly contradictory’
(Jenkins, 2006, p.208) leading to the rise of autonomous media centers. This propagates the belief that digital technology has the independent power to shape and transform society. In most cases, ‘forms of control and regulation are already embedded in the operational codes that govern our interactions in cyberspace… unless we understand this anti democratic potentil of cyberspace; we are likely to sleep through the transition from freedom into control’ (Lessig, 2000).
Therefore, expecting the decline of powerful governmental institutions when confronted with cyber democracy becomes rather premature. The political effects depend on decisions made in both the technology and the regime, which shapes the new medium and the institutions around it.
This thesis is an extension of Brown’s study (2004) on politics of the Internet in
Malaysia that uses the Gramscian cultural hegemony framework. I propose an
investigation into the extent blogs can become a space for ideological negotiations by
the civil societies, beyond the State’s hegemonic control and itself as a negotiable
ideology seeking to subvert State’s hegemony. With blogging as a space for counter
hegemony, I will analyze whether there will be creations of new forms of intellectuals or leaders from the subordinate classes. At the same time, I will scrutinize the possible obstacles that prevent an average blogger who holds no political power, from developing into these new forms of intellectuals.
Furthermore, I am skeptical about the hype that the freedom of expression in the
Malaysian blogosphere equates to further democratization for her citizens. The
prevalence of digital divide as well as the highly state controlled news content from both online and offline mainstream sources (Kenyon, 2007; Reporters Without Borders, 2006) provide an ominous background for the advancement towards democracy. In the Produsage model put forth by Axel Bruns (2008), he claims that produsaging
democracy is not really aimed at toppling the ruling regime. Instead, the focus is on how blogs are able to reinvent the ways in which citizens deliberate and engage on social and political matters. I will examine whether the produsers of these socio-
political blogs are able to bring about actual societal and revolutionary changes in the overall Malaysian society, or whether it is just an illusion of empowerment.
In summary, my thesis focuses on two theoretical concepts, namely, Gramsci’s
counter hegemony and the formation of the new intellectuals from the subordinate
classes and followed by Axel Brun’s model of produsaging democracy. My research
questions are:
(1) With blogging as a space for counter hegemony, can the politically powerless
citizens be turned into a new form of intellectuals in seeking to subvert the State’s
hegemony?
(2) Will these ordinary citizens acting as produsers, bring about actual social
transformations within the overall Malaysian society, or will there simply be a
reiteration of pre-existing ideologies (such as the State’s racially stratified propaganda), in the online space?
Chapter 2:
2.0 Setting the Stage for the Malaysian Blogosphere
In this chapter I will give an overview of how the offline mainstream media
landscape in Malaysia is like, as affected by the State’s political stance and policies. Preceding that, I will investigate the value of blogging as an alternative space for an average citizen in Malaysia. At the same time, I will look into the country’s concerns for the prevailing split between its rural and urban areas that contributes to digital divide and how this impacts on Malaysia’s e-democracy.
2.1 Destabilizing the State Ideology
Malaysia follows a model of consociational democracy where the usual practice
is ‘of accommodating the competing interests of the various component parties in
Barisan Nasional (BN) while maintaining Malay dominance,’ (Kesavapany and Saw,
2006, p.24) with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) having a sovereign
rule over it. Malaysia has a history of electoral democracy since her independence in 1957 but it is considered as a pseudo-democracy with a discourse ‘based on ethnic lines and the very idea of “race” become naturalized in official life’ (Farish Noor, 2002 in Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.11). The mainstream media’s role is in propagating State policies via the use of agenda-setting, where the State has put into place, ‘a set of laws to contain opposing voices, discouraging public discourse’ (Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.10).
Not surprisingly, the superseding objective is for the ‘creation of national unity
through the eradication of racial equality in the social and economic advancement of the people’ (Kesavapany and Saw, 2006, p.24-25). In this, the governing power still holds on to the neo-colonial beliefs of Malay supremacy and Malay special rights that are prioritized over the needs of other races. Ethnicity has thus become a doctrine in the formulation of every aspect of government programmes and policies, namely, the New Economic Policy (NEP) up to 1991 and thereafter, the National Development Plan (NDP)3. These ethnic-based policies result in much discontentment amongst minority groups such as the Chinese and Indian Malaysians. They consider the doctrine as racist and causing ethnic segregation amongst Malaysians. Furthermore, with BN having a monopoly over the mass media, it is not surprising that these dissenting voices of the minorities eventually used the online platform for discussions of topics not published in the mainstream media and for airing out their grievances against the State (Banerjee, 2008).
In September 1998, amid conflicts over the dealing of the 1997 Asian Economic
Crisis, ‘Mahathir (the then prime minister of Malaysia) sacked his deputy and erstwhile protégé, Anwar Ibrahim, and expelled him from the government and UMNO’ (Brown in Abbot, 2004, p.79). The ex-Deputy Prime Minister was held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) where he was charged with allegations of corruption and sodomy. This led to a public outcry that became known as the Reformasi movement and the formation of National Justice Party (also known as Parti Keadilan Nasional).
The Malaysian media began as a State controlled media environment where the
print media worked under an annual licensing scheme and broadcast media. However,
since early 1980s, Malaysia’s media landscape had seen a process of deregulation and
liberalization (Banerjee, 2008, p.1). Despite that, ‘the Malaysian media continue to see some form of control over the mainstream media’ (ibid). Malaysians have also actively embraced new media technology as seen through its ‘Multimedia Super Corridor5 initiative that enabled rapid expansion of the Internet and mobile telecommunications’ (ibid.). This includes the Bill of Guarantees, with the ruling government’s ‘promise not to censor the Internet’ (Brown in Abbot, 2004, p.79). According to Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, ‘the Internet news media cannot be called an “alternative media’ any more as it is a more popular medium than the traditional mainstream media in Malaysia’ (Banerjee, 2008, p.2). Today, the mainstream media as part of their selling strategy are
trying to imitate and catch up with the increasingly popular alternative online media by being as critical and shrewd as the latter.
Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was conceptualized in 1996 as an initiative by the Malaysian government designed to leapfrog Malaysia into the information age. The focus is on aiding both foreign-owned and home-grown
Malaysian companies that have businesses in multimedia and communications products, as well as in any related research and development areas.
Unlike the mainstream media that tend to package and distribute its content to
citizens, the online media is more of a pull technology where users could proactively search and request for information that is flexibly customized and aggregated. With such tools, citizens are able to search online for information that is not published in the mainstream media. For instance, in the previous 12th Malaysian General Election, ‘user perception of coverage by the mainstream mass media on the elections was that of bias and propaganda, the Internet emerged as a more trustworthy medium and led to people switching to the Internet as their main source of information’ (Banerjee, 2008, p.4).
In a study conducted by Universiti Utara Malaysia (COLGIS, 2008), their
findings showed that, towards the end of the election campaign, Malaysians’ support for Barisan Nasional (BN) become much less than from the start whereas their support for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) increased. In addition, ‘it has later been admitted by several Government sources including Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi6 that the
Government had underestimated the power and influence of the Internet’ (ibid.). The
Opposition parties aggressively used the alternative online media and made
unprecedented election gains, by presiding over 5 states, thus disallowing UMNO from
gaining the two thirds majority for the first time ever. These indicate the growing
resentment and distrust of the citizens towards the ruling coalition party.
*(During the course of writing this thesis certain political restructuring took place in Malaysia. Under much pressure from the public and his UMNO party, PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resigned from his post on 1st April 2009 and was taken over by his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. However, any references made to the Prime Minister or leader of Malaysia in this thesis, will be given to PM Badawi)
The blogosphere is widely believed to be a platform for direct and deliberative
democracy that is designed to grant public participation, where all citizens are given a voice in decision making. The ‘underlying social networks behind blogs to suggest unconscious development towards democracy’ where its ‘interactions are not influenced by any form of command and control’ (Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.5). All conventions will have to be reinvented, although the process would not be easy, in creating a world with no center, gatekeeper nor margins. These technologies will have a hand in deciding the new political conditions in Malaysia, having ‘a direct effect on the well-being of the country in the immediate and distant future’ (Ooi, 2008). Malaysian blogosphere is like ‘the emergence of the underground newspaper, grassroots video production, people’s radio stations and other forms of independent media production and distribution’ (Enzensberger, 1974). This new generation of digital communications is making cultural resources available to all, using a relatively low cost and easy to use media with an open network and the peer-to-peer technique, hence providing the birth of a new political culture.
The rapid proliferation of blogging bears testimony to the fact that the
Malaysian citizens are harnessing the new media to present their own views, opinions
and content. The existence of such socio-political blogs heavily relies on participation and readership by the average citizens rather than the highly powerful elites. This ‘latent technical power must be used intelligently and deliberately by an informed population’ despite knowing that ‘big power and big money will find a way to control access to virtual communities’ (Rheingold, 2000). Malaysian netizens need to educate themselves in order to leverage the emerging forms of political and economic power online. Therefore, in bringing about a social transformation within Malaysia, it is necessary to establish public commons in the form of blogging and the creation and distribution of its alternative content.
2.3 Digital Divide in Malaysia
Socio-political blogs could be seen as an alternative media which provides
multiple and different points of views, as opposed to the singularly expressed ones
through the mainstream media. Alternative media caters to communities not well served by the mass media, or that specifically advocates for social change. Also termed as “citizens’ media”, one would expect it to be produced for non-profit reasons and not controlled by government linked media conglomerates. However, in reality, Malaysia’s ranking on their annual press freedom index to online censorship is worsening, from 124th in year 2007 to 132nd in year 2008, out of 169 countries ranked (Reporters Without Borders, 2007 & 2008). Ironically with increasing understanding by the State that the Internet can play a key role in democracy, more and more new methods of censoring it are being introduced. The Malaysian government is seen as backtracking on their promise not to censor the Internet, with their prevalent use of the ISA to detain errant bloggers without trial (Amnesty International, 2008).
As compared to other Asian countries, Malaysian blog readers have a higher
interest in political blogs (PR Newswire, 2006). Nevertheless, ‘there exists a digital divide between its large rural population and its congregated urban population’ (Crump and Zaitun, 2005, p.2) that is still growing as technology is speedily evolving. According to the Information Society Index (ISI) Ranking (2009) for digital divide, Malaysia stands at a calculated average of 36 against the 53 countries in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, in an earlier study conducted, it was found that the percentage for students’ usage of the Internet in the rural area is 64.7% as compared to the 84.6% in the urban area (Norizan, 2002, p.7). Although financial help is given to conduct activities in overcoming this, it seemed that there is ‘no standard approach and no coordination’ (Crump and Zaitun, 2005, p.2) between the different campaigners resulting in overlaps, repetitions and a waste of resources.
The alternative online media through socio-political blogs may seem freer than
the mainstream media. However, as long as information technology is ‘not being
realized equally in the society, with the poor, rural and minority groups falling behind,’ (Norizan, 2002, p.1) e-democracy becomes an empowering power, only for those who are already empowered in the first place.
3.0 Theoretical Framework
I am using Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony that gives great attention to
ideology and culture as the agents for State dominance as well as revolution. In Chapter 2, I have explained how Malaysia’s consociationalist government had over the years, used cultural hegemony through its neo-colonial beliefs of Malay supremacy and the rights of Bumiputra, in legitimizing its racial based policies. Nevertheless, through the Internet, there has been a surge of counter hegemonic power for civil societies led by the average citizens (turned bloggers) who have restricted or no political clout. Therefore, in Chapter 5, I will analyze whether these average Malaysian bloggers could potentially become a new form of intellectuals from the subordinate classes as proposed by Gramsci, in leading this counter hegemonic power.
I will also be looking into the concept of ‘produsaging democracy’ as put forth
by Axel Bruns. Alongside, I will be analyzing claims about e-democracy based on
studies conducted in Europe, America and Asia. Later in Chapter 6, I will investigate whether produsers in the Malaysian blogging space can bring about actual societal changes that extend beynd the blogosphere and into the offline community. However, I will argue that it may simply become another platform for disseminating the already existing offline ideologies.
3.1 Cultural Hegemony and its Struggles in Reality
Under a radical milieu of Fascist Italy, the Prison Notebooks was Antonio
Gramsci’s attempt to formulate an alternative plan of political action for the working class against the ruling regime. The period of his incarceration served to illuminate Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony, consent and the role of civil society. Works on hegemony was brought up by Marx and Lenin but it was Gramsci who established the
salience of hegemony in determining social relations within a capitalist system. He
deviated from the traditional Marxist view by ascribing a crucial role to culture and ideology, in his analysis of the socio-political system.
With a focus on human personality, their struggles and a ‘self-active political
education and autonomous organization of the proletarian political culture’ (Martin,
200, p.311), Gramsci boldly opposed Marxism’s simplistic notions of the proletariat
eventually propelling into victory. Instead, he formulated a concept that allows for the ‘confrontation between differing cultures where hegemony has to be negotiated and won’ (Newbold in Boyd-Barett and Newbold, 1995, p.329).
Diagram 1: A visualization of the change in the components of society’s superstructures (Bates, 1975).
The above diagram envisaged Gramsci’s study of the role of intellectuals in
society that led him to break down the superstructure into two great “floors,” which he described as “civil society” and “political society” (Bates, 1975, p.353). The upper level consists of the political society which is composed of public institutions like the government, courts, police and army, capable of exercising direct power and aggression. The political society is also known as a site of repression with the use of legal state apparatuses of coercive power.
On the second level is the civil society, comprising private organizations like schools, places of worship, clubs and parties that contribute to the formation of social and political consciousness. Civil society is seen as a marketplace of ideas, where intellectuals enter as “salesmen” of contending cultures (ibid.). Intellectuals are the builders of society and on whom society is dependent on, ‘there is no organization without intellectuals, that is, without organizers and leaders’ (Gramsci in Martin, 2001, p.111). Only the “winning” intellectuals are able to produce and impose cultural hegemony upon the population through the use of ideological apparatuses such as education and the mass media.
Intellectuals who are able to extend the world-view and ideas of the rulers to the
ruled as “common sense” and secure the “free” consent or the consensual will of the
masses, have thus, created hegemony. Therefore, a functioning hegemony is when ‘the
political leadership based on the consent of the led… is secured by the diffusion and popularization of the world-view of the ruling class’ (Bates, 1975, p.352). However, for hegemony to maintain itself successfully, simply depending on the “spontaneous” consent given by the masses is insufficient. There needs to be an enforcement of the coercive state apparatuses by the political society which legally constraint groups that do not consent. Nonetheless, when spontaneous consent fail, where the ruling class ‘is no longer “leading” but only “dominant”, exercising coercive force alone’ (Gramsci, 1971, p.276). This means that the ruled no longer are subsumed under the old hegemony. There is a crisis of authority and a necessity to create a new political culture.
Gramsci (1971, p.5) stated that ‘all men are intellectuals, one could therefore
say; but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals’ where ‘the mode of being the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence… but an active
participation in practical life’ (ibid, p.10). The transformation of a lowly average man from the proletariat class into an intellectual requires one to not only possess a certain technical capacity but also be a leader who is vigorously involved in all activities so as to be visible to the masses. In this, as espoused by Gramsci, the potential intellectual needs to be taught a new type of skill and political knowledge. However, ‘the distance between high levels of specialization and the intellectual skills of the vast majority of people is maintained as a traditional split between people, intellectuals and specialized knowledge continues’ (Showstack, 1987, p.271). Hence, the development of intellectuals from the proletariat class (or citizens of the ruled) is severely stunted, resulting in the conditions for a full expansion of social equality to be massively underdeveloped.
An ‘old order cannot be made to vanish simply by pointing out its evils, any
more than a new order can be brought into existence by pointing out its virtues’ (Bates, 1975, p.365). The element of ideology is crucial in political struggle, but it is not easy to change completely the consciousness of the ruled. The proletariat party desiring to replace the hegemonic State needs to be able to impress upon the masses of its counter hegemonic beliefs that is able to lead ‘the working class beyond the limits of the existing bourgeois democracy’ (Lawrence and Wishart, 1978, p.288).
In order for counter hegemony to work, it needs to be coherent and better than
the prevailing hegemony, ‘not only in their moral conduct, but also in their technical know-how’ (Bates, 1975, p.365). If this is successful, it may result in a crisis of authority or the failure of the current ruling class. People would then cease to trust the ruling leadership and henceforth, abandon the party.
However, to take over and become the ruling or “bourgeois” culture itself requires a ‘combination of cultural and ideological elements derived from different class locations’ (Bennett in Boyd-Barrett and Chris Newbold, 1995, p.351). In other words, those who want to be the ruling party in society, needs to take into consideration and accept what other classes want as well, in order to sustain and legitimize their domination.
In today’s context, Gramsci’s theorizations are quite underdeveloped as very
few academic papers have yet to use them in the study of new media. These new media
platforms, to which the masses could freely access, are the new ideological spaces for political socializations. Through them, civil and political societies are able to disseminate both hegemonic and counter hegemonic values and contents. Furthermore, application to Malaysian politics and blogosphere has to date, not been done before.
I am focusing on Gramsci’s concept of the everyday intellectuals becoming the
ultimate intellectuals or leaders in society, to analyze whether this can similarly happen to the average Malaysian blogger. In the Malaysian blogosphere, there are both extensions of the State’s dogmas as well as opposing and contentious ideologies that float freely. There are no clear distinctions between the two, due to the fragmentary nature and massive number of blogs online that are constantly changing. I will then analyze the extent to which the Malaysian blogosphere, are able to carry a dominant version of an anti-government and “democratizing” effects as though it were the only naturalized culture. Nevertheless, I will contend that in the end, it is not wholly democratic as it is actually structured to privilege those who already have some power and influence.
For non-homogenous societies with deep social cleavages, suuch as Malaysia,
using Gramsci’s theoriization of consensual ‘collective will’ may result in various
complexities. Due to thee heterogeneous background that each Malaysia an citizen has, in terms of access to the Innternet, education, culture, class position, religiion and others, it becomes immensely harrd to find common points to reach consensus. This reflects the “struggles” faced by thhe average blogger who usually has low de egrees of power, resource and influence.. Hence, there are uncertainties as to whethe er such struggles actually do happen and if they do, whether they can transform the aver rage blogger into commanding intellectua als.
3.2 Produsaging for whhat sort of “E-democracy”?
E-democracy co omprises the use of electronic communication t technologies like
the Internet, in enhancinng democratic processes within a representativee democracy. As seen in most of the lit terature reviews, the main aims are to produc ce better policies through increasing citiz zens’ accessibility and participation in public policy decision-making and ensuring ddirect engagements with the government (Kl luver and Yang, 2003). E-democracy alloows for greater transparency and accountability,, not only for the production of better pollicies and more democratic processes, but also in increasing the State’s political legitima acy.
Diagram 2: The produsage process -producer and user no longer are separated but becomes one produser (Bruns, 2008).
As proposed by Axel Bruns (2008), that is reflected in the diagram, ‘in
collaborative communities, the creation of shared content takes place in a networked, participatory environment which breaks down the boundaries’ and allow all participants to be users as well as producers of information and knowledge. This produsage-based culture mimics democratizing processes in the blogosphere which includes decentralization, fluidity and a heterarchical7 structure in distributing power horizontally and more equally.
User led content production is dependent on ‘very large communities of
participants (to) make a number of usually very small incremental changes to the
established knowledge base’ (Bruns, 2008, p.1). In this, bloggers may use mainstream
news as references or built up on each others’ contributions and responses.
Subsequently this results in an ‘avalanche of consumer generated content that is
building on the Web, adding tera-beta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis’ (Trendwatching.com, 2005). Nevertheless, there is a tendency for like-minded individuals to link up that may further delineate groups based on their differing values and varying levels of resources that they own collectively. This contradicts the notion for an all inclusive platform in promoting democracy.
( Hetararchy is the opposite of hierarchy, where power and authority are spread out over a horizontal structure that tends to overlap and mix)
Citizen journalism, through the use of socio-political blogs is a huge part of e-
democracy that ‘offers a multitude of alternative, produsage based models for the user-led selection, coverage and discussion of new stories’ (Bruns, 2008, p.73). Despite being able to gain different points of views and having a wider choice when
participating in discussion threads of their interests, critical bloggers or blog readers will be limited to a minority who are privileged, well educated and skilled. The less educated majority would end up consuming passively or have no access at all due to digital divide. Furthermore, ‘the ideal of the informed citizen is breaking down because here is simply too much for any individual to know’ (Jenkins, 2006, p.259). Therefore, with new forms of knowledge creation there needs rapid developments of the network infrastructure as well as ‘new skills in collaboration and a new ethic of knowledge sharing’ (ibid.) where most developing countries may not be able to cater for.
Bruns (2008, p.344) asserts that produsaging democracy ‘not so much perhaps
leading to its casual collapse per se, but to a significant reinvigoration of citizen participation to democratic processes’. In this, it is important to be skeptical of e-democracy’s transformative potential that may not necessarily happen and instead be an extension of the authoritative State rulings. However, what is significant is that, it is not merely about toppling certain forms of governance but ‘towards their reinvention in a new participatory context’ (Rushkoff, 2003). This includes the formation of new forms of engagements between citizens with their governments and the existing power structures.
In a 2004 seminar for Enterprise and Information Society led by the European
Commission, where Erkki Liikanen (2004, p.4), stated that all the European countries
have progressively been developing e-government plans and strategies for citizens’
online voting and participation solutions. Preceding that, IPSOS European Survey
(2006) assessed 115 million Europeans and found that 6 in 10 Europeans have heard of
blogging with 1 out of 5 have read a blog before. These go to show that through the
support and investments made by the governing bodies, e-democracy is able to flourish with the growing participation from the European population.
‘Bloggers do hope that they will gain influence on European politics in the
future’ (Trepte & Huber, 2007) but they acknowledge that this could only happen
through collectivism and networking. Nonetheless, there has yet to exist a unified
community or social movement online. Antagonistic political attitudes still exist, there is no comprehensive collective identification that links all Europeans together and even when there are collective goals, people are reluctant to participate (ibid.). However, an endeavor in unification is being made through the Bloggingportal.eu8 (2009), with the combined efforts amongst many leading European socio-political bloggers. Such efforts to mine data from blogs, help blog readers to cope with the ‘sheer volume, variety of opinions and time constraints’ (Liikanen, 2004, p.2-3). It reflects how bloggers themselves have the ability to network and come together to promote new ways for political engagements, all as part in produsaging democracy online.
(Bloggingportal.eu is an organization that syndicates the content from more than 300 multilingual blogs writing on the European Union (EU).
In America, Pew Research Centre (2006) released a survey finding where ‘some
50 million Americans go to the Internet for news on a typical day’ which ‘coincides
with the rapid growth of broadband adoption in American homes’ and where the
‘overall Internet penetration rose to 70%,’ with ‘74 million people (37% of adult
American)’ logging online. American politicians from both the Democrat and
Republican, recognize that the Internet allows for the unconventional ways of direct
messaging to specific audiences, especially the untapped young voters.
Thus the race is for ‘the rewriting of rules on advertising, fund-raising, mobilizing supporters and even the spread of negative information’ (Nagourney, 2006). However, with a race to control
the technology, there is an inherent fear of blogs becoming institutionalized and a
political apparatus for propaganda by political groups or media conglomerates. If this happens, the claims for produsaging democracy become a convenient way to mislead individuals to think that they are participating in an essentially “free” and independent culture.
As compared to their Western counterparts, there seem to be a dearth of recent
academic studies done on e-democracy and Asia as a whole. It may be that the concept
of democracy is still being seen as a Euro-American master term of ideoscapes that
‘was constructed with a certain internal logic and presupposed a certain relationship between reading, representation and public sphere’ (Appadurai, 1996, p.35). Therefore, non-European and non-American countries may ‘have organized their political cultures around different keywords’ (ibid.) since they are not able to fully associate with the term, viewing it as an alien concept. Asia is conveniently seen as wanting to ‘buck the trend and resist the global pressures to democratize’ (Grugel, 2002, p.226) by using her “Asian values” that have heavy influences from the Confucianism. Ironically, such values9 are also held by some Western countries. This goes to show that the Eastern/Western dichotomy is problematic as values and cultures are not permanently encased on any set of inherited traditions and are instead, fluid and complex, especially
more so with the spurring development of technology and the Internet.
(Examples of Asian values include: social order, hierarchy and the importance of an uncritical respect for the authority)
For Asian countries, developments in information communications technology
(ICT) and the Internet started with a perception that ‘efficient telecommunications
infrastructure as a crucial element in the attraction of investments… essential to the building of a country’s economic competitiveness’ (Kluver and Yang, 2003, p.1). Based on a global e-government study carried out by Brown University (2006), ‘Asian
countries once again dominate e-government ratings, taking three of the top five spots’. Hence, economic and capitalistic considerations are the primary reasons for rapid developments in Asian ICTs where the secondary effects have caused citizens’
democratic deliberations online, such as through the socio-political blogs.
In a research released by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Live Online Services
Business and analyzed by India PR Wire (2006), Asia’s blogosphere is ‘fueled by youth with almost half of all bloggers (56%) under 25, while 35% are 25-34 years old and 9% are 35 years old and over’. Asian netizens are most attracted to blogs updates on daily life by their families and friends as well as blogs that are updated regularly and written with striking pictures. This goes to show that their blog consumption were mainly for socialization purposes in getting connected with others, and not really for socio-political discussions with ‘politicians fared poorly across the region with only 14% interested in reading their blogs’ (ibid, p.1).
The survey also showed that 50% of the survey respondents view blog content
as ‘trustworthy as traditional media’ and find blogs as the ‘quickest way to learn about news and current affairs’ (ibid, p.2). Hence, this translates to a high potentiality for blogs as a medium for information seeking, citizen deliberation and subsequently, the advancement of e-democracy. Nonetheless, due to Asia’s highly diverse make-up in terms of cultural values and ways of governances, technology developments become greatly disparate, with the degree of control over online content to differ according to each individual country’s policies. Thus, the Internet in Asia ‘does not create a unique space of freedom, but is merely an extension of the offline public and private spheres within which citizens communicate’ (Chattopadhyay and Chun, 2005).
The produsage model is technologically deterministic and in a sense problematic
as it assumes that the blogger cum produser has full autonomy in production and
consumption due to the relatively liberated conditions provided by the blogosphere.
However, in reality it needs to consider other social and human factors like the State policies and regulations over the Internet, society’s attitudes towards blogging and the issue of digital divide that may prevent the individual from becoming a blogger and participating as a produser for democracy. Furthermore, bloggers may not necessarily participate with the sole aim to further e-democracy and instead be part of it for other apolitical reasons such as for entertainment and socialization. With all these in mind, in Chapter 6, I will analyze the extent to which produsaging democracy within Malaysian blogosphere can bring about social transformations that goes beyond the online.
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
4.0 Research Methodology
In attempting to address the research objectives and aims of this study, the
following methods of qualitative field research were used; semi-structured face to face
interviews and email interviews as well as short open-ended preliminary surveys. This
multiple method technique entails ‘using more than one method or source of data in the
study of social phenomena’ (Bryman, 2001) leading to a more comprehensive and in-
depth data collected.
4.1 Semi structured Face to Face and Email Interviews
Semi structured face to face and email interviews were conducted as they allow
greater flexibility, depth and range of topics to be covered, ‘qualitative interviewing
design is flexible, iterative and continuous, rather than prepared in advance and locked
in stone’(Rubin, 1995). I have selected individuals of any nationality who are keeping
up with Malaysian news and politics online; have a good knowledge on the topic and
actively discusses it, whether online or offline, as my subjects for analysis.
The purpose of the interviews was to obtain the ground sentiments from an
average Malaysian citizen or non-Malaysian onlooker and their perspectives on the
potentials and threats that blogging can bring to Malaysia. In addition, the interviews
were conducted to ascertain their expectations of the role of online alternative media,
particularly the socio-political blogs, in shaping e-democracy in Malaysia.
Snowball sampling was appropriate for this study because as indicated by a brief
pilot study that I have conducted, those who actually consume online news and
alternative views are still of a minority albeit critical group. Therefore, this research
requires a purposive selection of those who have the skills and means to access the
online political sphere in Malaysia. However this also meant that a bias exists where
only the viewpoints of the privileged few will be reported. It must also be noted that
some of the respondents are experts in their fields. Therefore, in writing this
dissertation, I am constantly made aware of the prevailing issue of digital divide and the
absence of a more inclusive voice in the Malaysian society.
A preliminary survey was also used to collect data on demographics and an
overview of Internet and blog consumption of each respondent. This was then followed
by an hour long face to face interview session or a self-administered open-ended email
questionnaire. I also did multiple follow-ups through emails in clarifying any doubts I
had about their statements and extending to them, other related questions.
I deliberately chose only the first names of respondents to be reported, because
one respondent requested as such and I decided to implement this on the other
respondents as well, not only for consistency but also to protect their privacy. I
observed that all the respondents were rather enthusiastic as they believe that their
inputs will bring forth some good to the Malaysian society. Furthermore, most of them
are not situated within Malaysia and hence, do not feel any form of constraint in airing
their views.
Throughout the whole interview process, reflexivity was practiced in which I
tried to eliminate any bias or preconceived understandings that I had about a certain
issue or personality mentioned by the respondents. In addition, I took the initiative to
study any books, journals, websites, blogs or videos, recommended by my interview
respondents that subsequently enabled me to collect a corpus of secondary research
data. I also allowed the categories and themes for the analysis to emerge from the data,
instead of testing for the existence of pre-defined categories.
4.2 The Interviewed “Intellectuals”
Within a two months period (December 2008 to January 2009) a total of 10 face
to face interviews and 2 email interviews10 were conducted. All the respondents were
tertiary educated with occupations such as professional banker, manager, journalist,
teacher, academic, civil servant and university student. They range between the ages of
18 to 55 years old.
Table 1: Demographic details of the 12 interview respondents.
No. Name Method Nationality Occupation
1 *Alvin Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Civil servant
2 Mei Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Civil servant
3 Chin Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Manager
4 *Jian Face-to-face Malaysian Undergraduate
5 Filzah Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Teacher
6 Christine Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Undergraduate
7 Edwin Face-to-face Malaysian Undergraduate
8 Anuar Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Teacher
9 Shahril Face-to-face Singaporean Masters student
10 *Ridhwan Face-to-face Singaporean Undergraduate
11 *Gabrielle Email Malaysian Intern at Malaysiakini
12 *Balan - Email Malaysian Banker
There are five Singaporeans with two originally from Singapore and three,
previously were Malaysians. Three of the respondents are Malaysians, whilst the rest
are Singapore Permanent Residents (PR) and still Malaysian citizens. Five of them
(refer to the table list of respondents’ names with an asterisk *) at the time of the
interviews owned their own blogs and all are moderately active readers of online news.
There are 4 females and 8 male respondents, with 7 who are Chinese, 4 Malays
and 1 Indian. Five of the respondents have 6 to 10 years of computer use experience,
whereas the rest have 11 years or more, with a majority spending more than 19 hours
online per week.
During the interviews, I asked the respondents of how they view e-democracy to
be like within the Malaysian blogosphere and of whether it has impacted the offline
society. I also queried on their views towards socio-political blogs and to what extent
they and other bloggers have contributed to Malaysia’s e-democracy.
Chapter 5: Findings & Analysis
Counter Hegemony and the New Intellectuals
There does not exist any independent class of intellectuals, but every social group has
its own stratum of intellectuals, or tends to form one.
Antonio Gramsci in Media, Culture and Morality by Keith Tester, 1994.
5.0 Findings & Analysis: Counter Hegemony and the New Intellectuals
This chapter presents the findings that show to what extent blogs can become a
space for negotiating multiple sets of ideologies by the civil societies, the oppositional
parties and ruling regime. I will look into the interview respondents’ views on how
blogging is able to shape counter hegemony that is different from that of the State
controlled mainstream media. Next, I will investigate how this counter hegemony may
give birth to new forms of intellectuals from the subordinate classes as proposed by
Gramsci. In this, I will also analyze the respondents’ view of themselves as
intellectuals, in leading this counter hegemonic power.
5.1 Shaping counter hegemony online
Most of the respondents view civil societies and the oppositional political parties
within the blogosphere as “activists” who use the online space to advance and bring
awareness to the public of their cause. There exists a marketplace of ideas within the
Malaysian blogosphere, where intellectuals from contending groups enter as “salesmen”
in aggressively promoting their rebellious ideologies.
There are political or activist blogs that put their opinions on them. They try to have
active discussions and highlight important issues in the country. Then there are those
trying to garner support, whether physical or monetary, especially during the elections.
An example is Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned politician, through his blog alone he
collected RM100,000 for campaign funds. – Edwin
Jeff Ooi or Ooi Chuan Aun is one of the more prominent socio-political bloggers in Malaysia. He has been dubbed
by Malaysiakini as owning “Malaysia’s Most Influential Blog” and was awarded the “Freedom Blogs Awards (Asia
category)” by Reporters Without Borders in 2005. He owns Screenshots (http://www.jeffooi.com/) where he did
most of his political campaign fundraising. He is now a Member of the Parliament, under the oppositional
Democratic Action Party (DAP). On January 11, 2007 he was accused and sued by News Straits Times Press (NSTP) to
have more than 10 libelous postings on his blog. This lawsuit gave birth to the Bloggers United campaign that
establishes a fund to protect unfairly detained bloggers and protect their rights for freedom of speech in their blogs
Blogs also allow for individuals to correct whatever that have been misconstrued by the
mainstream media. Hence, respondents feel that blogs are more trustworthy as they are
able to provide different points of views which were previously censored.
"These blogs allow (oppositional) politicians to correct or contest whatever has been
‘mis-said’ by the mainstream media. So the same issue can now be seen in two or more
perspectives. – Shahril "
As mentioned in Chapter 2, due to the Reformasi incident and the government
controlled mainstream media, opposition are the ones who are leveraging upon the
online platform. This inevitably, gives the impression that socio-political blogs are only
for political dissidents. However, one respondent point out that bloggers from both the
oppositional parties and the ruling regime use the medium to perform “political
assassinations” in the form of verbal abuse and insults, on their opponents. Usually such
bloggers employ an emotive tone in their writings, in order to appeal to their readers.
"I think all news in Malaysia, whether mainstream or alternative are quite emotional. It’s
a borderless world where nobody can control, you can just add in your views online
without any hesitation… then it is no longer e-democracy but an “e-democrazy”. –
Ridhwan"
This respondent also feels that there are both extensions of State propaganda as well as
contentious ideologies that float freely and even overlap with one another.
"Even in the alternative media, I am not sure what the people (bloggers and blog readers)
want. To some extent they want alternative ways that are democratizing but some feel
that State authoritarianism should be the way. Activists are quite questionable as they
do not have a cohesive view. They failed to bring the people together to work towards
common points. – Ridhwan"
There are no clear distinctive counter ideologies due to the fragmentary conditions of
the blog contents and the huge number of blogs available online that is continuously
changing. These result in an endless struggle for ideological control and being unable to
adequately convince all citizens to put their stake in counter hegemony and overthrow
the State’s hegemony.
5.2 Counter hegemony leading to the crisis of authority
Socio-political blogs do expose the irrationality and the unfairness of the
“common sense” imposed by the State onto citizens. When the State’s common sense
no longer works, respondents recognize that there is much distrust and anger felt by
netizens, towards the State and therefore, a crisis of authority. Many of the respondents
emphasized on the issue of contentious bloggers who were unfairly detained without
trial under the government’s Internal Security Act (ISA).
"Look what happen when the government used the ISA to capture Raja Petra
Kamarudin. Blogs came alive, mobilizing the average citizen to launched mass
protests. The government is still using the old method of force but they need to realize
force can only be used to a certain extent. – Alvin"
All these imply that the Malaysian society is at a disjuncture, where a new political
culture needs to be developed. Citizens do have some form of agency and autonomy
where the success of a certain hegemonic ruling is largely dependent on adopting
subordinates’ values.
"Raja Petra Kamarudin is the editor for the Malaysia Today website and a famous contentious anti-government blogger. He is deeply against money politics, corruption and ethnic polarization that are prevalent in Malaysia. He was detained twice under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for comments allegedly insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad. However, he was freed after the High Court Justice granted his petition and ruled that his detention was illegal. His case is often mentioned in various petitions pushing for the government to review the ISA"
"When people have been extended certain benefits or freedom to them, it is extremely
difficult to extract it away from them. Malaysians have tasted certain levels of
empowerment with the blogs and the spread of information, the impact seen on the
elections. It is just a starting point and Malaysians may demand for the platform to be
freer. – Chin"
However, as realistically put by a respondent, the process for a total social
transformation is not easy, or may even be impossible. This is especially so with
backward State leaders who fear a backlash if they were to be lenient towards the
bloggers.
"The whole government has to be taken over by a group of technocratic elites. Those
who are IT savvy and knows IT is an integral part of governance. Right now, the
hardcore ones are the technologically backward group who do not appreciate this
“mess”… for them it is a mess! They are afraid that a can of worms will be opened. We
need to wait for this whole bunch to pass away. – Alvin"
"In addition, another respondent feels that the opposition is still unable to provide a
strong alternative or counter hegemony, to the ruling party.
The opposition’s performance improved drastically in the last elections, but so far, they
have failed to prove themselves as a credible alternative to the ruling party. – Gabrielle"
5.3 Putting subjects into place
In order for counter hegemony to successfully transform into society’s
overriding hegemony, “spontaneous” consent by the masses is crucial. It seems that
despite the efforts by citizens to go online to get alternative perspectives, most blog
readers are still uncritically consuming what is put forth before them.
"Malaysian politics, there are scandals, the corruptions… I guess that is why there is an
interest for me, sensationalizing of Malaysian politics. – Ridhwan"
Moreover, narrowcasting is an unavoidable technique to use in the blogosphere where
the blog contents are aimed at specific segments of the Malaysian society as defined by
values, preferences or demographic attributes. Some of the respondents feel that what
appeal to these blog readers are news on political scandals and racial based interests,
rather than participating in socio-political discussions for nationwide interests.
"Blogs have very little agency. I visit a certain site and it is full of people who think alike
with me. What happens is that there is very little diversity of ideas… a reflection of
communal politics, it is usually one way. – Jian"
These result in like-minded individuals to congregate together, basing themselves on
racially stratified groups that hold on to pre-existing offline values. Furthermore, due to
the enormous amount of information given to them, the respondents often become
overwhelmed. They feel that it is mentally tough for them to go beyond the realm of
their own value and belief systems and accept opposing ideas.
"It is mentally taxing to get a whole bunch of information and trying to find something
of coherence… and they may be opposing to my own values. – Jian"
Nonetheless, they could easily evade sites that have transgressed their ideas of what
their version of the “truth” is.
"I cannot recall why or what I googled for but I recall reading a post on an issue and
reading varied responses, that made me ‘dizzy’ and confused. I try to avoid those. –
Filzah"
e-democracy and views himself as being unable to separate politics from living.
Almost all recognize the standards in being a “serious blogger” or the new intellectual
for the blogosphere. These include, being able to have a widespread reach, have high
quality and accurate blog content as well as stories published need to be recent and
relevant to their target readers.
"Certainly my blog is political, I think many have realized the other side of the coin by
reading my blog as reflected in some of the blog comments I have received. – Balan"
"There are three definitions to me; first is to be able to maximize the blog as a tool to
disseminate your ideas and promote to as many people as possible to gain reputation.
Second is to strive to improve blog content in terms of accuracy and also attractiveness.
Third is devoting a great amount of effort and time in maintaining the blog’s up-to-
dateness. – Gabrielle"
Nevertheless, having sophisticated technical (blogging) skills alone, does not
necessarily translate into giving the person authority over society. The blogger needs to
exist beyond the blogosphere by actively participating in numerous offline activities in
gaining recognition amongst the majority who are outside the blogging community.
"You cannot stay behind a computer and just write, offline is still needed…
campaigning, giving outdoor speeches and meeting the non-blogging people. – Mei"
Most of the respondents do not view themselves as the new intellectuals of the
Malaysian blogosphere. Instead, they see themselves as the powerless underdog, with
little following where their writings are viewed as casual and not taken seriously.
"I am not the person who has the power to decide, the underdog… I still feel if every
citizen is given the authority to do what they want, there will be chaos. – Mei"
Many are reluctant to start blogging or blog extensively because they feel that they may
put something online but due to the massive number of blogs, no one apart from their
small network of acquaintances will actually look at it.
"(My blog has) a very mild impact because I know the number of people visiting, not
very flattering. I am not a serious blogger. – Jian"
Some of the respondents even claim that based on their experiences in reading blogs,
they find that many of the bloggers are actually out to create trouble, spread propaganda
and rumors.
"Any Tom, Dick or Harry can write, but if they critique without evidence or research, if
people were to read and just follow blindly, they are purposely creating trouble. – Mei"
The respondents aired their reservations in believing most of the blogs’ contents as they
find many to be unreliable. Hence, they feel that a large majority of the average
Malaysian bloggers will never reach the standard of effective leaders.
"They are mostly emotional. When they like one person, they will magnify that person…
do not know how true their contents are… very myopic and one centric kind of view –
Ridhwan"
However, socio-political blogs that are deemed to be credible and reflective of popular
sentiments are those written by individuals who already have some political clout and
influence before they went online to become bloggers. They consist of bloggers who
were previously, or still are journalists and influential figures. These bloggers, albeit
to a limited extent, could perhaps be the new “intellectuals” for Malaysia’s blogosphere.
"I do not read ordinary people’s blogs. You need to have someone recognized by society
and given the legitimacy to speak. Only through these people then can information be
authentic as these people need to be accountable for what they write, since what is at
stake is their political position. They will be put to task and questioned by the public or
their political opponents. – Shahril"
As frequently listed by the respondents, one of them is the previous Prime Minister Mahathir who was himself for
a period of time, blocked by the government controlled mainstream media, leading him to open up his own blog
(http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/). Recently, he compiled his blog entries and published them in a book.
Others included: Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Nurul Izzah, Teresa Kok, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Hadi Awang, Ahirudin Attan
(Rocky Bru), Sheih (Kickdefella), etc"
Chapter 6: Findings & Analysis
-Produsaging E-democracy
We can’t reinvent the instruments of communication and collective thought without
reinventing democracy, a distributed, active, molecular democracy… by systematically
producing the tools that will enable it to shape itself into intelligent communities,
capable of negotiating the stormy seas of change, Pierre Levy in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to
Produsage, by Axel Bruns, 2008.
6.0 Findings & Analysis: Produsaging E-democracy
As a continuation from Chapter 5, this chapter looks into the potentiality of the
ordinary Malaysian bloggers as produsers of democracy online. It examines the issue of
digital divide within the Malaysian society and of the immense yet fragmented
information available online. This chapter also investigates whether through the
Malaysian blogosphere, actual societal and revolutionary transformations, can be made,
or whether it is simply an illusion of empowerment for the average Malaysian blogger.
6.1 A citizen to citizen connection
As seen through the respondents themselves, the Malaysian blogosphere goes
beyond location and geographical boundaries, getting far greater reach than what the
mainstream media could ever achieve. All the respondents except for two are located
outside Malaysia and most have dual nationalities with a few who are non-Malaysians.
"Although this is my adopted home (Singapore) and I quite like it here… there is still a
place in my heart for Malaysia, naturally I am curious… even for Singaporeans not
born or bred in Malaysia, they should know about news in Malaysia, it is just next door.
– Chin."
Blogging is a platform where both Malaysians and non-Malaysians can make
contributions as well as gain knowledge about the different perspectives available on a
current political or societal issue.
"I can read ten blogs and I can have ten opinions or have same opinions but ten different
ways of explaining it. Then I can have a bigger picture, of whether to believe this
opinion or trust this choice or not. It gives me a wider choice, other than just the
newspaper. – Mei"
This reflects how much blogs are user-led content productions, which are dependent on
other participants to make small yet many incremental additions or comments to their
entries.
"It is like a sharing session, people who share the same concerns with me would
comment, as well as those whom I do not know, as far as USA and the Middle East.
These people who read my blog are those who have a stake. Or it can be because the
issue at that time is very hot so people just come in to read different perspectives and
some may comment. – Ridhwan"
This heterarchical structure in power distribution mimics the democratizing processes of
decentralization, fluidity and equality in knowledge sharing and giving. Nevertheless,
the issue of access with Malaysia’s rural and urban divide will contest this democratic
effect that will be analyzed in the following section.
6.2 The digital divide conundrum
All the respondents feel that access to the Internet is still restricted to a
privileged few and those who visit socio-political blogs are those who are better
educated.
"There is a certain self-selection, those who go to socio-political blogs will generally be
a bit more educated or politically concerned than the average citizen. The ability of
blogs to influence the masses is still limited. – Chin"
In addition, there exists a large discrepancy within the rural and urban divide in
Malaysia. This contributes to the increasing digital divide across the Malaysian society.
One respondent believes that those from the rural areas have no interest at all to partake
in online debates when they have to struggle for their basic daily needs.
"By using or subscribing to Internet, we are marginalizing… the elderly who may not be
IT literate and also the poor who do not even own proper home facilities. Therefore,
such groups are highly unlikely to have Internet access, simply because it is not a
necessity for their survival. Yet they are often the ones who are affected by
governmental policies and have no say in them – Filzah"
Even in the more urbanized areas, the Internet penetration is still low as compared to
other neighboring countries like Singapore. According to a respondent, this is due to the
poor network connections and lack of computers available for use.
"I was back in Malaysia and my Internet connection there is sketchy. One is computer
problems and two, the streaming connection there sucks. My friends used to call the
connection in Malaysia, “shit-mix”. – Jian"
With the uneven development of technological and network infrastructure in Malaysia,
produsaging democracy becomes a façade, where in reality it is only for the privileged
few.
6.3 Fragmentation of information
Most of the respondents agree that this alternative medium allows for the
quickest way to learn about news that has been blocked by the mainstream media.
Moreover, those who obtain new information from socio-political blogs would spread it
through word of mouth or print the online information out for those who are offline.
"Urbanites who have been empowered by knowledge gained from websites or blogs
spread their knowledge to their offline contemporaries. This allows for "online politics"
to affect even those who are offline. For example, in the last election, many Internet
iliterate adults were persuaded by their children to vote for the opposition. – Gabrielle"
However, it is also agreed that there is far too much information available online, for an
individual to coherently comprehend and know which information are true and which
are not. Blogging content are seen as fragmentary and could easily distort certain facts.
This may lead blog readers to only read what they are accustomed to and avoid those
that are out of the norm or opposing to their views.
"The thing about e-democracy is that they cherry pick. The readers only read selective
blogs that tend to reinforce their perception. If you support PAS, you just read Harakah
and PAS related blogs and if you are Keadilan, you might read Raja Petra blogs or any
other pro-Keadilan blogs and if you are Chinese, most of us read DAP like Teresa
Kok’s blogs. – Edwin"
A respondent suggested that there needs to be an organization or person who is able to
compile and aggregate all the blogging content in a comprehensive manner in making
blogging an impactful platform for produsaging e-democracy.
"Blogs are like the building blocks of online democracy… if there is a smart guy who
can compile them together, it can actually be a powerful tool. One does not make a
difference, but if many, it can make a quite powerful punch. – Alvin"
6.4 Just another platform?
There are respondents who feel that blogs are just another avenue in extending
what is already available in the offline.
"Blogs can also be an advanced tool for rumor mongering and speculation. Malaysians
have the habit of listening to rumors and gossips and now they have began to turn
online for the same purpose. – Balan"
Another respondent states that blogs are an alternative way to spread ideologies and will
not by itself, result in societal changes within Malaysia.
"I believe that it is a multiple approach taken by the opposition to get into the online
community and at the same time go to the rural communities. I believe for online itself
is not sufficient, it is just part of it, you need it but it is not sufficient to say that online
could change the whole of the Malaysian political fabric. – Ridhwan"
Almost all respondents believe that there are already or will exist better interactive
applications to replace the blogging platform. Recommendations include, Youtube,
Twitter and Facebook.
"Youtube is actually very good because people upload a lot of political speeches, all the
ceramah (speeches) go online because the conventional media will block them. – Edwin"
"Instead of blogging, many people are now utilizing Twitter and Facebook notes to
spread information. They may be more effective as updates are immediately visible to a
particular person's network of friends, whereas it takes time to hop from one blog to
another. – Gabrielle"
6.5 How “free” is free?
The Malaysian blogosphere can be seen as a space where different ideologies
and cultures freely come together to be contested and negotiated. A respondent
highlighted the fact that the increasing power of the Internet does not necessarily lead to
citizens being “free” and empowered. To the contrary, citizens who are not as educated
and skilled may be misled by certain dogmas and unknowingly become the agents in
spreading them.
"If these people are that gullible to begin with, there need not be blogging to influence
them… an uncle at the coffee shop could easily influence them. But before the Internet,
the uncle could influence 10 people when he talks to 10 people but now with Internet, at
one go you could influence thousands of people. – Chin"
At first glance, due to the commonly held notions that participation on cyberspace
equates to the Western conceptualization of democracy as being totally free, blogs may
seem to carry a dominant version of such a liberated culture. Nevertheless, some of the
respondents feel that Malaysia need not subscribe to the Western formulations of
democracy and instead, blogging with “responsibility” is more appropriate and makes a
blogger more credible.
"It is better that they self-censor themselves, rather than making irresponsible remarks.
We should not be advocating for frivolous spreading of rumors, without any responsible
claims. – Shahril"
The respondents themselves, despite having received Western education, are still
conforming to certain aspects of Asian values. They are aware that some bloggers may
have their own political agendas and propaganda. Yet they feel they need some form of
“proof” that they believe could be sustained, if it is held by ‘trusted’ and reputable
government sources.
"A good blog is one that makes cross references with official and trusted sites… I do not
really find the posts to be credible unless they are from the government websites. –
Filzah"
Some respondents believe that there is a tendency for blogs to be full of lies, where a
better option would be to use the offline media, whether belonging to the government or
the oppositional parties.
"There are many lies and unverified stories in blogs. If bloggers are honest enough, I
suggest that they should use the offline media, can be government or oppositional
publications. – Anuar"
There is also some reluctance to blog on racial and religious issues that are viewed as
sensitive, especially with the existence of uncritical and emotional readers. Making such
issues invisible will sustain the racial polarization within the Malaysian society and not
contribute to a “freer” society.
"Raising of sensitive issues such as race, religion and constitution can be dangerous to a
multi-racial Malaysia. Recent incidents suggest that Malaysians are not responsible
enough on the net and Malaysian public are an emotional lot especially when issues of
race and religion are discussed. – Balan"
Most of the respondents stated that they find a majority of blogs as uncritical with
frivolous updates on mundane things and have no respect for them.
"For the sheer amount of the blogs when you have 95 percent being utter crap. Some do
not even write with complete and proper sentences and I hate those. I hate those diary-
like blogs that are extremely self-centered, blogging about the silliest things. – Chin"
Furthermore, all the respondents believe that those who go online are mainly seeking
entertainment, rather than to read social and political issues on blogs and news sources.
One respondent acknowledges that she is so busy with her offline activities such as
school and family, that she goes online primarily for relaxation and fun and is not really
motivated to seek news on socio-political blogs. Therefore, being part of the Malaysian
blogosphere does not essentially attribute an individual as a produser of e-democracy.
"I go online for socialization and entertainment purposes. Not really to seek news, I
hardly read socio-political blogs because I am not really interested in them. Nowadays,
I seldom keep up with the political scene in Malaysia, although I would like to… but I
am too busy with work. – Christine"
Chapter 7: Conclusion
The Malaysian blogosphere does to a limited extent provide a catalyst in the
formation of counter hegemony. Socio-political blogs still end up as an online extension
for the reproduction of offline ideologies that are heavily embedded with racially
stratified messages. Under a veneer of freedom of expression, there is a fear that one
would helplessly slip through from democracy to control as the Malaysian government
tries to regulate its blogosphere through both ideological and coercive state apparatuses.
Socio-political bloggers may act as activists in bringing forth their cases to the
public and providing citizens with multiple and different points of views that are often
censored by the mainstream media. However, due to the fragmentary nature of the
blogging content, ideologies tend to overlap and are not distinctive enough to hold fort
as a strong counter hegemony. Therefore, there is nothing concrete to persuade citizens
to subscribe to and hence, the State’s hegemony still reigns supreme.
The State’s biased actions and policies are exposed by socio-political bloggers,
especially seen when bloggers are unfairly detained under the Internal Security Act
(ISA). This angered the rest of the blogging community and results in a further
explosion of contentious blogging content, increasing the distrust of citizens towards the
government. However, a majority of the blog readers are uncritical and unskilled in
reading, especially of blogs that tend to stir up negative emotions and distort the facts.
Moreover, blogging allows for narrowcasting, making it easy for blog readers to avoid
blogs that oppose their own values and to seek for blogs that reinforce their perceptions.
The new intellectuals in the Malaysian blogosphere who possess refine technical
skills in writing and blog designing still need to go offline and partake in political
campaigning in order to reach to the non-blogging community. Nonetheless, most
bloggers see themselves as the powerless underdogs who have little following and their
blogs are seen as not serious. Furthermore, a majority believe that the potentially
successful new intellectuals are those bloggers who originally have some political
power and influence offline. These result in much reluctance for an average citizen to
start blogging, with the belief that no one will take notice of what they write.
Produsaging democracy within the Malaysian blogosphere is not about the
toppling of the ruling regime and bringing about radical societal transformations.
Instead, it is about changing the ways in which citizens deliberate and engage on socio-
political matters. As seen through the respondents themselves, contributions from these
produsers may go beyond geographical boundaries. Nevertheless, access is restricted to
the privileged few who can afford the technology and only those who are better
educated have a greater tendency to frequent socio-political blogs. There exist a digital
divide where the majority of the Malaysian population is still trapped within the rural
domain and are more concern about daily survival than being part of the blogosphere.
Even in the urban areas, there are relatively low Internet penetration and poor network
infrastructure. A more comprehensive study needs to be done on this rural and urban
divide and of how those in the rural states are able to be linked up to blogging.
The blogosphere is seen by most as just another avenue to disseminate what is
already available online. It by itself will not result in any social transformations and can
easily be replaced by better and more interactive platforms such as YouTube, Twitter
and Facebook. Studies on how other types of new media platforms which can become
politicized have yet to be done and it will be intriguing to see how each will affect or
leverage upon the other.
The increase in the blogging population does not necessarily equate to an
increase in freedom and empowerment for an average citizen. A majority of the blogs
available are of frivolous updates of mundane life, for socialization purposes and where
produsers are simply seeking for entertainment and not primarily for news on socio-
political blogs. Furthermore, many of the respondents feel that there is no need to adapt
to the Western formulations of democracy where there is complete liberty. Instead, they
believe that blogging needs to be done with some degree of responsibility and restraint.
There is also reluctance to blog on racial and religious matters as this may possibly lead
into trouble with the law enforcers. Hence, many will hesitate to blog as critically and
freely, contributing to a culture of apathy and self-censorship.
Gramsci may view produsaging democracy itself, as a multi-layered struggle
where the utopian ideal of advancing democracy via the online platform still needs to
take into consideration the specific values and cultural context of a certain country. In
this, it is not sufficient to simply focus on the Malaysian blogosphere, as citizens will
increasingly adopt other types of technological applications and not be dependent on
just one. Despite the relatively low levels of effectiveness of blogs in furthering
democracy as seen throughout this thesis, we can not discount the fact that their
presence still has the power to make the Malaysian government anxious.
A better explanation of this thesis needs to incorporate textual analysis of the
famous socio-political blogs so that the role of the everyday intellectuals in producing
counter hegemony can be more thoroughly explained. In addition, this thesis mainly
interviewed a segment of “Malaysians in diasporas”, with residents located outside
Malaysia and hence, for future research, more bloggers within Malaysia need to be
interviewed. However, this thesis does show a comprehensive attempt to address the
important issue on new media and the Southeast Asian politics, in the Malaysian
context.
Being a non-Malaysian, I may have limited knowledge on Malaysian politics
and of how certain matters or events are perceived and practiced by Malaysians. I can
be said to be outside the realm of their “common sense” and be biased in my
interpretations, considering Malaysian bloggers to be the “Others” based on my own
value systems. However, this also puts me in a privileged position as I am not
embedded and normalized into their social and cultural values and hence, able to
analyze more aptly. Another limitation as mentioned earlier in Chapter 4, some of the
interview respondents are experts in their fields. Therefore, in writing this dissertation
and in the selection of my respondents, I may unwittingly have marginalized certain
voices in the Malaysian society. These I try to overcome through reflexivity, where I am
constantly made aware of as the prevailing issue of digital divide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN HONOURS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (HONOURS) DEGREE
By:
Arlianny Sayrol
Supervisor: Dr. Chung Peichi
Presented to:
COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA PROGRAMME
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
[ACADEMIC YEAR 2008/2009]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Socrates, 470 B.C. to 399 B.C.
Shimmering THANK YOU to
Dr. Chung Peichi for her encouragement and sincere guidance.
The super duper interview respondents for their enlightenment and magical ideas:
Balan, Chin, Mei, Filzah, Alvin, Christine, Gabrielle, Jian, Ridhwan, Anuar, Shahril & Edwin.
Ibu and Ayah for coping with my unpredictable mood swings and their endless love.
Ehsan, the world’s greatest chicken peeler and Milo maker.
Sherly and Rian for great avenues of distraction.
Friends who patiently answered all my disturbing questions and amused me through late nights:
Robbie, Kei, Farhana, Fadzli, Safraz, Mark, Parvin, Fatma, Fiza, Naweera, Shafi, Justin &
Shufen.
My weary yet sexy laptop, Sakina Atelier Calisto.And all those who contributed in this thesis production.
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ABSTRACT
The 2008 General Elections in Malaysia is a historically eminent event, for not only has the ruling Barisan Nasional (or National Frontier) lost its two-thirds majority in the Parliament, it also reflects the revolutionary use of the online platform. Being termed as the ‘silent revolution’, the Malaysian oppositional parties and youths adopted a campaigning strategy that uses the latest Internet based technologies. Only one will be scrutinized in this thesis, the Malaysian blogosphere and specifically, the socio-political blogs.
Using Antonio Gramsci’s cultural hegemony framework, this thesis will attempt to
examine how the Malaysian blogosphere is able to provide a space in shaping counter
hegemony and to what extent it is capable of subverting the ruling regime’s hegemony. It will also analyze the potentials and barriers in the creation of new forms of intellectuals or leaders from the subordinate classes in leading this counter hegemonic power. This thesis will suggest that due to the fragmentary nature of the blogging content, counter hegemony is unable to hold fort as a strong and distinctive entity in convincing citizens to subscribe to. Hence, State hegemony will reign supreme.
The commonly held notion that blogging advances democracy will be re-examined
through the use of Axel Brun’s produsage model. This thesis questions whether socio-
political blogs are able to bring about actual societal transformations in Malaysia. It will also propose that, the idea of produsaging democracy oversimplifies and ignores the imperfections of reality. The prevalence of digital divide, citizens’ apathetic attitude towards socio-political matters and the State’s stringent stance on bloggers, greatly affects the “freedom” within the Malaysian blogosphere.
Chapter 1: Introduction
In this election, young Malays joined hands with other young Malaysians in making the argument for the Malaysia of the future. They followed the footsteps of their forefathers who fought for their country’s independence over half a century ago. By doing so, youths are sowing the seeds of success for their children, when Malaysia celebrates its centenary. By then, Malaysia will truly have come of age.
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, 2008, Malaysia’s State Assemblyman, in his article, The
Coming of Age of Malaysia’s Youth, Opinion Asia
1.0 Introduction
Blogs have emerged from modest beginnings and become a highly networked
mass of online knowledge and communication for the common people. It is ‘arguably
the most popular online personal publishing platform on the Internet’ (Brady, 2005,
p.4). All types of research could be done through blogs as the medium provides for
linking from site to site, leading to possible collaborations and knowledge sharing in a
fast, convenient and public manner. Moreover, blogs act as novel tools that allow
bloggers to mobilize their audience (ibid.) without the need for any formalized
leadership or control. On the other hand, blogging content have become so disembodied and stricken with provocative fabrications as well as political exposé, the power of the authority or government becomes largely undermined.
In Malaysia, politicians from the ruling party are upset with bloggers criticizing
local policies, accusing bloggers as liars and troublemakers. There are talks of forcing bloggers to register with the government (Masnick, 2007), in the attempt to discipline these errant netizens. This may lead to the institutionalization of the blogosphere that contradicts the e-democratic calls of ‘cyberspace is the space where individuals are, inherently, free from control by real space sovereigns’ (Lessig, 1998, p.3). Leveraging upon blogs’ qualities such as allowing for anonymity and ease of usage, blogs enable the voices of the repressed to be heard. Blogs provide for an alternative source of news in a country where her mainstream media is highly controlled by the state (Banerjee,
2008).
As aptly put by Nik Ahmad (2008), a prolific blogger and political commentator
in Malaysia, he maintains that new technologies have undermined Malaysia’s old
politics of divide and rule. The ruling party had depended on racially stratified
mainstream media in crafting different messages to the different racial groups,
‘allowing them to stoke the fires of communal discontent on the ground’ (ibid.). This strategy galvanizes citizens’ dependency for the government and hence, the legitimacy for its ruling. With blogs, citizens are able to search for other avenues in gaining different perspectives for a certain incident or issue that may have been concealed by the mainstream media. This is further heightened during the campaigning period for the Malaysian 2008 General Elections, where the oppositional parties and Malaysian youths actively blogged on contentious and anti-government content (Tan and Zawawi, 2008). What Nik Ahmad (2008) termed as ‘silent revolution’, has resulted in a historical defeat by the ruling Barisan Nasional1 coalition, from maintaining its two-thirds majority in Parliament and being unable to have complete control in amending the country’s Constitution.
Through this thesis, I will review how an average Malaysian citizen, with
neither political clout nor influence, gains autonomy through the Malaysian
blogosphere. In addition, I will look into the challenges he or she faces in attempting to practice democratic ideologies of freedom of speech and expression, in countering the State’s authoritarian ruling. Through their persistent and relentless questionings, these online political commentators have destabilized the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) consociationalist2 government’s hegemonic use of “cultural governance”.
The Government’s biased actions are justified by the notions of Malay special rights and supremacy or better known as, the Bumiputra policy, which undervalues all other non-Malay and non-indigenous racial groups (Kesavapany and Saw, 2006, p.24). However, to what extent such opposition has been able to effectively recast what constitutes the national interest is still dubious.
I question whether the new media platform is able to compel Malaysians to face
up to their longstanding problems of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, as stated by
Kanchana (2009), that had ‘became so deep rooted into society that it became part of
the Malaysian culture’. It has been argued that the usage of the online medium may
become a viable catalyst in the formation of a new ideology for the state where the
focus for a citizen’s well-being will be based on national interest, rather than the interest of certain racial groups. Nonetheless, I will argue that it can end up as an online extension for the reproduction of pre-existing offline ideologies and conditions heavily influenced by racial sentiments.
1.1 Research Questions
Freedom and democracy become the inevitable consequence of digital
technology, with the state having no authority over the online communities. ‘Digital
democracy will be decentralized, unevenly dispersed, even profoundly contradictory’
(Jenkins, 2006, p.208) leading to the rise of autonomous media centers. This propagates the belief that digital technology has the independent power to shape and transform society. In most cases, ‘forms of control and regulation are already embedded in the operational codes that govern our interactions in cyberspace… unless we understand this anti democratic potentil of cyberspace; we are likely to sleep through the transition from freedom into control’ (Lessig, 2000).
Therefore, expecting the decline of powerful governmental institutions when confronted with cyber democracy becomes rather premature. The political effects depend on decisions made in both the technology and the regime, which shapes the new medium and the institutions around it.
This thesis is an extension of Brown’s study (2004) on politics of the Internet in
Malaysia that uses the Gramscian cultural hegemony framework. I propose an
investigation into the extent blogs can become a space for ideological negotiations by
the civil societies, beyond the State’s hegemonic control and itself as a negotiable
ideology seeking to subvert State’s hegemony. With blogging as a space for counter
hegemony, I will analyze whether there will be creations of new forms of intellectuals or leaders from the subordinate classes. At the same time, I will scrutinize the possible obstacles that prevent an average blogger who holds no political power, from developing into these new forms of intellectuals.
Furthermore, I am skeptical about the hype that the freedom of expression in the
Malaysian blogosphere equates to further democratization for her citizens. The
prevalence of digital divide as well as the highly state controlled news content from both online and offline mainstream sources (Kenyon, 2007; Reporters Without Borders, 2006) provide an ominous background for the advancement towards democracy. In the Produsage model put forth by Axel Bruns (2008), he claims that produsaging
democracy is not really aimed at toppling the ruling regime. Instead, the focus is on how blogs are able to reinvent the ways in which citizens deliberate and engage on social and political matters. I will examine whether the produsers of these socio-
political blogs are able to bring about actual societal and revolutionary changes in the overall Malaysian society, or whether it is just an illusion of empowerment.
In summary, my thesis focuses on two theoretical concepts, namely, Gramsci’s
counter hegemony and the formation of the new intellectuals from the subordinate
classes and followed by Axel Brun’s model of produsaging democracy. My research
questions are:
(1) With blogging as a space for counter hegemony, can the politically powerless
citizens be turned into a new form of intellectuals in seeking to subvert the State’s
hegemony?
(2) Will these ordinary citizens acting as produsers, bring about actual social
transformations within the overall Malaysian society, or will there simply be a
reiteration of pre-existing ideologies (such as the State’s racially stratified propaganda), in the online space?
Chapter 2:
2.0 Setting the Stage for the Malaysian Blogosphere
In this chapter I will give an overview of how the offline mainstream media
landscape in Malaysia is like, as affected by the State’s political stance and policies. Preceding that, I will investigate the value of blogging as an alternative space for an average citizen in Malaysia. At the same time, I will look into the country’s concerns for the prevailing split between its rural and urban areas that contributes to digital divide and how this impacts on Malaysia’s e-democracy.
2.1 Destabilizing the State Ideology
Malaysia follows a model of consociational democracy where the usual practice
is ‘of accommodating the competing interests of the various component parties in
Barisan Nasional (BN) while maintaining Malay dominance,’ (Kesavapany and Saw,
2006, p.24) with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) having a sovereign
rule over it. Malaysia has a history of electoral democracy since her independence in 1957 but it is considered as a pseudo-democracy with a discourse ‘based on ethnic lines and the very idea of “race” become naturalized in official life’ (Farish Noor, 2002 in Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.11). The mainstream media’s role is in propagating State policies via the use of agenda-setting, where the State has put into place, ‘a set of laws to contain opposing voices, discouraging public discourse’ (Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.10).
Not surprisingly, the superseding objective is for the ‘creation of national unity
through the eradication of racial equality in the social and economic advancement of the people’ (Kesavapany and Saw, 2006, p.24-25). In this, the governing power still holds on to the neo-colonial beliefs of Malay supremacy and Malay special rights that are prioritized over the needs of other races. Ethnicity has thus become a doctrine in the formulation of every aspect of government programmes and policies, namely, the New Economic Policy (NEP) up to 1991 and thereafter, the National Development Plan (NDP)3. These ethnic-based policies result in much discontentment amongst minority groups such as the Chinese and Indian Malaysians. They consider the doctrine as racist and causing ethnic segregation amongst Malaysians. Furthermore, with BN having a monopoly over the mass media, it is not surprising that these dissenting voices of the minorities eventually used the online platform for discussions of topics not published in the mainstream media and for airing out their grievances against the State (Banerjee, 2008).
In September 1998, amid conflicts over the dealing of the 1997 Asian Economic
Crisis, ‘Mahathir (the then prime minister of Malaysia) sacked his deputy and erstwhile protégé, Anwar Ibrahim, and expelled him from the government and UMNO’ (Brown in Abbot, 2004, p.79). The ex-Deputy Prime Minister was held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) where he was charged with allegations of corruption and sodomy. This led to a public outcry that became known as the Reformasi movement and the formation of National Justice Party (also known as Parti Keadilan Nasional).
Due to the ISA hovering and watching dissidents closely, along with the stringent rules imposed upon the mainstream media, these oppositions used the Internet and mobile communications in garnering support and organizing rallies and demonstrations. Consequently, the Internet in Malaysia became known ‘as a political medium in Malaysia and as the medium of reformasi is virtually synonymous’ (Brown in Abbot, 2004, p.82). Hence, the concept of Internet as a political space for counter hegemonic discourses becomes widely established.
2.2 Invigoration of Malaysians’ Online CultureThe Malaysian media began as a State controlled media environment where the
print media worked under an annual licensing scheme and broadcast media. However,
since early 1980s, Malaysia’s media landscape had seen a process of deregulation and
liberalization (Banerjee, 2008, p.1). Despite that, ‘the Malaysian media continue to see some form of control over the mainstream media’ (ibid). Malaysians have also actively embraced new media technology as seen through its ‘Multimedia Super Corridor5 initiative that enabled rapid expansion of the Internet and mobile telecommunications’ (ibid.). This includes the Bill of Guarantees, with the ruling government’s ‘promise not to censor the Internet’ (Brown in Abbot, 2004, p.79). According to Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, ‘the Internet news media cannot be called an “alternative media’ any more as it is a more popular medium than the traditional mainstream media in Malaysia’ (Banerjee, 2008, p.2). Today, the mainstream media as part of their selling strategy are
trying to imitate and catch up with the increasingly popular alternative online media by being as critical and shrewd as the latter.
Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was conceptualized in 1996 as an initiative by the Malaysian government designed to leapfrog Malaysia into the information age. The focus is on aiding both foreign-owned and home-grown
Malaysian companies that have businesses in multimedia and communications products, as well as in any related research and development areas.
Unlike the mainstream media that tend to package and distribute its content to
citizens, the online media is more of a pull technology where users could proactively search and request for information that is flexibly customized and aggregated. With such tools, citizens are able to search online for information that is not published in the mainstream media. For instance, in the previous 12th Malaysian General Election, ‘user perception of coverage by the mainstream mass media on the elections was that of bias and propaganda, the Internet emerged as a more trustworthy medium and led to people switching to the Internet as their main source of information’ (Banerjee, 2008, p.4).
In a study conducted by Universiti Utara Malaysia (COLGIS, 2008), their
findings showed that, towards the end of the election campaign, Malaysians’ support for Barisan Nasional (BN) become much less than from the start whereas their support for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) increased. In addition, ‘it has later been admitted by several Government sources including Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi6 that the
Government had underestimated the power and influence of the Internet’ (ibid.). The
Opposition parties aggressively used the alternative online media and made
unprecedented election gains, by presiding over 5 states, thus disallowing UMNO from
gaining the two thirds majority for the first time ever. These indicate the growing
resentment and distrust of the citizens towards the ruling coalition party.
*(During the course of writing this thesis certain political restructuring took place in Malaysia. Under much pressure from the public and his UMNO party, PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resigned from his post on 1st April 2009 and was taken over by his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. However, any references made to the Prime Minister or leader of Malaysia in this thesis, will be given to PM Badawi)
The blogosphere is widely believed to be a platform for direct and deliberative
democracy that is designed to grant public participation, where all citizens are given a voice in decision making. The ‘underlying social networks behind blogs to suggest unconscious development towards democracy’ where its ‘interactions are not influenced by any form of command and control’ (Tan and Zawawi, 2008, p.5). All conventions will have to be reinvented, although the process would not be easy, in creating a world with no center, gatekeeper nor margins. These technologies will have a hand in deciding the new political conditions in Malaysia, having ‘a direct effect on the well-being of the country in the immediate and distant future’ (Ooi, 2008). Malaysian blogosphere is like ‘the emergence of the underground newspaper, grassroots video production, people’s radio stations and other forms of independent media production and distribution’ (Enzensberger, 1974). This new generation of digital communications is making cultural resources available to all, using a relatively low cost and easy to use media with an open network and the peer-to-peer technique, hence providing the birth of a new political culture.
The rapid proliferation of blogging bears testimony to the fact that the
Malaysian citizens are harnessing the new media to present their own views, opinions
and content. The existence of such socio-political blogs heavily relies on participation and readership by the average citizens rather than the highly powerful elites. This ‘latent technical power must be used intelligently and deliberately by an informed population’ despite knowing that ‘big power and big money will find a way to control access to virtual communities’ (Rheingold, 2000). Malaysian netizens need to educate themselves in order to leverage the emerging forms of political and economic power online. Therefore, in bringing about a social transformation within Malaysia, it is necessary to establish public commons in the form of blogging and the creation and distribution of its alternative content.
2.3 Digital Divide in Malaysia
Socio-political blogs could be seen as an alternative media which provides
multiple and different points of views, as opposed to the singularly expressed ones
through the mainstream media. Alternative media caters to communities not well served by the mass media, or that specifically advocates for social change. Also termed as “citizens’ media”, one would expect it to be produced for non-profit reasons and not controlled by government linked media conglomerates. However, in reality, Malaysia’s ranking on their annual press freedom index to online censorship is worsening, from 124th in year 2007 to 132nd in year 2008, out of 169 countries ranked (Reporters Without Borders, 2007 & 2008). Ironically with increasing understanding by the State that the Internet can play a key role in democracy, more and more new methods of censoring it are being introduced. The Malaysian government is seen as backtracking on their promise not to censor the Internet, with their prevalent use of the ISA to detain errant bloggers without trial (Amnesty International, 2008).
As compared to other Asian countries, Malaysian blog readers have a higher
interest in political blogs (PR Newswire, 2006). Nevertheless, ‘there exists a digital divide between its large rural population and its congregated urban population’ (Crump and Zaitun, 2005, p.2) that is still growing as technology is speedily evolving. According to the Information Society Index (ISI) Ranking (2009) for digital divide, Malaysia stands at a calculated average of 36 against the 53 countries in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, in an earlier study conducted, it was found that the percentage for students’ usage of the Internet in the rural area is 64.7% as compared to the 84.6% in the urban area (Norizan, 2002, p.7). Although financial help is given to conduct activities in overcoming this, it seemed that there is ‘no standard approach and no coordination’ (Crump and Zaitun, 2005, p.2) between the different campaigners resulting in overlaps, repetitions and a waste of resources.
The alternative online media through socio-political blogs may seem freer than
the mainstream media. However, as long as information technology is ‘not being
realized equally in the society, with the poor, rural and minority groups falling behind,’ (Norizan, 2002, p.1) e-democracy becomes an empowering power, only for those who are already empowered in the first place.
3.0 Theoretical Framework
I am using Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony that gives great attention to
ideology and culture as the agents for State dominance as well as revolution. In Chapter 2, I have explained how Malaysia’s consociationalist government had over the years, used cultural hegemony through its neo-colonial beliefs of Malay supremacy and the rights of Bumiputra, in legitimizing its racial based policies. Nevertheless, through the Internet, there has been a surge of counter hegemonic power for civil societies led by the average citizens (turned bloggers) who have restricted or no political clout. Therefore, in Chapter 5, I will analyze whether these average Malaysian bloggers could potentially become a new form of intellectuals from the subordinate classes as proposed by Gramsci, in leading this counter hegemonic power.
I will also be looking into the concept of ‘produsaging democracy’ as put forth
by Axel Bruns. Alongside, I will be analyzing claims about e-democracy based on
studies conducted in Europe, America and Asia. Later in Chapter 6, I will investigate whether produsers in the Malaysian blogging space can bring about actual societal changes that extend beynd the blogosphere and into the offline community. However, I will argue that it may simply become another platform for disseminating the already existing offline ideologies.
3.1 Cultural Hegemony and its Struggles in Reality
Under a radical milieu of Fascist Italy, the Prison Notebooks was Antonio
Gramsci’s attempt to formulate an alternative plan of political action for the working class against the ruling regime. The period of his incarceration served to illuminate Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony, consent and the role of civil society. Works on hegemony was brought up by Marx and Lenin but it was Gramsci who established the
salience of hegemony in determining social relations within a capitalist system. He
deviated from the traditional Marxist view by ascribing a crucial role to culture and ideology, in his analysis of the socio-political system.
With a focus on human personality, their struggles and a ‘self-active political
education and autonomous organization of the proletarian political culture’ (Martin,
200, p.311), Gramsci boldly opposed Marxism’s simplistic notions of the proletariat
eventually propelling into victory. Instead, he formulated a concept that allows for the ‘confrontation between differing cultures where hegemony has to be negotiated and won’ (Newbold in Boyd-Barett and Newbold, 1995, p.329).
Diagram 1: A visualization of the change in the components of society’s superstructures (Bates, 1975).
The above diagram envisaged Gramsci’s study of the role of intellectuals in
society that led him to break down the superstructure into two great “floors,” which he described as “civil society” and “political society” (Bates, 1975, p.353). The upper level consists of the political society which is composed of public institutions like the government, courts, police and army, capable of exercising direct power and aggression. The political society is also known as a site of repression with the use of legal state apparatuses of coercive power.
On the second level is the civil society, comprising private organizations like schools, places of worship, clubs and parties that contribute to the formation of social and political consciousness. Civil society is seen as a marketplace of ideas, where intellectuals enter as “salesmen” of contending cultures (ibid.). Intellectuals are the builders of society and on whom society is dependent on, ‘there is no organization without intellectuals, that is, without organizers and leaders’ (Gramsci in Martin, 2001, p.111). Only the “winning” intellectuals are able to produce and impose cultural hegemony upon the population through the use of ideological apparatuses such as education and the mass media.
Intellectuals who are able to extend the world-view and ideas of the rulers to the
ruled as “common sense” and secure the “free” consent or the consensual will of the
masses, have thus, created hegemony. Therefore, a functioning hegemony is when ‘the
political leadership based on the consent of the led… is secured by the diffusion and popularization of the world-view of the ruling class’ (Bates, 1975, p.352). However, for hegemony to maintain itself successfully, simply depending on the “spontaneous” consent given by the masses is insufficient. There needs to be an enforcement of the coercive state apparatuses by the political society which legally constraint groups that do not consent. Nonetheless, when spontaneous consent fail, where the ruling class ‘is no longer “leading” but only “dominant”, exercising coercive force alone’ (Gramsci, 1971, p.276). This means that the ruled no longer are subsumed under the old hegemony. There is a crisis of authority and a necessity to create a new political culture.
Gramsci (1971, p.5) stated that ‘all men are intellectuals, one could therefore
say; but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals’ where ‘the mode of being the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence… but an active
participation in practical life’ (ibid, p.10). The transformation of a lowly average man from the proletariat class into an intellectual requires one to not only possess a certain technical capacity but also be a leader who is vigorously involved in all activities so as to be visible to the masses. In this, as espoused by Gramsci, the potential intellectual needs to be taught a new type of skill and political knowledge. However, ‘the distance between high levels of specialization and the intellectual skills of the vast majority of people is maintained as a traditional split between people, intellectuals and specialized knowledge continues’ (Showstack, 1987, p.271). Hence, the development of intellectuals from the proletariat class (or citizens of the ruled) is severely stunted, resulting in the conditions for a full expansion of social equality to be massively underdeveloped.
An ‘old order cannot be made to vanish simply by pointing out its evils, any
more than a new order can be brought into existence by pointing out its virtues’ (Bates, 1975, p.365). The element of ideology is crucial in political struggle, but it is not easy to change completely the consciousness of the ruled. The proletariat party desiring to replace the hegemonic State needs to be able to impress upon the masses of its counter hegemonic beliefs that is able to lead ‘the working class beyond the limits of the existing bourgeois democracy’ (Lawrence and Wishart, 1978, p.288).
In order for counter hegemony to work, it needs to be coherent and better than
the prevailing hegemony, ‘not only in their moral conduct, but also in their technical know-how’ (Bates, 1975, p.365). If this is successful, it may result in a crisis of authority or the failure of the current ruling class. People would then cease to trust the ruling leadership and henceforth, abandon the party.
However, to take over and become the ruling or “bourgeois” culture itself requires a ‘combination of cultural and ideological elements derived from different class locations’ (Bennett in Boyd-Barrett and Chris Newbold, 1995, p.351). In other words, those who want to be the ruling party in society, needs to take into consideration and accept what other classes want as well, in order to sustain and legitimize their domination.
In today’s context, Gramsci’s theorizations are quite underdeveloped as very
few academic papers have yet to use them in the study of new media. These new media
platforms, to which the masses could freely access, are the new ideological spaces for political socializations. Through them, civil and political societies are able to disseminate both hegemonic and counter hegemonic values and contents. Furthermore, application to Malaysian politics and blogosphere has to date, not been done before.
I am focusing on Gramsci’s concept of the everyday intellectuals becoming the
ultimate intellectuals or leaders in society, to analyze whether this can similarly happen to the average Malaysian blogger. In the Malaysian blogosphere, there are both extensions of the State’s dogmas as well as opposing and contentious ideologies that float freely. There are no clear distinctions between the two, due to the fragmentary nature and massive number of blogs online that are constantly changing. I will then analyze the extent to which the Malaysian blogosphere, are able to carry a dominant version of an anti-government and “democratizing” effects as though it were the only naturalized culture. Nevertheless, I will contend that in the end, it is not wholly democratic as it is actually structured to privilege those who already have some power and influence.
For non-homogenous societies with deep social cleavages, suuch as Malaysia,
using Gramsci’s theoriization of consensual ‘collective will’ may result in various
complexities. Due to thee heterogeneous background that each Malaysia an citizen has, in terms of access to the Innternet, education, culture, class position, religiion and others, it becomes immensely harrd to find common points to reach consensus. This reflects the “struggles” faced by thhe average blogger who usually has low de egrees of power, resource and influence.. Hence, there are uncertainties as to whethe er such struggles actually do happen and if they do, whether they can transform the aver rage blogger into commanding intellectua als.
3.2 Produsaging for whhat sort of “E-democracy”?
E-democracy co omprises the use of electronic communication t technologies like
the Internet, in enhancinng democratic processes within a representativee democracy. As seen in most of the lit terature reviews, the main aims are to produc ce better policies through increasing citiz zens’ accessibility and participation in public policy decision-making and ensuring ddirect engagements with the government (Kl luver and Yang, 2003). E-democracy alloows for greater transparency and accountability,, not only for the production of better pollicies and more democratic processes, but also in increasing the State’s political legitima acy.
Diagram 2: The produsage process -producer and user no longer are separated but becomes one produser (Bruns, 2008).
As proposed by Axel Bruns (2008), that is reflected in the diagram, ‘in
collaborative communities, the creation of shared content takes place in a networked, participatory environment which breaks down the boundaries’ and allow all participants to be users as well as producers of information and knowledge. This produsage-based culture mimics democratizing processes in the blogosphere which includes decentralization, fluidity and a heterarchical7 structure in distributing power horizontally and more equally.
User led content production is dependent on ‘very large communities of
participants (to) make a number of usually very small incremental changes to the
established knowledge base’ (Bruns, 2008, p.1). In this, bloggers may use mainstream
news as references or built up on each others’ contributions and responses.
Subsequently this results in an ‘avalanche of consumer generated content that is
building on the Web, adding tera-beta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis’ (Trendwatching.com, 2005). Nevertheless, there is a tendency for like-minded individuals to link up that may further delineate groups based on their differing values and varying levels of resources that they own collectively. This contradicts the notion for an all inclusive platform in promoting democracy.
( Hetararchy is the opposite of hierarchy, where power and authority are spread out over a horizontal structure that tends to overlap and mix)
Citizen journalism, through the use of socio-political blogs is a huge part of e-
democracy that ‘offers a multitude of alternative, produsage based models for the user-led selection, coverage and discussion of new stories’ (Bruns, 2008, p.73). Despite being able to gain different points of views and having a wider choice when
participating in discussion threads of their interests, critical bloggers or blog readers will be limited to a minority who are privileged, well educated and skilled. The less educated majority would end up consuming passively or have no access at all due to digital divide. Furthermore, ‘the ideal of the informed citizen is breaking down because here is simply too much for any individual to know’ (Jenkins, 2006, p.259). Therefore, with new forms of knowledge creation there needs rapid developments of the network infrastructure as well as ‘new skills in collaboration and a new ethic of knowledge sharing’ (ibid.) where most developing countries may not be able to cater for.
Bruns (2008, p.344) asserts that produsaging democracy ‘not so much perhaps
leading to its casual collapse per se, but to a significant reinvigoration of citizen participation to democratic processes’. In this, it is important to be skeptical of e-democracy’s transformative potential that may not necessarily happen and instead be an extension of the authoritative State rulings. However, what is significant is that, it is not merely about toppling certain forms of governance but ‘towards their reinvention in a new participatory context’ (Rushkoff, 2003). This includes the formation of new forms of engagements between citizens with their governments and the existing power structures.
In a 2004 seminar for Enterprise and Information Society led by the European
Commission, where Erkki Liikanen (2004, p.4), stated that all the European countries
have progressively been developing e-government plans and strategies for citizens’
online voting and participation solutions. Preceding that, IPSOS European Survey
(2006) assessed 115 million Europeans and found that 6 in 10 Europeans have heard of
blogging with 1 out of 5 have read a blog before. These go to show that through the
support and investments made by the governing bodies, e-democracy is able to flourish with the growing participation from the European population.
‘Bloggers do hope that they will gain influence on European politics in the
future’ (Trepte & Huber, 2007) but they acknowledge that this could only happen
through collectivism and networking. Nonetheless, there has yet to exist a unified
community or social movement online. Antagonistic political attitudes still exist, there is no comprehensive collective identification that links all Europeans together and even when there are collective goals, people are reluctant to participate (ibid.). However, an endeavor in unification is being made through the Bloggingportal.eu8 (2009), with the combined efforts amongst many leading European socio-political bloggers. Such efforts to mine data from blogs, help blog readers to cope with the ‘sheer volume, variety of opinions and time constraints’ (Liikanen, 2004, p.2-3). It reflects how bloggers themselves have the ability to network and come together to promote new ways for political engagements, all as part in produsaging democracy online.
(Bloggingportal.eu is an organization that syndicates the content from more than 300 multilingual blogs writing on the European Union (EU).
In America, Pew Research Centre (2006) released a survey finding where ‘some
50 million Americans go to the Internet for news on a typical day’ which ‘coincides
with the rapid growth of broadband adoption in American homes’ and where the
‘overall Internet penetration rose to 70%,’ with ‘74 million people (37% of adult
American)’ logging online. American politicians from both the Democrat and
Republican, recognize that the Internet allows for the unconventional ways of direct
messaging to specific audiences, especially the untapped young voters.
Thus the race is for ‘the rewriting of rules on advertising, fund-raising, mobilizing supporters and even the spread of negative information’ (Nagourney, 2006). However, with a race to control
the technology, there is an inherent fear of blogs becoming institutionalized and a
political apparatus for propaganda by political groups or media conglomerates. If this happens, the claims for produsaging democracy become a convenient way to mislead individuals to think that they are participating in an essentially “free” and independent culture.
As compared to their Western counterparts, there seem to be a dearth of recent
academic studies done on e-democracy and Asia as a whole. It may be that the concept
of democracy is still being seen as a Euro-American master term of ideoscapes that
‘was constructed with a certain internal logic and presupposed a certain relationship between reading, representation and public sphere’ (Appadurai, 1996, p.35). Therefore, non-European and non-American countries may ‘have organized their political cultures around different keywords’ (ibid.) since they are not able to fully associate with the term, viewing it as an alien concept. Asia is conveniently seen as wanting to ‘buck the trend and resist the global pressures to democratize’ (Grugel, 2002, p.226) by using her “Asian values” that have heavy influences from the Confucianism. Ironically, such values9 are also held by some Western countries. This goes to show that the Eastern/Western dichotomy is problematic as values and cultures are not permanently encased on any set of inherited traditions and are instead, fluid and complex, especially
more so with the spurring development of technology and the Internet.
(Examples of Asian values include: social order, hierarchy and the importance of an uncritical respect for the authority)
For Asian countries, developments in information communications technology
(ICT) and the Internet started with a perception that ‘efficient telecommunications
infrastructure as a crucial element in the attraction of investments… essential to the building of a country’s economic competitiveness’ (Kluver and Yang, 2003, p.1). Based on a global e-government study carried out by Brown University (2006), ‘Asian
countries once again dominate e-government ratings, taking three of the top five spots’. Hence, economic and capitalistic considerations are the primary reasons for rapid developments in Asian ICTs where the secondary effects have caused citizens’
democratic deliberations online, such as through the socio-political blogs.
In a research released by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Live Online Services
Business and analyzed by India PR Wire (2006), Asia’s blogosphere is ‘fueled by youth with almost half of all bloggers (56%) under 25, while 35% are 25-34 years old and 9% are 35 years old and over’. Asian netizens are most attracted to blogs updates on daily life by their families and friends as well as blogs that are updated regularly and written with striking pictures. This goes to show that their blog consumption were mainly for socialization purposes in getting connected with others, and not really for socio-political discussions with ‘politicians fared poorly across the region with only 14% interested in reading their blogs’ (ibid, p.1).
The survey also showed that 50% of the survey respondents view blog content
as ‘trustworthy as traditional media’ and find blogs as the ‘quickest way to learn about news and current affairs’ (ibid, p.2). Hence, this translates to a high potentiality for blogs as a medium for information seeking, citizen deliberation and subsequently, the advancement of e-democracy. Nonetheless, due to Asia’s highly diverse make-up in terms of cultural values and ways of governances, technology developments become greatly disparate, with the degree of control over online content to differ according to each individual country’s policies. Thus, the Internet in Asia ‘does not create a unique space of freedom, but is merely an extension of the offline public and private spheres within which citizens communicate’ (Chattopadhyay and Chun, 2005).
The produsage model is technologically deterministic and in a sense problematic
as it assumes that the blogger cum produser has full autonomy in production and
consumption due to the relatively liberated conditions provided by the blogosphere.
However, in reality it needs to consider other social and human factors like the State policies and regulations over the Internet, society’s attitudes towards blogging and the issue of digital divide that may prevent the individual from becoming a blogger and participating as a produser for democracy. Furthermore, bloggers may not necessarily participate with the sole aim to further e-democracy and instead be part of it for other apolitical reasons such as for entertainment and socialization. With all these in mind, in Chapter 6, I will analyze the extent to which produsaging democracy within Malaysian blogosphere can bring about social transformations that goes beyond the online.
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
4.0 Research Methodology
In attempting to address the research objectives and aims of this study, the
following methods of qualitative field research were used; semi-structured face to face
interviews and email interviews as well as short open-ended preliminary surveys. This
multiple method technique entails ‘using more than one method or source of data in the
study of social phenomena’ (Bryman, 2001) leading to a more comprehensive and in-
depth data collected.
4.1 Semi structured Face to Face and Email Interviews
Semi structured face to face and email interviews were conducted as they allow
greater flexibility, depth and range of topics to be covered, ‘qualitative interviewing
design is flexible, iterative and continuous, rather than prepared in advance and locked
in stone’(Rubin, 1995). I have selected individuals of any nationality who are keeping
up with Malaysian news and politics online; have a good knowledge on the topic and
actively discusses it, whether online or offline, as my subjects for analysis.
The purpose of the interviews was to obtain the ground sentiments from an
average Malaysian citizen or non-Malaysian onlooker and their perspectives on the
potentials and threats that blogging can bring to Malaysia. In addition, the interviews
were conducted to ascertain their expectations of the role of online alternative media,
particularly the socio-political blogs, in shaping e-democracy in Malaysia.
Snowball sampling was appropriate for this study because as indicated by a brief
pilot study that I have conducted, those who actually consume online news and
alternative views are still of a minority albeit critical group. Therefore, this research
requires a purposive selection of those who have the skills and means to access the
online political sphere in Malaysia. However this also meant that a bias exists where
only the viewpoints of the privileged few will be reported. It must also be noted that
some of the respondents are experts in their fields. Therefore, in writing this
dissertation, I am constantly made aware of the prevailing issue of digital divide and the
absence of a more inclusive voice in the Malaysian society.
A preliminary survey was also used to collect data on demographics and an
overview of Internet and blog consumption of each respondent. This was then followed
by an hour long face to face interview session or a self-administered open-ended email
questionnaire. I also did multiple follow-ups through emails in clarifying any doubts I
had about their statements and extending to them, other related questions.
I deliberately chose only the first names of respondents to be reported, because
one respondent requested as such and I decided to implement this on the other
respondents as well, not only for consistency but also to protect their privacy. I
observed that all the respondents were rather enthusiastic as they believe that their
inputs will bring forth some good to the Malaysian society. Furthermore, most of them
are not situated within Malaysia and hence, do not feel any form of constraint in airing
their views.
Throughout the whole interview process, reflexivity was practiced in which I
tried to eliminate any bias or preconceived understandings that I had about a certain
issue or personality mentioned by the respondents. In addition, I took the initiative to
study any books, journals, websites, blogs or videos, recommended by my interview
respondents that subsequently enabled me to collect a corpus of secondary research
data. I also allowed the categories and themes for the analysis to emerge from the data,
instead of testing for the existence of pre-defined categories.
4.2 The Interviewed “Intellectuals”
Within a two months period (December 2008 to January 2009) a total of 10 face
to face interviews and 2 email interviews10 were conducted. All the respondents were
tertiary educated with occupations such as professional banker, manager, journalist,
teacher, academic, civil servant and university student. They range between the ages of
18 to 55 years old.
Table 1: Demographic details of the 12 interview respondents.
No. Name Method Nationality Occupation
1 *Alvin Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Civil servant
2 Mei Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Civil servant
3 Chin Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Manager
4 *Jian Face-to-face Malaysian Undergraduate
5 Filzah Face-to-face Singapore PR/Malaysian Teacher
6 Christine Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Undergraduate
7 Edwin Face-to-face Malaysian Undergraduate
8 Anuar Face-to-face Singaporean (previously Malaysian) Teacher
9 Shahril Face-to-face Singaporean Masters student
10 *Ridhwan Face-to-face Singaporean Undergraduate
11 *Gabrielle Email Malaysian Intern at Malaysiakini
12 *Balan - Email Malaysian Banker
There are five Singaporeans with two originally from Singapore and three,
previously were Malaysians. Three of the respondents are Malaysians, whilst the rest
are Singapore Permanent Residents (PR) and still Malaysian citizens. Five of them
(refer to the table list of respondents’ names with an asterisk *) at the time of the
interviews owned their own blogs and all are moderately active readers of online news.
There are 4 females and 8 male respondents, with 7 who are Chinese, 4 Malays
and 1 Indian. Five of the respondents have 6 to 10 years of computer use experience,
whereas the rest have 11 years or more, with a majority spending more than 19 hours
online per week.
During the interviews, I asked the respondents of how they view e-democracy to
be like within the Malaysian blogosphere and of whether it has impacted the offline
society. I also queried on their views towards socio-political blogs and to what extent
they and other bloggers have contributed to Malaysia’s e-democracy.
Chapter 5: Findings & Analysis
Counter Hegemony and the New Intellectuals
There does not exist any independent class of intellectuals, but every social group has
its own stratum of intellectuals, or tends to form one.
Antonio Gramsci in Media, Culture and Morality by Keith Tester, 1994.
5.0 Findings & Analysis: Counter Hegemony and the New Intellectuals
This chapter presents the findings that show to what extent blogs can become a
space for negotiating multiple sets of ideologies by the civil societies, the oppositional
parties and ruling regime. I will look into the interview respondents’ views on how
blogging is able to shape counter hegemony that is different from that of the State
controlled mainstream media. Next, I will investigate how this counter hegemony may
give birth to new forms of intellectuals from the subordinate classes as proposed by
Gramsci. In this, I will also analyze the respondents’ view of themselves as
intellectuals, in leading this counter hegemonic power.
5.1 Shaping counter hegemony online
Most of the respondents view civil societies and the oppositional political parties
within the blogosphere as “activists” who use the online space to advance and bring
awareness to the public of their cause. There exists a marketplace of ideas within the
Malaysian blogosphere, where intellectuals from contending groups enter as “salesmen”
in aggressively promoting their rebellious ideologies.
There are political or activist blogs that put their opinions on them. They try to have
active discussions and highlight important issues in the country. Then there are those
trying to garner support, whether physical or monetary, especially during the elections.
An example is Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned politician, through his blog alone he
collected RM100,000 for campaign funds. – Edwin
Jeff Ooi or Ooi Chuan Aun is one of the more prominent socio-political bloggers in Malaysia. He has been dubbed
by Malaysiakini as owning “Malaysia’s Most Influential Blog” and was awarded the “Freedom Blogs Awards (Asia
category)” by Reporters Without Borders in 2005. He owns Screenshots (http://www.jeffooi.com/) where he did
most of his political campaign fundraising. He is now a Member of the Parliament, under the oppositional
Democratic Action Party (DAP). On January 11, 2007 he was accused and sued by News Straits Times Press (NSTP) to
have more than 10 libelous postings on his blog. This lawsuit gave birth to the Bloggers United campaign that
establishes a fund to protect unfairly detained bloggers and protect their rights for freedom of speech in their blogs
Blogs also allow for individuals to correct whatever that have been misconstrued by the
mainstream media. Hence, respondents feel that blogs are more trustworthy as they are
able to provide different points of views which were previously censored.
"These blogs allow (oppositional) politicians to correct or contest whatever has been
‘mis-said’ by the mainstream media. So the same issue can now be seen in two or more
perspectives. – Shahril "
As mentioned in Chapter 2, due to the Reformasi incident and the government
controlled mainstream media, opposition are the ones who are leveraging upon the
online platform. This inevitably, gives the impression that socio-political blogs are only
for political dissidents. However, one respondent point out that bloggers from both the
oppositional parties and the ruling regime use the medium to perform “political
assassinations” in the form of verbal abuse and insults, on their opponents. Usually such
bloggers employ an emotive tone in their writings, in order to appeal to their readers.
"I think all news in Malaysia, whether mainstream or alternative are quite emotional. It’s
a borderless world where nobody can control, you can just add in your views online
without any hesitation… then it is no longer e-democracy but an “e-democrazy”. –
Ridhwan"
This respondent also feels that there are both extensions of State propaganda as well as
contentious ideologies that float freely and even overlap with one another.
"Even in the alternative media, I am not sure what the people (bloggers and blog readers)
want. To some extent they want alternative ways that are democratizing but some feel
that State authoritarianism should be the way. Activists are quite questionable as they
do not have a cohesive view. They failed to bring the people together to work towards
common points. – Ridhwan"
There are no clear distinctive counter ideologies due to the fragmentary conditions of
the blog contents and the huge number of blogs available online that is continuously
changing. These result in an endless struggle for ideological control and being unable to
adequately convince all citizens to put their stake in counter hegemony and overthrow
the State’s hegemony.
5.2 Counter hegemony leading to the crisis of authority
Socio-political blogs do expose the irrationality and the unfairness of the
“common sense” imposed by the State onto citizens. When the State’s common sense
no longer works, respondents recognize that there is much distrust and anger felt by
netizens, towards the State and therefore, a crisis of authority. Many of the respondents
emphasized on the issue of contentious bloggers who were unfairly detained without
trial under the government’s Internal Security Act (ISA).
"Look what happen when the government used the ISA to capture Raja Petra
Kamarudin. Blogs came alive, mobilizing the average citizen to launched mass
protests. The government is still using the old method of force but they need to realize
force can only be used to a certain extent. – Alvin"
All these imply that the Malaysian society is at a disjuncture, where a new political
culture needs to be developed. Citizens do have some form of agency and autonomy
where the success of a certain hegemonic ruling is largely dependent on adopting
subordinates’ values.
"Raja Petra Kamarudin is the editor for the Malaysia Today website and a famous contentious anti-government blogger. He is deeply against money politics, corruption and ethnic polarization that are prevalent in Malaysia. He was detained twice under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for comments allegedly insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad. However, he was freed after the High Court Justice granted his petition and ruled that his detention was illegal. His case is often mentioned in various petitions pushing for the government to review the ISA"
"When people have been extended certain benefits or freedom to them, it is extremely
difficult to extract it away from them. Malaysians have tasted certain levels of
empowerment with the blogs and the spread of information, the impact seen on the
elections. It is just a starting point and Malaysians may demand for the platform to be
freer. – Chin"
However, as realistically put by a respondent, the process for a total social
transformation is not easy, or may even be impossible. This is especially so with
backward State leaders who fear a backlash if they were to be lenient towards the
bloggers.
"The whole government has to be taken over by a group of technocratic elites. Those
who are IT savvy and knows IT is an integral part of governance. Right now, the
hardcore ones are the technologically backward group who do not appreciate this
“mess”… for them it is a mess! They are afraid that a can of worms will be opened. We
need to wait for this whole bunch to pass away. – Alvin"
"In addition, another respondent feels that the opposition is still unable to provide a
strong alternative or counter hegemony, to the ruling party.
The opposition’s performance improved drastically in the last elections, but so far, they
have failed to prove themselves as a credible alternative to the ruling party. – Gabrielle"
5.3 Putting subjects into place
In order for counter hegemony to successfully transform into society’s
overriding hegemony, “spontaneous” consent by the masses is crucial. It seems that
despite the efforts by citizens to go online to get alternative perspectives, most blog
readers are still uncritically consuming what is put forth before them.
"Malaysian politics, there are scandals, the corruptions… I guess that is why there is an
interest for me, sensationalizing of Malaysian politics. – Ridhwan"
Moreover, narrowcasting is an unavoidable technique to use in the blogosphere where
the blog contents are aimed at specific segments of the Malaysian society as defined by
values, preferences or demographic attributes. Some of the respondents feel that what
appeal to these blog readers are news on political scandals and racial based interests,
rather than participating in socio-political discussions for nationwide interests.
"Blogs have very little agency. I visit a certain site and it is full of people who think alike
with me. What happens is that there is very little diversity of ideas… a reflection of
communal politics, it is usually one way. – Jian"
These result in like-minded individuals to congregate together, basing themselves on
racially stratified groups that hold on to pre-existing offline values. Furthermore, due to
the enormous amount of information given to them, the respondents often become
overwhelmed. They feel that it is mentally tough for them to go beyond the realm of
their own value and belief systems and accept opposing ideas.
"It is mentally taxing to get a whole bunch of information and trying to find something
of coherence… and they may be opposing to my own values. – Jian"
Nonetheless, they could easily evade sites that have transgressed their ideas of what
their version of the “truth” is.
"I cannot recall why or what I googled for but I recall reading a post on an issue and
reading varied responses, that made me ‘dizzy’ and confused. I try to avoid those. –
Filzah"
5.4 The new intellectuals?
e-democracy and views himself as being unable to separate politics from living.
Almost all recognize the standards in being a “serious blogger” or the new intellectual
for the blogosphere. These include, being able to have a widespread reach, have high
quality and accurate blog content as well as stories published need to be recent and
relevant to their target readers.
"Certainly my blog is political, I think many have realized the other side of the coin by
reading my blog as reflected in some of the blog comments I have received. – Balan"
"There are three definitions to me; first is to be able to maximize the blog as a tool to
disseminate your ideas and promote to as many people as possible to gain reputation.
Second is to strive to improve blog content in terms of accuracy and also attractiveness.
Third is devoting a great amount of effort and time in maintaining the blog’s up-to-
dateness. – Gabrielle"
Nevertheless, having sophisticated technical (blogging) skills alone, does not
necessarily translate into giving the person authority over society. The blogger needs to
exist beyond the blogosphere by actively participating in numerous offline activities in
gaining recognition amongst the majority who are outside the blogging community.
"You cannot stay behind a computer and just write, offline is still needed…
campaigning, giving outdoor speeches and meeting the non-blogging people. – Mei"
Most of the respondents do not view themselves as the new intellectuals of the
Malaysian blogosphere. Instead, they see themselves as the powerless underdog, with
little following where their writings are viewed as casual and not taken seriously.
"I am not the person who has the power to decide, the underdog… I still feel if every
citizen is given the authority to do what they want, there will be chaos. – Mei"
Many are reluctant to start blogging or blog extensively because they feel that they may
put something online but due to the massive number of blogs, no one apart from their
small network of acquaintances will actually look at it.
"(My blog has) a very mild impact because I know the number of people visiting, not
very flattering. I am not a serious blogger. – Jian"
Some of the respondents even claim that based on their experiences in reading blogs,
they find that many of the bloggers are actually out to create trouble, spread propaganda
and rumors.
"Any Tom, Dick or Harry can write, but if they critique without evidence or research, if
people were to read and just follow blindly, they are purposely creating trouble. – Mei"
The respondents aired their reservations in believing most of the blogs’ contents as they
find many to be unreliable. Hence, they feel that a large majority of the average
Malaysian bloggers will never reach the standard of effective leaders.
"They are mostly emotional. When they like one person, they will magnify that person…
do not know how true their contents are… very myopic and one centric kind of view –
Ridhwan"
However, socio-political blogs that are deemed to be credible and reflective of popular
sentiments are those written by individuals who already have some political clout and
influence before they went online to become bloggers. They consist of bloggers who
were previously, or still are journalists and influential figures. These bloggers, albeit
to a limited extent, could perhaps be the new “intellectuals” for Malaysia’s blogosphere.
"I do not read ordinary people’s blogs. You need to have someone recognized by society
and given the legitimacy to speak. Only through these people then can information be
authentic as these people need to be accountable for what they write, since what is at
stake is their political position. They will be put to task and questioned by the public or
their political opponents. – Shahril"
As frequently listed by the respondents, one of them is the previous Prime Minister Mahathir who was himself for
a period of time, blocked by the government controlled mainstream media, leading him to open up his own blog
(http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/). Recently, he compiled his blog entries and published them in a book.
Others included: Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Nurul Izzah, Teresa Kok, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Hadi Awang, Ahirudin Attan
(Rocky Bru), Sheih (Kickdefella), etc"
Chapter 6: Findings & Analysis
-Produsaging E-democracy
We can’t reinvent the instruments of communication and collective thought without
reinventing democracy, a distributed, active, molecular democracy… by systematically
producing the tools that will enable it to shape itself into intelligent communities,
capable of negotiating the stormy seas of change, Pierre Levy in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to
Produsage, by Axel Bruns, 2008.
6.0 Findings & Analysis: Produsaging E-democracy
As a continuation from Chapter 5, this chapter looks into the potentiality of the
ordinary Malaysian bloggers as produsers of democracy online. It examines the issue of
digital divide within the Malaysian society and of the immense yet fragmented
information available online. This chapter also investigates whether through the
Malaysian blogosphere, actual societal and revolutionary transformations, can be made,
or whether it is simply an illusion of empowerment for the average Malaysian blogger.
6.1 A citizen to citizen connection
As seen through the respondents themselves, the Malaysian blogosphere goes
beyond location and geographical boundaries, getting far greater reach than what the
mainstream media could ever achieve. All the respondents except for two are located
outside Malaysia and most have dual nationalities with a few who are non-Malaysians.
"Although this is my adopted home (Singapore) and I quite like it here… there is still a
place in my heart for Malaysia, naturally I am curious… even for Singaporeans not
born or bred in Malaysia, they should know about news in Malaysia, it is just next door.
– Chin."
Blogging is a platform where both Malaysians and non-Malaysians can make
contributions as well as gain knowledge about the different perspectives available on a
current political or societal issue.
"I can read ten blogs and I can have ten opinions or have same opinions but ten different
ways of explaining it. Then I can have a bigger picture, of whether to believe this
opinion or trust this choice or not. It gives me a wider choice, other than just the
newspaper. – Mei"
This reflects how much blogs are user-led content productions, which are dependent on
other participants to make small yet many incremental additions or comments to their
entries.
"It is like a sharing session, people who share the same concerns with me would
comment, as well as those whom I do not know, as far as USA and the Middle East.
These people who read my blog are those who have a stake. Or it can be because the
issue at that time is very hot so people just come in to read different perspectives and
some may comment. – Ridhwan"
This heterarchical structure in power distribution mimics the democratizing processes of
decentralization, fluidity and equality in knowledge sharing and giving. Nevertheless,
the issue of access with Malaysia’s rural and urban divide will contest this democratic
effect that will be analyzed in the following section.
6.2 The digital divide conundrum
All the respondents feel that access to the Internet is still restricted to a
privileged few and those who visit socio-political blogs are those who are better
educated.
"There is a certain self-selection, those who go to socio-political blogs will generally be
a bit more educated or politically concerned than the average citizen. The ability of
blogs to influence the masses is still limited. – Chin"
In addition, there exists a large discrepancy within the rural and urban divide in
Malaysia. This contributes to the increasing digital divide across the Malaysian society.
One respondent believes that those from the rural areas have no interest at all to partake
in online debates when they have to struggle for their basic daily needs.
"By using or subscribing to Internet, we are marginalizing… the elderly who may not be
IT literate and also the poor who do not even own proper home facilities. Therefore,
such groups are highly unlikely to have Internet access, simply because it is not a
necessity for their survival. Yet they are often the ones who are affected by
governmental policies and have no say in them – Filzah"
Even in the more urbanized areas, the Internet penetration is still low as compared to
other neighboring countries like Singapore. According to a respondent, this is due to the
poor network connections and lack of computers available for use.
"I was back in Malaysia and my Internet connection there is sketchy. One is computer
problems and two, the streaming connection there sucks. My friends used to call the
connection in Malaysia, “shit-mix”. – Jian"
With the uneven development of technological and network infrastructure in Malaysia,
produsaging democracy becomes a façade, where in reality it is only for the privileged
few.
6.3 Fragmentation of information
Most of the respondents agree that this alternative medium allows for the
quickest way to learn about news that has been blocked by the mainstream media.
Moreover, those who obtain new information from socio-political blogs would spread it
through word of mouth or print the online information out for those who are offline.
"Urbanites who have been empowered by knowledge gained from websites or blogs
spread their knowledge to their offline contemporaries. This allows for "online politics"
to affect even those who are offline. For example, in the last election, many Internet
iliterate adults were persuaded by their children to vote for the opposition. – Gabrielle"
However, it is also agreed that there is far too much information available online, for an
individual to coherently comprehend and know which information are true and which
are not. Blogging content are seen as fragmentary and could easily distort certain facts.
This may lead blog readers to only read what they are accustomed to and avoid those
that are out of the norm or opposing to their views.
"The thing about e-democracy is that they cherry pick. The readers only read selective
blogs that tend to reinforce their perception. If you support PAS, you just read Harakah
and PAS related blogs and if you are Keadilan, you might read Raja Petra blogs or any
other pro-Keadilan blogs and if you are Chinese, most of us read DAP like Teresa
Kok’s blogs. – Edwin"
A respondent suggested that there needs to be an organization or person who is able to
compile and aggregate all the blogging content in a comprehensive manner in making
blogging an impactful platform for produsaging e-democracy.
"Blogs are like the building blocks of online democracy… if there is a smart guy who
can compile them together, it can actually be a powerful tool. One does not make a
difference, but if many, it can make a quite powerful punch. – Alvin"
6.4 Just another platform?
There are respondents who feel that blogs are just another avenue in extending
what is already available in the offline.
"Blogs can also be an advanced tool for rumor mongering and speculation. Malaysians
have the habit of listening to rumors and gossips and now they have began to turn
online for the same purpose. – Balan"
Another respondent states that blogs are an alternative way to spread ideologies and will
not by itself, result in societal changes within Malaysia.
"I believe that it is a multiple approach taken by the opposition to get into the online
community and at the same time go to the rural communities. I believe for online itself
is not sufficient, it is just part of it, you need it but it is not sufficient to say that online
could change the whole of the Malaysian political fabric. – Ridhwan"
Almost all respondents believe that there are already or will exist better interactive
applications to replace the blogging platform. Recommendations include, Youtube,
Twitter and Facebook.
"Youtube is actually very good because people upload a lot of political speeches, all the
ceramah (speeches) go online because the conventional media will block them. – Edwin"
"Instead of blogging, many people are now utilizing Twitter and Facebook notes to
spread information. They may be more effective as updates are immediately visible to a
particular person's network of friends, whereas it takes time to hop from one blog to
another. – Gabrielle"
6.5 How “free” is free?
The Malaysian blogosphere can be seen as a space where different ideologies
and cultures freely come together to be contested and negotiated. A respondent
highlighted the fact that the increasing power of the Internet does not necessarily lead to
citizens being “free” and empowered. To the contrary, citizens who are not as educated
and skilled may be misled by certain dogmas and unknowingly become the agents in
spreading them.
"If these people are that gullible to begin with, there need not be blogging to influence
them… an uncle at the coffee shop could easily influence them. But before the Internet,
the uncle could influence 10 people when he talks to 10 people but now with Internet, at
one go you could influence thousands of people. – Chin"
At first glance, due to the commonly held notions that participation on cyberspace
equates to the Western conceptualization of democracy as being totally free, blogs may
seem to carry a dominant version of such a liberated culture. Nevertheless, some of the
respondents feel that Malaysia need not subscribe to the Western formulations of
democracy and instead, blogging with “responsibility” is more appropriate and makes a
blogger more credible.
"It is better that they self-censor themselves, rather than making irresponsible remarks.
We should not be advocating for frivolous spreading of rumors, without any responsible
claims. – Shahril"
The respondents themselves, despite having received Western education, are still
conforming to certain aspects of Asian values. They are aware that some bloggers may
have their own political agendas and propaganda. Yet they feel they need some form of
“proof” that they believe could be sustained, if it is held by ‘trusted’ and reputable
government sources.
"A good blog is one that makes cross references with official and trusted sites… I do not
really find the posts to be credible unless they are from the government websites. –
Filzah"
Some respondents believe that there is a tendency for blogs to be full of lies, where a
better option would be to use the offline media, whether belonging to the government or
the oppositional parties.
"There are many lies and unverified stories in blogs. If bloggers are honest enough, I
suggest that they should use the offline media, can be government or oppositional
publications. – Anuar"
There is also some reluctance to blog on racial and religious issues that are viewed as
sensitive, especially with the existence of uncritical and emotional readers. Making such
issues invisible will sustain the racial polarization within the Malaysian society and not
contribute to a “freer” society.
"Raising of sensitive issues such as race, religion and constitution can be dangerous to a
multi-racial Malaysia. Recent incidents suggest that Malaysians are not responsible
enough on the net and Malaysian public are an emotional lot especially when issues of
race and religion are discussed. – Balan"
Most of the respondents stated that they find a majority of blogs as uncritical with
frivolous updates on mundane things and have no respect for them.
"For the sheer amount of the blogs when you have 95 percent being utter crap. Some do
not even write with complete and proper sentences and I hate those. I hate those diary-
like blogs that are extremely self-centered, blogging about the silliest things. – Chin"
Furthermore, all the respondents believe that those who go online are mainly seeking
entertainment, rather than to read social and political issues on blogs and news sources.
One respondent acknowledges that she is so busy with her offline activities such as
school and family, that she goes online primarily for relaxation and fun and is not really
motivated to seek news on socio-political blogs. Therefore, being part of the Malaysian
blogosphere does not essentially attribute an individual as a produser of e-democracy.
"I go online for socialization and entertainment purposes. Not really to seek news, I
hardly read socio-political blogs because I am not really interested in them. Nowadays,
I seldom keep up with the political scene in Malaysia, although I would like to… but I
am too busy with work. – Christine"
Chapter 7: Conclusion
The Malaysian blogosphere does to a limited extent provide a catalyst in the
formation of counter hegemony. Socio-political blogs still end up as an online extension
for the reproduction of offline ideologies that are heavily embedded with racially
stratified messages. Under a veneer of freedom of expression, there is a fear that one
would helplessly slip through from democracy to control as the Malaysian government
tries to regulate its blogosphere through both ideological and coercive state apparatuses.
Socio-political bloggers may act as activists in bringing forth their cases to the
public and providing citizens with multiple and different points of views that are often
censored by the mainstream media. However, due to the fragmentary nature of the
blogging content, ideologies tend to overlap and are not distinctive enough to hold fort
as a strong counter hegemony. Therefore, there is nothing concrete to persuade citizens
to subscribe to and hence, the State’s hegemony still reigns supreme.
The State’s biased actions and policies are exposed by socio-political bloggers,
especially seen when bloggers are unfairly detained under the Internal Security Act
(ISA). This angered the rest of the blogging community and results in a further
explosion of contentious blogging content, increasing the distrust of citizens towards the
government. However, a majority of the blog readers are uncritical and unskilled in
reading, especially of blogs that tend to stir up negative emotions and distort the facts.
Moreover, blogging allows for narrowcasting, making it easy for blog readers to avoid
blogs that oppose their own values and to seek for blogs that reinforce their perceptions.
The new intellectuals in the Malaysian blogosphere who possess refine technical
skills in writing and blog designing still need to go offline and partake in political
campaigning in order to reach to the non-blogging community. Nonetheless, most
bloggers see themselves as the powerless underdogs who have little following and their
blogs are seen as not serious. Furthermore, a majority believe that the potentially
successful new intellectuals are those bloggers who originally have some political
power and influence offline. These result in much reluctance for an average citizen to
start blogging, with the belief that no one will take notice of what they write.
Produsaging democracy within the Malaysian blogosphere is not about the
toppling of the ruling regime and bringing about radical societal transformations.
Instead, it is about changing the ways in which citizens deliberate and engage on socio-
political matters. As seen through the respondents themselves, contributions from these
produsers may go beyond geographical boundaries. Nevertheless, access is restricted to
the privileged few who can afford the technology and only those who are better
educated have a greater tendency to frequent socio-political blogs. There exist a digital
divide where the majority of the Malaysian population is still trapped within the rural
domain and are more concern about daily survival than being part of the blogosphere.
Even in the urban areas, there are relatively low Internet penetration and poor network
infrastructure. A more comprehensive study needs to be done on this rural and urban
divide and of how those in the rural states are able to be linked up to blogging.
The blogosphere is seen by most as just another avenue to disseminate what is
already available online. It by itself will not result in any social transformations and can
easily be replaced by better and more interactive platforms such as YouTube, Twitter
and Facebook. Studies on how other types of new media platforms which can become
politicized have yet to be done and it will be intriguing to see how each will affect or
leverage upon the other.
The increase in the blogging population does not necessarily equate to an
increase in freedom and empowerment for an average citizen. A majority of the blogs
available are of frivolous updates of mundane life, for socialization purposes and where
produsers are simply seeking for entertainment and not primarily for news on socio-
political blogs. Furthermore, many of the respondents feel that there is no need to adapt
to the Western formulations of democracy where there is complete liberty. Instead, they
believe that blogging needs to be done with some degree of responsibility and restraint.
There is also reluctance to blog on racial and religious matters as this may possibly lead
into trouble with the law enforcers. Hence, many will hesitate to blog as critically and
freely, contributing to a culture of apathy and self-censorship.
Gramsci may view produsaging democracy itself, as a multi-layered struggle
where the utopian ideal of advancing democracy via the online platform still needs to
take into consideration the specific values and cultural context of a certain country. In
this, it is not sufficient to simply focus on the Malaysian blogosphere, as citizens will
increasingly adopt other types of technological applications and not be dependent on
just one. Despite the relatively low levels of effectiveness of blogs in furthering
democracy as seen throughout this thesis, we can not discount the fact that their
presence still has the power to make the Malaysian government anxious.
A better explanation of this thesis needs to incorporate textual analysis of the
famous socio-political blogs so that the role of the everyday intellectuals in producing
counter hegemony can be more thoroughly explained. In addition, this thesis mainly
interviewed a segment of “Malaysians in diasporas”, with residents located outside
Malaysia and hence, for future research, more bloggers within Malaysia need to be
interviewed. However, this thesis does show a comprehensive attempt to address the
important issue on new media and the Southeast Asian politics, in the Malaysian
context.
Being a non-Malaysian, I may have limited knowledge on Malaysian politics
and of how certain matters or events are perceived and practiced by Malaysians. I can
be said to be outside the realm of their “common sense” and be biased in my
interpretations, considering Malaysian bloggers to be the “Others” based on my own
value systems. However, this also puts me in a privileged position as I am not
embedded and normalized into their social and cultural values and hence, able to
analyze more aptly. Another limitation as mentioned earlier in Chapter 4, some of the
interview respondents are experts in their fields. Therefore, in writing this dissertation
and in the selection of my respondents, I may unwittingly have marginalized certain
voices in the Malaysian society. These I try to overcome through reflexivity, where I am
constantly made aware of as the prevailing issue of digital divide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN HONOURS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (HONOURS) DEGREE
By:
Arlianny Sayrol
Supervisor: Dr. Chung Peichi
Presented to:
COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA PROGRAMME
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
[ACADEMIC YEAR 2008/2009]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Socrates, 470 B.C. to 399 B.C.
Shimmering THANK YOU to
Dr. Chung Peichi for her encouragement and sincere guidance.
The super duper interview respondents for their enlightenment and magical ideas:
Balan, Chin, Mei, Filzah, Alvin, Christine, Gabrielle, Jian, Ridhwan, Anuar, Shahril & Edwin.
Ibu and Ayah for coping with my unpredictable mood swings and their endless love.
Ehsan, the world’s greatest chicken peeler and Milo maker.
Sherly and Rian for great avenues of distraction.
Friends who patiently answered all my disturbing questions and amused me through late nights:
Robbie, Kei, Farhana, Fadzli, Safraz, Mark, Parvin, Fatma, Fiza, Naweera, Shafi, Justin &
Shufen.
My weary yet sexy laptop, Sakina Atelier Calisto.And all those who contributed in this thesis production.
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