Living in a box

A parochial, blinkered view of the world certainly requires an appropriate response. And thus, Mahathir’s (who once promoted the notion of ‘Bangsa Malaysia’) contention that Kelantan MB Nik Aziz should be grateful for being born Malay “because this meant that he would be Muslim” only deserves this apt response from Nik Aziz himself:

PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said today that he did not ask to be born Malay.

The Kelantan Mentri Besar added that it was only by coincidence that he was born in this country.

Nik Aziz said that it did not matter what community he was born into as long as he was a Muslim.

Do social media trigger social revolution?

Are Youtube, Facebook and Twitter new weapons of mass mobilization? Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera leads the discussion with: Carl Bernstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist; Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!; Professor Emily Bell, the director of digital journalism at Columbia University; Evgeny Morozov, the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom; and Professor Clay Shirky, the author of Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

Facebook for a change

And just the song for dictatorial and corrupted regimes…

Je t’aime

A few songs to gingerly express Je t’aime in Malaysia.

Egypt Uprising wrapped in rap

Some notable musicians from North America have come together to produce a rap that documents the people’s revolution that is unfolding in Egypt.

Of propaganda and social reality

As state propaganda machinery strives to conceal or distort social reality, other media battle relentlessly to present the ‘real thing’. The current Egyptian crisis, for instance, is instructive — as revealed by international satellite TV station Al Jazeera.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

(Photo credit: free-friendster-graphics.blogspot.com)

Gong Xi Fa Cai to my Chinese friends and visitors to this blog.

The race to report Mahathir

Once upon a hill, restriction to official functions and press conferences used to be confined only to certain types of news organisation such as Malaysiakini and other online newspapers.

Now, as we progress in time, the ethnic background of the reporters concerned apparently has become a stumbling block too.

It was reported today that the talk on ‘Malay race and the future’ given by former premier Mahathir Mohamed — who incidentally was once closely associated with that concept of ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ — was only to be covered by journalists of Malay descent. ‘Others’ were not permitted to cover the event.

This incident is obviously a cause for concern, and it is hoped that the National Union of Journalists, among other groups, would take notice.