Sunday, March 15, 2009

HELP NEEDED BY MAFREL FOR BATANG AI BYE-ELECTION

EXTRACT FROM The Might Of The Pen

http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/help-needed-by-mafrel-for-batang-ai-bye-election/


After some contacts are made with our previously trained volunteers in Sarawak we are now closer to what can be done for conducting an election observation in Batang Ai by-election: the limitation of resources (lack of funding, short time, resources stretched by 2 other simultaneous by-elections) means that we may adopt the following strategy:

* provide training to observers by sending 1-2 trainers to Batang Ai;
*provide voters education material to Batang Ai for mass circulation;
*arrange for SPR tags for trained observers to do observation inside the polling centres where the observers cast their votes;
* provide internet outlets for the reports they may send by phones/internet etc.

To raise the fund for conducting the observation mission we are calling upon generous Malaysians-whether from the Sarawak or Peninsular to donate generously towards the training session which is coming up on Mar 15th in Batang Ai itself. The isolation of the constituency means that more chances for breaches of the rules of free and fair elections to happen-thus the more need to keep the election operation under closer scrutiny. The political importance of the by-election-as a test of popularity of the current Sarawak state government, means that the election would be hotly contested - another factors that heighten the chance of `dirty politics’!

The training is aimed at empowering the observers to report regularly all the hanky panky that are likely to take place where few people can see.

Donation target:
* Airfare and incidental for 1 trainer to go to Batang Ai & back -about Rm1,000.00;
* Transport subsidies, communication and training material for trainees to attend the training session at Batang Ai -about RM 6000.00

So a very economic package for the observation mission. Please donate generously so we can send you precious reports from the ground with 8006 voters. Far as it may be from most Malaysians’ consciousness Batang Ai is as much a part of Malaysia as any other -thus our wish not to ignore the by-election, as we would not other by-elections. With many Sarawakian friends help secured in arranging the trip we hope that you can do your part in keeping the election under as close a scrutiny as we can manage.

Please contact us if you are interested to donate towards the mission: democracy4now@gmail.com 013-5900339 (Ong BK)

Many thanks in advance. Ong BK March 06, 2009 19:13 PM

==============================================

To all our readers: Please visit their website by clicking below. If you are not able to help, it is ok, but if you can copy and paste and email to many people as possible, this will also help them to overcome their problems. We are pleased to note that we are listed as one of top click website in their list of websites. Please also note that they have not requested any help from us in displaying this message. This is the main reason why we feel obliged.

http://mafrel.wordpress.com/

Saturday, March 14, 2009

BATTLE LINES DRAWN: SARAWAK BLOGGERS TO THE FORE.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

BATTLE LINES DRAWN: SARAWAK BLOGGERS TO THE FORE.

For the benefit of those who are unable to access Malaysiakini I produce a posting by Sarawakian SIM KWANG YANG who was the MP for Bandar Kuching between 1982 and 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com

This posting is to reinforce the groundwork already in place by the people who want back their Native Customary Land. It is also to inform Malaysians in peninsular Malaysia to establish contact, link and bond with our brothers and sisters over there.

The article:

Sarawak bloggers, your first big battle begins in Batang Ai

As the political sky over the fair land of Sarawak begins to heat up in anticipation of the Batang Ai by-election, the attention is suddenly focused on a new phenomenon - the political bloggers in the state.

Alfred Jabu, deputy chief minister and PBB deputy president, has in recent months been quite vocal in his criticism of the bloggers. A few days ago, he warned that "outsiders" must be careful in observing Iban adat when lobbying in the Batang Ai area. Dr James Masing, the PRS president and a state minister, also warned bloggers not to stir up negative feelings that could divide Dayak unity - or something to that effect.

The way they talk about "outsiders", one gets the impression that they mean the PKR leaders and bloggers from West Malaysia. In cyber space, the blogs are already buzzing with all kinds of speculation on when Raja Petra Kamarudin and his fierce army of Barisan Rakyat bloggers will descend upon Batang Ai. Some expressed the view that they may be banned from entering Sarawak.

The BN ministers' tirade against the bloggers is interesting. Since the bloggers seldom answer back in the main stream media, Jabu and Masing appear to be engaged in an exercise of shadow boxing against flickering ghosts.

Those Sarawakians who are alien to the world of the Internet will be scratching their heads in puzzlement. Who are these bloggers and what do they do to deserve such scathing attack from important Dayak leaders. Are they that powerful?

More freedom of speech
I too discovered to my great delight the presence of these Sarawak bloggers only in resent months. Obviously, they are much younger than me, and therefore Internet savvy to a fault. Many are pro-opposition, but there are some who are obviously pro-BN. As they say, this is a free country.

As bloggers, they do enjoy far more freedom of speech than the mainstream media. But many also take responsibility by mediating (meaning "editing and censoring") the postings on their blog sites. There is a great deal of garbage floating around in cyber space.

The latest news of people being charged in court for insulting the Sultan of Perak is a warning sign. I too commented on the sultan's decision, like thousands of others. As they say, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. But free speech does mean responsible speech, defensible in court.

Those who are familiar with Sarawak blogs will have known by now that Masing and Jabu are two of the most vilified names in Sarawak's cyber universe. I will not sleep easy if I know that I am so much cursed on the Internet. But of all the most cursed names, none draws such blind rage as Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

I just pluck out at random what a reader to Joseph Tawie's blog The Broken Shield said about Jabu in a recent posting:

"But then again, every thing that Jabu touches turns to xxxx. I see from today's Borneo Post he is now resorting to associating everyone anti-BN that they will cause death and destruction when they visit longhouses. Can you believe this idiot? What about those YBs and other pro-BN people who have moved on to the next life? Are they there because they support BN?"

"Someone should tell this anak Numpang that politcs and religion should not mix. He is too high on his pedestal that someone should knock him down a peg or two...or throw a shoe or two at him."

I would not write such virulent words about anybody, but that is the Internet for you.

Unprecedented in Sarawak!

The emergence of these Sarawak political bloggers is a new phenomenon that the BN leading lights are grappling with. In a state where the newspapers and radio stations are overwhelmingly controlled by the government, dissenting voices can hardly be heard in the mainstream media. Blogging allows commentaries on current events to surface on the Internet, from the bloggers themselves, and from their readers. This is unprecedented in Sarawak!

For the first time, public statements of important political leaders published on the newspapers are no longer accepted as absolute gosple truths. They are dissected by the bloggers, with readers contributing insight and exclusive little known background information. The monopoly of the BN leaders to narrate the Sarawak story has been broken forever.

I read them every day. Living in KL as I do, I can rely on them to catch a glimpse of the undercurrents and nuances that pulsate beneath the stultifying political surface of Sarawak. The expose there can really open your eyes. I am grateful to them.

In the context of the Batang Ai by-election, the presence of the Dayak bloggers is particularly damaging to the BN propaganda machine. This bunch of New Dayaks are pretty independent minded, and they offer a diversity of views on what a Dayak agenda must be like. Diversity and a clash of ideas are essential to the intellectual progress of any ethnic community.

Of course, like all bloggers elsewhere, Sarawak bloggers are by the nature of their lonely work, individualistic people. Sometimes, they clash with one another. This is quite natural, and somehow, they have been able to kiss and make up in the unique Sarawak tradition after a while.

Sarawak Head-hunter - one of my favourite bloggers - has recently launched an attack on Dominique Ng, the PKR state assemblyperson in Sarawak, to the shock of everybody else. But that seems to have subsided somewhat, to the relief of all.

Sarawak is a vast state with a small population. Kuching City is a small town. Everybody knows everybody else. Naturally, I get to know the true identity of most of these Sarawak bloggers, and their personal and political background, though I may not know how they look in person.

In Batang Ai, coverage for telecommunication and electricity supply is very restricted. I am told that the telecommunication tower there can provide for 200 mobile phone lines at any one time. The number of rural Iban farmers outside the main town of Lubok Antu there with a PC at home must be infinitesimal.



Citizen journalism

This is a land where 56 of the 108 longhouses can be reached by river transport only. Physical and telecommunication infrastructure there still remains in the dark ages of the 19th century. So much for politics of development touted by the BN!

So the Sarawak bloggers cannot campaign in Batang Ai like the Barisan Rakyat Bloggers did for the Pakatan Rakyat in West Malaysia. What they can do very well is to influence the urban middle class Ibans in Kuching and elsewhere to influence their relatives in Batang Ai. Blood is indeed thicker than water in the Iban community.

Naturally, if these Dayak bloggers can make frequent trips to Batang Ai and make on-the-spot reports about heartaches and dreams of the poor Ibans there with dramatic stills and video pictures to illustrate their point, it will be an invaluable service to the Ibans, to the nation, and to the entire world in fact.

Perhaps they are inexperienced in this aspect of citizen journalism. I do hope that RPK and his gang of Barisan Rakyat bloggers can make that trip to Sarawak soon. A meeting between bloggers from both sides of the South China Sea may be an opportunity for learning from each other and the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Unfortunately, RPK is caught in the battle for his life in the court. Judging from some recent judgement, to call our court a kangaroo Court is an insult to that harmless animal down under. With so much on their hands, there is serious doubt whether the Barisan Rakyat generals and soldiers can indeed go to Sarawak, what with the two Bukit by-elections held at the same time.

But I still value the contribution of the Sarawak bloggers. They are a new force, a digital civic society that accumulates social capital in Sarawak. As we know, civic societies and the social capital that they generate are the pre-condition for the democratisation and the opening up of closed autocratic societies all over the world. Taiwan is the most recent example.

Public engagement, social activism, and citizen participation in the political process in any form is to be applauded. Well done guys and girls in Sarawak! Your first big battle for a free Sarawak begins in Batang Ai.


Agi idup, agi ngeleban Raja Laut!

Go to links provided HERE. Visit them and give them all the support you can.
UPDATE AT 7:24PM

http://zorro-zorro-unmasked.blogspot.com/2009/03/battle-lines-drawn-sarawak-bloggers-to.html

This from a Sarawakian residing in KL now: Shiok Guy said...

Dear Bro I am from Sarawak but now work and stay in KL.. In order for PR to have any chance in Sarawak! We need the indelible ink.. seriously!

http://shiokguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/sarawak-needs-indelible-ink.html or anything that we can control the repeat voters

Shiok Guy
March 14, 2009 7:05 PM

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS, SARAWAKIAN BLOGGERS?

Friday, March 13, 2009

The Altantuya Foundation set up in Bangkok

The Altantuya Foundation set up in Bangkok

Now, this is one foundation you may want to donate to:

An association of independent journalists based in Bangkok and coordinated by French Liberation correspondent Arnaud Dubus has set up a foundation to offer material support to the family of Mongolian Altantuya Shaaribuu, killed in Malaysia in october 2006. The Altantuya Foundation aims to bring concrete help to Mr Shaaribuu, the father of the deceased, and her two children, Altanshagai (five years old) and Mungunshagai (12 years old).

“When i met Shaaribuu in Ulan Bator in January, he told me he has not bought clothes for two years as he could not afford it. This sixty year old man has to work on two different jobs,to be able to take care of this two orphaned grand children”, says Arnaud Dubus. “I am a journalist, but i also have a heart. I could not help feel compassion for the Shaaribuu family”, he adds.

For transparency, the Fondation will be supervised by the Mongolian embassy in Bangkok. All donations will be given to the Embassy which will convey them directly to Mr Shaaribuu. The first donor was Danthong Breen, well known Thai human rights activist and Chairman of the Union for Civil Liberties. All donors receives an official receipt. Small contributions (as well as bigger ones, but not too big please) are very much welcome, as a small amount can make a huge difference for the life of the Shaaribuu Family. Foundation founders consider that it would be a wonderful gesture of human solidarity for people from different Nations, Asian and Western, to show their support for the family of this young interpreter savagely killed at the age of 28 years old.

For details, contact altantuyashaaribuu@yahoo.com
Information sent by: Arnaud Dubus, Foundation coordinator

Saturday, March 7, 2009

National Speech "Ketuanan Rakyat" - 8 March 2009



National Speech "Ketuanan Rakyat" - 8 March 2009
Host:
Pakatan Rakyat Selangor
Type:
Meetings - Convention
Network:
Malaysia
Date:
08 March 2009
Time:
15:00 - 19:00
Location:
MBSA Auditorium, Wisma MBSA

Description
On March 8th 2009 Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim will deliver a National Address on the one year anniversary of the 12th General Elections in which the Pakatan Rakyat achieved unprecedented gains.His speech will call for unity among the Malaysian people and declare a firm resolve on the part of the Pakatan Rakyat to work hard to face the challenges of the economic recession, create new jobs for Malaysians and improve access to quality education. He will also highlight the many successes achieved by Pakatan Rakyat governments in the five states to reduce corruption, increase investment and create jobs during a period when thousands of Malaysians have been left unemployed.
The speech, which will take place at the Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam Auditorium, will be broadcast live on TV Antara.
It is the first National Address since the March 2008 elections.
Sunday March 8th, 20094:30 PM (GMT + 8)
Wisma MBSA, Shah Alam, Selangor
WATCH LIVE ON