keefoo_lee

    Recent clampdown on bloggers stirred up many different reactions. Some feels that there will be no more sanctuary for media freedom activist to hide and do their jobs. Some may feel that the clampdown is necessary to prevent irresponsible bloggers from spreading the so called "untruths".
    Where is my stand here? I am against clampdown of the bloggers. Beforehand, I would like to share with you all what is a weblog, or popularly known as blog. (I bet some of us don’t even know blog comes from weblog. I just knew it a year ago! =P)
    A blog is a user generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Originally, blog are just newsgroup moderated by an individual or a group. Later it evolves into online diary which forms the modern weblog as what we see today.
    Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries . A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting ), and are part of a wider network of social media.(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org)
    Many bloggers, in their writings, strive to differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, e.g independent media. An obvious example hard to be unnoticed is MalaysiaToday, claiming to be "your source of independent news." ( http://www.malaysia-today.net ) It hits 2,000,000 visitors per day and the readers are from all walks of life; students, professionals, politician, prominent bloggers and etc.

Another site I found it to be interesting is The Other Malaysia. (http://www.othermalaysia.org ) Headed by Dr Farish Noor, even though not hitting as much as 2,000,000 I still have thousands of reasons to visit this site at least once a week. He has the sarcasm in his writing that triggers a lot of question in my mind. One of his controversial posts, "Hang Tuah Sucks : Why We Need To Deconstruct Our Flawed Heroes" was pasted on my blog here some two months ago. His site, more than other aspects, covers history of Malaysia that is not part of our brown SEJARAH Tingkatan 1,2,3,4 or 5 textbooks.

    I couldn’t disagree with views that blogs actually shape minds of our youngsters today. Most of them, even though healthy and capable, but they are bound to the chair. Of course not the wheelchair, but the chair in front of their personal computers. They spend more and more time compared to their predecessors whom are not-so-computer-literate. I even have a friend who spends most of his time reading blogs and he can’t live even for one day without internet connection.
    Pathetic? Ironic? I don’t think so. Some of the articles posted by bloggers are worth reading and they contain useful information, just like the mainstream media. However, "filter" must be turned on while reading articles from blogs all over the cyberspace. Though solicited, some of the articles may be misleading and spreading the false allegations and hatred. Same applies to mainstream medias. They may be leaded by several respected journalist or editors, but the news in the mainstream media can be confusing and creating a good perception on something that had gone from bad to worst.
    Certain parties link independent media with opposition parties. However this is not always the case. Jeff Ooi, a prominent blogger who is facing sue case from NST Group involving one of his recent post in his Screenshots is one of them.( I presume he and Rocky Bru are the first victims of the clampdown) DAP leader, Lim Kit Siang also has his own site which highlights the issues and debate in Parliament. His site enables the rakyats to actually know strips of dialogues and topics being debated in the House of Commons or Dewan Rakyat.

In this information age, everything is available in the Net. I can even download "good stuffs" happily without any fees or any passkeys, provided I have a connection fast enough considering the large file sizes. Everything is in cyberspace for you, make the right choice.

50 years of coalition rule is too much. It’s time to change.

p/s : My family’s business place was recently being robbed. My father loses his cellphone and cash. High crime rate as being reported, a 40% increase from last year. Blame who? Pat yourself and knock some sense into your head. COALITION.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.