Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Despite slowing down in the last two months of the year after a mild heart attack and despite all the efforts by Kalimullah & Co, the PM's men and women, and the 4th Floor apparatus to shut him out, deconstruct his legacies, and bedevil him, the former PM was still too good for the other nominees for Malaysiakini's "Newsmaker of the Year" for 2006.
I thought a tie with Abdullah Badawi would have been fairer. Both Dr M and the PM have created the biggest and juiciest news together or in relations to each other, not separately. In my opinion, Dr M became newsworthy in 2006 because of his scathing attacks and the follow-throughs on Abdullah's "half-past-six government". When the mainstream media shut their doors on him, Dr M turned to websites and empowered bloggers with his interviews and quotes. There were occasions when he made the news without touching on Pak Lah or his government, but these were few and far apart.
Abdullah deserves at least a joint-Newsmaker of 2006 title for the wrong reasons and no thanks to his press advisers like Kalimullah Hassan, Anuar Zaini, and the 4th floor boys. And to Tun Musa Hitam, too, for giving a name to Pak Lah's silence in the face of Dr M's attacks. The PM made full use of Dr M's absence in the last two months of the year by creating such great news as the USD8 million yacht and flying to Perth for holidays after a whirlwind tour of the country's worst floods in history.
Dr M and Abdullah aside, the other favourite newsmakers on my list are:
The Sultan of Johor
Khairy Jamaluddin
Lee Kuan Yew
Lina Joy and A. Rayyapan
Mukhriz Mahathir
and
The New Straits Times (Kalimullah Hassan's June 11 lies, Brendan Pereira's plagiarism scandal, Syed Feisal Albar's porn Weekend Mail, the Prophet's caricature controversy, the proposed merger with Utusan Melayu, and many other news)
Read the Malaysiakini article here and tell me who you'd have as your Newsmaker of the Year for 2006.
Hey bro, I think you have left out......taada.....
ReplyDeleteThe Hon. LIM KIT SIANG.
He has raised many issues, fought many battles in and out of Parliament and taken the citizen's battle into the blogosphere. Many try to emulate him but he is still the leader. He has been fearless, relentless, tireless and dedicated in his crusade for a just and respectable Malaysia. His party has made a big breakthrough of sorts in Sarawak which augurs well for the Opposition for the rest of the country.
The citizens have woken up and are now more voiciferous and will not stand for more nonsense and bullshit from the half-past-six government.
Sad he wasn't on your original list. Maybe an oversight on your part or too much 'bru'?
Cheers and Happy New Year.
Sheriff Singh
Rocky,
ReplyDeleteFor me, PM Abdullah is the news maker of the year. He made news by his short statements like: "I AM IN CONTROL." "I DON'T KNOW." "MY SON HAD TO FIGHT FOR GOVERNMENT TENDERS." "THE OLD HAD BROKEN MY SON-IN-LAW RICE BOWL."
Don't you agree with me that these short statements are all very newsworthy? At least they have made all of us think more "highly" of our beloved PM with very few words but very telling!!!
sheriff singh,
ReplyDeletelim kit siang and shahrir samad belong to the same category of people whom i had expected to do a lot more in terms of giving us the good news during 2006.
for some reasons, however, they fell below expectations.
good thing is, it does not hurt their credibility not to be on my "newsmakers" list.
happy new year to you mr singh. for once, i left the bru out of my new year's celebrations.
NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR?
ReplyDeleteThere can only be ONE winner and I would give it away to MALAYSIAN BLOGGERS like you, Mr Rocky.
Not just you but Datuk Kadir, Datuk Ron, Jeff, Datuk Mat Talib, Marina, Syed Imran, Zahrin, Ong, SK Thew, Fathi Aris, TV, Patrick Teoh, Dave Avran, Bakri, Kickdefella and many more, including some anonymous bloggers like Aisehman who many wish will come out in the open, and on-line news sites like Malaysiakini, MalaysiaToday, Agenda Malaysia dll. And also some of your posters who are really very good and should start blogging.
You guys make the world of Malaysia go round (and round and round).
You guys are watchdogs of the traditional media and of the government (and the opposition, too!).
Most of you guys write like duck but still bloggers rock!
You made sure NEWS stays relevant in the year 2006.
And I dare say bloggers will be bigger and better in 2007.
Go ahead, take the award, guys. You deserved it.
2006 was the year of the angry bloggers. for the first time, the government was shaken by the power of the bloggers to stir public disquiet over issues which mainstream newspapers would shy away from. for the first time, the government has been forced to explain issues highlighed in the Net. who would have thought blogging could have such an influence? Blogging is here to stay, and the government had better watch its back.
ReplyDeleteThe flood victims of the south. They will remember all the deaths and sufferings of the past few weeks caused by the incompetence of the 'caring' government. Come the elections, they will extract their revenge.
ReplyDeleteThe newsmaker are the bloggers, for they allowed democrasy and free press to prevail.
ReplyDeleteTiems acknowledge us as the people of the year.
One important player left out in the list is KMU.
Lets blog till Dolah and Khairy's political career is dead!!!
Blunder maker of the year is much more appropriate for paklah...
ReplyDeleteI am biased, I know. But what the heck! Tun M for me. Fighting for what he thought was the best for the country even after he had retired. It must have taken a lot of guts, knowing that many of his former ministers and "friends" would pretend not to know him.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you are doing now, Tun M, you are the best gift that God has given to Malaysia!
*TypicalProgrammer*
ReplyDeleteFollowing the trend of TIME newsmaker of the year is YOU. All the bloggers that have relentlessly provided true information that counter false information from our corrupted government.
If the choice of newsmaker of the year has to be an individual then it has to be our hypocrite PM. His actions and words especially has expose the incompetence and idiocy in him. Still he deserve credit as it proves he is cunning enough the cheat the rakyat.
Happy New Year everyone
Sheriff Singh, i found my uncle lim has become a bit soft last year, which makes me ponder and wonder till over the yonder... and still couldnt find the answer...why? Hopefully a new year will bring new vigor to not uncle im but to all malaysian to continue aour fight.
ReplyDeleteThe Sultan of Selangor for having the guts to do what others did not to Dato Zakaria and the other civil servants.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jeffooi.com/2006/12/bloggers_2006.php
ReplyDeleteBloggers, please look at link up here. seems like Mr Jeff Ooi also thinks bloggers should be called newsmakers of 2006.
Also, note that Mr Ooi is also supposed to contest in general election this year or next year on DAP ticket. Should be for USJ.
How ah? Shall we pangkah him or shall we pangkah him?
I say, go for it Mr Ooi! Democracy needs people like you!
Islamonline is running a poll on Who is the most influential Person of the Year 2006, guess what?, our PM is one in the running. So far garnered 0.46%.
ReplyDelete===================================
Abdullah Ahmed Badawi
Biography
Pak Lah or Mr. Clean, as he is informally known, is the prime minister of Malaysia. He is responsible for an Asian economic tiger that has been a model for the past two decades for most of Asia. Badawi is also the president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and leads the governing Barisan Nasional Parliamentary coalition.
Abdullah, 63, was born into a prominent family in the northern state of Penang.
His father was a founding member of UMNO, which sealed Malaysia's independence from British colonial power and is still the country's ruling party.
After earning a degree in Islamic studies and working for a period in the civil service, Abdullah entered politics upon his father's death, being elected to parliament in 1978 as member for the Kepala Batas constituency in Penang.
He quickly rose to prominence, holding the jobs of minister of education and defense, before being appointed foreign minister in 1991.
Since coming into power as prime minister, Abdullah has promised to clamp down on corruption, giving more power to anti-corruption agencies and making it easier for the public to reveal corrupt practices to the authorities. He has also arrested several public figures from the Mahathir era on charges of corruption, a move which was widely applauded by the public. He has advocated an interpretation of Islam known as Islam Hadhari, which maintains that Islam and economic and technological development are not incompatible.
===================================
Back to "Newsmaker of 2006", I voted Tun Mahathir as I feel, if without Tun Mahathir making the mistake of appointing PakLah, he (PakLah) would not be in the news at all and so are the rest of the people in your list.
Happy New Year 2007 folks.
Yo Rocky, I think you got tagged by J.O. for Poetic Justice's 50 posts to Independence.
ReplyDeleteBru,
ReplyDeleteMy Newsmakers of 2006 were the ordinanry people. The poor rakyat. The voters and the taxpayers.
They were the ones who made news for getting robbed, raped, kidnapped and murdered.
Altantuya was an exception. She was not our rakyat. And she was not an average Mongolian. The way I heard it, she was wealthy, thanks to her association with wealthy Malaysians.
They were the ones who made news for being taxed more heavily, for having to pay higher prices, rates and charges.
They were the ones killed and marooned by floods when our elected leaders went holidaying in Turkey, South America and Australia.
They were and will continue to be the newsmakers when instead of paying the toll and the rates they go to the ballot boxes to cast their votes.
But watch out Bru, the Government and the mainstream media will do all that they can to spook the people so that they don't vote the Opposition.
But I think after three years of empty promises, you can't fool or scare the people anymore.
Sheriff Singh
ReplyDeleteYou are right in proposing that Lim Kit Siang should also be newsmaker of 2006. He should be the great Oppositon Leader for helping the Father-In-Law, Son-In-Law and Kalimullah to divert attention on their scandals. Lim Kit Siang has not brought issues that affect FIL, SIL and Kalimulah's ECM Libra - there are more, just these 3 will do for now.
Even YB SHarir brought the issue of ECM Libra in the Public Account Committee and yet Lim Kit Siang did not know about this scandal of the year. The public seemed to know about this but Lim Kit Siang, his son and his DAP were busy attacking Tun Mahathir, who were speaking for the nation on the SIL, ECM libra and other sandals of Mr I Am In Control!.
One would have thought that as Oppositions, Lim Kit Siang and son would have jumped on the bandwagon following up from what Tun Mahathir had uttered.
But we all know Lim Kit Siang, his son and his party DAP, say nothing about the father-in-law, son-in-law and Kalimulah. A reader had said that he had knowledge that Lim Kit Siang is very close with Kalimullah. Of course, they were extremely closed otherwise Lim Kit Siang and son would not have got full page interviews in NST with big colour photos.
I was wshocked when I saw the full page interview and for a moment I thought I was reading the DAP newspapers!! In a way we cannot blame both Kalimullah and Lim Kit Siang because they had to help each other and also both of them had to help FIL and SIL.
Well, before monsterball will say why we demand so much from Lim Kit Siang - simnple, as MP and Opposition Leader he has been paid by public fund and his salary is more than RM10,000 a month. OK!!
Rocky, I think we all should award Lim Kit Siang, as the Number One fraud for 2006.
Rocky
ReplyDeleteTun Mahathir deserved to be newsmaker for 2006 and beyond until Kalimulah and Khairy chased out of Malaysia.
Tun had spoken for the nation and the big silence majority, who waiting for the general elections to come and vote out the "Mr I Am In Control".
Tun should also be paid the salary of the Parliamentary Opposition Leader because Tun has done a much better job then Lim Kit Siang. Lim Kit SIang was no longer fit to be Opposition Leader because of conflict of interests involving Kalimullah, who is the advisor of "Mr I am In Control". It is a well known fact that Lim Kit Siang is playing ball with Kalimullah, Khairy and "Mr I am In Control".
Well done Tun, the nation is waiting for you to be fully fit and to hear your wisdom so that this country will be saved from Kalimullah, Khairy, Lim Kit Siang and Mr I Am In Control.
During this difficult time that Malaysia is going through, Malaysians need you more than ever. You are the most effective personality to stop and prevent excesses of the above personalities - most of all Kalimullah and Khairy!!
Tun, Happy New Year to you and family and wish you to be in good health in 2007 and beyond!
monsterball,
ReplyDeleteYou should have another category: Willful blindess. Since you pretend not to be aware that Lim Kit Siang never spoke on issues that really affect the image of Badawi, his Son-In-Law and Kalimullah, especially the ECm Libra scandal.
You also pretended not to know that Lim Kit Siang did not take up the issue of the 18 sharks (corrupted ministers and ex-ministers), Some of whom are still swimming in Parliament. In fact, Lim Kit Siang is swimming together with one of the 18 sharks (a minister) to divert attention. That Minister was also attacking Tun Mahathir in a "kurang ajar" fashion - very unMalaylike. You all know who I meant. monsterball defintitely will say "I DO NOT KNOW" like you know who..
monsterball should be voted as the number one under the category of Willful Blindness.
have to be RIP VAN WINKLE LA
ReplyDeletelike anon said with his super-intelligent quotes...
i wonder who is his press sec??? or writes them on his behalf...
*DOH*
"it is totally mengarut"
"my son is rich"
"i don't know"
coming soon..
"who, what, when?"
"it's a free country"
"what do u mean i am the PM??"
btw, where is the apology/correction from turkish embassy or hurriyet?
Rocky
ReplyDeletehad Kalimullah advised Mr Clena to say that I do not know about the RM30 million yatch, then Mr Clena would have been hte newmaker for 2006 - becuae he made a fool of himself so well. We are all proud of him!
"kickdefella" bolg site has Sadam full hanging video with sound. Go see it!!
ReplyDeleteFOR 2007, CAN ALL PUBLIC FIGURES DECLARE THEIR ASSETS ? ---no , make it 'should declare..' or 'must declare...'. Be it the newspaper number 1 man or the country's number one man ---or the country's number one man's son-in-law.
ReplyDeleteSLOGAN OF THE YEAR:
' THE ELECTION IS COMING . I WANT ALL OF YOU TO HOLIDAY WITH ME - NOT JUST WORK WITH ME ! AFTER ALL I AM IN CONTROL!'
To my dearest monsterball,
ReplyDeleteU give your self too much creditlah...
No one hates u because no one could be botherd. No one listens too u because u dont talk any sense..
I'm responding to your last post(231pm) because among the nonesense u have been spewing out this one makes the most sense.( woke up on the right side of the bed huh?).U must have been brainwashed by singapore too look at them through such rosy tinted glasses. The only differance between u an pascale is that he's more honest in his arragance.
But man i love u..its always good to have someone who's totally blinkerd to put everything in perspective.
Anyway Rocky,
My MOTY goes to DR M because like him or not, hypocritical or not,selective amnesia or not, his media statements and interviews makes interesting reading.
Or u can say the same for AAB, but in reverse..his totally devoid of media savy that that in itself makes him memorable- U remember him not for what he said but u do remember that it was forgetable
Ex: Anyone here can remeber what he said on Saddam's demise...ah..my point exactly
"HOLIDAY WITH ME"
ReplyDeleteye ye ye... after we the Ketua Bahagian UMNO got our bahagian of the filched RM3,000,000.00, we sure gonna HOLIDAY WITH YOU, our beloved PM.
Just make sure the "RM30m yatcht" is ready in time for the party.
No sorry folks, as a Kaetua Bahagian UMNO, only my Ketua Cawangan and its Ketua Pemuda, Wanita and Puteri can come along for the party. The rest of you all, please play with flood water.
Hi Rocky,
ReplyDeleteWas having lunch today at a coffesshop in Subang Jaya and was passed a flyer mentioning about gathering in Sunway Pyramid at 4pm Sunday January 7, 2007 to protest against the toll increase.
Please let your viewers know about this worthy cause. Its time we the rakyat show our displeasure over the toll increase which is causing tremendous hardship to many Malaysians.
Please bring your digital cameras and camera phones and record this groundbreaking event!
Thanks.
i nominate Orang Mawas, who's sighting made the news all over the world...
ReplyDeleteRocky
ReplyDeletemosnterball is the machai of Lim Kit Siang, Kalimullah, Kahiry and Father-In-law.
So we have to understand him because monsterball had to lick to survive.
Obviously, we cannot expect mosnterball to talk about the RM30 million yatch scandal neither can he talk about the ECM Libra scandal.
Due to his relationship with Lim Kit Siang, Kalimullah, SIL and FIL, he had to spend time to attack Tun Mahathir in ordeeer to gain credibility from the above three personalities.
Since we now know about the background of monsterball, let leave him in peace and let him to speak for Lim Kit Siang, Kalimullah, SIL and FIL, who have no credibility in Malaysia.
Bye-bye monsterball!! We knwo who you are. Form now on we will not bother about you anymore. Carry on sucking to Lim Kit Siang, Kalimullah, SIL and FIL!!! Good for you.
Dear Rocky
ReplyDeleteSo I was told that Jeff Ooi will be made a DAP candidate for USJ. I feel sorry for him. The moment he joined the DAP he will suffer the same fate as Kua Kia Soong, S K Soong, Teoh Teik Huat and so mahny others who have sacrified so much for the DAP/nation but threw out by Lim Kit Siang, the dictator of the 21sat Century in Malaysian politics and his son.
I have been told and also to advise Jeff Ooi that if he dying to join the DAP, he must learn to say yes to Lim Kit Siang and Son and must stop criticising Klaimullah, Khairy and Badawi.
Jeff Ooi should look at DAP history, al the good guys that have sacrified so much for hte DAP and the nations were either sacked or removed in a strange way by Lim Kit Siang and son.
Take Mr Kerk Kim Hock, who was the former secretary-general, who has been known to be Lim Guan Eng ball carrier and yet he was sabotaged by you know who, during hte last generla elections. Soon after that he quit DAP politics for good!!!
If Jeef Ooi want to sellhis soul to DAP then he must vow to say "yes Sir" to Lim Guan Eng first and then Lim Kit Siang. The moment Jeff Ooi is well versed with such attitude then it would be plain sailing for him int he DAP under the Lim Dynasty.
Well, from my observations all these years sincere and honest people have not place in the DAP under Lim Dynasty.
Let it not be said that we have not warned Jeff Ooi about the set-up in the DAP. Let it not be also said that we have not warn Jeff Ooi then Lim Kit Siang and son is very closed to Kalimullah and Khairy. So if Jeff Ooi desperately needed to join ECM Libra then it is Ok to join the DAP - the stepping stone to ....
Rocky,,
ReplyDeleteI like Jeff Ooi refering to Lim Kit Siang as "Kit". So Kalimullah as "Kali"! with such references, Jeff Ooi is now fit to join Lim Kit Siang's personal party, the DAP. For how long, lets wait and see how long can Jeff Ooi last? Be a crony to Kit's son, Lim Guan Eng - then last longer and immensely rewarded!!!