The Alliance of Bloggers. When certain quarters in government become hostile towards bloggers, I believe they mean to aim their hostility at a small group of bloggers or on-line writers whose views and takes of current affairs they fear. Take the latest remarks here made by Shahziman Abu Mansor in parliament yesterday. It is not stupidity; it is fear. Ok, ok. Shahziman has just shown us how goblog he is but it I believe he said it out of fear.
In any case, if the politicians do not want to take the effort to learn about blogging and to understand bloggers, I believe the bloggers will have to take that initiative. At 5.30 pm in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, the small group of bloggers who have been demonised again and again by the likes of Shahziman are meeting to look at what they need to do.
This multi-racial group of responsible and patriotic Malaysians will discuss, among other things, the setting up of a National Alliance of Bloggers.
The Alliance will not exist just in cyberspace or blogosphere. It will have a physical premise, office bearers, and subscription-paying members, just like any other registered societies. Its main objectives will be to:
1/ protect bloggers
2/ promote blogging
Personally, I would like to promote blogging among our journalists. If all journalists who work in the mainstream media also blog, people will stop crying for Press freedom. We should also promote blogging in schools and varsities. There are blogs that promote travel and bloggers who inspire others with their personal experiences; we should promote these, too.
And then we have people like Shahziman who think they can bully bloggers because bloggers are small individuals and make easy pickings. The Alliance will protect bloggers against people like him. I don't think the Alliance will be in favour of lawsuits and I don't believe that hostility must always be with hostility. We'll engage him and try to make him understand.
More on the proposed Alliance after the meeting today. In the meantime, skip to Kickdefella for Bloggers Unite! And as this is a battle of right against might, we'll need your sympathy.
rocky, woulld like to ask,
ReplyDeleteThe Alliance will protect bloggers against people like him.
is the Alliace speaking of bloggers in general, or just bloggers who are part of the alliance?
i still would like to remain anon. no names on any registrars whatsoever. being apart of this alliance would leave mean our names are just a search [with or without warrant] from the bigots who want us all registered.
Dear Bro,
ReplyDeleteHow I wish to be with all the bloggers at this hour...having a formal meeting for the first time.
United without care of colors and creed , being together just to promote freedom from thought supression.
So to everyone who was there,Congratulation to all of u for you are one of those fortunate enough to be a part of historic event.
My thousand apologies and warm regards to everyone .
Sorry Bros and Sis,
I am not a blogger yet but a true friend of the newly-established The Alliance of Bloggers, a multi-racial group of responsible and patriotic Malaysians, as Rocky rightly put it. Over the last few months, I’ve posted numerous comments to various bloggers to let them know how I felt about certain things that the bloggers and other commenters passionately wrote, but never with the intention to disrupt peace and harmony in Malaysia. In December last year, I was asked to write part of a speech for a VIP. This is what I wrote:
ReplyDelete*** The Malaysian Government recognizes that good governance is a prerequisite to develop a vibrant capital market and create shareholder value in public listed companies (PLCs). Strong corporate governance is also seen as an essential ingredient in transforming the, hitherto, underperforming government-linked companies (GLCs) into high-performing entities. In 2005, Khazanah Nasional, the government’s strategic investor and trustee of the nation’s financial assets issued a comprehensive Transformation Manual to overhaul the GLCs operations and governance.
Other recent initiatives to enhance corporate governance amongst Malaysian companies include mandatory disclosure by PLCs of their CSR activities, as announced in the 2007 Budget speech by our Honourable Prime Minister. PLCs are encouraged to make contribution towards enhancing the well-being of the community, especially the less fortunate. Towards this end, the Government’s Employee Provident Fund (EPF) will consider favourably PLCs with good CSR practices in the investment decision.
The self-regulated accounting bodies in Malaysia are also playing a meaningful role towards contributing to a superior corporate governance environment by improving the quality of financial reporting. The Financial Statements Review Committee (FSRC) of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) has recently completed the review of financial statements from July 2005 to June 2006 to monitor the quality of financial statements and its compliance with approved accounting and auditing standards as well as statutory and other requirements issued up to 31 December 2005. The common findings on non-compliance are made known to MIA members and appropriate penalty tariffs are imposed on members depending on the severity of non-compliances as a deterrence.
To summarise, since the corporate governance reforms were started in 1998, Malaysia has made sustained progress in this area which contributes to the overall integrity of the capital market. I am pleased to note that these continuous efforts by the Malaysian government to strengthen corporate governance and transparency in Malaysia have not gone unnoticed. In the recent World Bank Publication on “Doing Business 2006”, Malaysia achieved a very favourable assessment on the soundness of its investor protection. Based on a survey of corporate lawyers in 2006 relating to minority shareholder protections against self-dealing transactions by directors, the investor protection index in Malaysia is the 4th highest amongst 170 or so countries surveyed. However, we must not rest on our laurels and continue to forge ahead. ***
If that is not patriotic, then I really really don’t know what is.
aMiR
News clip of Channel News Asia report on the case
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf_YBEMKABs
Rocky,
ReplyDeleteYou have my full support. There comes a time where we have to find the moral courage to stand up for what is right. I think it is part of our "amanah".
I am of absolute conviction that the more open we are, the more constructive and creative we become and the more people are allowed to express their sentiments be it positive or negative, the better it is for the government. Better to have people venting in blogs then on the streets.
As for the Government, the more it tries to legislate and control, the worse it will become. The sooner the government embraces and accepts the reality that blogging is here to stay the faster will the government will transform.
My humble opinion: A bad idea. You're only giving yourselves away. Come the crunch, they'd just know where and who to look for. Unless you'd all love to be martyred.
ReplyDeleteYou're also telling the other side "we have x number of grunts". Right now the other side doesn't know. Therein lies your strength.
Also, do you not think that because you are now an association, it's easier for those who are at the receiving end of your comments to brand you as partisan, noisy rabble-rousers, anti-this and that?
You may scream till you're blue in the face that you are non-partisan, but the label will stick. It's human nature.
So then, what will the bloggers association evolve into? You need to think harder about this. Will u be a pressure group? NGO? God forbid, pussyfooting for politicians?
Now for the protection objective. Will you come to the aid of ALL bloggers? What if I have smut on my blog, and i get into trouble, will the association help me? (Larry Flint vs the People?) Or an aunty-type who blogs about the homefront, then has a quarrel with neighbour, and starts blogging the nasties about the neighbour, and is sued? What then? Will the association help?
Bloggers are diverse and disparate. You are each better off on your own and as i said earlier, therein lies your strength.
Why not just a loose entity, continue as you are now, meeting for mee rebus now and then?
KPC
The above is only my humble opinion, so if anyone is offended, my apologies. thank you
Politics is an art. But its just a game, like any other games we use to play when small. Its all about winning or losing. Draw is rare.
ReplyDeleteLike chess, player likes to see opponent's pawns crumble and ultimately checkmate. Attack and defense. Retreat only to get ready for unexpected assault, like pull and pounce.
Blogs emerge as enemies. Blogs must go. Bloggers must go too. These appear in the game plan. The chess of politics.
AAB, MH, SS, RSA and AK are formidable players. They tried SangKelembai. He got his membership stripped.
But friends, do remember, chess is a popular game watched by many. The opening game is easy. It gets tough at middle game. The end game is nerve wrecking!!
Remember, God is fair. God's scale of justice isnt like yours, mine or theirs. For God, the scale is absolute.
Be it NABM or NAB or NBA, I immediately agreed to Rocky's proposed acronym of All-Blog.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like All Black. Three things comes to my mind with the sheer mention of All Black - Being the best, Doing it in style and its famous Haka War Chant.
Their Haka chant is as below:
Ka mate, ka mate
Ka ora, ka ora
Tenei te tangata puhuruhuru
Nana i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
Upane, upane
Upane kaupane
Whiti te ra.
Meaning:
It is death, it is death
It is life, it is life
This is the hairy man
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
Up the ladder, up the ladder
Up to the top
The sun shines.
– Haka (1810), Chief Te Rauparaha (1768-1849)
What will be ours? Hakuna Metata (Don't worry)? Why not?
Us, if we can cliam as, Right is fighting the Might and the Idiot - hopeless PM, hp6 ministers, tiga suku parliamentarian, court-happy corporate, LKY-snoops, chicken scared party members, ...
And yet, we brave ourselves. Perhaps we are braving it. Or perhasp, we are just not worried ... Hakune Metate.
Que sera sera All Blog. We will do it and we will enjoy doing it.
What a Lulu, the Alliance will not "speak" for bloggers. Each blogger speaks for her/himself. The All-Blogs' should promote and protect the rights of anyone to blog anonymously but it can't have an Anon as a member (how do you register an Anon?). I have asked Pasquale to start another blog using his real name so he can be a member of All-Blogs. But he can still keep Pasquale's blog, which is politically-motivated, alive. Nobody has to know.
ReplyDeletedear rocky, i m all for te bloggers alliance...been my daily news replacing te mainstream media for a years now ....love wat u guys re doing n apprteciate it tremendously......BUT there re your card carryin or shall i say BLOGGERS with BLOGGERS UNITED LOGO on their blog out there attacking, name calling ...among them i or u would not even mention anywhere or anytime...n these for your info are journalist...te main stream papers
ReplyDelete.....although it not political blog or general blog....u might not be interested to even look at it....but now as te pro tem PR......dont u thing u should be hse cleaning first... (pls goto klubbkidd...check it out m not kidding)....
dear rocky, i m all for te bloggers alliance...been my daily news replacing te mainstream media for a years now ....love wat u guys re doing n apprteciate it tremendously......BUT there re your card carryin or shall i say BLOGGERS with BLOGGERS UNITED LOGO on their blog out there attacking, name calling ...among them i or u would not even mention anywhere or anytime...n these for your info are journalist...te main stream papers
ReplyDelete.....although it not political blog or general blog....u might not be interested to even look at it....but now as te pro tem PR......dont u thing u should be hse cleaning first... (pls goto klubbkidd...check it out m not kidding)....