Friday, August 17, 2007

SHUT UP? NO WAY! HELPS ON THE WAY!

I must congratulate the Malaysian Cabinet. Yes the Cabinet who has taken valuable time away from pressing matters such as the state of sports in the country, the worst bus accident in Malaysian history, the failure of PKFZ and other minor things such as the rate crime in our country and the economy - just to help this creative student promote his music to the world!

How many world leaders and their Ministers really take the time to help creative local musicians onto the world stage, providing wide publicity to his works. A chap from Muar by the name of Namawee has been given this privillage - a privillage even stars like Siti Nurhaliza and Jac Victor did not get. Namawee now is world famous, his hit single now has exceeded over 1,000,000 hits (not counting the other sites hosting his song) and I can say probably many times more. I think there is not a single office in Malaysia that has not heard or circulated the URL to his hit single, Negarakuku. In the real world, it would have been a record - a platinum hit in days!

The Malaysian Cabinet Ministers deep understanding and appreciation of the internet technology has definitely helped in this effort. In singing praises to the Cabinet, we should not forget the local mass media for their kind generosity and magnanimity. I do not think Namawee spent a single sen on advertising to drive traffic to his song and his blogsite. Very rarely do we get this level of generosity from the press. I tried to get a discount to advertise a not-for-profit event some time back and of course, I did not get it. The wonderful thing is that
ALL the local papers came together to give unprecedented mileage to this wonderful young man. The latest I have heard is the legal fraternity is jumping to do his bit starting to make this young man famous. Leading this initiative is the Attorney General himself! Great work!

All it takes now is for Namawee to go take the world by storm and make Malaysia proud. Go get a recording contract or start to sell you songs online via i-Tunes. You should not waste the efforts of our Nation's leader to working so hard to see you successful.

If you have just woken and missed the entire episode, here's the hit single below.



I personally like this on, Kawanku

Happy Birthday Malaysia!

SHUT UP!

Malaysiakini reported that The Internal Security Ministry has confirmed that they have given a directive to all mainstream media not to publish any news on the issue of Malaysia being an Islamic state.

The reason given was that it's sensitive and can cause tension. When are we going to grow-up as a nation? We will be celebrating 50 years of Independence as we are still being treated worse than kids. Imagine being to told to "shut up" every time you want to say something.

In parenting programs, psychologists and educationists expounds that parents and teachers allow children to speak their minds and express themselves. When they do that, we adults can understand the problems the kids face and address them accordingly. We are taught to LISTEN and to communicate - basic respect for our children. If our leaders do not have the wisdom to understand and appreciate this, how can we deal with bigger things, how can demonstrate leadership in the international arena. Forget the Nobel Prizes, go play "gasing" in space, make the world's first inter-galactic "roti canai", keep making and breaking ridiculous like the biggest dinner, the longest coin line. We are fifty years as an independent nation, on our social maturity level, in reality, we have regressed to the time before independence.

As long as we have blogs, keep the discussion going. Keep talking about it!

I wonder when the Internal Security Ministry will issue directives to ban the internet followed by kopi-tiams, and later ban the gathering of two or more persons. It we keep this up, it may not be long before we get a directive not to talk. There might come a time this directive will come - "DO NOT THINK".

This is our country, we are 50 this year.

Monday, August 13, 2007

What's the Role of Courts?


Picked this up in the NST on Saturday. Just wondering if the role if the Courts to
dispense justice or to "appease everyone". This was quoted by Ahmad Jailani, Lawyer to Siti Fatimah who seek to renounce Islam. Instead she was asked by the courts to undergo counselling and "learn more about Islam". Read more about it here The New Straits Times Online.