• set of screwdrivers(brand unknown) for RM224, which only worths RM34 per set on the market.
• Faber Castell Technical Pens for RM1,147 per set, which only worths RM160 per set on the market.
• 2 Tonnes Car Jack for RM5,741 per set, which only worths RM50 per set on the market.

These are no lies, though administration tends to label bloggers as liars. These report are from Auditor-General Malaysia(JABATAN AUDIT NEGARA MALAYSIA). I’m not in the mood to tell you more about this, please download and read the reports yourself.(In Bahasa Malaysia). More news on the TheStar Malaysia

Then, this Riot at Pantai Batu Buruk, Terengganu sparked off on a public speech organized by BERSIH(COALITION FOR CLEAN AND FAIR ELECTIONS, a NGO)last Saturday night. Live bullets fired at unarmed civilians by FRU(Federal Reserved Unit). Mainstream media claimed that the officer had to fire at the crowd as he’s been assaulted. Water cannon and tear gas are also used to disperse the crowd. Again, censorship from authority is heavily applied in news reporting of this incident. Now all the opposition parties have something to do with this, according to mainstream media.

Without Internet, some alternative voices cannot be heard, and without Internet, all our sources of Information will have to rely on mainstream media. There is no space for questions, no space for debates, and no space for freedom of speech.

Now, only I’ve realized. Why there is only one broadband ISP in this country, why I have been using a 1MB connection since 2003, and why I have been complaining about it. It is designed to be like this, for the governance need. The countrymen just can’t be allowed to grow too smart.

Most of my friends went for vacations, to Thailand, Singapore and some went to Hongkong. I have been staying at home today, had a mahjong session with my parents this afternoon, and rest of the time was spent thinking.

Young generation born around 1980’s in Malaysia, has seemed care less about the country. You can talk with them about latest movies, bistros, gadgets, cars, fashions, celebrities, or anything else, but not current issues in the country. Most of them will not have a clue about what’s really going on, even though they read newspapers, listen or watch news everyday. The traditional medias in this country have lost their credibility, heavily censored by the authority.

I live in Johor Bahru. We can reach Singapore in just around half an hour drive from here. Up to 50% of my friends here have got or pursuing their degrees in Singapore, just because they are unable to be enlisted in the courses they are interested in with local universities. Most of them ended up working in Singapore because they are bound to a three years contract by the Singapore’s government if they want to enjoy a lower tuition fee. Most of the time this is a one way ticket, sooner or later after their graduation, they will be granted a PR(Permanent Resident) status and given an Identity Card.

I have witnessed major development in Johor Bahru these few years. Although the Pandan Flyover Bridge project took 5 years to complete, I’m glad they actually made it before this national day. Danga Bay seems like a successful project too with all people going there during weekends. There is another Iskandar project going on just around my house at Nusajaya, news reported that this project has attracted RM 41Bil of investment from middle east country. There is a Ibu Pejabat Polis Nusajaya just 5 minutes drive away from house, too bad they have this after the serious rob and rape case.

I can go on for days and nights talking about this country but today is just not the day. My resolution for this country’s 50th birthday is: be strong, be open minded, be united, be competitive, and be transparent, dear Malaysia.

I don’t notice much posts in my RSS feed reader from local bloggers. Maybe they just care less nowadays, or disappointed with the current situation. Heck I didn’t even receive any sms to wish me Happy National Day. Anyway, I’ll list down those who actually posted something about national day here, be it good or bad.

• Jeff Ooi
• LiewCF
• ritzilystylish
• mahaguru58
• xpyred

Tell me if you have made a post about our National Day too.

Case #1

Early May, 28 year old pregnant woman, along with her husband and 3 year old son, on their way to downtown Johor Bahru. The husband stopped the car at a petrol station near Tampoi to answer nature’s call. Wife and son waited on the car. Robbers with knife showed up and knocked at the car’s window, threatened the woman with her husband’s safety. The woman gave in and unlocked the car door, prayed that the robbers was only after the valuables. The robbers hopped in the car and drove away, with the woman and her 3 year old son on board. The robbers drove the car to Plentong area, raped the pregnant in somewhere quiet, and took away all her valuables. After the robbers fetched another member on board, finally released the mother and son at Taman Permas Jaya.

Case #2

5th June, around 10 pm. A construction contractor with his female companion, headed to Danga Bay condo to visit their friend. They stopped at one petrol station beside Pasir Gudang highway to fuel up the car. 3 armed robbers showed up and forced them back into the car. The robbers then drove the car with the couple held hostages inside. The robbers then drove the car around Pasir Gudang area for an hour, finally stopped at Kempas area. The robbers gang raped the female victim inside a bush, and took away both victims’ valuables. The 4th robber drove another car and fetched the 3 robbers on the spot, then fled.

Case #3

11th June, around 10 pm. 22 year old tyre shop worker with his 20 year old girlfriend on their way back to Johor Bahru from Pontian. Near Second Link’s Gelang Patah exit, 4 Malay robbers with a Toyota Altiz (Silver Color) knocked the victims’ car and tried to make it looked like a car accident. Male victim refused to stop his car and the robbers started to follow the victims. The victims tried to escape but they were not familiar with the roads and made a wrong turn into Bandar Nusajaya exit. Victims’ car engine went off after they stucked in a dead end. The robbers pulled both victims off the car and put them into their own car, headed towards Jalan Skudai. The male victim has been whacked badly in the car, the robbers injured his achilles’ tendon badly with knife. The robbers drove to the bus stop opposite of Plaza Kemayan City(The abandoned building besides Jalan Skudai, just next to a Shell petrol station). In bushes behind the bus stop, female victim was gang raped by the robbers and the male victim was forced to witness it helplessly. The robbers fled the scene with the victims’ valuables. Kind-hearted passer-by Mr Lim aided the poor couple, reported the case to police via phone. Now, THIS IS THE SAD PART

He first called to Larkin Police Station , officer there told him to call to Tampoi Police Station. When he called to Tampoi Police Station, officer there told him to call to Central Police Station, finally when he called to Central Police Station, this case is reported.

After waited on the scene for 30 minutes, the male victim was still bleeding badly, Mr Lim decided to send both victims to General Hospital Johor Bahru for medical attention. When Mr Lim drove by the U-Turn under Taman Ungku Tun Aminah Bridge, he saw a police radio car with 2 officers were blocking a car which believed had exceeded speed limit. A Police Officer on assignment, reached the hospital on 4.30am, to collect evidence from the victims.

This series of crimes are believed to be committed by same gang of criminals, and attracted mass attention from residents in Johor Bahru, especially the chinese community. Sin Chew Daily has been featuring this case on the national main page for few days continuous.

The first suspect identified is, Shahabudin S.K. Mohamed Ariff, 27 year old.

Now according to the Police Spokeman, there are HOTLINE numbers in every state to report a crime.

• Kuala Lumpur – 03-21159999
• Selangor – 03-20529999
• Perlis – 04-9711999
• Kedah – 04-7392999
• Penang – 04-2691999
• Perak – 05-2401999
• Melaka – 06-2851999
• Johor – 07-2212999
• Terengganu – 09-6354999
• Kelantan – 09-7450999
• Pahang – 09-5151999
• Negeri Sembilan – 06-7619999
• Sabah – 088-318555
• Sarawak – 082-240800

Save these numbers into your phone, and hopefully it can save you during emergency.

Look at this hilarious video. Embedding has been disabled by the original youtube poster. Please click on the image below to view the video.

Via: Screenshots

Enough whining about Telekom, now I’m stucked with GPRS connection with my mobile phone. Look at the speed test result below, in year 2007 I’m still connected to Internet with this speed.


Cool huh?

What’s the damage?

1. Email
   Timeout, timeout, and timeout. How can one live without email? Especially when you have to deal with your associates, clients, and bosses with emails, in order to make a living, slow connection is going to double/quadruple up the time you’re going to use for email communication.
2. FTP
   From time to time, I need to upload php scripts, files, to update websites. For example, this wordpress blog you’re reading. It requires frequent updates to latest version for bug fixes. Same goes to other websites with phpBB, vBulletin, Joomla, etc. With this connection, I’m not going to update this blog to version 2.1.3, yet.
3. Web Surfing
   Needless to say, web surfing is my heaviest daily activity. Many income related websites are like pain in the ass without proper Internet connection. Other entertainment related websites like Youtube, metacafe, and friendster, are totally ignored for the time being.
4. Blogging
   As of writing this post, I’m constantly getting timeout from my host server. Half an hour of easy job has taken me more than 1 hour to this point. It is a huge challenge, to my patience and anger management.

Rumor has it, that WiMax is going to hit the road on 2008, I have no comment at this moment. If this WiMax technology is going to work out as planned, all I wish is Telekom Malaysia dies a bloody death. After monopolizing this country’s land line services for more than a decade, with so little achievements that can be listed in Guiness World’s Record.

Expose War Crimes: Criminalise War. This is the title of a series of events being held at Putra World Trade Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from February 5th to 11th, 2007. The events include conference and exhibition, organized by Perdana Global Peace Organization. That place is kind of far for me to pay a visit, but thanks to the Internet and bloggers, photos and excerpts are available online.

Now, get to the conference. Let’s look at the list of speakers.

1. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Keynote Speaker
2. Mr. Hans von Sponeck Former UN Asst. Secretary General
3. Prof Michel Chossudovsky Internationally renowned Economics Professor
4. Mr. Michael Carmichael Author and Founder of the Planetary Movement
5. Ms. Leuren Moret Internationally renowned expert on depleted uranium
6. Mr. Greg Palast Internationally renowned journalist and author
7. Mr. Gwynne Dyer Internationally renowned author and journalist
8. Ms. Rana Al Alouby Internationally renowned journalist from Iraq
9. Prof. Ms. Niloufer Bhagwat President, Indian Lawyers Association and InternationalTribunal judge
10. Dr. Christopher Busby Scientific Secretary of European Committee on Radiation Risk
11. Prof. Shoji Sawada Physicist, Hiroshima survivor and expert witness on radiation issues
12. Mr. Alfred Lambremont Webre International lawyer with experience in War Crimes Tribunal
13. Prof. Ms. Paola Manduca Professor of Genetics, University of Genoa, Italy
14. Mr. Dirk Adriaensens Founder member of Brussels War Crimes Tribunal
15. Ms. Hana Bayaty Member of Executive Committee of Brussels War Crimes Tribunal and renowned writer and journalist
16. Dr. Walid Al-Khatib Palestinian Peace Activistist
17. Mr. Mohammad Umar Chairman of Ramadan Foundation, UK
18. Ms. Cynthia McKinny USA Congresswoman
19. Mr. Ibrahim El Moussawi Editor in chief of Hezbollah weekly, Al Intiqad and Al Manar TV, Lebanon
20. Mr. Ali Shalah Former detainee in US prison in Iraq
21. Dr. Saeed H. Al Musawi Former Permanent Representative to UN
22. Ms. Anjun Anwar Education Officer, Ramadhan Trust, UK

Something pierced my eyes badly when I browsed through Jeff’s post of ‘Will the real “Prisoner in the Hood” please stand up?‘.

Quotes:

This Israeli dressed in civilian clothes tortured me by inserting, firstly, a jagged wooden stick into my rectum and then later, with the barrel of a rifle. I was cut inside and bled profusely. During this time, when any guard walked past me, they would beat me. I had no food for 36 hours.

I told him that I had an operation. He then pulled the bandage which was stained with blood from my hand and in doing so, tore the skin and flesh from my hand. I was in great pain and when I asked him for some painkillers, he stepped on my hands and said “This is American painkiller” and laughed at me.

Above quotes were taken from slides presented by Mr. Ali Shalah, during his speech. He was detained in Abu Ghraib prison(west of Baghdad) in 2003 and 2004(Six months). His news can be found in New York Times’s March 11, 2006 post here,but later denied by NYTimes on March 17, 2006, here.

I have no comment on this, read carefully the stories published in the links above to get your answer of conscience. For more details in this conference, please visit Jeff’s post at ‘Will the real “Prisoner in the Hood” please stand up?‘, and ‘Criminalise War‘. Thanks Jeff for his informative post on this event.

Now the exhibition. LensaMalaysia.com has a collection of photos here. Wonderful job from guys at LensaMalaysia.com.

By the way, look at this video of Dr M introducing this event. Not too late for a 81 year old man to catch up with the technology eh? Don’t you think he looks cuter now?

Youtube.com original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YvF8JiA7M

Dr M has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2007.

One last quote from Agata Christie:

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing, that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

Please, regardless of your nationality, try your best to say NO to any kind of war that kills.

Here’s some key points, to be a responsible blogger.

1. Use your real name.
2. Strong facts finding.
3. Becareful when quoting from others.
4. Give credit when using other’s work in any form.
5. Speak the truth.

Point no.5, in my opinion, is very hard to practice. See what’d happened to the aforementioned bloggers.

“That the parties agree to henceforth not publish any article, comment or post regarding the dispute presently before the High Court in this action that may be regarded as sub judice or that may prejudice the fair trial of the action.”

Hm, how to put this? As a Malaysian, how do you think of law system in the country? In term of “not stirring the water again”, let’s just wait and see. Keep your eyes sharp, and your mind true. Kean-Jin Lim is keeping a long list of “What bloggers have to say“, you might get different ideas there.

Rocky’s blog is at http://rockybru.blogspot.com/ and Jeff’s at http://www.jeffooi.com/. Follow this incident up yourself if you are interested.

It is not a surprise that I couldn’t find much info regarding this lawsuit in local press. However, International links returned from google indicated that this issue has arose massive attentions within the Asia region, I will list down a few trustworthy sources below.

1. International Herald Tribune
2. Channel NewsAsia
3. Yahoo! News
4. ZD Net Asia
   
5. Reporters Without Borders

For more results, you can google for “Malaysia Bloggers Sued Over Defamation”.

This is the very first lawsuit against Bloggers in Malaysia. Bloggers in Malaysia have shown supportive efforts by raising legal fund to help these two bloggers, and web banners have been created to be displayed in bloggers’ space. A campaign “Walk With Us” is also formed to support them. Last but not least, our famous opposition leader Dr. Lim Kit Siang has a blog entry regarding this news too.

Whether agree to what Jeff and Rocky blog about or not, I certainly don’t want to lose my last source of local issue in Malaysia, as I’ve given up mainstream media since a long time ago. This is a line I’m willing to help defend.

My area was not severely flooded as the pictures shown above, Internet connection was the only impact that affected me. Nothing to complain though, compared to other areas.

Just when the Internet connection came back for a day or two, we had this. The whole Asia region was affected by the earthquake in Taiwan. Following pictures taken from news.yahoo.com

Again, there’s nothing to complain, it’s beyond human’s control. Hopefully the service can be restored soon. So December 2006 was a mess to me, even Christmas didn’t make it up for me. How about you?