Category Archives: Media

Bernama vs White House: Conveniently leaving out things

Posted by

0

Please look at what Bernama conveniently leaves out of the White House’s official statement.

———-

GE13: US hopes for continued cooperation with Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The Office of the White House Press Secretary congratulated Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on his general election victory, saying it looked forward to continuing the close cooperation with the Malaysian government and its people to strengthen democracy, peace and prosperity in the region.

“On behalf of the President and the people of the United States, we congratulate Prime Minister Najib on his coalition’s victory in Malaysia’s parliamentary elections on May 5,” a statement from the US Embassy here said.

The general election saw Barisan Nasional returned to power after winning 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats to form the new federal government.

“We also congratulate the people of Malaysia who turned out in record numbers to cast their votes as well as the parties of the opposition coalition on their campaigns as a vibrant opposition is a foundation of democracy,” the statement said. – Bernama

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2013%2F5%2F9%2Fnation%2F20130509182951&sec=nation&utm_source=TSOL_main&utm_medium=links&utm_campaign=GE13

———-

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 08, 2013
Statement by the Press Secretary on Malaysia’s Elections

On behalf of the President and the people of the United States, we congratulate Prime Minister Najib on his coalition’s victory in Malaysia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday May 5. We also congratulate the people of Malaysia, who turned out in record numbers to cast their votes, as well as the parties of the opposition coalition on their campaigns, as a vibrant opposition is a foundation of democracy. We note concerns regarding reported irregularities in the conduct of the election, and believe it is important that Malaysian authorities address concerns that have been raised. We look forward to the outcome of their investigations. The United States looks forward to continuing its close cooperation with the government and the people of Malaysia to continue to strengthen democracy, peace, and prosperity in the region.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/08/statement-press-secretary-malaysia-s-elections

———-

“We note concerns regarding reported irregularities in the conduct of the election, and believe it is important that Malaysian authorities address concerns that have been raised. We look forward to the outcome of their investigations”

Bernama forgot to include this part.

Kantoi.

Radio Free Malaysia hacked

Posted by

0

Looks like it’s the season for hacking. Because information brings change, and the regime does not take well to change.

—–

Radio Free Malaysia, Radio Free Sarawak and Sarawak Report all Hacked

The websites for Radio Free Malaysia, Radio Free Sarawak and the news portal Sarawak Report, which represent free media in Malaysia, have all been subject to relentless DDOS attacks since the beginning of this week.
Today, Thursday 11th April, the sites were hacked and all three were brought down. The attacks have coincided with various forms of jamming which have been attempted against the broadcasts of both the independent Radio Stations, which operate from outside of Malaysia.
Radio Free Sarawak is at 1100-1300 UTC on 15230 kHz Short Wave and Radio Free Malaysia is at 1300-1500 UTC on 1359 kHz Medium Wave. Both stations are still available on Sound Cloud:

https://soundcloud.com/radiofreesarawak
https://soundcloud.com/radiofreemalaysia

Malaysia, which poses as a democracy, has nevertheless one of the most restrictive medias in the world, dominated by the ruling Barisan National coalition. Widespread access to the internet has broken into that monopoloy over information in recent years, however, evidently causing considerable concern to a government beset by recent scandals and corruption investigations involving senior figures.

Disruption of independent online news portals is regular in Malaysia and entirely expected after the disollution of Parliament finally took place last week, in anticipation of elections due on May 5th. The human rights organisation Suaram has also been knocked offline as have the news outlets Free Malaysia Today and Malaysian Insider.

The Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attacks have been mounting against the anti-corruption site Sarawak Report for the past few weeks. The site has focused on exposing timber corruption over the past three years, demonstrating how the destruction of the Borneo Jungle has been driven by a small number of politically connected individuals in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.

Yesterday, Wednesday 10th April, the site was targeted by 64 million hits designed to take down its server. The sister sites for the two radio stations received similar attacks. Most of the attacks have radiated out of Russia and Eastern Europe and site administrators were able to fend off the onslaught until the site itself was hacked earlier today.
The NGO Access Now, which campaigns to support freedom of expression on the internet, has moved to assist the websites in their purpose of providing independent news and information to Malaysian voters in the run up to May 5th.

“This is a pretty typical pattern for an automated attack”, explains Gustav Bjorksten from Access Now, “anyone opposing a dictatorial power tends to get attacked by DDOS. With the calling of an election you can pretty much set your clock by it”.

Behind the attacks are criminals who build large ‘botnets’, which they then hire out to people who pay, for example governments trying to suppress inconvenient information. The cost is phenomenal, with the sort of major attacks sustained by Sarawak Report running into hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of weeks.
The botnets operate through a web of a very large number of compromised computers, which send out millions of emails to disable the target sites. The common perpetrators are based in Russia and countries in Eastern Europe, including Lithuania and the Ukraine. Turkey is also a centre for this kind of activity.

“This is a pretty big attack” Bjorksten said of the assault on Sarawak Report and its sister sites, “they are serious, they want you off line”.

Clare Rewcastle Brown, the Editor of Sarawak Report and the Founder of Radio Free Sarawak and Radio Free Malaysia, which operate out of London in order to avoid Malaysian censorship, said today that the Malaysian Government was only showing itself up by resorting to such tactics.
“This is not a proper expenditure of taxpayers’ money and it only goes to prove how vulnerable this 50 year old regime feels to the truth” she said. “BN controls every single news paper and broadcast outlet in Malaysia, which are all forced to pour out propaganda favouring their party and to attack opposition leaders without allowing them their right of reply. And yet BN are nevertheless clearly terrified by even the most modest platforms providing independent news or alternative information. They are also plainly threatened by the evidence about outrageous corruption by the party’s top politicians, who have been robbing the country in recent years and amassing astonishing fortunes. Such evidence is suppressed in the mainstream media, yet Malaysia has been stripped of its resources and wealth by the political classes, who are exporting huge sums into tax havens abroad. Particularly in the rainforest states of Sabah and Sarawak the mass of ordinary people have been left poorer than ever.

“The BN establishment clearly feel unable to defend themselves against the mass of available evidence of this corruption, so they are resorting to attempting to silence the messengers. It won’t work and it just reveals them for what they are, which is politicians who dare not subject themselves to free and open debate”.

“It is really quite shameful that a government such as Malaysia should consider it appropriate to resort to hiring criminals with taxpayers’ money. They talk about the benefits of winning the “cyber-war” as if there was some honour in what they are doing. This is a dishonerable tactic and it shows just what a sham this supposedly democratic election is, where the critics of bribes, jerryamandering and vote-rigging are being silenced by such means”.

The day after…

Posted by

0

In my last article, I wrote about the need to imagine the hours, days, weeks, and months following the 13th General Election (a most enigmatic event, whose precise date is and will forever be a mystery… until it is called!).

This time round, I would like to invite us all to consider, imagine, and think about the first 24 hours after Malaysia goes to the polls.

There are numerous scenarios of what may take place when the Election Commission makes that all-important call after all the ballot papers have been tallied at all the counting centers: a declaration that 1) Barisan Nasional has won two-thirds majority to form government; 2) that BN has won a simple majority and forms government; 3) that Pakatan Rakyat has won a simple majority to form government; 4) that PR has won two-thirds majority and forms government; and 5) a hung parliament, where neither side has the clear advantage.

While this article does not attempt to elaborate on the ramifications of each scenario – there isn’t enough space – what I would like to do is ask us to consider what it is that we can do, in our own little ways.

First and foremost: be calm. No matter what happens, ensure the safety of your immediate family members and your property.

In other words, after polling ends it is best to head home and to stay home, just like what we did after GE12.

Secondly: stay connected. Most online portals that night will be flooded with visitors (or DDOS attacks), so be mindful that some might be down or slow with information.

In fact, keep on hand a list of key phone numbers – close friends, party activists, journalists. And in case the Internet and phone lines get congested, just enjoy the evening. And watch some TV, maybe.

Next: double check your source before sharing that email, SMS, FB update, or tweet. Don’t spread unverified accounts of whatever you think is happening somewhere where you’re not. Check, double check, and in fact triple check – it is better to err on the side of caution than to be the boy that cried wolf.

Four: no matter what happens, stay safe. Don’t take unnecessary risks like driving out around town waving flags and such (it is an election offence to campaign after midnight into polling day).

On a more party political level, at least three key things we have to bear in mind:

One: Ensuring the safety of candidates who have been declared winners, to avoid them from being “bought” by or “convinced” to join the “other side” (whichever side that may be);

Two: Securing the sites of government, both on a state and federal level. This means putting in place safeguards promptly, to ensure that key documents are not ferried out nor destroyed by the outgoing parties.

To this end, official security services – namely Polis Di Raja Malaysia – must maintain a neutral stance and assist in the peaceful and democratic transition of government.

Three: Formation of government, which involves meeting the heads of state as well as the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong and convincing them that the parties forming government do indeed have “the numbers” to do so.

Obviously this is not a comprehensive nor exhaustive study of the first 24 hours after GE13. But what I would like readers to walk away with is a sense that as Malaysians, we need to begin imagining these crucial and critical hours of our nation’s history, to be comfortable with the thought of what may take place, and most importantly: to be prepared, come what may.

(First appeared on SelangorTimes on 10th August 2012)

Over the weekend

Posted by

4

Since the 100 tweepology was quite a “momentous marathon” in social media – in terms of the 72 hours in which the apologies were tweeted – I thought it would not be bad to compile the list of news articles and analyses, just for posterity (and will be updated from time to time).

So here are some.

News

Analyses/Commentary

Number crunchers

Audio/Video

Non-English language

If you spotted something I didn’t, please let me know.

Curious questions

Posted by

0

Post-Tweepology, I’ve gotten round to asking myself some very basic questions:

  • What, really, is a Tweet?
  • In this age of Twitter (if one could propose that it is an ‘age’), where does private end, and public begin?
  • How do you actually assess and quantify concepts such as “reach”, “influence” – essentially, how does one begin to comprehend the economics of Twitter?

I’m not certain I have any answers or solutions, but I’m willing to spend quite a bit of time mulling over these questions.

Feel free to propose.

Relief

Posted by

0

After 100/100

It’s been quite a weekend.

And now, back into the swing of things.

As someone commented, “At least now you’re updating your blog again.”

Yes, indeed.

photo by Myra Mahyuddin

If you missed it

Posted by

3

Yesterday, at 6.45pm (Kuala Lumpur), was the fulfillment of my settlement. The tweets (bottom to top, chronologically) were as follows:


Perhaps one day soon we’ll be able to chat about this, whenever we meet.

Thank you, good friends and kind strangers, for all the warmth and support you’ve shown me over these past few days.

I shan’t forget this easily.

Silat Barisan Ketiga

Posted by

0

KUALA LUMPUR, 2 Okt (Bernama) — Pengamal dan ahli silat seni gayong boleh dianggap sebagai barisan ketiga pertahanan negara yang sanggup berkorban dan menyumbang untuk mempertahankan kedaulatan negara jika diserang musuh, kata Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

(Lanjutan laporan)

+++

Since “barisan ketiga” = “third line”, is the PM, the recipient of the Anugerah Sandang Mahkota Seri Bintang Pelangi Imam Khalifah Agong award from Pertubuhan Silat Seni Gayong Malaysia, trying to say more? What IS he trying to say?