Thursday 21 October 2010

Bloggers for Malaysia is Born

Updated


Here's news from the horse's mouth so to speak..Tuan Syed's Bloggers for Malaysia


From the Malay Mail:

Rais' son's telco fiasco: Bloggers' strike back
Rais' police report leads to forming of association to defend them
NADIRAH H. RODZI
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 10:40:00


KUALA LUMPUR: A new association called Bloggers For Malaysia was set up last night in response to a recent police report lodged by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim after denying corruption allegations involving his son.


Protem president blogger Syed Akbar Ali (outsyedthebox) said the group was formed at the National Press Club Malaysia here after a meeting, held by several prominent bloggers, concluded there was no proper association to help protect and to represent bloggers in the country.


"Bloggers have no one to turn to. They just look at each others' faces without having anyone to defend them as there are no laws protecting them when they merely write or express their views on an issue they're interested in.


"We are sure to get a minimum of 500 bloggers to join and they can be rest assured they have us to defend them."


Akhramsyah M.U. Sanusi is the association's deputy president, Tony Yew (muststopthis) is the secretary, Mohamad Firdaus Abdullah is deputy secretary and Zakhir Mohamed (bigdogdotcom) the treasurer.


The committee members are Datuk Ahirudin Attan (RockyBru), Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, The Malay Mail chief operating officer Endie Shazlie Akbar and Eric Woon (iamamalaysian).


Commenting on Rais' police report, Syed Akbar said: "Bloggers and blogging are a worldwide phenomena which follow universal rules. Everyone blogs to share their two cents worth of opinion. As the Communications Minister, Rais should have engaged directly with the bloggers, not by blocking the new media."


Yew said: "If this was the manner all ministers and the Cabinet behave, many average citizens will be prosecuted. The question now is, how do they pick and choose out of the millions?


"Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been attacked but we do not see him taking any action. There are going to be a lot of people saying all kinds of things and the action by Rais is more like a stand-alone action, no one has spoken up for him. Bloggers do not blog without first identifying the source."


Akhramsyah said neither the government nor anyone could stop a person from using media used internationally to pass on or get information regarding an issue.




SYED AKBAR: Rais should engage directly with bloggers on issues, not 'block' them


"There are many social networking sites such as Twitter and FaceBook which work faster. At least in blogs, people get the chance to engage should they have inquiries or just want to share their views, especially to bloggers who do not blog anonymously."

read more here.


I am interested to join I am sure links to Bloggers for Malaysia will be out soon.


Posting from Jakarta.


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