Merdeka 曖昧

Baru je bangun, Acai called, tanya kalau nak sarapan. Kita minum kat somewhere in Kelana Jaya. Nampaknya Acai sebenarnya cuma diperintah somebody untuk bawakan I ke sini.

Tepat pukul 10, CheguBard dah muncul. Nampaknya Bard nak kita revampkan sket website Gerakan Korupsi dan Anti-Demokratik Gerakan Demokrasi dan Anti-Korupsi (Gerak), sebuah NGO anti-rasuah yang diketuai Ezam, yang juga merupakan Ketua Angkatan Muda pusat.

So Ezam, Bard dan I dah adakan sket brainstorming, cuba fikirkan apakah yang kita perlukan untuk memeriahkan lagi website Gerak. Sebenarnya kandungan dah hampir mencukupi, design pon okay jugak, mungkin buleh kita kemaskan sket kot. Selepas meninjau ke web Aliran, PenangWatch, Keadilan Penang dan sebagainya, kita putuskan apakah yang Gerak perlukan ialah satu Content Management System (CMS) Joomla.

Okay, so, kita nak installkan Joomla. Tapi server sucks, cuba upload fail-fail Joomla ke dalam server beberapa kali, sumernya stuck halfway sebab disconnection. Maybe next time baru kita install kot.

Watch out!

Pada petang 23 Jun 2005, Faisal Mustaffa a.k.a. Acai, Ketua Biro Antarabangsa Angkatan Muda Keadilan Pusat, telefon aku, tanya kalau nak minum. Aku okay je. Tapi jejaka nie sampai pukul 3 lebih pun tak muncul. So aku baca buku sampai tertido kat sofa. Tetiba, aku tertengar orang honk, dan mommy bagitau, “Eh, saper tu yang letak kerete depan umah kita?” Owh, nampaknya Acai dah sampai, tengah merokok lagi kat luar pagar kita nie. Cemarkan udara PJ.

Faisal pakai sebiji kerete pacuan 4 roda yang macho. Entahlah saper punya, Amir Sari penyelaras IKD ke kengkawan diorang kot. Acai kata keretenyer masuk bengkel. Instead of pi minum kopi, Acai sebenarnya akan ambik gambaq dalam pertemuan di antara YB Karpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor) dan Datuk Seri Anwar kat umah Karpal nanti, so kita kenalah carikan di manakah umah Karpal dulu.

Kita tiba di Pusat Bandar Damansara (Jabatan Imigresen & HELP Institute), tapi dah buat beberapa bulatan baru dapat cari masuk jalan ke sebelah sana Damansara Heights. Pada suatu ketika, semasa mendaki bukit di Jalan Semantan dekat Bangunan Shell, tetiba kerete kehilangan power. Nampaknya Acai yang tak biasa dengan kerete yang boleh dikawal dengan kedua-dua gear manual dan automatik nie tertekan sesuatu secara silap, dan daripada gear auto kita tetiba jadi gear 1 yang manual pulak. So beliau started kan enjin sekali lagik, dan kita terus mendaki bukit.

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Ada apa dengan ShinsShin strongly supports any effort to protect our little freedom of expression. CIJ is organising this workshop, whose objective is to impart information about the various laws in Malaysia that aim to regulate cyberspace. These laws potentially threaten freedom of expression on the Internet especially the blog-o-sphere. Despite government pledges not to censor the Internet, the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, action against Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkifli, among others, warrants precautionary steps by bloggers.

Date Saturday, 1 July 2006

Venue Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ)
27-C, Jalan Sarikei
off Jalan Pahang Barat
53000 Kuala Lumpur
(location map)

Time 9.30 am - 4.30 pm

Speaker Sonia Randhawa, Executive Director, CIJ

Fee None Whatsoever

Equipping yourself with information is one of the best way to protect your rights to freedom of expression. We look forward to your participation in the workshop.

For more information please contact the cute CIJ Advocacy Officer,

Wai Fong 03 4023 0772
waifong AT cijmalaysia DOT org

Bloggers Workshop: Protect Yourself from Legal Pitfalls

It’s His Majesty King’s Birthday today. A day when most Malaysian regard as just another public holiday (less so now that Saturday is already an off-day for many, holiday or not). To promote a healthy discourse on public affairs, I would like to discuss the pros and cons of absolute monarchy vis-a-vis constitutional monarchy, and what day would it be more appropriate than today?

In Australia, there was a “Republic Referendum” in 1999, in which the public was asked whether the Governor General (Queen’s representative in Downunder) should be replaced by a Parliament-appointed President. It was rejected with the ‘no’ side receiving 54.4% of the vote.

That scares the house of Windsor tremendously. At any given time, the percentage of opposers of Monarchy in UK is about 25%, plus or minus, thus seeing 45.6% of Australians requesting a republic is indeed frightening.

Constitutional Monarchy, as we know, checks the power of the government. As in Malaysia, the appointment of Prime Minister is one of King’s discretional power, eventhough conventionally he would choose the head of parliamentary majority. But there’s no law barring the King from choosing, say, YB Ms. Fong Po Kuan or YB Datuk Seri Semi-Value (Perak Boleh!), as long as the appointee is elected into the House of Commons.

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