Stories about Malaysia from November, 2005
Malaysia: “Squatgate” Reporting
Says Project Petaling Street Blog, in the Malaysian police-political scandal rapidly coming to be known as “squatgate,” opposition politicians’ blogs have been much more adept at using the Internet to get out their message about local officers forcing Chinese illegal immigrant women to do squats in the nude.
Malaysia: Best Bumiputra CEO
Peter at Competitive Malaysia comes up with his own list of best “bumiputra” (Malaysians of Malay descent) CEOs, based on their companies’ increase in profits. One commenter wonders why he didn't use increase in shareholder value as the standard; while another asks: why only bumiputra?
Malaysia: A Life, Blogged
Malaysia's Kenny Sia turns 23, and chronicles, by linking to his past blog posts, what happened in the past year, including a relocation from Australia back home to Malaysia and the loss of his father to cancer.
Malaysia: Police Scandal
Jeff Ooi at Screenshots has the latest on the scandal roiling the Malaysian police: the videotaping of a naked woman, a Chinese national, forced to do “ear squats.”
Malaysia: Malay Identity
The Silent Room grapples with what kind of Malay he is. “While being brought up with strong Malay values, they also made sure I was able to converse in English before I set foot in primary school. I was taught to bow and extend my right hand forward when walking...
Malaysia: Non-Aligned News
Malaysia's Mack Zulkifli hopes against hope that the proposed Non-Aligned Movement Network will indeed live up to its promise.
China, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Taiwan: Giant Partner
KTemoc Konsiders says that ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia would be happy to know that China is now ASEAN's biggest export market and the putative leader of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. At least the prospect of making money through trade with the U.S., he says, should prevent China...
Malaysia: Spreading Porn
Prurient The Malay Male argues for the development of a local pornography industry. He argues: “The real benchmark for a truly developed nation and/or people is the porn scene thriving in that particular country.”
Tunisian blogger dinner
On Friday night I had the pleasure of joining the 8th Tunisian Bloggers Meetup, along with fellow WSIS participants Jeff Ooi of Malaysia and Isam Bayazidi of Jordan. After the craziness of the past several days, it was really nice to leave the conference behind, just talk about blogging, and...
Malaysia: Judging Anwar
Ada apa dengan ShinShin? asks whether disgraced former Malaysian deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim is an asset or a liability to the opposition party he associated with.
Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand: Raiding Burmese
Burma Underground compares raids on Myanmar refugees and activists in Malaysia and Thailand. “In Chiang Mai, I would sit on the floor at my Kachin friends’ house, and Naw Kham would tell me traditional stories from the Jinghpaw, their tribe. Here in KL, I sit in the kitchen of the...
WSIS: Defending Freedom of Speech in Tunisia
Despite the odds, we managed to pull off our “Expression Under Repression” seminar here at the World Summit For Internet and Society. This was largely thanks to the strong spine of our sponsors, the Dutch NGO Hivos, who fended off a phalanx of plainclothes police who tried to shut us...
Malaysia, Singapore: Fifteen Minutes
Overloaded by the hype and attention loaded on Singapore blogger-beauty Dawn Yang, Malaysia's Kenny Sia, following others, inquires whether she had a little something done to her eyes. Last week, Xialanxue wrote an open letter asking her to clarify whether she had plastic surgery. On her blog, Yang replies to...
On the Menu: Food Blogs from Southeast Asia!
Take one former graphic designer, a retired corporate banking and management consultant, a civil servant, a teacher, an amateur photographer, an academic and a freelance journalist. Add generous dollops of blogging software, several digital cameras, enthusiastic assistants/partners and web-hosting accounts (there are no substitutes for these ingredients). Stir them together and you get some of the best writing about Southeast Asian food this side of printed page.
Man, she's a man?
Malaysians are pondering same gender marriages. Blogger SK sympathised for the bride, who had undergone a sex change, having been born a male 30 years ago. Her marriage to an accountant is reputed to have cost RM1 million (approx. USD260k) but the main issue remains if it is a legally...
Malaysia: Chinese Weddings
Anak Merdeka complains about the chore of attending local Chinese weddings.
Indonesia: Dr. Azhari Captured and more about conflict in Poso
This week, on Wednesday, Indonesian law enforcement assisted by Australian intelligence finally succeeded in making sure that Dr Azhari Husin, Malaysian bomb expert associated with Jemaah Islamiyah, that was behind two bombings in Bali Australian Embassy bombing and Marriot hotel bombing in Jakarta and had killed in excess of 250 people in in the last three years will not be able to continue his career as demolition man, for any purpose.
Malaysia: Name Crisis
Kurtlow.com becomes alarmed that crisis levels may have been reached regarding ridiculous English names used by Chinese.
Malaysia: Pirated VCDs
Project Petaling Street Blog reprints an email circulating among Malaysians listing the top 10 reasons why we should buy pirated VCDs.
Malaysia, Hong Kong: I Want My Soap TV
Simon of simontalks.com has a helpful list: “How to Tell if Your Girlfriend Watches Too Many Hong Kong Serials.”
A Malaysian Metablog
In emulating Global Voices Online, Malaysian bloggers now have a submission based metablog called Blogs Malaysia. It's founders encourage Malaysian bloggers and blog readers to submit the URL of entries that capture their attention and share it with others. A group of editors sieve through the submissions and vote on...