View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
Manner of Speaking

Joined: 09 Jan 2003
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject: Ex Malaysian President Uses Blogging to Needle Govt |
|
|
Ex-leader uses blog to needle Malaysian government
By Seth Mydans Published: October 26, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: In a vast office at the top of one of the world's tallest buildings, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sits at a broad, glass-topped desk, scribbling his thoughts on a pad of unlined paper.
For 22 years Mahathir was the most powerful person in this land, and his thoughts were commands as he reshaped the country in his own grand image. But he has become an irritant and a spoiler five years after stepping down, turning against his handpicked successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and he has fallen victim to the press controls he perfected as prime minister.
It is mainly a system of self-censorship in an atmosphere of pressure and intimidation that produces an obedient press and has seen the closure or banning of many publications. "Where is the press freedom?" he exclaimed two years ago, apparently surprised to be suddenly ignored. "Broadcast what I have to say! What I say is not even accurately published in the press!"
Earlier this year, like many other inconvenient critics, he joined what seems to be a political wave of the future, creating his own acerbic blog - www.chedet.com - an online journal where he vents in both English and Malay several times a week. Around the region, bloggers like him are becoming a fifth estate, challenging the government's monopoly on information in Singapore, evading censors in Vietnam and influencing events in places like Thailand, Cambodia and China.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/26/asia/blogger.php |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Interesting article, thanks for posting it. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Paji eh Wong

Joined: 03 Jun 2003
|
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
M wrote: |
"Where is the press freedom?" |
You quashed it, you anti-Semitic dikdik.
I lived in Malaysia in 96-97. Dr M complaining about lack of press freedom is like Park Chun Hee complaining about not getting the capital allocation he wants.
*beep* him and his blog. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Manner of Speaking

Joined: 09 Jan 2003
|
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
Paji,
I've never been there, but I had friends from there in college...they were all great people. However, they couldn't get into college in Malaysia because of a quota system that disadvantaged ethnic Chinese. Was/is it a nice place to teach? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|