Category: Idiot Overlords

Anonymous vs Malaysia

I just read an article in TheStar saying that the hacktivist group – Anonymous – has scheduled an attack for a Malaysian government website later tomorrow. The article claims not to know why the hacktivist group is targeting the Malaysian government. The reporters are quite possibly daft if they cannot even hazard a guess.

I might hazard a pretty obvious guess – our censorship of 10 very important file-sharing websites, particularly The Pirate Bay (TPB).

Since the website runs on he .Net framework on top of IIS7, my advice to the government would be to call up Microsoft support immediately and get their people down to do all necessary, either to strengthen the security of the site, to go on the defense, or to stay around to collect useful forensics.

I wonder what the government was thinking when it asked the ISPs to block access to the list of file-sharing websites. It is just such a blatant abuse of power on the Internet that it invites an organised response. It is a threat on Internet freedom and hacktivists are very vigilant against such things.

I would have advocated a legal response, by local users mounting a legal action against the government. However, this hacktivism response is just to be expected as well.

Good luck, Malaysia.

Update: Turns out I was spot-on – it was the censorship. Our reporters are clueless.

Where's the Law

According to various sources, our SKMM (Malaysian Communications and Multi-media Commission) has asked our local ISPs to block access to several file-sharing sites on the excuse that these sites are found to have broken our local Malaysian laws.

Seriously.

I thought it was the job of the judiciary to determine if and when someone breaks the law and if the judiciary finds that the laws were broken, then the SKMM should enforce the law and order the ISPs to block the websites.

However, I am wondering when, if, these sites have been found to have broken any Malaysian law. As far as I understand it, the SKMM is not in a position to interpret any laws and determine if anyone is on the right or wrong side of it. If the SKMM has the power to act as it wishes, it risks taking one step overboard.

So, unless I am wrong, the MCMC has jumped the gun here and ordered the blocking of these sites. The right thing to do would be to take the issue to court and get a court order to legitimise the action. As it is, I personally think that this action is possibly illegitimate.

I am not a lawyer of course.

That's Rich Soilek

Quoting to the article in TheStar, “Time to stop thinking along racial lines, says Soi Lek. The people must start thinking of themselves as Malaysians first rather than the racial group they belong to, said MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.”

Coming from the president of the Malaysian Chinese Association – that’s rich. Maybe, all he meant was the first part – time to stop thinking.

Retaining Talent

I sometimes wonder if the government reads my blog – many people do. In a recent entry, I actually complained that it was unfair for our government to send our best and brightest overseas while pressuring our local varsities to out-perform themselves and be kings of the hill.

Then, here comes our DPM saying that, “the Government is looking at sponsoring more top students at local universities so that the country can retain talents, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said. He said he believed local universities were comparable to foreign ones.”

Interesting.

I do not think that it is untrue when he says that some local varsities are comparable to foreign ones. I think that it is better for our government to send those who get into third-rate foreign universities to local ones instead. It would be cheaper and probably produce comparable results either way.

By keeping some of our talent here, we would also help our local universities with the student quality. We would hopefully, ‘raise-the-bar’ by placing a few punching bags in strategic places and improve the overall standards.

Interesting.

Bersatu Teguh

WTF?

I just read an article in TheStar on comments by a Selangor UMNO leader who, “has slammed the state government for riding on the Federal Government’s success in garnering investors into the state.”

This is the exact problem with the mentality of our political leaders that are leading us into a mess of things. I can go further and say that the Federal Government’s success in garnering investors is due to the available resources of the state, and nothing to do with the government at all – i.e. we can replace the present federal government and still have the same result at the end.

The whole idea of having a government is so that they can work together with all necessary parties for the betterment of the country – and this includes working together with the political opposition because even having a political opposition is contributing towards the betterment.

What does this person think, that the advances of our nation are all due to the performance of just one group of people – the federal government? If that is the case, then this group of people must also accept all responsibility for the failures on our performance – e.g. like falling in all sorts of global indices.

So, I can turn this around and say that the Federal Government is responsible for all our failures. But no, we reap the seeds that we sow.

Idiots!

PSD Interviews

I just read an article in TheStar on how our MCA president has come up with the dumbest idea I’ve heard so far on the PSD scholarships. According to the article, “Four MCA ministers will propose to the Cabinet on Wednesday that the top 300 SPM students be selected for Public Service Department (PSD) overseas scholarships based purely on academic results and should not be required to go through an interview.”

WTF?!

Then, I thought to myself, maybe he knows something that I don’t?

For example, maybe he knows that these students would fail their interviews because they cannot speak or communicate properly. Maybe, he knows that these students are unable to think clearly or answer the questions asked. Maybe, he knows that these students do not qualify for the overseas scholarships on their own and need the MCA to help them over the bar.

Honestly, I’d like to know what the MCA is smoking.

Scholarships a Malay Special Right

As much as I hate to admit it, PERKASA said something right for once – “Scholarships are the special rights of Malays under Article 153. The government and PSD must first make sure the rights of Bumiputeras are prioritised, a violation of the constitution in any form is a crime.”

Article 153(3) text:

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, in order to ensure in accordance with Clause (2) the reservation to Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak of positions in the public service and of scholarships, exhibitions and other educational or training privileges or special facilities, give such general directions as may be required for that purpose to any Commission to which Part X applies or to any authority charged with responsibility for the grant of such scholarships, exhibitions or other educational or training privileges or special facilities; and the Commission or authority shall duly comply with the directions.

So, we should stop complaining about the unfairness of the scholarships being given out by the government. It is unfair by design and decree. If we want to have a fair system, we will need to amend Article 153 of the constitution and that is unlikely to happen within my life-time.

Unfortunately, they said something else that I think is right as well – “Make overseas scholarships only for post-graduate studies. This can save the outflow of money overseas and give due recognition to local public and private universities in the country.”

By sending all our best and brightest out, we are unfairly shackling our local universities by setting targets for them to shine as regional champions while depriving them of the human resource that they need to do it, all at once.