Category: Idiot Overlords

Redefining Publication

When I read that the government was mulling over proposed amendments to the Printing Presses and Publications Act (1984), I got curious. Then, when I read that they were thinking of redefining “publication” to include Internet media, and that they were planning to amend guidelines on films to include downloaded content, I started to laugh very hard.

ROTFLOL!

I think that the Home Ministry needs to hire some IT consultants, instead of legal consultants, before making this kind of amendments to the law. It would be impractical to enforce such a law. Governments have tried this everywhere around the world, and have failed. While it is easy to expand the definition and scope of the law to include Internet blogs, comments and Facebook, it is impossible to enforce it.

Enforcement would require some sort of review mechanism. With the print media, this is done through the issuing of licenses and shutting down illegal publications. However, it would be impossible for the government to shut down illegal on-line publications. Since most of these sites are located overseas where the government has no jurisdiction, it would be impossible for the government to shut down these illegal blogs.

So, people who want to write bad things on their blog, would still be able to do so easily. What the government will do is just make life more difficult for the legitimate folks – people like TheStar or NST. Malaysia Today will still continue publishing its content regardless of what the government says about it. It’s leader is living in self-imposed exile after all. It’s not like RPK has anything to lose. He can just move all the servers over to the UK.

It is not going to affect the rest of the rakyat much either. Unfortunately for the government, the genie is out of the bottle. Years of government pushed Internet proliferation in Malaysia has turned our citizens into some of the largest on-line communities in the world. The government will have to punish a lot of people in order for this to have any affect. Singling out individual examples, will not work very well.

In fact, it will probably galvanise everyone around a common cause instead. For one, our local hacking community, will definitely come up with innovative ways to work-around any sort of hurdle that the government comes up with. There is nothing that the government can do to stop Internet anonymity and people mouthing off on the Internet.

I have always contended that the only solution to this problem is education – not brain-washing. Educate the people on the facts and let them be their own judge. Looking at on-line communities, they tend to organise themselves fairly well. Someone who says an idiotic thing on a forum, would probably get flamed by everyone else on the forum and/or be kicked off.

Anyway, I wish our government the best. It is good that the Minister says that they are merely studying it and will only come to a decision later. They will only waste more money trying to come up with a system to pantau this thing.

They may be able to tell MyNIC to revoke certain .my domains but how many malicious blogs actually use .my domains? They can tell our local ISPs to block certain IPs and that can be side-stepped using something like VPN or TOR. They can tell our local ISPs to filter certain black-listed domains but that can be worked-around by using Google DNS or OpenDNS.

ROTFLOL!

Death by Magic!

Regardless of the cause of death, the MACC needs to man up!That’s the only thing that I could think of when I heard the results of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest.

As you may already know, Teoh Beng Hocks body was found outside the building of the MACC one day and was presumed to have either jumped or been forced out an upper-storey window. He was there at the MACC to assist in investigations of corruption against certain parties. In went a healthy man, and out he came through a window.

After the media circus surrounding his death, another one is about to explode, a year and a half later.

The inquest into his death found that there was neither evidence of suicide nor homicide. Okay, let me put this another way. Someone’s body was found to have fallen off a tall building. A police has to either classify the case as suicide or homicide. The person either jumped off the building, or was forced off the building. Bodies do not just miraculously accelerate downwards.

It does not take a genius to realise that the death needs to either be classified as a suicide or homicide, in order for investigations to proceed. If it is suicide, there will not be any insurance compensation and if it was homicide, then there will need to be insurance compensation. Therefore, there are possible legal and financial implications involved.

But it is only in Malaysia, that a healthy young man who was due to marry later than week can die of neither suicide nor homicide.

It was death by magic!

WHAT THE FRAK??!!

The video brought tears to my eyes.

PS: This will turn into an election issue. All the opposition needs to do is to march his crying sister through every ‘shaky’ constituency where there are significant swing voters. That should do the trick.

Pakatan on the Defensive

Sometimes, I wonder why it seems that the Pakatan Rakyat are constantly on the defensive. While I understand that they are constantly under siege by the federal government, I sometimes wonder why they choose to be reactive rather than proactive, in handling their problems.

As the saying goes: the best defense is a good offense.

Today, we have the Selangor Menteri Besar, issuing a statement about the current state impasse, where the federal government had played the game well and put their man in as the State Secretary. This is a potentially crippling move if the top civil servant of the state is unable to work with the chief minister of the state.

As a result, the Menteri Besar is seeking an emergency state assembly meeting to amend the state constitution to return the power of state appointments, to the state. I ask myself, if they could think of this problem now, why did they not do it earlier and avoid the potentially crippling situation in the first place.

I mean, the PR governments should realise that the BN government is out to get them by hook or by crook and should behave accordingly. They should be actively engaged in plugging all the potential holes before their enemy lobs one into them. They should realise that the system was designed by the BN government and they know best how to work it. If they sit on their behinds and wait for things to happen, they will.

They really need all the help that they can get.

September Years

According to TheStar, “The academic term of the public and private institutions of higher learning (IPT) will start in September instead of July, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.” The reason for doing this is primarily to align our local universities with those from overseas so that our institutions can compete with the offerings from other countries, in attracting foreign students.

Sigh. As I understand it, most local IPTS have multiple intakes in a year, just to tackle this problem, including one with a September time-frame.

The Deputy Minister also realises that this means the SPM/STPM students have more than half a year’s wait before they start off with the next stage of their education. I honestly question the wisdom of such a thing simply because, their brains would have gone rusty by the time they start college, not to mention the kinds of mischief that an idle 17 year old can get into during that time.

What we need is to re-align all our schools to a September start, for both primary and secondary schools. Alternatively, we need to have a filler term, to ensure that these students do not waste their time. In the past, some people would start taking their pre-U courses immediately after the SPM. But in our case, I think that they will just fill the gap with National Service camps.

I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing.

Skirting around UUCA

After watching this video and reading a little about it, I was happy that students are now interested in running for politics. Then, I thought to myself, what about the UUCA – particularly Section 15 of the Act? So, I looked up a copy of the relevant act and this is what Section 15 says:


SECTION 15 : PROHIBITION ON A STUDENT OR A STUDENTS’ ORGANISATION, BODY OR GROUP ASSOCIATING WITH SOCIETIES, ETC. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OR APPROVED BY THE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

(1) No person, while he is a student of the University, shall be a member of, or shall in any manner associate with, any society, political party, trade union or any other organisation, body or group of persons whatsoever, whether or not it is established under any law, whether it is in the University or outside the University, and whether it is in Malaysia or outside Malaysia except as may be provided by or under the Constitution, or except as may be approved in advance in writing by the Vice-Chancellor.

(2) No organisation, body or group of students of the University, whether established by, under or in accordance with the Constitution, or otherwise, shall have any affiliation, association or other dealing whatsoever with any society, political party, trade union or any other organisation, body or group of persons whatsoever, whether or not it is established under any law, whether it is in the University or outside the University, and whether it is in Malaysia or outside Malaysia except as may be provided by or under the Constitution, or except as may be approved in advance in writing by the Vice-Chancellor.

(3) No person, while he is a student of the University, shall express or do anything which may be construed as expressing support, sympathy or opposition to any political party or trade union or as expressing support or sympathy with any unlawful organisation, body or group of persons.

(4) No organisation, body or group of students of the University which is established by, under or in accordance with the Constitution, or any other organisation, body or group of students of the University, shall express or do anything which may be construed as expressing support, sympathy or opposition to any political party or trade union or as expressing support or sympathy with any unlawful organisation, body or group of persons.

(5) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the provisions of subsection (1), (2), (3) or (4) shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

This got me thinking – wow, these students might actually have come up with something interesting! I think that they might have come up with a way of skirting around Section 15 of the UUCA! You see, if the students are independent and are not part of any society, political party, trade union, unlawful organisation, unlawful body or unlawful group, they might have just nullified Section 15 of the UUCA!

Now, it would be really interesting if the students who run, run as independents. Under Our Constitution, almost anyone above 21, can offer themselves to run as candidates. I do not see how the Elections Commission has any authority to deny the students their right to run. Even if they are found to have committed an offense under the UUCA, the paltry fine of RM1,000 or 6-months imprisonment would not disqualify them from running either, under the law.

So, it would be really interesting if the students ran, and got their papers accepted by the EC. If that happens, it would set a precedent that while the students cannot join a political party, cannot campaign for any union, cannot sign up for any society, cannot associate with any unlawful organisations, bodies, or groups, they can run as independents.

Now, that would be very interesting.

Azwan Ismail

Azwan is the person who came out on YouTube in the video above. As a result of his coming out, he has received numerous threats, including those to his life. According to TheStar, “Azwan Ismail told the Associated Press in a telephone interview on Tuesday he was taking safety precautions following fierce criticism over his clip, which was viewed more than 140,000 times on YouTube in just six days.”

Now, what shocks and stuns me is the response from various officials, as quoted by TheStar. I am not sure if this is a result of more creative editing and sensationalism but I am appalled at the type of responses. They have all basically responded by deriding Azwan and calling for more monitoring of gay groups and gay activities.

Not a single one of them urged for calm and restraint.

Come on. There are individuals out there who are calling for his blood and the official response only calls for more monitoring and enforcement against those who are being threatened, and not those who are doing the threatening. In a moral and civil society, it is those who threaten the lives of others, who should be monitored.

We only have ourselves to blame for this kind of retarded response.

Let me speculate here. If some of these gay groups and individuals get attacked, I wonder what would be the official response. If these people cannot depend on the institutions to protect their fundamental right to life and safety, you are just forcing them into a corner, where the only response to violence is more violence. Dumb asses.

I hope that someone would come out and urge for calm and restraint.