A reader by the name of A Voice wrote a thought-provoking piece in response to the AFP story: Bloggers undeterred by lawsuit. His thoughts deserve a prominent space for further in-depth discussions.
EXCERPTS:
We saw Kalimullah Hassan was successful to initially silence Husam Musa and Harakahdaily on the ECM-Avenue merger issue.
That was when the guerilla web/blog started to takeover and dessiminate online. It was heard that this sparked a minority challenge to the merger at the Avenue EGM. But it died down.
Matthias Chang attempted to garner attention but he went overboard with the accusation of corruption. Kali sued him and achieved the same “ceasefire”.
Finally, it was within the UMNO Penerangan Negeri sessions at FT, Selangor and Penang that they could not stop the issue anymore from the floor. Even when they had a Parliamentary PAC, it was hot for only 2 sessions and then, quiet.
A VOICE’S COMMENT IN FULL
The ideal living space for these scumbag of the journalism world is Singapore, where they can sue and turn the other poor fellow bankrupt. However, the process of law in Malaysia has yet to meet the swiftness and brutality of Singapore’s.
For Kalimullah, the primary objective is to silence critiques and remove the critical issues from public eyes.
We saw he was successful to initially silence Husam & Harakahdaily on the ECM-Avenue merger issue. That was when the guerilla web/blog start to takeover and dessiminate online. It was heard that this spark a minority challenge to the merger at the Avenue EGM. But it died down. Mathias Chang attempt to garner attention but he gone overboard with corruption accusation and Kali sued him and achieve the same “ceasefire”. Finally it was within the UMNO Penerangan Negeri sessions at FT, Selangor and Penang that they could not stop the issue anymore from the floor. Even when they had a parlimentary PAC, it was hot for only 2 session and than quiet.
SO the lesson from the ECM-Avenue merger episode are that there must be a wide and broad strategy, tactic and initiative to make an issue heard and the other side react. So, I wish to suggest several things below:
1. We need to make available those questionable issues. For Rocky & Jeff lawsuit case, we need to issues to be discussed and widely available and not lost under injunction. Yes this is contempt of court. And that is why we need sniper (penembak curi) or guerilla bloggers.
2. Promote an active blogging discussion and let blogging proliferate. This is make those in power to take notice that “citizen journalism” cannot be stiffle. They cannot be dismiss as rubbish and their watchdog could anywhere, even in their homes, neiughbourhood, office, and such. Believe me in many office at PWTC, near Lake Garden, Putrajaya, and etc etc etc are takign notice, positively or negatively.
3. Part of being heard would be a for a “Petaling Street Project”-like blog aggregator dedicated to socio-political and public interest issue. This way we have a main blog referral for serious news and discussion of citizen interest. We have a place to inform of new blog coming on stream. We have a place for archiving and searching for research from, blog material.
4. We need to make sure a way is created to ensure certain issue remain hot and updated. Off hand, I can think of individual initiative dedicated to a certain specific issue and this is the blog reference authority on it. Walk with us is a good example to dedicate for strictly this blogger sued issue. Perhaps will proliferate an ECM-Avenue watchdog blog or PM Indulgence Watch dedicated to monitor his poem damai abadi declaration is abide ..heheh
5. We need to compliment the online information dissemination effort with many citizen action initiative like Blogger United, Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group, etc. The example was the few shareholders that rose to grill the Directors and Corporate Advisors at the Avenue EGM. Maybe demonstration but I pesonally do not quite like this course of action.
6. Please please please … no partisan politics. Issues easily gets muddled and lost when political parties start barging in for branding. Notice when an issue is stolen by opposition political party into an UMNO bashing exercise, UMNO’s rank would automatically unite, turn into defensive, likely to retaliate & spin the issue, and issue lost in the BN-Opposition lock. As my ECM Lbra example has shown, issues is off concern by public, opposition and even UMNO people.
Ok thats all this early morning off hand thoughts.
January 31, 2007 at 1:56 am
THank you for the credit and display. It embarassing … malu!
January 31, 2007 at 9:00 am
“And that is why we need sniper (penembak curi) or guerilla bloggers.’
Can anyone tell me if sniper blogs can be traced and if so, can the owners also be sued like what is happening to Jeff and Rocky?
If the answer is “NO”, then I would say the suit against Jeff and Rocky is meaningless, as many other sniper blogs will spring up with even more damafamatory stories about the Plaintiffs – A multiplier effect which would be more damaging to them. What say you?
January 31, 2007 at 9:34 am
A Voice, One Voice. Many Ears.
Well done, bro. Don’t be malu-lah.
With KH involved in previous similar issues and the current suits, don’t you think that the ’subjudice’ materials in NST/MoNSTerblog were actually aimed at the presiding judges? Unlike the two bloggers, KH have ready access to a panel of lawyers and must have been fully aware with the mechanics of our legal system.
Our legal system DONOT have a jury.
The plaintiffs realised that their initial plan was backfiring when other blogs highlighted their own weaknesses. Hence, their unsolicited proposal to the defendents to a mutually cease and desist agreement. However, the voluntary ‘gentlemenly’ decision by Rocky to maintain an ‘off-line’ stance was not even mentioned in the mainstream papers.
As much as these two cases touches on the sanctity of our freedom to speak, it also places the Judiciary in the spotlight to uphold the Rule of Law in this nation.
February 1, 2007 at 12:03 am
Excerpt from my blog entry yesterday, entitled:
We Shall Overcome: Many Voices, Many Initiatives, No Party Politics
In the nutshell, I proposed the following:
Use of blogging to get around the misuse of legal injunctions to curtail freedom of expression.
Encourage blogging to promote citizen journalism and a powerful watchdog mechanism with the caveat that it is done responsibly.
Provide a platform for aggregating socio-political, socio-economic and public interest blog, complimented with archiving and search ability.
Mechanism to overcome the diminishing coverage of issues that is characteristic in print and television media due to competition for media space.
Complimenting the information dissemination and public discussion fucntions with actual citizen action group.
Stress the need to maintain a “civil society” approach and refrain from partisan politics.
A voice is not enough. It takes many voices.
We shall overcome some day
A Voice (http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.com/)
Kuala Lumpur
January 31st, 2007
February 1, 2007 at 7:59 am
syabas, a voice. Memang aku dah saspek, si Kali machai Singapore ni memang nak senyapkan blogger macam rocky dan jeff. Alhamdulillah, wira siber kita, baik yang melayu maupun yang cina, tak gentar. Dengan bantuan blogger lain, termasuk blogger antarabangsa, dan snipers seperti the voice dan walk with us, kali ini kali-ulkar akan patuk diri sendiri.
February 1, 2007 at 10:11 am
kalimullah has no second thought about dragging the NST through all this.
and for that, we should fight him. why? because he has no care for the welfare of NST staff, the integrity and credibility of the NST.
he is hiding behind the NST and the PM, and of course, Umno and the government.
can we expect Umno leaders and members to do something?
your guess is as good as mine.
February 2, 2007 at 3:34 am
let us be clear about this. Kalimullah is not stupid stupid, ok.
of course he knows that he has other options before going to the court. He is not taking those options.
He is suing Rocky and Jeff MALA FIDE.
He wants to SILENCE them in the worst possible way and BANKRUPTING them. He wants them to have NO FUTURE whatsoever. He wants to see the end of Jeff and Rocky. And other bloggers.
That is why. Learning from his Singapore masters. Bankrupt your enemy. Bankrupt your opposition. Bankrupt-lah whoever is giving you shit and hell.
The shit and hell he is getting is not shit adn hell for the rest of us Malaysians.
Why be afraid of Rocky and Jeff. Why be very very afraid, Kalimullah?
February 2, 2007 at 4:46 am
“kalimullah has no second thought about dragging the NST…..”
I remember the king of civil suits Lee Kuan Yew took up defamation suits in his personal capacity – he never used his party or his government as a joint plaitff.
February 25, 2007 at 2:18 am
[...] we told you how Kalimullah Hassan, the dominant plaintiff among The NST & Gang of Four, has misused defamation suits to muzzle Husam Musa and Matthias Chang, who had blown his cover as a plunderer of the national wealth. He [...]
April 8, 2007 at 12:46 pm
“And that is why we need sniper or guerilla bloggers.’
for you brother! I’ll be the SHOOTER.