The following is the press release issued by the coalition of civil society organizations protesting against the illegal seizure of power in Perak state. CPI joins in the call for all Malaysians to join in this symbolic but important demonstration of public repugnance and opposition to the BN-instigated move which strikes at the heart of our democratic system.
Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
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CPI continues its series to mark World Press Freedom Day with a hard-hitting review of the media scene by journalist-blogger Sdr Oon Yeoh at the dawn of freshly-minted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s leadership as the nation’s CEO, and a selection of articles showing something’s brewing in the Malaysian MSM and Blogosphere. If you have to ask what MSM stands for, then you should make an effort to attend BUM2009! ~~ Editor, CPI
Dengan kekakangan-kekangan dan kebobrokan media tradisional, kehausan informasi telah memaksa masyarakat sivil di Malaysia untuk menjadi kreatif dan mencari lapangan-lapangan baru agar perkongsian pendapat dapat berjalan.
Seperti pengembara mendapat wadi, alam maya umpama emas permata. Mereka bisa menyatakan pendapat, mengkritik dasar-dasar bangang kerajaan, mendedahkan rahsia dan konflik parti politik dan sebagainya. Ada yang mengambil kesempatan untuk sebar fitnah, ada yang cuba mengenengahkah idealism tertentu dan ada juga yang berdakwah.
CPI continues its series to mark World Press Freedom Day, highlighting the issues of concern to the nation that are related to media development and freedom of information. There is a positive trend among certain political leaders in freeing up the media even as other more entrenched parties try to muzzle the Press and narrow the access to information as well as confine the media coverage of national events such as State legislature meetings.
May 3rd every year marks World Press Freedom day in the democratic world and in Malaysia, there is marked growing consciousness among the people to demand that the Fourth Estate — prominently mainfested or represented by the printed Press in the form of the daily newspaper at our breakfast table, although other media including electronic and radio fall within this ambit — come under the spotlight. Often, or at least once a year in a big way, media organisations would organise specal events like forums and discussions to debate whether the “old/traditional” media have fulfilled their role and oblogations.
April 23, 2009
“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.??? (Noam Chomsky) “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.??? (Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826)
Is the death of distance nearer to us than our jugular vein?
Which stream is the mainstream media drowning in? It has forced us to drink too much from the River of Forgetfulness. It has shaped the consciousness of Malaysian citizens – they are now happily indoctrinated, blessed to be alive in a totalitarian state and constantly reminded by the state to count their blessings.
http://malaysianunplug.blogspot.com/2009/04/indira-ghandis-conversion-case.html
Indira Ghandi’s Conversion Case: The Untenable Arguments of Muslim- NGOs (PEMBELA ) and PKR MP Zulkifli Noordin
UPDATE:
K Patmanathan, a Muslim convert, is challenging the Cabinet decision to ban parents from secretly converting children in a case that has strained race relations, saying the ruling ” contradicts the federal constitution, it is illegal and not applicable on Muslims including myself and my children. “
His lawyer has confirmed the contents of the court document but refused further comment.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/24996-nh-chan-an-inconvenient-judge
IPOH, April 30 — Chan Nyarn Hoi lives in a modest two-storey semi-detached house in a quiet lane near the state stadium in Perak with his wife, a dog and seven large Japanese carp.
At 74 years old and with ruddy smooth cheeks under a full head of snowy white hair, few would connect him to the acerbic, no-nonsense former judge Datuk N.H. Chan, who has in the last couple of months done the unthinkable: fire away missives at judges who have trampled on the Federal Constitution in deciding issues related to the power grab in Perak. His lengthy articles have reminded Malaysians of a time gone by when towering individuals sat on the Bench and simplified the Perak constitutional crisis for the common man.
The recent announcement by the PM that the Government will act to recruit the best brains for the civil service is a clear admission that the government has failed to practice merit-oriented recruitment in the past, and that the performance of the civil service has suffered as a result. The public, however, is cynical about promises of reform and change which do not produce results. 
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/2009/04/memo-to-historians-question-all.html
20 April, 2009
Question all historical ‘facts’
“Man has no nature… what he has is history,??? writes the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gassett.
But whose history must man learn? Whose construction of history must we craft as official knowledge? What is the conception of human nature must we hold in writing about history? There are no historical ‘facts’. The term itself is an oxymoron and a contradiction. There are only selected memories we pursue out of our ideological biases. Underlying the selection process lie the act of historicising and the base and superstructure that shape the manner history is written. The modern state – the ‘necessary evil’- dictates the ideology of historicising; thus the maxim “winners write history, losers write poetry or study anthropology???.