Pak Lah has a heard before call for unity.
Also, I heard twice today on the radio Pak Lah’s comments on ‘Sejenak Bersama Pak Lah’ (which I must say has a lovely jingle). Sadly, it went on and on about how precarious our situation was, and how we must never talk about ethnicity, religion, etc etc..
Pak Lah calls them really big problems, but defies logic when he says they must thus be swept under the carpet. May work for a little while, but I’m pretty darn sure our children will really suffer for it. I’d say I already suffer for it.
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Well, maybe we’ll have to look overseas for intelligent discourse? :( Blogger YB Lim Kit Siang points to a pretty good article in the Int’l Herald Tribune concerning a secular vs religious state in Malaysia.
Have a read for full content.
I learnt some things I didn’t know before: Negeri Sembilan is apparently the only state that ‘allows’ apostasy, and (according to lawyer Zulkifli Noordin) 18 people have managed to officially leave Islam in Malaysia.
I would love to know more about these things.
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Back to the matter of free speech, Jeff Ooi posts today on the outcome of his run-in with writer P. Gunasegaram and Nexnews; there’s additional commentary regarding freedom of speech on the internet too, which sparked quite a debate. theSun, which is owned and run by Nexnews, publishes a somewhat disappointing frontpager.
Nonetheless, Jeff appears to be taking the relatively higher ground.
In the post which published the ‘offending’ commenter’s apology, I commented the following:
Dear IImran,
I just wanted to say well done for writing that e-mail. You’ve probably really helped strengthen Jeff’s position in all of this.
Also, you’ve provided an excellent example in the art of appologising. It’s painfully and frustratingly baffling why politicians simply cannot get the hang of it (see Jerlun).
If we say something that’s taken the wrong way, what’s wrong with appologizing? Is the word ’sorry’ so ridiculously humiliating?
People might say that an ‘unreserved appology’ lessens your credibility – I want to state strongly that it has increased your credibility in my eyes, and further encouraged me to take your opinions as that of a sincere and honorable person.
(that said, I think TDM has had a really realllly sketchy pastlah, heh… but true enough, the Pak Lah administration ain’t doing a whole lot better).
Anyway, that’s besides the point :) just wanted to say good job! I think you’ve set a good example that will do a lot for us in the online community :)
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