As what most of us know, the recent publication of caricatures on Prophet Muhammad has caused worldwide furore, where demonstrators protested allow their rallies to degenerate into riots, leaving dozens of dead and the burning of embassies in some countries.

In Malaysia, I’m truly grateful that Malaysians are civilised and tranquil enough to handle the insensitive and tasteless way of the publication with no untoward incident, good enough.

The only dismay part came from newspapers, where a 61-years-old daily Sarawak Tribune’s publication permit was suspended indefinitely since Feb 9 for reproducing the caricatures, leaving the fates of 300 employees unattended. This was followed by a suspension on a chinese press Guangming Daily for two weeks, starting from Feb 16 to Mar 1, for publishing a photo-within-a-photo of the caricatures.

But, when we Malaysians thought that this controversial issue is about to ease off, it’s far from over.

NST, national English tabloid published a full comic strip, with the title NON SEQUITUR by cartoonist Wiley Miller on Page 8 of "Coffee Break", in the "Life & Times" section. The cartoon shows a sidewalk caricaturist offering to draw caricatures of the Prophet and the accompanying caption described the man as having achieved his goal of being the ‘most feared man in the world’.

This has attracted public outcry over the controversial publication, where three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Opposition Party PAS, lodged their respective police reports at the Brickfields police district head office.

The three NGOs consist of The Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM), the Peninsular Malay Students Federation (GPMS) and Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (KIMMA), which are under the auspices of the Majlis Angkatan Permuafakatan NGO-NGO Malaysia (MAPAN). The police report on PAS side was lodged by Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub. Their say?

Kubang MP Salahuddin Ayub
"The act of publishing the cartoon could threaten national security as it is defamatory and can divide national unity."

PPIM Training Director Izham Nayan
"We feel that it has bad intentions, aimed at insulting Islam as the official religion of Malaysia and insulting the Muslims. We want action to be taken against the newspaper editor."

GPMS Treasurer-General Azan Ismail
"They are seen as challenging the Prime Minister’s directive not to publish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, and the Prime Minister had also explained in detail on the issue which touched on the sensitivities of Muslims."

The question: Will Internal Security Ministry under the purview of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has the power to issue, renew and revoke the printing licence of newspapers and magazines, charges NST under Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984?

The exclamation: No double-standard, please!

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The Star SMS alert at 4:54pm.

A 10-km radius area in Gombak is now under strict surveillance by the Veterinary Services Department to contain the spread of the bird flu virus.

The Veterinary Services Department has set up a bird flu operation center (Hotline: 03-88702041) for the public to report deaths of birds in their areas.

On Monday, Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Muhyiddin Yassin confirmed last night that the deaths of 40 kampung (free range) chicken at four villages along Jalan Genting-Klang here last week were caused by the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza.

To curb the spread of the disease, the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Veterinary Services Department went house-to-house last night to collect chickens in the Danau Kota area of Gombak district for culling and according to the report, the owner will be compensated RM9 per chicken.

Poultry stocks are heading downwars while Singapore authority has suspended poultry and egg imports from Selangor with immediate effect.

The Start SMS alert at 11:05am.

Bird flu alert: The Health Ministry has directed staff to conduct surveillance for any sign of flu within 300 meters of the affected areas in Gombak.

Watch out, more soon.

Microsoft has developed a Skype-style free internet voice service for mobile phones that analysts believe could wipe billions off the market value of mobile operators.

The service is included in a mobile version of Microsoft Office Communicator due to b e released this year. It will take the form of a voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) application that allows Office users to make free voice calls over wi-fi enabled phones running Windows Mobile software. It uses the internet as a virtual phone network as well as accessing e-mail, PowerPoint and other Office applications.

Cyrus Mewawalla, an analyst at Westhall Capital, believes VoIP, when backed by Microsoft, will have a more devastating effect on mobile operators than it did on the fixed-line operators, which saw their voice revenues slashed after the introduction of VoIP services such as Skype.

"Internet voice does not even have to take market share to force traditional operators to cut their prices. The mere thought of free voice is enough to make customers push for price cuts."

However, O2 CEO Peter Erskine believes they will be able to fight off the threat from Microsoft’s entry into the mobile voice market.

"This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to enter the mobile market and they still have a very long way to go."

One question: With the ability to make free Wi-Fi calls, why bother with a cell phone plan?

[UPDATED VERSION] On Feb 7, a disruption to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Passenger Check-In Processing System (PCPS) affected several flights out of the airport to various destionations.

All MAS flights and flights handled by the airline were affected while other airlines’ check-in systems were not affected.

On Saturday, another system glitch caused a disruption to the PCPS, resulted in re-timed flights and delays for hundred of passengers.

Reader XCool was at KLIA during the system breakdown and managed to capture the "blue-screen".

The message on the blue-screen, in case if you can’t read it properly.

Disk Write Error

Unable to write to disk in drive C:
Data or files may be lost.

Press any key to continue.

(SOURCE: KLIA)

Integrated for ease? Yeah right.

Singapore’s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said Singapore can expect a general election by the end of the year.

"I can tell you election is coming. I can tell you it will be held after the budget. I can tell you further that it will be held before the end of this year."

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said the General Election was likely to be held in the next 3 quarters of this year.

"It will happen in the next 3 quarters. We are always ready you know, as I have said in many occasions: The moment we win an election, we prepare for the next one."

It’s not hard for one to expect a landslide victory for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). Why?

Taking centre-stage during his two-hour outline of the Budget for the fiscal year starting April 1 was a $2.6-billion "Progress Package" that included cold, hard cash for all Singaporeans and extra handouts for workers earning below $1,500 a month. […]

On May 1, all adult citizens will get a one-time ‘Growth Dividend’ of between $200 and $800 that can be instantly encashed upon allotment.

Good, now you know why.

Via BBC:

(SOURCE: BBC, 17 February 2006)

Via The Jakarta Post:

(SOURCE: The Jakarta Post, 20 February 2006)

According to the report, Borneo (including East Malaysia) plays an important transit point between militant training camps in the southern Philippines and their centres of operation in Indonesia.

Last October, Indonesian police seized a large quantity of explosives and bomb making material being smuggled from Tawau in Sabah and suspects were investigated to determine their links with previous bombings including Bali.
 
3000 detonators are not a small figure to be ignored by the authorities (Internal Security Ministry, Home Ministry and Sabah state government) and for once again seeing Malaysia name well connected to the name of terrorism, it’s indeed depressing.

Something must be done to curb the occurence and sometimes, it’s better to be late than sorry.

Filipinos couldn’t agree more that 2006 is a Year of Disaster to Philippines.

On Feb 4, seventy-four people, most of them elderly women, were killed while more than 200 others were injured when a stampede marred the first anniversary of the ABS-CBN noontime television game show "Wowowee" at the Philippine Sports Commission stadium in Pasig City.

Last Friday morning, another tragegy struck the entire nation. Following a major landslide in the central Philippines, an entire village of 1800 people are fear dead and few are thoughts to remain alive amid the mud.

(SOURCE: BBC, 17 February 2006)

At least 117 people have so far been rescued as rescuers continue to battle against time to find more survivors amid the muck. Teams now holding little hopes of finding any more survivors and the focus is now on retriving bodies and helping survivors.

Accordingly, weather was the prime target for blame, but survivors were also pointing to illegal logging as a contributing factor.

Click here for a string of pictures hosted by BBC, death or alive, we in Malaysia pray for them.

In life, for one to admit own’s fault is a virtue by itself, however, to find a remedial measure, to rectify the cause and to embark on taking the necessary action, that probably good enough to become one lengthy yet never ending topic to dwell on.

Last year, while Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin was still holding the deputy post, he admitted RTM weaknesses and pleaded for more time to put RTM back as the number one on screen.

"I admit our weaknesses because we did not portray ourselves as first on scene and the first on the screen. We are working towards achieving this objective and we will get there one day."

Then, it was his predecessor Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir who vowed not only for RTM to become the number one, but the best too!

To make things worse, the biggest hiccup happened last Tuesday, during the cabinet reshuffle announcement by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. RTM failed to broadcast the event live, causing loud and persistent outcry from cabinet members and the public.

"I am aware this has become a topic of conversation and are being questioned by cabinet members and the public as everybody depended on RTM to watch the live telecast as it is the government’s official television station." […]

Zainuddin said he was depending on RTM but was disappointed and had to switch to TV3 after RTM failed to live up to its motto "First On the Scene, First On The Screen".

"I am well aware of the people’s disappointment over RTM’s failure on a very important announcement which the people have been waiting for all this while.

"What is more frustrating to me is that it happened not because of technical problems but due to human failure."

Just wondering, ZAM’s famous "we’ll get there one day", together with RTM never-die-attitude to be the "First On the Scene, First On The Screen", may remain long enough for our children not to witness it?

My grandchildren would probably help to observe that on my behalf.

Via BBC:

(SOURCE: BBC, 17 February 2006)

United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan backed a UN report into Guantanamo Bay calling for the closure for the closure of the camp where some 500 "enemy combatants" have been held without trial for up to four years.

The White House has dismissed the report as "a discredit to the UN", in which the report concluded that prisoners held in Guantanamo, most of whom were captured in the US led war in Afghanistan, should be able to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body and be released if no grounds for imprisonment are found.

The US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay has came under intense scrutiny and faced frequent attacks for holding inmates without trial and for their alleged mistreatment, since it began to receive foreign detainees in early 2002. 

United Nations human rights investigators have called for the camp’s immediate closure, but the US government has been steadfast in its defence of the camp and says inmates are treated humanely.

President Bush: "Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service"

Here comes the most amusing part, where the above phrase has been selected as the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Term.

On top of that, in his speech during the sworn-in to second term’s ceremony, he mentioned the word FREEDOM and LIBERTY for a total of 45 times.
 

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