Before I bought the biography The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr. Ismail and His Time, I read fairly wide range of reviews on internet.

However, in a review by California-based Malaysian blogger Bakri Musa, there is a remark that thrust me to think hard.

(Tun Dr.) Ismail may be buried in the Heroes Tomb, but if he knew of the terrible downslide of our nation since his death, he would crawl out of his grave to reprimand those responsible.

To the extent of a death crawling out of the grave to do a national service, there must be something for us to ponder.

Via Bernama:

The government has to find ways to curtail bloggers from abusing the Internet to spread lies and defame the leaders, said Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera).

"We notice that a lot of bloggers have been sowing the seeds of discord among the races, religions… I believe there must be a limit." [...]

"The people believe more in the bloggers than the newspapers… I am aware that a newspaper was censured by the Internal Security Ministry for publishing a sensational story but the bloggers could continue churning out malicious stories."

To set the record straight, we are no liars and to allege that bloggers causing racial disharmony is outrageous. Prove it with substantial proof, if there is any black dot among the forest, by all means, do what’s necessary by the law .

However, any attempt to generalize bloggers is mean. Most bloggers blog cautiously while some providing new perspective and context from their sources that can’t be published on mainstream media, but that doesn’t mean they are liars. The fact that people turn to blog to find alternative news because they’re looking for information that not able to read on mainstream media.

To add to the insult, bloggers do not assert authority on readers and compel them to believe wholeheartedly. Human living in this informative era is able to think and smart enough to differentiate between fact and fiction. No obligation for any readers to buy into the idea.

Unfortunately, it’s the fear within that conquer them. Let’s do the right thing before it’s too late.

[UPDATED VERSION] In October 2006, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd. will collapse until it finds an international partner.

At the rate it is going, it’s not going to last long. [...]

Proton is reporting losses all the time, and they still have a lot of cars which they cannot sell.

True enough, on February 27, Proton Holdings Berhad reported a third straight quarterly loss as sales slumped to the lowest in at least seven years.

Before that, three foreign carmakers General Motors, Volkswagen and Peugeot were reported to have on-going discussion with Proton. Local companies like Naza and DRB-Hicom also expressed interest to take up Khazanah’s 43% equity in Proton.

However, early of this month, Peugeot ended talks with Proton after seven months of evaluation and research, citing cooperation with Proton was not feasible.

It’s March 30 now, meaning that the Government is very likely to miss the self-imposed end-March deadline to announce a strategic partner. No surprise indeed, given the complexity of the politically-sensitive matter as well as Proton wasn’t willing to give up management control due to the Proton’s national identity.

Besides, the entry of a strategic partner could spell the end of less competent and competitive vendors, which would not be what the government wanted to see.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak admitted not much time left to decide a new partner and pointed his fingers to MOF and MITI for the delay in doing evaluation.

"Never mind. There’ll be time. Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter if we miss it."

Already the country is going nowhere, however it’s the continuance of "never mind, don’t worry & doesn’t matter" mentality that continue to plot the downfall.

Meanwhile, as a friendly reminder to taxpayers, you too part of the shareholder of Proton which suffers the recent third straight quarterly loss.

This time, Yahoo is going to beat Google for sure.

Coming May 2007, Yahoo! Mail will begin offering unlimited email storage to mark its 10-year anniversary as announced by its Vice President John Kremer.

We’re psyched to be breaking new ground in the digital storage frontier by giving our users the freedom to never worry about deleting old messages again. [...]

We hope we’re setting a precedent for the future. Someday, can you imagine a hard drive that you can never fill? Never having to empty your photo card on your camera to get space back? Enough storage to fit the world’s music, and then some, on your iPod? Sounds like a future without limits.

Sounds cool, however I’ll stick with Gmail.

Thanks reader Steve for the heads-up.

She is a Singaporean. She blogs. The next thing you might say, most Singaporeans blog anyway, all right, nothing special.

However, what makes her so interesting is, being considered as a veteran at her age, she blogs! She published photos on her blog together with her videos posted to YouTube and she blogs on Apple Macbook Pro!

To make myself happy, I bought an Apple Macbook Pro. I’ve never use Mac before so I ask my god-daughter to teach me. I actually learned my computer skills from her, she is very patience with me. I also don’t know why I want to use Mac, maybe it’s the ‘in’ thing now. I got a hard time figuring it out the software, but I really like the design.

In her blog, she calls herself Lao Zha Bor (老查某), means old auntie.

(SOURCE: 老查某)
Old at her age but young at her heart and indeed, she is a very good walking example to explain what blog is really about and recently, she was interviewed by a press in which she encouraged seniors to take up blogging too.

Meanwhile, in case if you’re wondering whether she is part of the group of liars, she is not. She features on Singapore famous film-maker Jack Neo’s latest film Just Follow Law.

Welcome to Real Lao Zha Bor speaks.

Even a seven-year-old kid talks about DiGi’s Yellow Coverage Fellow a.k.a DiGi’s Yellow Man.

That’s how successful their buzzmarketing strategy is.

Welcome back, MP Shahrir Samad!

Well, make sure you maintain your blog this time and don’t abandon your ship to spammers!

Oh by the way, welcome back to be part of gang of liars too!

No more "Ali Baba" concept, that’s what former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam said when asked to comment on his statement to the Bloomberg about the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA).

During an interview by Bloomberg, Tun who sits on the IRDA advisory council, had called on the government to review the policy of giving special privileges to Bumiputera companies for projects under the Iskandar Development Region.

Contract awards will have to be on merit, the Malays will have to face competition. [...]

"I am confident that this Bumiputra thing, if I may put it this way, need not be the negative factor, and I am stressing this in this particular exercise." [...]

"There needs to be a revision, updating, of the way we approach it."

Tun also called for a special briefing in Umno to explain to its members why it was time to give up the New Economic Policy (NEP) and believes that there is a need to have a change in mindset to draw investors to the country. He volunteered to be one of the speakers at the briefing.

Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, who co-chairs the IRDA, said he agreed with Musa, saying his suggestion fell under the announcement by Abdullah on the exemption of FIC rules.

"It should be looked at in the broader context such as in terms of the multiplier effect which includes the benefit to the country later."

March 22, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his speech at the Invest Malaysia Conference 2007 said the Government will exempt companies from corporate income tax within in growth regions, starting with the IRDA.

However, those who’re are exempted from the Foreign Investment Committee (FIC) would have to contribute to the Social Project Funds for social welfare development in the IDR, including bumiputra development.

Indeed, with the Government trying to make a development decisions based primarily on economic logic with Tun  calling for a merit-based economy policies starting from IDR, is a milestone in the nation’s economic dialogue.

It’s also a positive indication of putting in more priority on the comparative advantage that Malaysia has to offer to investors, in which it’s also a normal response that is causing foreign direct investment to relocate to the most competitive environments.

I believe the time has came for bumiputra entrepreneurs to take up the challenge and capable of thriving without government support. In turn, this would prove that they are ready for the new era of global competitiveness.

Bear in mind that, we’re living in a flat world anyway.

Meanwhile, click here to watch Tun Musa Hitam on Bloomberg.

To all badminton fans out there, remember to catch the journey of Malaysia badminton doubles Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, Sunday (March 24) on Astro AEC, 9:30pm.

Meanwhile, this blogger is considering to do a interview with them, will update the details soon.

Stay tuned!

Tun Musa Hitam is the former deputy Prime Minister while Shahrir Samad is the former chairman of Backbenchers Club (BBC).

Both of them are from UMNO and very close to Johor as Tun Musa was born in Johor Baru while Shahrir is the current Johor Baru MP.

Coincidentally, they share the almost similar sentiment towards the blogosphere in Malaysia, in which they’ve shown their support, albeit in a different way.

Via Rocky’s Bru:

Nuraina A. Samad, who covered Musa Hitam for many years when she was a journalist with the NST asked: "So what do you think of us bloggers?"

Musa Hitam: "I have said in my speech .. Thank God for digital democracy!"

Nuraina A. Samad: "Do you mean it?"

Musa Hitam: "Of course! I will say it again. "

Via The Star:

"I am old-fashioned and what I say is as binding to me as what I write. What you write is powerful and I make sure what I write is what I see as a fact or opinion, which I sign off as myself.

"To me, bloggers must be able to stand by what they write," he said when asked on recent comments made against bloggers.

I’m really glad that they’re able to see what Tengku Adnan and ZAM failed to look at.

That’s what really differentiating the two groups of them, in term of acceptance level especially, with one side embracing and acknowledging the digital evolution and another side, harbouring hope on control-and-conquer mood.