Thought I'd share...

So yesterday night was kind of the first time I was gallivanting outside of KLCC with a workable camera (on my N95), and so this is kind of the first photograph I'm snapping of KLCC at night since it was built.



Awesome building, right?

Elections Brand Plagiarism

There's a sub-culture in urban states (like the US and even here in Kuala Lumpur) called "Brand Plagiarism or Logo Culture" where you take the logo of a known brand and turn it into your own message.

Some brand-guardians think this is flattery, others are mortified by such butchery of their brands.

I'm just wondering how Celcom is feeling right now:



Was driving past this yesterday night. They even used the bird symbol! LoL!

Worth Surfing: malaysiavotes.com

For all of you interested in following the Malaysian Elections through an independent news site that's not biased to either side, you really should check out www.malaysiavotes.com.



The people running this site were journalists from The Edge and an ex-colleague of mine (who happened to be their colleagues in The Edge) has vouched for them. Personally, I've worked with at least one of them in the past (part of my job) and they are credible, intelligent and decent people so I'd vouch for them too.

Hooray for Online Journalism!

Malaysia's very own Internet Elections portal

So, what sort of change does the Internet bring to elections? Would it affect Malaysia? We'll know in a couple of weeks, I guess.

There was a really good article from ReadWriteWeb I read that characterised how the Internet would change the nature of electoral campaigning and allow candidates to get closer, more directly engaged, with their audiences. Case in point:

• Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and the other US candidates all have Facebook profiles & groups.
• YouTube partnered CNN to host presidential debates on its Video Service.
• At least Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton have blogs. Many more campaign workers have blogs.

But that's not all. Just run a Yahoo! search and you'll find countless forums, blogs and sites that support discussion and debate on the US Elections.

Well, the good news is, us Malaysians aren't too far behind. Beyond the political bloggers / watchers in our country, I'd like to point out that leading Bahasa Melayu daily Harian Metro has launched its own elections site entitled, aptly, "PilihanRaya 2008."


Harian Metro's Pilihan Raya 2008 site.

What really surprises me with this site is the functionality built in. You can not only get the latest news and information for the General Elections, but also vote in the on-going poll, or add your own comment.


Comments are on the left side of the screen.

I cannot stress how important a factor it is to allow people to comment. What's an election if we don't allow people to debate? The simple ability to comment makes this platform more than just a web-site. It'd be interesting to see the discussions (and... uh... moderation?) that'll go on on the site.

This is pretty ground-breaking stuff, especially coming from an established newspaper. I'm personally wondering if we'll see a similar site from NST the next couple of days to cover off the English-speaking audience.

Meanwhile, kudos to Harian Metro and its online team. Exciting stuff.

Patroitism in the single dimension

No one may have joined him in his cries for "Merdeka" yesterday at Parliament, but Lim Kit Siang's point didn't go unheard. A story published in the New Straits Times today said:

CRIES of "Merdeka" rang seven times through parliament yesterday as Lim Kit Siang tried to prove a point on patriotism.

NST says "tried." I say, point well taken.

Even as Malayan Peninsula begins its next 50 years of independence, the concept of patroitism still takes on a one-dimensional perspective.

For most Malaysian school-children, myself included, singing patroitic songs is almost a guaranteed childhood experience. I remember standing under the hot sun singing "Malaysia Berjaya" and "Demi Negara"at a bunch of teachers sitting in the shade.

Of course, in secondary school it became "Wawasan 2020" and a couple of other songs that I can't recall.

Someone believed that singing Patroitic songs would make us more patroitic. Oh, and we were taught that when such songs were sung, we'd need to stand up erect to show our patroitism.

Veteran actor-director Jo Kukathas once poked fun in her parody "Atomic Jaya", stating that Malaysian's could invent a new patroitic song every time they had something to hide or had a cause they needed to rally people around.

But patroitism is more than just a song and dance. Sure, it's easy to get people to say "we love our nation" and wear the Malaysian flag with "pride" but that's as far as it usually goes.

Not many Malaysians are too concerned about our nation and that shows from the lack of interested voters. A paltry 12 million voters in the last election showed just how much people cared about our Nation's future.

This is not good for the country. If we want to be Malaysians, we need to start caring about issues, challenging the status quo if it isn't right and ensuring that the appointed public officials are doing their job.

It's time to vote. And vote intelligently.