Journalistic ethics-Najib's walkabout

Bernama wrote a article about Najib's walkabout and I extracted some for sharing.

"He has been working hard since becoming the sixth prime minister on April 3 last year, and has been going down to the ground even under the hot sun to mingle with the people."
One day walking in the sun,making sensational news,how about those of us working in the hot sun all year long? Telur sebiji riuh sekampung.
"Everyone, regardless of whether they are farmers, fishermen, night-market hawkers or villagers, will be greeted by the prime minister during his visits across the length and breadth of the country."
So, what?
"The visits certainly benefit the communities of the areas concerned, regardless of their age, ethnic group, skin colour or religion."
But how come you and your cronies cry "ketuanan Melayu" and your famous war cry "Bathe my damned Keris with Chinese Blood" in 1988.
"(From this walkabout) I can not only meet them (people)... I can personally look at their real situation."
Isn't it part of your Job Description?
"It is not surprising that having worked hard for the sake of the people, and forgetting to rest himself, the prime minister had to "go on leave" after being taken ill with chicken pox at the end of October."
Ape cerita ni, you ada MC mah, sudah ambil kan? By the way berapa hari MC balance?
"In terms of foreign policy, Najib has brought Malaysia closer to many countries, particularly the United States. He met US President Barack Obama in Washington in April."
Hello Bernama, even my cousin in US ada gambar dengan Barack, so what's the big deal. Then again I heard some APCO connection involved in this meeting arrangement? May be rumours.
Bernama, are you in journalism or public relation work for PM's office or has the contract been given to you,does it mean bye bye APCO?

History the Malaysian way

History is the issue of the day in Malaysia as recently two historians spoke out as to why the history book has given prominence to Islamic civilization than a fair share of history. Well I am not a historian but I did extract some points from a mail by a concerned mother which was published in MT. Some of the points that were highlighted were as below and that makes us wonder what kind of history is the government and education ministry trying to teach the young minds.

a) The Form 4 history textbook devoted 100 pages to Islamic civilization while the other religious civilizations are barely mention with 460 and out of 10 chapters, 5 bulky chapters are devoted to Islamic history.
That's makes us all as parents to question why 5 chapters to Islamic civilization and why it is so great that it need such space? Why not write about the current Islamic civilization? I thought it was under Islamic History those days!

b) There is a detailed study of the life of the prophet Muhammad (pg 102 – 107). He is repeatedly praised throughout the chapters. Students are then repeatedly exhorted throughout the book, to emulate him as a ROLE MODEL in life (pg 106, 111, 124, 133, 137, 138). I wonder why?Is the Malay-Muslim emulating him?

c) Religiously biased viewpoint some statements found in the textbook:-
(1) Islam is described as a religion easily acceptable and not confined to any race, nation or geography (pg 185).
(2) Islam can be accepted by many people because of the purity of its teaching (pg 110).
(3) The uniqueness of Islam resulted in many people embracing the religion (pg162, 163, 185).
(4) The conversion of some Arab leaders to Islam in 629 AD is described as “an act done after rational investigation into the truth of Islam” (pg 133).
(5) Islamic social policies are described as so attractive that European Christians converted to Islam during the Byzantine era (pg 163).
(6) Islam requires rational thinking and therefore is accepted by all levels of society. (pg 185).( Really not seeing any in Malaysia at least)

Why is that the Malay-Muslim mind think with such narrow view about history and religion. Enough is done to educate the Malays in the religion and why such an emphasize in history lesson? It clearly show how shallow they are in their thinking and talking about the past and never about the present Islamic civilization? I wonder what they can talk about?

http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/letterssurat/36721-school-history-textbooks-historical-facts-or-political-and-religious-propoganda

Runs in the family kot

Bernama Reported: The Kompas.com news portal quoted Indonesian military spokesman First Admiral Iskandar Sitompul as saying that the BAE 146-200 aircraft left Dili, Timor Leste, and landed at the airport yesterday afternoon.As such, when the aircraft had to refuel in Surabaya, it was detained. It was allowed to take off at about 8pm last night.According to Kompas, the flight was carrying members of the Malacca government, a cabinet minister and “Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's son”.
The unnamed minister and premier's son, plus four others, were however allowed to fly out of Surabaya on a commercial airliner.
Interesting,wonder if that is the dad's or mum's side!

Malaysia distorted history

By Zakiah Koya, The Sun

History textbooks are biased and littered with errors, claim two authors and academicians. Dr Ranjit Singh Malhi and Ng How Kuen, who writes history textbooks for Chinese schools, say their experience with officialdom does not augur well for the teaching of history in our classrooms.Ranjit, author of secondary school history textbooks since 1990, and adviser to the Ministry of Education (MOE) on history textbooks, said such material were littered with factual errors and distortions. He said that when he pointed out the errors and distortions, a ministry official labelled him “anti-national”.

“Five out of 10 chapters of the Form Four history textbook deal with Islamic history as compared to only one chapter in the earlier textbook. Why 5 chapters on Islam?

Historical distortion:
1) Yap Ah Loy (the third Kapitan China of Kuala Lumpur),who played a major role in the development of Kuala Lumpur as a commercial and tin-mining centre, particularly after the fire of 1881,”was only mentioned in one sentence in Form Two history textbook.
2) “There is also no mention of freedom fighters such as Gurchan Singh (“Lion of Malaya”) and Sybil Karthigesu who resisted the Japanese Occupation of Malaya,” he said. (Gurchan secretly distributed a newspaper during the Japanese occupation while Sybil, who was tortured by the Japanese, and her husband treated wounded guerillas of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army).
3) The most glaring example of bias, he said, was related to the downfall of the Malay Sultanate of Malacca. "The 1996 Form One textbook stated inter alia that a few Indian merchants lent their junks to the Portuguese in their attack on Malacca.
Ranjit claims that there is no historical evidence to support this fact.
This is how the UMNO led BN wants history to be remembered!

Najib's claim

By The Star
It is impossible for the Opposition to take over Barisan Nasional’s role in leading the country, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
He said the idea of the Opposition emulating Barisan’s success was implausible when they did not even have a common ideology.
Najib said Barisan had a proven track record of holding true to its promises, as compared to opposition parties which were only good at making empty promises.
“From the days of the Alliance until the Barisan leadership, we have proven that we keep to our promises".

What track record may I ask you PM?
1) The 100s of billions that BN has squandered over the last 52 years including by the so called father of modern Malaysia
2) The rise in fuel and other essential goods prices over the years
3) Cronyism and corruption of the highest level;Bank Bumiputra,PKFZ,IPP,submarine deal etc
4) Selective prosecution of certain individuals or race
5) Millions or billions spent on by elections just to win vote
7) Marginalization of the minority race

Tell me which country in the world implements affirmative policy to help the the majority or shouts race supremacy? Only in Malaysia and all under BN rule!

Just to summarize, poodah..puth!

Zahid again

I am not sure why but this bloke Ahmad Zahid seems to grab my attention more than Najib or even Rosmah. He was heard still saying that he never said that Non-Malays lack of patriotism but their spirit of patriotism is not high enough. Well what difference does it makes whether lack of patriotism or low in the scale of measurement?
He went on to shoot down MP Kula saying that he maybe don't understand Bahasa Malaysia and didn't get A-plus for the subject. He was seen even to shout at the top of his lungs that he was not "race prejudice" and that he shared a room in the dorm with an Indian, which he reiterated twice. So what?
So what is that you shared a room with a non-malay during your university days? This is how intelligent he is, who never answer's the question but blabber something else.You are just another Malay racist just like your leaders in UMNO,period!

Meaning of Melayu

Melayu are stupid: Written by John Doe ( published in MT)

Who says that it is arbitrarily wrong to state the above? How many people even know who is a Melayu, and who is not? Do Malaysians even know the difference? Well, take a walk with me, and see how you fare on this educational journey.
The next time you meet someone who claims to be a “Melayu”, ask him, or her if he/she is a “Melayu Deli” or “Melayu Riau”. That’s the first question the individual needs to answer. A Javanese is definitely NOT a Melayu. He is a Javanese. The same applies to a Batak, Achehnese, Bugis, Sundanese, Sumba, Florence, Balinese, and so on. BTW, the Bataks are further subdivided into Karonese, Toba, PakPak, and so on. And NONE see eye to eye, and have much heated debates on which group is more “Pure”. I guess that they forgot that the concept of Thoroughbreds is directly propagating the concept of in-breeding. Somewhere, somehow, people just forgot this.
You see, in Indonesia, there are more than 164 suku’s, and Melayu is but one of them. Why is it so hard for goons like Abraham Ali to convince these Austronesian Migrants to call themselves a Melayu? The answer is so really simple. It’s because, in Indonesia, the Melayu are called “Lazy”, and “Stupid”, and “Totally Useless”. Go ahead, ask your Indonesian Maid what she knows about “Melayu”. And then call her a Melayu, and watch her putrid reaction. The original location for the Melayu is contested between the Medan regions, but more and more are agreeing that it was really in Jambi. Regardless, of which “camp” is correct, Medan is today, nearly void of any Melayu Deli. Most who have been to Medan, will quickly tell you that the Melayu are really really lazy people. Thus, no one wants to hire them, or to do business with them in Indonesia. It is so rare to find any Melayu who is hardworking here.

Read more:
http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/letterssurat/36396-melayu-are-stupid

Peace of Mind

Came across this piece in the net..as i was searching for peace!

A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of MindPost written by Leo Babauta.
How many times have you gotten upset because someone wasn’t doing their job, because your child isn’t behaving, because your partner or friend isn’t living up to his or her end of the bargain?
How many times have you been irritated when someone doesn’t do things the way you’re used to? Or when you’ve planned something carefully and things didn’t go as you’d hoped?
This kind of anger and irritation happens to all of us — it’s part of the human experience.
One thing that irritates me is when people talk during a movie. Or cut me off in traffic. Or don’t wash their dishes after eating. Actually, I have a lot of these little annoyances — don’t we all?

And it isn’t always easy to find peace when you’ve become upset or irritated.
Let me let you in on a little secret to finding peace of mind: see the glass as already broken.
See, the cause of our stress, anger and irritation is that things don’t go the way we like, the way we expect them to. Think of how many times this has been true for you.
And so the solution is simple: expect things to go wrong, expect things to be different than we hoped or planned, expect the unexpected to happen. And accept it.
One quick example: on our recent trip to Japan, I told my kids to expect things to go wrong — they always do on a trip. I told them, “See it as part of the adventure.”
And this worked like a charm. When we inevitably took the wrong train on a foreign-language subway system, or when it rained on the day we went to Disney Sea, or when we took three trains and walked 10 blocks only to find the National Children’s Castle closed on Mondays … they said, “It’s part of the adventure!” And it was all OK — we didn’t get too bothered.

So when the nice glass you bought inevitably falls and breaks, someday, you might get upset. But not if you see the glass as already broken, from the day you get it. You know it’ll break someday, so from the beginning, see it as already broken. Be a time-traveler, or someone with time-traveling vision, and see the future of this glass, from this moment until it inevitably breaks.

And when it breaks, you won’t be upset or sad — because it was already broken, from the day you got it. And you’ll realize that every moment you have with it is precious.

Expect your child to mess up — all children do. And don’t get so upset when they mess up, when they don’t do what they’re “supposed” to do … because they’re supposed to mess up.

Expect your partner to be less than perfect.
Expect your friend to not show up sometimes.
Expect things to go not according to plan.
Expect people to be rude sometimes.
Expect coworkers not to come through sometimes.
Expect roommates not to wash their dishes or pick up their clothes, sometimes.
Expect the glass to break.
And accept it.

You won’t change these inevitable facts — they will happen, eventually. And if you expect it to happen — even see it as already happening, before it happens — you won’t get so upset.
You won’t overreact. You’ll respond appropriately, but not overreact. You can talk to the person about their behavior, and ask them kindly to consider your feelings when they do this … but you won’t get overly emotional and blow things out of proportion.
You’ll smile, and think, “I expected that to happen. The glass was already broken. And I accept that.”
You’ll have peace of mind. And that, my friends, is a welcome surprise.

Find peace my friends!