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Lemak Lemang

A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future

by Jeff Ooi, Malaysia

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Retired government servants are now blogging

Jan 31, 2007 09:06

So Malaysian bloggers are facing defamation suits? And of all law suits, it's an unprecedented action taken by a mainstream media organisation against bloggers!?

As a party named in one of two suits, and the outcome will be a new landmark, I can't offer any comments that may be deemed as subjudice, or may be prejudicing the legal process. What's more, I have been slapped an exparte injunction to stay clear of the merits of the case for the time being. If I flouted it, I stand the risk of being accused of contempt of the court.

Many agreed that the defamation of journo-blogger Rocky and I will have a chilling effect on the blogosphere in Malaysia.

However, we are hopeful. Yesterday, both of us told Agencie France Presse (AFP) that we viewed the defamation suits taken against us with a positive perspective.

We believe there will be more blogs sprouting as a result of our legal suits because it takes merely 3 minutes to start a blog. That said, we also hasten to remind budding bloggers to strive to be responsible bloggers.

Retirees blog, and they are former government servants!
But what surprised me was that not only the young, well-educated generation have taken to blogging like ducks take to water, even retirees who command powerful good old English have started blogging. Significantly, they are all former government servants!

Two good examples are Bernard Khoo (Zorro Unmasked--zorro-zorro-unmasked.blogspot.com ), and Rajahram Ramalingam (Rajahram's Journal--http://rajahram.blogspot.com ).

They both started blogging this month, after hearing of our defamation suits.

Bernard, who accompanied Rocky and I to both our hearings recently, is an avid reader (Daniel Silva, George RR Martins, Matthew Rileyand) and a former teacher. He quit abruptly from the government service to join the corporate sector. He started his blog last night.

Bernard, 67, is well-known in the blogosphere, including Screenshots, as a sharp commenter going by the handle/nick Zorro. Hence, his blog titled "Zorro Unmasked", which is about "revealing anything swept under the carpet and unmasking the sweepers".

I look forward to his large "Z" with the three quick cuts.

Rajahram was also a former teacher in government schools. He emailed to tell me he had retired as the principal of a large, modern secondary school in Selangor, a position given to him in the final three years of his 33-year career.

He intends to use his blog to gauge public opinion on "matters that matter the common man". He believes public opinion is an indispensable barometer of any democratic society, which can be assessed only if there is free speech and expression.

Old blog horses, but galloping young
Talking of retirees who blog, I should mention a few old horses who still gallop in the ranggi (galloping) way. I may miss some names, but the ones I know at close range are Kuda Ranggi, Pak Idrus and PokKu.

Kuda Ranggi is Syed Imran (kudaranggi.blogspot.com). Born an Arab-Malaysian in Penang, he feels he is someone more Malay than Arab. His grandfather migrated from Makkah to the Malay world, while his mother's forefathers migrated from Hadhramaut, Yemen. Syed is a former Bernama journalist (1971-1998), and before he retired, he was former Press Secretary to the Minister in the PM's Department.

So, he is someone who knows the media and the system rather well. And his motto says: "Freedom to blog is the right to publish information and opinions without government control!"

I really appreciate that Syed has afforded his precious time to accompany us to the court on both hearings.

Pak Idrus, 67, is a retired botanis who has worked all his life in the Agriculture Ministry of Malaysia. He has been blogging on "In Passing--Malaysian (idrus.blogspot.com) since December 2003. He blogs about the simple life and good, old rustic Malay culture, and those ulam-inspired Malay cuisines, homecooked-style. I very much share his penchant for the good, old Malay numbers. His current tune, as you launch his blog will hear, is Semalam di Malaysia (mine is the version by Indonesian band D'Llyod that Sam sang).

Pokku is how we passionately call him, Tengku Mohd Ali Bustaman, someone fatherly who has been blogging since August 2004. His blog is called Di Bawah rang Ikang Kering (bustamann.blogspot.com ), so that gives away his Terengganu traits.

Pokku reveals little about himself except that he is a retired retainer, whatever that means. What impresses me is that this man has spun off some chips of the old blog (pardon the pun) among his children: Tengku Amirah (Tgsherilamirah--www.xanga.com/tgsherilamirah ), Tengku Adlina ( Tulisje--tulisje.blogspot.com), Tengku Elisa (Elisa Taufik--elisataufik.efx2.com), Tengku Elida (Mokciknab--mokciknab.blogspot.com), and the younger ones, Firhad & Nina (Rotidua--rotidua.efx2.com).

Among the chips off the old blog, I used to guest-appear in several of Tengku Elida's TV shows before her family relocated to Jakarta. Recently, she co-opted me into barrister-blogger Nizam Bashir's Poetic Justice--50 Posts to Independence project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia as an independent country.

I am asking Malaysian bloggers whether they have defrosted from the chilling effect by now.

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About Jeff Ooi

Jeff Ooi is an Internet and e-Business consultant based in Kuala Lumpur who's spent the last four years blogging internationally on the tech scene, on anything and nothing. Which doesn't really explain why most of his own technology is about three years out of date. He doesn't even own a PDA after his Palm V crashed. He's on 3G, though... Lemak Lemang refers to coconut-flavored sticky rice stuffed in a bamboo container.