Sun Tzu - Art of War

''Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness" - Sun Tzu

Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Pengumuman: Newskini direhatkan seketika. (Newskini temporary rest)

Announcement:

There will be no Newskini update sometime in 2023.

Pengumuman

Newskini akan dirihatkan sementara pada suatu waktu di tahun 2023. 



Lama sungguh laman ini tidak bertulis. Mungkin elok jika kita catatkan beberapa perkara untuk digarap bersama:


Newskini ditubuhkan kerana setiap media mempunyai objektifnya yang tersendiri. Lazimnya setiap berita atau artikel itu ditulis mempunyai maksud dan tujuan tertentu. Kadangkala ia perlu disemak oleh ketua seperti  'editor-in-chief'.

Mereka ini semuanya makan gaji.  Berita dan rencana perlu ditapis atau diolah agar ia memberi keuntungan kepada syarikat (atau parti atau organisasi) dan tidak membawa petaka kepada yang empunya syarikat berita itu. 

Fokus pemberitaan sebegini menyebabkan media sudah lari dari matlamat asalnya. Sepatutnya media menguntungkan masyarakat - bukan menguntungkan kroni.

Media sepatutnya mendidik masyarakat - bukannya asyik memuji memuja satu pihak dan menanam benci seperti meluat terhadap  pihak tertentu seolah-olah  semua yang dibuat oleh pihak lawan adalah salah belaka.  Akhirnya masyarakat semakin terbelah dan dalam keluarga pun boleh bermasam muka kerana dirosakkan oleh media.

Media tersebut telah membuatkan manusia bertuhankan parti atau pemimpin atau organisasi. 

Pemimpin mencerna politik benci, sehinggakan mereka semuanya sebenarnya tidak bersalam di hati walaupun masing-masing menunjukkan muka yang senyum manis ketika bersentuh jari sempena Aidil Fitri



Logo Burung Newskini

Newskini memilih gambar burung sebagai logonya kerana burung adalah satu haiwan yang amat teristimewa.



1. Burung menghancurkan tentera Abrahah (yang ingin memusnahkan Kaabah) dari udara.

2. Burung hud-hud pula mempunyai satu kelebihan visual jauh (a extra visual sense?)  yang istimewa sehingga ia menjadi panduan (guidance) yang boleh diharap oleh Nabi Sulaiman (as).

3. Burung cuba memadamkan api yang dinyalakan untuk membakar Nabi Ibrahim (as).

4. Burung gagak pula mengajar Qabil bagaimana cara dia perlu mengkembumi Habil. Burung gagak ini juga muncul tanpa ibu (born without mother)

5. Selain di atas perkataan burung disebut agak banyak di dalam al Quran. 


Matlamat Newskini

1. Mendidik masyarakat dengan secara tidak langsung.

2. Memberi paparan 'di luar kotak' sesuatu isu atau berita.


Words of Wisdom (Miscellaneous)

Truth is the fix for everything.

The breath  of  the man is  his steps   to  his end

The love  of  life is  the head  of  every  sin.

Whoever fears Allah, his knowledge is complete.

Through kindness, hearts are owned.

 One who loves something speaks about it constantly

 The fruit of knowledge is worship.

 He who is not concerned about improving his Hereafter is not a believer.


The Prophet (saw) said:

He  who is  given   four    things  will  not be  deprived    of  four    others: 

- he  who is  granted seeking the forgiveness of  God will    not be  deprived    of  being   pardoned;   

- he  who is  granted thankfulness    will not be deprived    of  increase;   

- he  who is  granted repentance  will    not be  deprived    of  acceptance; 

- he who is  granted supplication    to  God will    not be  deprived    of  response.


Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Malaysia Election: Photo of the day with Zeti.

We are sharing a simple photo picture here capturing the excitement  with Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Ungku Zeti Akhtar binti Ungku Abdul Aziz.  


Photo of the Day:






In a gentle way, you can shake the world. - Ghandi

Tweet Joke of the Day:





Photo of the 'After-Day':


(PH's supporters took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur in celebration - AFP Photo)

Cartoon of the Day:










Report of the Day:







Bloomberg: Malaysia's Political Earthquake Is Deeply Ironic

The opposition just won, led by a former head of the establishment.

May 10, 2018, 4:39 AM GMT+8

After six decades of uninterrupted rule by one political bloc, Malaysia's democracy showed it can work — ousting that bloc and the nation's incumbent leader in a seismic shift. The irony is that it took a onetime scourge of democracy to come back from retirement to topple the party that ruled since independence from Great Britain in 1957 — the same party he led as prime minister for 22 years.

How much will change?

by Daniel Moss






That man, Mahathir Mohamad, declared in his 90s that his new mission 
in life was to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak and the ruling 
Barisan Nasional coalition. They had become corrupt and too addicted 
to power, he claimed. Never mind that as prime minister Mahathir did 
much to centralize power. Never mind that Najib's career was 
nurtured by none other than Mahathir.

Najib claimed the opposition, now on the cusp of taking control of 
government, is a motley collection of parties. True enough. That's 
how parliaments work.

How would the opposition rule? Like Mahathir last time around or 
more freewheeling? How would leadership issues within the opposition 
resolve themselves, chiefly the relationship between Mahathir and 
Anwar Ibrahim, now languishing in prison? (Put there the first time 
by Mahathir.) What will be the administrative priorities of an 
opposition that probably doubted it could ever win?

It almost doesn't matter for now, because first the nation and the 
world can savor that this system, constructed on theoretical 
possibilities, has been shown to work. Gerrymandering and crackdowns 
on the press can't suppress political and economic tides 
indefinitely. Ironies abound. Nobody in the media in the 1990s, when 
I worked in Malaysia, would have considered Mahathir a friend of a 
free and vibrant press.

Barisan Nasional had struggled in recent years and, as a result, had 
become more dictatorial and more dependent on xenophobic appeals to 
rural Malays and political Islam. How the opposition functions in 
government and what the role of smaller parties looks like is 
anyone's guess. And all this assumes, of course, that the government 
allows the opposition to take office. There's never been a change of 
power in Malaysia, since independence. The party was the government 
and the government was the party.

Not to get completely swept up in the moment: Over the longer run, 
Malaysia's economic and political direction will be governed by 
interest rates and fiscal and regulatory policy, just like most 
countries. Mahathir himself isn't exactly a political novice. And 
there are broader macroeconomic forces also at work, including 
China's relative economic strength, what happens with global trade 
and developments in technology.

The economic and social distortions caused by the existing regime's 
preferences for powerful Malays, members of the majority ethnic 
group, may not go away soon. They were cemented during Mahathir's 
previous tour of duty.

Malaysia faces its share of challenges in this new era. And with a 
former prime minister returning to power, it's fair to wonder how 
much will really change. There's also no getting away from the fact 
that the once-unstoppable Barisan Nasional has lost the election. 
That's already a huge change.

- Bloomberg 








Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Donald Trump Media War Focus


The first war that President Trump has declared is a war against the news media. - CNN

Even after winning the presidential election, Donald Trump is still at war with the so called "corporate" media. This simply means the media is actually  the effective weapon to dominate and sustain power.




No wonder Steve Bannon (Breitbart) has been hired as assistant to the President and White House chief strategist in the Trump administration.  Perhaps this is why some are simply saying:

 Donald Trump is a media organization - Columbia Journalism Review.

Some observers suggested the move to block some organisations from the Friday briefing was an attempt to distract the public from controversial stories. On Saturday, the Trump administration faced new reports regarding its efforts to downplay what intelligence agencies believe to be communications between campaign staff and Russian intelligence.


Opposing the mainstream media plays well with Trump’s base. Rob Mahoney, deputy executive director of the CPJ, a nonprofit that promotes press freedom worldwide said it also serves the administration’s aim to protect itself against legitimate criticism. -  Guardian



Donald Trump is smarter than you think

This is the real reason of him winning the US presidential election.  Those who think he is still a joke have made terrible mistakes.  Donald Trump is always a playmaker. He can play against the 'corporate media' by simply outplaying them.
He just need to win the millions of 'unseen' audience.

This 'play' has actually made Donald Trump a super salesman with super attention and coverage.

According to a psychological analysis from the University of British Columbia,
style, not substance, accounts for Donald Trump's U.S. Republican presidential nomination.

Psychology researchers at the university compared Trump's speech style and Twitter usage to that of the other top nine Republican contenders. The real-estate mogul and reality star consistently ranked highest in ratings of grandiosity, "I"-statements, informal language, vocal pitch variation, and use of Twitter  - Phys.org


Estimates by the analysis firm Quant of “earned media” – all coverage that isn’t paid advertising – in the US in January showed that Trump was not just the centre of attention: he received more coverage than the next 1,000 most-covered people combined. That’s all the Kardashians, Biebers, sports stars and politicians you’ve ever heard of. - Irishtimes

Trump exploited the public’s existing distrust of media and sought to strip news outlets like CNN and The New York Times of all legitimacy. He targeted journalists like Fox’s Megyn Kelly and NBC’s Katy Tur. He even withheld press credentials from newsrooms like The Washington Post. Toward the end of the campaign, he claimed the “corporate media” was part of a massive conspiracy to block him from the White House.   - CNN


References:
  1. Donald Trump waged war against the media. And won. - Macleans
  2. Donald Trump's war on the media - al Jazeera
  3. A Trump presidency is forcing an entire generation of journalists to rethink what “journalism” even means - Quartz 
  4. This Election Has Disgraced the Entire Profession of Journalism- Observer.com
  5. US election 2016: How American media steers public opinion towards Hillary Clinton - FirstPost
  6. Fallout from Trump's war on the media will linger after election - CNN
  7. President Trump's dangerous war on the media - CNN
  8. Donald Trump 'Winning' War with CNN- Breitbart
  9. Trump's political success was a triumph of style over substance: research - Phys.org


Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Imam Khomeini Advice On Journalistic Priorities

This was an advice to media managers from Imam Khomeini as printed on Iran Kayhan International newspaper in 1985 - long before the era of the internet. Perhaps it is about time to share this to the whole world as the media today is mostly engineered to serve its masters.


The late Khomeini was a master in mass uprising in his time.


Some of the interesting points in this advice are:

1) Publishing focus, priorities and relevancy
2) The press belong to all the people - not just political leaders
3) Criticism must not violate ethics
4) Press should be a center for people to benefit from.
5) People should be educated by the news
6) Avoid useless repetition
7) News should be prepared in a manner that it can be useful
8) The real intention of publishing a piece (should be to improve the society).






Imam Khomeini Offers Advice On Journalistic Priorities

Tehran (Kayhan International) - On Sept 1 1985 - The managers of Tehran's three most important dailies met with Imam Khomeini (ie Kayhan, Ettela 'at. Jumhuri- Eslami).

In this meeting. the Imam made some important statements with regard to the Media. The following is the text of the Imams address.

(Please refer to the scanned images)

A typical press coverage in 1985.




Sunday, July 19, 2015

Sarawak Report Unblock Censorship Howto

The Malaysian government has decided to block www.sarawakreport.org from local access. It means the information published by http://www.sarawakreport.org is very damaging to Najib and Rosmah. By blocking access, it shows the government don't even has pants to go in this war.

ACCESS VIA GOOGLE CACHE:

Basically Google Cache is in the form of the following schema:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.sarawakreport.org/

Instead of retyping above for every different articles -
simply go to

Google Cache links  of Sarawakreport at NewsKini

and look  for  [GC - Google Cache]  links there - it should work with latest articles from sarawakreport.org.




A ROSMAH SHOW OF POWER OR SIMPLY A VERIFIED EXPOSURE?

It is interesting to note this blocking was activated after Rosmah was exposed twice (RM 2,000,000 transaction and a photo in yatch). Did Rosmah ever issued a denial of those extra-ordinary transaction? There is something really bad inside the photo below which can blow secret things apart and verify all doubts.
DNS BLOCK IS TOO EASY TO BYPASS

Basically MCMC type of blocking is a DNS (domain name service) repoint where the standard DNS provided by your ISP has been modified so that the name www.sarawakreport.org will point to a blacklisted IP (ip address).
To circumvent the blocking just change your DNS server setup to public DNS, either A) or B) below
A) Google Public DNS
  • 8.8.8.8
  • 8.8.4.4

B) OpenDNS:
  • 208.67.222.222
  • 208.67.220.220

HOW TO CHANGE DNS SERVER?

Please refer to Open DNS step-by-step procedure

STILL BLOCKED??? THEN INSTALL TOR PROJECT BROWSER

Sooner or later they might decide to block access to sarawakreport completely (via IP and port). In such case -- perhaps it is best to install TOR ANONYMOUS BROWSING PROGRAM into your PC - especially when you don't want the 'Special Branch' to 'identify' your internet activities.
Below is www.sarawakreport.org screenshot using TOR browser

The TOR browser is pretty straight-forward to install and it is free!

Reference: GIZMODO: Malaysia Admits to Censoring the Internet 946

Jeremy Malcolm and Sarah Myers West Filed to: internet 7/22/15 3:20am

Malaysia Admits to Censoring the Internet

In 2011, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak promised that Malaysia would never censor the Internet. Speaking at the first Malaysian—ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference, Najib said: “I have no doubts whatsoever that Malaysia has one of the liveliest blogospheres in the world. And definitely one of the freest if not the most free…[former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad] made the promise to the world that Malaysia would never censor the Internet. My government is fully committed to that wisdom. We intend to keep his word.”
Four years later, beleaguered by allegations that $700 million in funds were suspiciously transferred from a Malaysian state investment fund into his personal bank account, Najib went back on that promise.

Blocking of the Sarawak Report

The UK-based news website the Sarawak Report was blocked in Malaysia on July 19, 2015 upon orders from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The site remains inaccessible from within the country unless users access the site on their mobile phones or via a VPN. The MCMC ordered Malaysia’s Internet service providers to take the site down after it published news on the bank transfer allegations, though reports suggest the block has been unevenly enforced. The MCMC’s rationale for their order was that the site has published “unverified information” and posed a threat to “national security.”
This is the first time Malaysia has publicly acknowledged blocking a political website, and it is particularly notable because the case strikes at the heart of political corruption within the country.
The story surrounding the suspicious bank transfer initially broke on July 2, when the Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report published the result of an investigation into a Malaysian investment fund, 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB). The investigators found that hundreds of millions of dollars had been funneled into the private accounts of Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.
Since then, Najib has responded assertively to the accusations, with his legal representative calling the Wall Street Journal article “political sabotage” and stating that the allegations are “neither here nor there.” Meanwhile, police have launched an investigation into the source of the leaked documents and the “possibility of a conspiracy to subvert Malaysia’s democratic process and topple the prime minister,” according to Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar. The editor of the Sarawak Report also reported being harassed and stalked by people believed to be employed by United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the ruling political party in Malaysia.

Censorship Comes Out Into the Open

The government’s censorship of the Sarawak Report is remarkable both for its unapologetic execution and for its blatant political character, but it is hardly the first time that the government or its supporters have censored Malaysia’s Internet—whether openly or less so. During the 2013 general election, strong evidence emerged of Malaysian ISPs throttling access to alternative news portals and pro-opposition content on YouTube. However, when confronted with this evidence, the MCMC denied that any such restrictions had been put in place and Instead of retyping all above - go to Newskinisimply blamed the outages on congestion.
The following year, the BBC reported on the Malaysian Prime Minister’s response to complaints about raises in the cost of basic goods and services, such as fuel and electricity—to which he responding by simply pointing out that the price of Chinese water spinach, kangkung, had lately fallen. The story went viral, spawning all manner of video parodies and image memes. Embarrassed, government ministers began to call for crackdowns on the phenomenon, only to be stymied by the government’s promise that there would be no censorship of the Internet.
Or were they? Despite the promises, users soon began to share reports about difficulties they had in attempting to access the embarrassing BBC report. Investigations by Malaysian transparency NGO Sinar Project revealed that indeed, it did appear that Malaysian ISPs were blocking or throttling access to the report. Sinar Project not only meticulously documented their findings, but they even released their tools on Github to allow others to replicate their investigation. Yet, once again, the government denied all responsibility for the outages.
Given this history, it seems highly likely that the blocking of the Sarawak Report is not the first time Malaysia has engaged in political censorship of the Internet—it is merely the first time that the government has openly admitted to it.

Legal Status of Censorship Under Malaysian Law

The MCMC has claimed that the temporary block of the Sarawak Report was carried out under the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998, but Malaysian law does not sanction the censorship of online websites. Specifically, the MCMC referred to Sections 211 and 233 of the Act, which prohibit the provision of “content which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive” as well as the “improper use of network facilities or network service.” However, while both of these Sections provide for fines as a penalty for violations of the law, they do not provide for blocking or taking down websites.
Though the ban reflects Malaysian authorities are increasingly finding extralegal online censorship to be within their comfort zone, the unsophisticated methods of blocking have made circumvention relatively easy for Malaysians. The Sarawak Report created a new URL, sarawak-report.org, that appears to be accessible, even as their main address, sarawakreport.org, is blocked. The block also does not appear to impact browsing from mobile devices.
Sarawak Report readers appear well-versed in circumvention practices, if the comments on the site’s Facebook page are any indication. (Readers have suggested a wide variety of VPNs, Tor, and web-based proxies to get around the block. For more on these circumvention tools, check out EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense page on circumventing online censorship.) Yet, even poorly executed online censorship is cause for concern—especially where, as here, it seems to mark a growing willingness to bend the law when deemed to be politically expedient.
This article first appeared on Electronic Frontier Foundation and is republished here under Creative Commons license.

MCMC BLACKLIST CHECK

[rt ~]$ dig sarawakreport.org @maxis

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-18.el7_1.1 <<>> sarawakreport.org @maxis
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- 0="" 10800="" 11:52:53="" 12155="" 13="" 175.139.142.25="" 1800="" 181="" 192.168.1.254="" 1="" 2015072214="" 2015="" 23="" 2="" 300="" 3600="" 604800="" 86400="" a="" additional:="" answer:="" answer="" authority:="" authority="" cname="" dig="" flags:="" hostmaster.ns8.maxis.net.my.rpz.blacklist.maxis.com.my.="" id:="" in="" jul="" mcmc-redirect.maxis.com.my.="" msec="" msg="" noerror="" ns8.maxis.net.my.rpz.blacklist.maxis.com.my.="" opcode:="" qr="" query:="" query="" question="" ra="" rcvd:="" rd="" rpz.blacklist.maxis.com.my.="" rt="" sarawakreport.org.="" sarawakreport.org="" section:="" server:="" sgt="" size="" soa="" status:="" thu="" time:="" when:="">> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-18.el7_1.1 <<>> sarawakreport.org @8.8.8.8
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- --2015-07-23="" -="" -o="" -s="" ...="" 04:04:46="" 0="" 104.20.27.161="" 104.20.28.161="" 104.20.29.161="" 104.20.30.161="" 104.20.31.161="" 108.162.205.71="" 108.162.206.71="" 11:56:45="" 11:58:41--="" 126="" 12:04:46--="" 12="" 193="" 1="" 200="" 2015="" 20a480cfdd0001cf-sin="" 22-jul-16="" 22="" 23="" 48956="" 512="" 5="" 8.8.8.8="" __cfduid="dc924bd4e0962c896db2254b5453995cc1437624286;" a="" activated="" additional:="" and="" answer:="" answer="" authority:="" awaiting="" blocking="" by="" cache-control:="" cf-ray:="" charset="UTF-8" chunked="" cloudflare-nginx="" connected.="" connecting="" connection:="" content-type:="" date:="" domain=".sarawak-report.org;" edns:="" error="" expires="Fri," flags:="" gmt="" headers.="" html="" http:="" http="" httponly="" hypen="" id:="" in="" index.html="" ip="" jul="" keep-alive="" length:="" max-age="60," msec="" msg="" noerror="" ok="" onnection="" opcode:="" opt="" path="/;" peer="" port="" pragma:="" pseudosection:="" public="" qr="" query:="" query="" question="" ra="" rcvd:="" rd="" read="" request="" reset="" resolving="" response...="" rt="" s-maxage="300" sarawakreport.org.="" saving="" section:="" sent="" server:="" set-cookie:="" sgt="" since="" size="" status:="" text="" the="" thu="" time:="" to:="" to="" transfer-encoding:="" udp:="" unspecified="" version:="" wget="" when:="" www.sarawak-report.org="" www.sarawakreport.org="">                                   ] 24,274      --.-K/s   in 0.02s   

2015-07-23 12:04:46 (1.08 MB/s) - 'index.html' saved [24274]

Saturday, March 29, 2014

In Malaysia, truth is a stranger. What if Inmarsat is wrong? Another Junk Science?

Side Note: We expect to see more Altantuya appearing as the MH370 flight mystery deepens - especially when someone has started to cast doubts and questioned Inmarsat accuracy.
Source: GulfNews - Wash Post

By Hui Mei Liew Kaiser Published: 20:00 March 29, 2014 Gulf News

On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak appeared before the press to announce that missing flight MH370 “ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.” Najib’s statement finally gave the families of the passengers an “answer” on the fate of their loved ones. But it comes after weeks of spectacular obfuscation by Malaysian government officials, who repeatedly fudged details, contradicted each other or used the tragedy to score points against the political opposition.

Just to add insult to injury, Malaysian Airlines informed the families of the sad news by sending them a text message. Small wonder that some of the relatives are now accusing Malaysian officialdom of orchestrating a “cover-up,” and demanding to see concrete evid-ence such as the plane’s black box.

The rest of the world has reacted to the half-truths of the Malaysian authorities with bewilderment. But to us Malaysians it’s nothing new: We’ve been putting up with this sort of garbage our entire lives. Our officials are incapable of communicating because they’ve never felt the need to. Our corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy regards its own citizens with such top-down contempt that its dialogue muscles have simply atrophied.

So it’s no wonder that Malaysians have spent the past few weeks coping the way we’re accustomed to: by indulging in conspiracy theories, the last pathetic refuge of people who know that they can never expect the truth from their own leaders. So we’ve seen some Malaysians blaming the loss of the plane on everyone from our own government to the United States, China, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and — why not? — aliens. Yes, it’s sad. And yes, it’s more than a little crazy. But in the final analysis you can’t really blame us. Where else are we supposed to find any answers?

The Malaysian government’s response has been dismal almost from the moment MH370 went missing. In most countries, the prime minister would step forward and take the lead during a catastrophe of this magnitude. In Malaysia, however, our prime minister decided to spend his time boasting about his skill at buying cheap chicken, analysing the economy’s health based on the price of kangkung (water spinach), or strolling around shopping malls. He’s left the bulk of the mundane task of disaster management to the acting transport minister cum minister of defence, Hishammuddin Hussain, who has figured as the official government spokesman at a number of press conferences following the disappearance of MH370. (Hishammuddin, it’s worth noting, is a cousin of Prime Minister Najib — a coincidence quite widespread in a country where politicians are often linked by clan ties.)

Judging by the reactions from passengers’ families and the international media, Hishammuddin hasn’t exactly been doing a stellar job. In the early days of the investigation, the minister and his team event offered a conspiracy theory of their own. In this case, Malaysian officials speculated — without offering any particular evidence to back up their claim — that the plane’s pilot, a “fanatical supporter” of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and a relative of Anwar’s son-in-law, might have been motivated to hijack his own plane for political reasons. The day before, a Malaysian court sentenced Anwar to five years in prison on sodomy charges, a decision that bars him for running for office in upcoming elections. Again, none of this comes as a particular surprise. In recent years, government officials have developed the habit of blaming everything and anything on the opposition, and especially on Anwar.

Paternalistic political culture

One side effect of the government’s inept response to the MH370 catastrophe, according to some, is that it has prompted some unwelcome analysis of the country’s political system, which has been dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition for the past 57 years. So is Malaysia’s paternalistic political culture really being challenged now that MH370 incident has exposed its leaders to the withering judgements of international critics? I’m inclined to doubt it. As soon as the MH370 issue cools down, Malaysia’s government will return to business as usual. Nothing will change.

Just consider the scandal surrounding Abdul Taib Mahmoud, the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. According to the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss environmental group, and local critics in Sarawak, Abdul Taib, who’s held office since 1981, has amassed enormous wealth (and caused vast environmental damage) through his unchallenged control of the state’s forests. These critics allege that Taib has used his power to enrich his own family and well-connected cronies, who have harvested billions of dollars’ worth of tropical timber. Early last year, the international corruption watchdog group Global Witness released extensive video footage from a covert investigation that showed Taib’s cousins explaining how they had circumvented state laws to acquire vast tracts of forest land.

In January 2013, 20 Swiss members of parliament filed a motion calling for an immediate freeze of assets held by Swiss banks on behalf of the Malaysian Taib family.

In a normal, democratic political system, all this would have prompted official investigations, parliamentary inquiries, demands for accountability. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission did organise a probe to investigate Taib — but the minister simply declared, with apparent impunity, that he would not cooperate with the “naughty” and “dishonest” commission. As a result, Malaysian officials have yet to open a domestic investigation into the case. One year later, in February 2014, the probe made the improbable claim that it could not find any evidence that Taib had abused his power. On this March 1, Abdul Taib was sworn in for a term as Sarawak’s governor — a position even more powerful than the one he held before.

Zero sense of accountability

Taib can get away with this sort of thing precisely because of his cozy relationship with the ruling BN coalition and the party that dominates it (the United Malays National Organisation, or UMNO). The ruling coalition sees Sarawak as a vital cache of votes for the party, and within this system, Taib is untouchable. In our general election last year, the main opposition coalition, led by Anwar Ibrahim, won just over 50 per cent of the vote — yet BN still ended up with 60 per cent of the seats in the national parliament. That’s because the government uses gerrymandering and elaborate dirty tricks to divide up the election system in ways that ensure continued BN rule, regardless of the way Malaysians actually vote. It’s not surprising, then, that there is zero sense of accountability in our country — and that the government officials who have risen to the top of the system feel little pressure to respond to those pesky demands for information from ordinary people.

The Malaysian government has a long history of ignoring its citizens’ right to know. Just take one of the most notorious cases. Back in 2002, an international human rights group filed an international court challenge alleging that the Malaysian government had accepted millions of dollars in bribes from a French shipbuilding company in the $1.25 billion (Dh4.59 billion) purchase of two Scorpene submarines. Though the French investigation produced enough evidence to implicate top Malaysian officials, the government summarily denied the claims, and no one was ever punished. Over a decade later, the scandal is still unresolved.

Or take the murder of Mongolian model and translator Altantuya Shaariibuu (which has also been linked to the submarine case). Witnesses linked Altantuya romantically to one of Najib’s best friends and close policy advisers, a man named Abdul Razak Baginda. Sources claimed that she was trying to blackmail Razak with her knowledge of the shady submarine deal before she was killed by two of Najib’s bodyguards. Though the case implicated both the Malaysian prime minister and his wife, the government never initiated any official investigation. The case has remained in limbo ever since.

A private investigator, P Balasubramaniam (known as “Bala”), made a convincing statutory declaration for the prosecution in the Altantuya case — but soon retracted the statement, and subsequently dropped out of sight, along with his entire family. Bala turned up again a few years later, claiming that he’d been offered $1.5 million by a businessman close to Najib’s family if he’d take back his original declaration. Bala died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, in the midst of campaigning for the opposition in the upcoming election. Then Olivier Metzner, a French lawyer involved the submarine court case, was found dead in “an apparent suicide” two days after Bala’s death.

Not long after that the Malaysian Court of Appeals decided to acquit the two policemen who had been sentenced to death for Altantuya’s murder. The court’s decision provoked an angry response from Altantuya’s father and the Mongolian government. But, as we’ve pointed out, foreigners apparently have just as little right to satisfactory information from the Malaysian government as Malaysian citizens do.

We Malaysians, in short, have been putting up with this culture of official impunity for decades. Without having much choice in the matter, we’ve become accustomed to living under an authoritarian bureaucracy that mocks our requests for honest dialogue, and revels in its own contempt for basic rules of transparency and accountability.

Now the international community is getting its own taste of what dealing with this system is really like. What’s more, MH370 proves that Malaysia’s political immaturity is not merely a domestic issue, but threatens the citizens of other nations as well. As Malaysian citizens, we offer our sincerest condolences to the families of the passengers and the international community — and we hope that you’ll join us in the fight against our government’s blatant corruption. — Washington Post



Hui Mei Liew Kaiser is a graduate of Northern University of Malaysia in finance and international trade. She also holds a degree from the University of Malaya in International Strategic and Defence Studies.

Source: Celebzter.com

What if they are wrong? Satellite Company Inmarsat reversed position on where MH370 plane flight may be

By DJ Tanman on March 27, 2014

  • Swell of satellite experts question accuracy and reliability of data and methods for satellite ping “math” to locate a moving aircraft, while major news headlines praise the satellite company who claims to have located the final position of Flight MH370.
  • The math formula to project the last known location of the plane may be right but if one shred of input data is incorrect, the plane could be actually thousands of miles away.
  • Missing Information: The world was told by Inmarsat where Flight MH370 was located at 8:11 AM, but where is the ping data showing where it was at 7:11 AM, 6:11 AM, 5:11 AM, 4:11 AM, 3:11 AM, 2:11 AM? Certainly it would be great information for investigators to know the route the plane came on, and if the satellite company claims they have this data, why have they not published it?
  • Why is the satellite company not transparent about the missing satellite data which would have shown the flight path not just the last ping location, asks many satellite experts.
  • This is NOT GPS technology being used, the satellite company Inmarsat says their technology is not even designed to locate planes and this is the first time in history its ever been used this way in “ground breaking” math. Does “ground breaking” mean Junk Science?
  • Inmarsat Satellite company owners have earned more in stock spiking from their claims they figured out where plane ended up, than the US Government has spent on their own investigation of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.
  • 18 days later; no plane, no debris, claims of “beyond a reasonable doubt” by satellite company, but no proof. Is this really “junk science”? After numerous claims of sighting of jet debris from 3 countries using high tech satellites is it time to rethink our reliance on sciences that are wrought with human error of interpretation?

Its been there for nearly 5 days in headlines around the world in black in white. Most of us read it but skipped over this detail consumed with the bigger newest headlines, “All have been Lost” when reading the announcement made by The Malaysian Prime Minster upon his own belief that satellite company Inmarsat had accurately concluded that the doomed Flight #Mh340 vanished into the southern Indian ocean, directly heading for the South Pole. But when the news is sorted out and facts and details are sifted through , there it is , the satellite company responsible for promising to have located the last known location of the missing flight MH370, also states something in plain sight…they made a mistake in their previous calculations just a week earlier when they projected that the plane could have flown as far north as Kazakhstan ( formerly part of Russia) but changed that assumption to a location thousands of miles away. The obvious was in plain sight, by their own admission, they had already made errors on calculations conducted during one of the most mysterious events in recent world history, in this case, their calculation may have been thousands of miles off. What the press read and played out was that Inmarsat come up with the “right answer”, forgetting quickly they had just made a huge error by their own admission.

Swell of satellite experts question accuracy and reliability, while major news headlines praise the satellite company.

Which got us to ask the question; what if the company providing the most important relied detail in the search; Inmarsat satellite, could still have made mistakes? We quickly began to investigate this and stumbled upon a bunch of experts in satellite and mobile consulting like Palo Alto USA based TMF Associates and others on the ‘net. Chatting it up in forums were other engineers, physicists, former aviation experts, and mobile technology experts who had lots of things that seemed to challenge what we were reading in the headlines. And at times, contradict immediately what we were reading in the news. As we read more and more reports of questions posed by experts , some of them were shocking and contradicting some of the constant barrage of headlines to congratulate the satellite company for its “groundbreaking math” in finding the supposed final location of Flight MH370. With details about technology we would need to seek out the experts . The most obvious question posed there by the experts was about those arcs many were seeing on television reports and in newspapers.

What if they are wrong? Satellite Company Inmarsat reversed position on where MH370 plane flight may be

PIng Data created by Inmarsat shows their calculated probable arc where missing flight MH370 may have been located at 8:11, but where are the arcs for earlier ping times?

Missing Information: We were told where the plane was at 8:11 AM, but where is the ping data showing where it was at 7:11, 6:11 AM, 5:11 AM, 4:11 AM, 3:11 AM, 2:11 AM? One of the first questions brought up by experts was ‘where is the ping data from the other hourly intervals?

If the final arc could give us the location of where the plane ended up; ping data and plot points could be shown for every hour before going back to 1 :19 AM when the plane went off radar. And these plot points when put together could give us some of the possible locations of where the plane flew from So where is that data? This seemed to fly right over the head of the media and journalists, it seemed no one asked this question. But not the engineers and consultants in satellite aviation. They were outright appalled that this data was missing and no one in the media or the world was asking ‘where is that data? Certainly knowing where the plane had been for hours before and its path could tell us lots of details for an investigation that has theories from suicide, terrorism, hijacking and even mechanical error being question. So plotting out where the plane had just been for hours seems logical to be an important bit of information that is right out in plain sight as missing. A few newspapers including the Washington Post apparently inadvertently drew in other arc circles to demonstrate these pings at other hours and even on CNN a demonstration incorrectly implied that many circles and arcs being drawn were from the previous ping data from previous hours Not true says many satellite experts since this data to this date has been shown to the media or to the public.

The math formula may be right but if one shred of input data is incorrect, the plane could be actually thousands of miles away.

This already happened to Inmarsat when they admitted had missed critical assumptions in their original data calculations and plotted that the plane could be as far away as Kazakhstan or as south as nearly Antarctica. Now that is one wide range in the first place when you are pinpointing a location of a 777 plane and narrow it down to a stretch on an arc of several thousand miles. Once Inmarsat dug deeper with their engineers they looked over things and realized they had left out a few variables, they changed the public statement. The plane could not be thousands of miles up on the arc in Central Asia, it was south back thousands of miles off the coast of Australia.

Data is information points that construct a math formula. You can have the correct math but if the data varying like speed you get a different answer every time speed changes. If we want to calculate signal speed from a satellite, we know that light waves travel at 186,000 miles per hour. In 1/1000 light travels 1860 miles, just about the distance from the satellite to Malaysia. so if a ping takes 2/1000 of a second that means the satellite is half the distance away.

This is NOT GPS technology, the satellite company says their technology is not even designed to locate plans and this is the first time its ever been used this way.

Inmarsat is the British company that carried out the satellite analysis that determined the plane went into the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysia’s Prime Minister said Monday the plane was last tracked over the water, west of Perth, Australia. There is “no way” the plane went north, said Chris McLaughlin, a senior vice president at Inmarsat. This of course contradicted the company’s earlier information it had released showing a map where the likely last ping from the plane was, clearly showing it assumed it could have been as far north as Kazakhstan. MH370 search map 315x236 What if they are wrong? Satellite Company Inmarsat reversed position on where MH370 plane flight may be

Inmarsat retracted this earlier map concerning the plane’s possible location as far north as Russia and Central Asia

The route into the southern Indian Ocean was the “best fit” with the signals the plane sent to a communications satellite.

But he cautioned to the press, “Nothing is final.”

“We’re not Earth observation satellites, we’re data satellites. So it will require a lot of different skills, a lot of different people, not least the naked eye, to finally confirm what happened to 370.”

McLaughlin said the mathematics-based process used by Inmarsat and Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch was “groundbreaking.” The new calculations underwent a peer review process with space agency experts and contributions by Boeing, he said.

19 days later no plane, no debris, claims by satellite company, but no proof. Is this really junk science?

Experts question how the satellite company assumed the signal was not affected by environmental or physical factors like weather, or concrete or even one expert asked what would effect of a sinking plane only 200 miles from the satellite be, could it create a signal slowed down . This would make it appear so that the plane is thousands of miles away, when its really just a few hundred miles away. The number of variables that would affect data could change the results say the experts so would mean this event could have dozens of possible variables that could effect the data. Which is exactly the mistake the satellite company made the first time around, when they estimated the plane could be as far north on an arc as Kazakhstan, or as far south as off the coast of Perth Australia. If you are guessing, this would be hardly science and more like junk science. And why did they change the location from the north to south, because of the variables ( the satellites speed vs. airplanes speed and resulting doppler effect ) was not taken into account. Our point here is besides speed are there not other variables that could affect the location of the plane. This is the question other satellite experts point out could be certainly the case. And miscalculations can result in huge variation on how the entire investigation is handled, if the plane is in another location the investigation could shift to terrorism or in the current proposed location, the notion of a suicide. That uncertainty of the potential of worst kind of terrorism alone and the families of the passengers of flight MH370 deserve these questions to be asked and dug into. malaysian airlines mh370 315x177 What if they are wrong? Satellite Company Inmarsat reversed position on where MH370 plane flight may be

Protestors march in China to demand that Malaysia turn over satellite data to Chinese Government for inspection.

When we see especially families of passengers on the missing flight MH370 s who have reached the same conclusion; that there is not any proof that not only “all are lost”but that the satellite company who released data that created this conclusion has not proven its reliability having changed its position of the possible end of flight by thousand of miles already. Sadly much of the difficulties of getting to the facts of missing flight MH370 is about gleaning through the pubic relations posturing that is going on. And here we have started to sift through a seemingly great corporate PR story which was mounting; a public satellite company, stockholders anxiously awaiting to see if their military services and aviation satellite communications company Inmarsat will come up with the right answer, because it could be worth millions in spikes on daily trading of the company’s stock, literally. With facts like that woven in the myriad of stories coming out from every direction, it gets even murkier to wade through the mystery of missing flight MH370 with its 239 passengers. and crew.

----

"DJ Tanman" is living a dream as Hollywood writer/producer whose passions span his ventures in his fashion channel, motorsports , action sports, and generally living life on the edge with adventures to last a lifetime. His work in writing/creating and productions includes many action sports TV series with Momentum for Fox Sports as well as reality shows for CBS/ABC. His most TV series recent being BYOB-Bring Your Own Board TV. He has turned his endeavors and passion in writing to charity driven causes and campaigns and hoping to spotlight more celebrities and real life stories that have a compassionate side to them. He is a self proclaimed "closet" nerd having studied calculus, physics ,engineering, business administration, classic music, screenwriting and film studies at colleges including Northeastern, American Film Institute and UCLA.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

MH370: At last someone (a Pulitzer Prize winner) mentioned Altantuya

Ref: USA Today




Malaysia's bumbling ruling elite: 

Column

Lewis M. Simons 5:40 p.m. EDT March 23, 2014

Fiasco over missing airliner just the latest example of country's 
inept leadership.


As errors, misstatements, retractions and head-scratching
rationalizations tumble over each other in the case of Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370, the world is coming to recognize what the
country has known for decades — that Malaysia's leaders are
accustomed to getting away with murder.

Sometimes figuratively: For example, with elections looming and
Prime Minister Najib Razak losing popularity, top opposition leader
Anwar Ibrahim recently was sentenced to five years in prison on a
sodomy charge. Two years ago, Anwar, who enjoys support in
Washington, was acquitted after spending six years in prison on the
same charge.

And sometimes perhaps literally: In October 2006, the gruesome
remains of a human body were discovered on a remote hilltop outside
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's principal city. There was no corpse,
really, just hunks of flesh and shattered bone. DNA determined that
the victim was a 28-year-old Mongolian woman who had been involved
in a long love affair with one of Najib's closest advisers.

These instances of real-life political shenanigans and
pulp-fiction-style crime share deep cultural and behavioral traits
with Malaysia's clumsy handling of the mysterious Boeing 777 and the
239 people on board.

Spinning dubious stories

In the cases of the murder and the missing plane, Najib and other
political leaders have felt free to spin their own dubious stories.
The big difference is that this time, the world is watching as the
leaders repeatedly are caught in their own web of claims and
denials, allegations and refutations.

Where does this arbitrary political culture come from?

In 1979, following traumatic, bloody rioting between Malays and the
substantial ethnic Chinese minority, the government granted a broad
array of privileges to Malays, in effect ensuring them of perpetual
power.

This quota system also enabled the ruling party, which has held
office for 60 years, to ride roughshod over the facts, as we now see
regarding the missing plane. Questions such as how two Iranians
carrying false passports were allowed to board were bungled. The
matter of the jetliner turning off course went unreported.

A full understanding of Malaysia's ineptitude on the world stage
today isn't possible without recognizing the power elite's belief in
its open-ended unassailability.

Until the jetliner flickered off Malaysian radar screens, that
misplaced cockiness was best seen in the case of the murdered woman,
Altantuya Shaariibuu. She had accompanied Najib, then defense
minister, and his adviser, Abdul Razak Baginda, her lover, on a trip
to Paris to purchase two French-built submarines and an overhauled
Spanish sub for Malaysia's Navy.

The package was worth nearly $1 billion. French authorities are
investigating whether the defense company gave a $100 million
"commission" to Baginda. Shaariibuu, according to witnesses
at her murder trial, demanded a $500,000 slice for her services as
"interpreter."

Blind eye to justice

Once her remains were discovered, the short-reined domestic press
turned a blind eye on the prime minister's evident connections,
which he blithely denied. Baginda, an Oxford Ph.D., was imprisoned
on charges of abetting the woman's murder.

A year later, the high court acquitted Baginda. He left the country.
A private investigator he had hired quickly filed a stunning
declaration in court, implicating the prime minster and his wife in
organizing and covering up the crime. Baginda quoted a text message
the prime minister allegedly sent him after the woman's remains were
discovered: "I am seeing IGP (inspector general of police) at 11
a.m. today … matter will be solved ... be cool."

Within 24 hours, the private detective, without explanation,
replaced his declaration with a new one that erased all references
to the prime minister. Then he fled Malaysia.

In both documents, the detective identified two junior police
officers on the prime minister's security detail as having carried
out the killing. They were arrested, tried and sentenced to hang.
That never happened. Last August, the pair were acquitted.

After eight years, the murder case remains unresolved.

Anwar is in limbo, appealing his sodomy conviction yet again.

Najib, prime minister for five years, until now has remained aloof
and secure from the world's stares. With the disappearance of Flight
370 and the world pointing repeatedly to all the faulty information
coming out of Malaysia, business as usual finally might be coming to
an end.

Lewis M. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was based in Malaysia with
his wife and two daughters, who were born there.

################
 Ref: Al Jazeera:


Malaysia Airlines flight: 'This is not a normal investigation'

Malaysia's vanishing airplane catastrophe exposes the country's 
political and social fault lines.

Last updated: 20 Mar 2014 06:01
	
Zarina Banu

Zarina Banu is a freelance writer, focusing on economics and 
business-policy in the Asia-Pacific.
	
	
A catalogue of backtracking is defining the investigation thus far, 
writes Banu [EPA]

The crisis over Malaysia's missing Flight MH370 would surely test 
any government. But Malaysia's handling of the search, investigation 

and communication with the outside world has thrown it into an 
uncomfortable spotlight and caught it severely off guard.

The catastrophe is exposing the deep fault lines characterising the 
country's political economy. Since independence from the British in 
1957, Malaysia's ruling elite have built and reinforced a political 
system that has institutionalised their cultural and economic 
dominance.


Inconsistency

The system is so entrenched, it shapes and permeates all layers of 
Malaysian society. Now we're seeing it play out in how the 
administration is managing and communicating the investigation to 
the rest of the world.

A catalogue of backtracking is defining the investigation thus far, 
frustrating the families of those on board and provoking a backlash 
of anti-government feeling.

We've seen Malaysian officials contradict each other over vital 
early details about MH370's satellite communications systems. Acting 

Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and Malaysian Airlines CEO, 
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, have disagreed over whether the system was 
switched off before or after the flight's co-pilot uttered the now 
infamous signoff: "Alright goodnight" to ground control on 
the morning of March 8 when the plane disappeared.

Consequently, the pilot and co-pilot, Zaharie Shah and Fariq Ab 
Hamid, became the first suspects, in a possible plot to sabotage or 
hijack the Boeing 777, which led to bewilderment and distress 
amongst the families.

Inconsistencies also stood out in the police investigation. At one 
point, Hishamuddin said police officers had visited the homes of the 

pilots as early as March 9, the day after the aircraft vanished. But 

police chief Khalid Abu Bakar then confused the issue by saying 
officers had in fact not gone to the pilots' homes.

Things were muddled from the start. The hunt for the ill-fated jet 
began on March 8 in the South China Sea, was abandoned and diverted 
to the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean.

Malaysians are concerned about the state of readiness of their 
military, after radar tracked an unidentified object moving west 
over peninsular Malaysia on March 8 and the air force took no 
further action to ascertain what that object was.

Sources close to the government have said, off-the-record since they 
are not authorised to talk to the media, that they are unsure how to 
manage the message.

Sure, it is a trial that would test any government, agency or 
communications team. With a daunting search involving more than 20 
countries and stretching across some 6.2 million square miles, it's 
like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Yet, there are some fundamentals here that Malaysian government 
agencies aren't following. What they should be doing is: Verify the 
incoming information; unify the message; decide which agency takes 
control of its dissemination and keep the families informed at all 
times.

The baffling stream of information must be heart-breaking for the 
relatives of the 227 passengers and crew. Of those, 154 are Chinese, 
a ratio which has prompted the mainland to rally behind their cause. 

Families of the victims have been filmed shouting at Malaysian 
officials as their grievance builds over the lack of information and 
disorienting turn of events.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hong Lei, has even urged 
Malaysia to provide, "comprehensive and correct 
information".

My message to the government would be: Yes, this is not a normal 
investigation, but instead of playing victim to events, leverage the 

nexus of abnormality, tragedy and interest in the story to recreate 
a new Malaysia.

Malaysian government under microscope

Let's put it into context.

The global glare of publicity is landing on an administration deeply 
uncomfortable with any level of scrutiny.

Malaysia's ruling party keeps tight control of all aspects of 
domestic media - it is either state-sponsored, choked by 
authorities, or opposition-led. Media outlets or editors that dare 
question the administration perish by the wayside, or are ordered 
back in line.

At election time, the New Straits Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for 
the ruling coalition will be awash with barely rewritten government 
press releases, eulogising about the "achievements" of those 
in power.

What has this to do with Flight MH370? This stranglehold on free 
expression has nurtured a government unused to being cross-examined 
in public and more accustomed to changing its mind and message at 
will.

Moreover, the lack of oxygen given to rational democratic debate 
within Malaysia has fostered a cosseted leadership that either goes 
on the attack or retreats to its ideological ivory tower when it 
feels imperiled.

To enforce its intolerance of dissent, the Malaysian government 
deploys powerful tools of control. Until September 2011, the 
Internal Security Act (ISA) was a catch-all deterrent to those who 
spoke out openly against the government.

It sanctioned detention without trial and swept many opposition 
members into solitary confinement. In its place, authorities have of 

late been commandeering the Sedition Act to silence critics with 
increasing vigour.

This insidiousness has come to haunt the Malaysian government in its 
current time of need. True, as Hishamuddin said, "This is not a 
normal investigation".

But his and his cohorts' mishandling of crisis communications has 
made the government look shifty instead of perhaps being just plain 
incompetent, adding rocket fuel to the plethora of theories on the 
plane's whereabouts.

Hishammuddin  - himself -  is political royalty: He's the current 
prime minister's cousin, the son of Malaysia's third prime minister 
and nephew of its second. With his blood ties, he could easily be 
Malaysia's next prime minister.

Ethnicity and connections are highly likely to determine one's fate 
in Malaysia. Lucrative affirmative action policies promote ethnic 
Malays over the more than 30 percent Chinese and Indian minorities. 
The situation translates into each Malaysian being born with a 
semi-pre-ordained destiny - boosted by state coffers - that will 
decide which university you choose, what jobs you get, how many 
children you have, or even whether you end up in the cabinet.

Meanwhile, the elite have enriched themselves through a cosy network 
of crony capitalism that venomously lashes out at those who threaten 

its existence. Malaysia ranks third, behind only Russia and Hong 
Kong, in The Economist's crony capitalism index 2014, a list of 
"countries where politically-connected businessmen are most 
likely to prosper".

It's a sad indictment for a country that was once celebrated as 
having as much economic potential as South Korea.

Seize control of the situation

Social media, Asia's rising economic clout and irreversible 
globalisation mean the insular behaviour of the Malaysian government 

is long past its sell by date.

A Malaysian love of communication has neatly translated into a 
wholehearted adoption of the internet and social media - and with 
great effect. More and more Malaysians are turning to alternative 
web sites like Malaysiakini, The Malaysia Insider and Free Malaysia 
Today to source their news.

Indeed, the opposition's popularity partly rests on the delivery of 
its message through Facebook, SMS and whatsapp. Last year, the 
opposition's frontline social media campaign helped it wrestle away 
the government's crucial two thirds parliamentary majority, needed 
to change the constitution.

It's time the ruling coalition acknowledged that its supremacy - 
which has benefitted the few at the cost of many - needs a serious 
overhaul.

As a communications professional, my message to the government would 

be: Yes, this is not a normal investigation, but instead of playing 
victim to events, leverage the nexus of abnormality, tragedy and 
interest in the story to recreate a new Malaysia.

Zarina Banu is a freelance writer, focusing on economics and 
business-policy in the Asia-Pacific.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not 
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.