Tuesday, October 10, 2006

"How To Set Pak Lah Free?"

It's not exactly education related, but it's a Young Malaysian's Forum and its panel speakers are some top bloggers in the country, plus yours truly is speaking as well, so I guess it deserves a special mention on this blog :).
Young Malaysians' Forum:
HOW TO SET PAK LAH FREE?


Date: 11th October 2006 (Wednesday)
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
1, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur
I'll be taking part in the above event as part of the panelist and hopefully I can see some of you guys out there sharing your thoughts and contributions as well. :) For fellow bloggers reading this, hopefully you can help publicise this event on your blogs as well :)

The press release for the event has this to say on the "theme" of the evening:
Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi Ahmad Badawi, more affectionately known as Pak Lah, started his premiership with promises of openness in society, focus on anti-corruption, integrity in governance, public service efficiency reforms and other such positive measures.

However... [there is] an apparent disjoint between Pak Lah's rhetoric, and possibly even intent, with his actions, or more accurately, inaction. The question we would like to ask is whether Pak Lah is shackled by his own indecisive nature, hence making him an ineffectual and weak leader? Or is this really his consensual style of politics whereby he takes into account everyones interest, even if they contradict his statements and intent? Is this just his style, or does he still have anything left up his sleeve? Or is Pak Lah's hands tied by unseen and evil forces, forces so powerful that Pak Lah risks his entire Mr Clean reputation built over years?

The forum organisers has invited young Malaysian bloggers to be panelists for this forum to represent the views of Malaysian youth. These young Malaysians will discuss the above issues and identify how Pak Lah can be set free so as to pursue the reforms promised in all sectors of government and society which had won him an overwhelming 91% parliamentary victory in the last general elections. We hope this forum will attract young Malaysians to take part in the discourse to help Pak Lah find the solution to “break free” and deliver what was promised to us in the last elections.

The future of Malaysia belong to young Malaysians, and it is for these same young Malaysians to deliver this message to him.
The invited panel speakers include:
1. Jeff Ooi

Jeff Ooi is the founder of USJ.com.my, a grassroot-managed community portal, launched in 1999, targetting Malaysia's K-generation. He is an e-business consultant for vertical industries, an Open Source advocate, and a columnist in Malaysian Business. Jeff is a blogger recognised internationally. He has won many recognitions and awards for his blog at JeffOoi.com including being voted as the FREEDOM BLOG ASIA by Paris-based Reporters Without Boundaries (RSF). Jeff has been invited to speak and moderate at various international functions including to Harvard Law School as a panel speaker for Internet & Society organized by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society (2004), the “Expression under Repression” event at World Summit of Information Society in Tunis (2005) and the Global Voices Summit held at the Reuters Headquarters, Canary Wharf, London (2005).

2. Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad blogs at www.niknazmi.com. He earned his LLB from King's College London and was previously educated in the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar. In the UK he was active in the UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) Federation of Students Islamic Societies and the National Union of Students, UK. His commentaries in current issues have appeared in Malaysiakini, the Sun, the Edge, Channel News Asia and the BBC World Service. Nik Nazmi currently works in Kuala Lumpur, as a special assistant to a politician and director of a listed company. Previously, he was a legal executive in a Malaysian corporation.

3. Khoo Kay Peng

Over the last 8 years, Khoo has served as a management consultant with several world-class consulting firms and top local organisations. He consulted in the areas of business planning, market study and marketing strategy. In the last three years, he has served as a political and policy analyst at a local think tank. His views, comments and articles have appeared in both local and regional publications and online news websites e.g. the Star, New Straits Times, Singapore Straits Times, Bangkok Post, Asia Times, CNBC, Oriental Daily, Radio Singapore International, Malaysiakini, Singapore Today, AFP and others.

Khoo holds a degree in Economics from the University of Malaya and a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Warwick, UK. He is a British Chevening scholar.

Other speakers include Sharizal Shaarani of Sharizal.net, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, YB Lim Kit Siang and MP for Batu Gajah, YB Fong Po Kuan who blog at blog.limkitsiang.com and pokuan.blogsome.com respectively.

The forum will be moderated by Oon Yeoh. He is a columnist for The Edge (Malaysia) and Today newspapers (Singapore). He is also the host for Freetalk @klstream.com, a podcast on current affairs.
For more information, please contact:
Ng Wei Aik (019-2459305) or Lau Weng San (016-3231563)
Anyway, I do hope to see a strong turn out to show that young Malaysians care and we want to make a difference. ;)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is not a question of setting Pak Lah free, rather is should be a question of whether his successor will keep his hands off bloggers. I hope the forum will also look into ways and methods to ensure that the Internet in Malaysia is not regulated like those in Communist China. Further more, it would be worth exploring on how bloggers can join hands as to ensure that their message reach a wider audience, apart from those having IT access and literacy. As a famous American patriot once said, we must hang together or most assuredly we would all hang separately.

Anonymous said...

Can't really figure out why Tony join Jeffooi

Jeffooi is notoriously for his racial comments espcially on Indian and Maxis and Astro

Set you mind free, PhD holder to-be

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

I am so interested in the topic.. and having that topic in my mind. being flattered that you guys, not only have the gumption to really setup a forum for this i-would-call sensitive topic but getting a good pool of speaker. Unfortunately I think the forum is not that well publicized as to the extent I am not aware of, perhaps I am not a daily blogger to this I apologise. Besides how long had the notice being put up informing about the forum? Applause for those who participated, please tell me where can I track any interesting forum ahead or perhaps Tony would want to think setup an online Malaysia forum noticeboard (probably have a letter of notification to email acc)?

Earnestly hope there's a rerun for it. :)


JA