TUESDAYS' MUST READ

Ages ago I use to put up SUNDAY SNIPS & SNAPS….featuring blogs that I read during the week and want to share them with my readers. I stopped that because I felt that Sunday should be family quality time day and more time should be spent away from you know what.

In place of SSS I want to continue to share with my readers blogs worth spending time with. – as such,

These would be blogs that I have read and have decided that they have impactful value, insightful , and truthful. My intention is also to introduce these Blogs to you just in case some of you have not bookmarked them. I do not intend to copy and paste but would rather lead you to their LINKS. Clicking on the TITLES would complete the link. I do not expect comments here but I am sure they would welcome your feedback after you have read them.

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(If I do link you to Malaysiakini it would be to their columnists. Until you subscribe, if you are not already a subscriber, I will feature good write-ups with a hope that you will subscribe to Malaysiakini soon. )

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I am disturbed that some people see these serialised articles as opening the doors for Malay bashing. I cannot accept that argument. I think, if these article have done that, they have the unintended effect of allowing us Malays, know what non Malays think of us. We can look at them in a positive manner. I'd rather know what my opponent is thinking rather than not knowing.

Here is another gloss from the Malay gentleman's e mail.

The Leader and his civil service

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The forest of banners said it all. “Taib Mahmud Declare The Source Of Your Wealth”, “How Much Forest Is Left?”, “Respect Native Customary Rights”, ”Stop Sexual Harassment and Rape of Penan Women and Children”, “Save Sarawak”, “The EU banned illegal timber, Why won’t you sign the VPA?” and much more. Passers-by were handed leaflets and a string of civil society groups meanwhile coordinated across Britain to produce and sign a declaration of protest that is now being handed to Oxford University. One organisation, Forests Monitor, stated:

“For decades Taib has headed a regime which has ridden rough shod over the rights of indigenous and local peoples in Sarawak, treating the province like a personal fiefdom, worse even than his colonial predecessors. He has overseen the abuse of Sarawak’s own laws and profited enormously from it. By taking his money the Oxford Said School for Business is setting the worst possible example for its alumni. They too should be demanding answers from the Dean, who apparently considers himself an expert in corporate governance”.

Oxford Demonstration Against Taib

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Umno's most potent political weapon is finally publicly unveiled. It is called the civil servant: it does little work, it cannot be fired.

For decades, elected leaders promised to remove incompetent and insolent civil servants. These bureaucrats, our paid servants, make our lives miserable. How many leaders kept their promises? Did good governance arise from these meaningless pledges? Leaders deserve to be treated with scepticism and scorn for failing to deliver.

But the tide may be turning.

Little Napoleon meets his Waterloo

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Reporter reprimanded in ‘Little Napoleon’ squabble

Bernama and Lim Guan Eng had a little ding-dong on Saturday which exposed self-censorship and left one Bernama reporter reprimanded.

But Bernama management should reprimand themselves, as well as their poisoned culture in which journalists know that pandering to Barisan Nasional politicians is the way ahead.

The agency did right to later send out a proper version of what Lim Guan Eng said. The reporter was rightfully reprimanded for using a distorted and inaccurate quotation.

But a stern reprimand must go to Bernama management past and present for the self-censorship that is part of editorial culture — and with condemnation for political ownership and control of the media, Fascist tendencies in government, and the heavy hand of KDN’s philosophy that allows this to happen.

Bernama sends wrong message to Guan Eng