Of Spooks and the ISA

Honestly, I do not know how to begin this entry. Perhaps, we shall begin with the only TV series I bother to watch for quite sometime now; Spooks.

A word of caution though for TV fans who may think this spy series is full of action - it is not! Its pure drama with very well written script and set in situations which at times, mirror real life crisis of the world, particularly those affecting the UK.

I don't how and exactly when I got hooked to this show, but for the past 12 months or so, there has been nothing but reruns of the 2nd season. Finally a week or 2 ago, Hallmark channel began screening the 3rd season which is what the scanned section of The Star is all about. Its a wonderful series, one that thus far I've watched, does not stereotype non-whites or most importantly, Muslims, as the big bad wolf. In fact, I was told the series once faced flaks from Christians in UK for showing the ugly side of Christian Evangelism and Militants! No, not that I applaud such a thing but it perhaps underline the producers want to put on a show which is based on real life and much unlike Hollywood gungho or Bollywood fantasy movies and series.

Now, to the more serious part, one which I still have no idea how to begin. Perhaps, I should begin with the meet I had with bro Mat Salo when he was last in town. We met in a coffee shop nearby my house and our conversation soon touched on the ISA and how the government will soon use it against some bloggers. I then confided in him that if such thing is true, then I too may face the same thing. No, not for my blog, which is not worth anyone's spit, but for my activities on the net. And no, I do not think I am crying wolf, though I pray I am.

Over the past 3-4 years, I have been sending out political news to various e-groups in Malaysia. Per night, I found out recently while preparing a paper for a certain person, the potential readership I send to is in the range of 100,000 people. It got to such, that I've had 2 email addresses hijacked and later deleted by Yahoo! It was that same email which I received brickbats and so on, including threats by people whom I can only think as the SB. In a way, alhamdulillah, I am happy to begin with a newer email address. But that also meant starting from scratch again, having to rejoin the various e-groups, and several other hassles.

My reason for writing this is because I think my emails have been touching nerves again. Now, here's what I normally do each night: I would go through all the political blogs especially those at readscentral, and combine 2 piece of news together for a desired effect - sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. And it was this particular email which may land me somewhere near Taiping, when I combined a piece of news from Harakahdaily.net and Blackinkorea. Now, normally its not that I do not, but simply I just could not care what happen to the news I send so long as I know it reach and may be read by at least 10% or 10,000 people - I have no way of knowing. But this particular email, it seem to do the trick as it was reported in the Sun and was reproduced in BERSIH (para 4). Still, there is now way of saying whether the particular email is the one I sent. I am however, taking precautions.

It may seem silly to put up my precautionary matters here on this blog for I am quite sure those goons do give it a look-see every now and then, more especially with the News You May Have Missed now somehow linked to several major news websites. And I am not crying "Hey! Bring them on!", as that would be a pretty foolish dare to do. To the readers of my blog, especially my friends who are kind enough to entertain me with their comments, what I want to say is just this:

"Should you ever find my blog not updated for a period longer than a week, than there is a very great possibility that you may find me cringing in a dirty cell somewhere in Malaysia, subjected to various humiliating punishment and torture methods such as those written from personal experience by Abu Urwah, the present Ketua Penerangan PAS Selangor. If this which I do fear happen, please take it upon yourself to contact and inform Abu Urwah and Ahmad Lutfi of Harakah. And do have a heart to call upon my emak and ask of her wellbeing.

I know I sound like an utterly bloody fool putting this down here for everyone to read, most especially if nothing ever happens. But I'll be a bigger fool not to do so! For certain it is not fame that I do what I do, insyAllah, for the names that I use are not even mine. I do it in the name of Allah s.w.t., and that if ever I do disappear, than know too that my action is just another voice fighting for justice and freedom, which the authorities fear."

Hmm...having written that and feeling every inch the fool I must be even right now, I feel sort of relieved. Maybe, with the grace of Allah, this entry would act something like a purloined letter, preventing that which I dread, insyAllah.

A Legend in the Making.

From the circle of friends I have within the political arena, his name has been lauded time and time again, and is said to be legend in the making, if not one already. Prior to this morning, I have never met him and know very little except from what I have read or heard of. Yet this morning, there he was in the room, sending shivers down to few, creating or increasing awe amongst others present.

At around 7.15 this morning, I received 2 unexpected text messages from 2 sources; the first was sort of a morning call by a very beautiful lady which, needless to say, brightened my day even though it was an overcast morning. The other message though, was a personal invitation by Ahmad Lutfi, the Managing Editor for Harakah, for me to attend a meeting in Harakah's office in KL. Now, had I not received the first message, I might have just shrugged off the invitation citing personal commitment elsewhere. But as it was, I was already doing a one-legged version of the Scottish Kilt Dance with my sarung, and thus happily rescheduled my other appointments (macam le busy sangat ye). Make no mistake though, even had the lady not texted me, I might have still gone for I do have a great deal of respect for AL. But the idea of making my way through KL streets on a Friday morning just did not, well, excite me. Still, there I was...

When I stepped into the meeting room, I felt very awkward indeed. Here I was, a nobody here nor there, and the room was filled with news staff of Harakah and Siasah. I mean, ok, so I am a part-time reporter with webtv8, reporting for duty at my whims and fancy, or theirs(webtv8), and there I was in a room full of real reporters and journalist! I mean, I felt...real small, really really small. So I decided to keep my mouth shut, breaking a small smile or courtesy nod every once so often, just to allay any wondering thoughts I may be a mannequin mistakenly brought in, while every one else was enjoying the company of the other.

At precisely 10.30, the Guest-of-Honour walked in accompanied by Zulkipli Sulong. "Man" I said softly to myself "this man is taller than I thought!" And soon after the preliminaries, the man began imparting his wisdom and visions he has of news reporting that would be beneficial to all parties involved. His voice was soft but firm. With his stern looks, he would make a passing joke or two, catching many, yours truly included, by surprise. Yet whenever our eyes meet, he would bring his down, perhaps as a sign of humbleness. And I do believe him to be a humble man, despite his growing popularity, and the influence he wields. The minutes rolled past too quickly and soon the scheduled 2hours meeting ended. With AL's permission, I took the opportunity to approach him personally and am pleased to say that am given an appointment scheduled for the afternoon of 18th January. Heck! What am I doing?

Later while everyone proceeded to a short lunch before the Jumaat Prayers, I made my way out. Off course I would certainly have loved to join them, but my daily routine include fetching and sending lunch to my emak, which is a priority higher than most. But I was satisfied, in fact, honoured, to have met a man said to be a legend in the making. Come this 18th, insyAllah I will have the opportunity to present a small paper to Yang Berhomat Datuk Husam Musa, one of the Vice President of PAS. Nothing on the personal side, just a strategy AL and I agree upon and something which needs some official backing.


ps. There's another new blog under 'Personal' which I just put up some days back. Nothing much, its entitled Islamic and Interesting Reads which everyone is welcome to read and comment. Think I've mentioned it before - like the romantic fool I am, I find some emails are a waste to throw away, and what better place to keep it but a blog.


Update 6:40pm
I was reading Harakahdaily when I noticed an article on Datuk Husam. Upon reading it, found my mug was included. Ok, its kind of small - 3rd guy on the left, seated between LanH and Saadon Akasah.

Daylight Robbery?

When I inserted an update in Celebrate, with a video of Adam and The Ants, it was done with a particular purpose in mind.

2 days prior to the entry, my cousin Azman who was visiting me, had complaint of the slow connection he' been getting. Since he is a heavy user - constantly downloading movies and TV series - he finds it really irritating when the downloading time he gets sometimes reaches 20 percent of the normal speed he gets. And when he found out that I, under normal circumstances, gets about 600 to 700 kilo bytes per second, he was quite infuriated as I use my connection for news items, emails and blogging purposes. Further, as he has his own modem and pays RM66 per month for the 1MB package, he thought he was getting a raw deal. I then asked him to call Streamyx Hotline at 1-300-88-9515, and make inquiries, to which he did. What he found out was that he was not subscribed to the package he wanted; instead of the 1MB package, he has been using the 512! He then changed his subscription, and along with it an increase of RM10 per month. That made me wonder: did the fault of wrongly placed subscription lies in Azman, or the sales personnel of the company, bearing in mind that Azman is rather competent on such matters.

Then, on the day of the entry, a friend text me with almost the same problem. I then asked her to check the connection speed at tmnet. Now, for my streamyx-user friends who are not made aware of such things, well, you can check your connection speed at that site by choosing stremyx at the choice, and then selecting 'Bandwidth Test' on the right-most panel. Once in the test page, make sure of the correct criteria before clicking 'Start Test' and later 'Go". But please make sure you have no application running during the test as it may affect the result, which may take less than one minute.

What ever the package you have, the result should show a minimum of 70% of the connection speed you ought to have. For instance, if you are using the IMB package, then the result shoul be at least 700kbps (right hand most of the panel). If anything lesser, and that it is persistent, you should call the Hotline and make a complaint; TMNet should resolve your complaint withing 2 working days. Should they fail, you as a consumer have the right to lodge a complaint at Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (www.cfm.org.my) either by email or by telephone call. Perhaps it should interest you to know that in December 2004, CfM managed to register a Code of Practice which is applicable to all user and registered service providers in the Communications and Multimedia Industry. Failure by the service provider to adhere to the code (available at cfm or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission at www.mcmc.gov.my), could result in a possible action by MCMC.

Another point of interest is that CfM has also registered a sub-code (Internet Service Provider Sub-Code)with the MCMC which specifically deals with the grievance of consumer within this context.

Now, apart for the complaints by my 2 friends above, I came across Raslan Sharif's column in The Star, December 28, 2007, which I reproduce below here.



Raslan mentioned 4 million internet dial-up consumers in this country, and I remember reading Raja Petra's article that there are 6 million broadband users. Fine, I'm not going to argue with them as they are more knowledgeable on the matter. However, I do question the data by MCMC: how many of the total consumers are homes users, and how many non-home users? MCMC may have such details which I am not privy to. But let us say the ratio is 50-50, which means there are only 5 million Internet home users, of which many are still using the dial-up services, which is rather sad for a country geared for the so called speedy information-transfer age. Which brings me to this joke I was told by a top civil service officer several years back.

When a high ranking delegation of the Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi together with the MCMC, visited the Thai government in Bangkok, the ministry counterpart inquired on the progress of Internet penetration in Malaysia. One lady officer proudly mentioned "Oh! Last year (can't remember the year), we connected 80 schools in Sabah alone!", to which the counterpart exlaimed "Oh! That's very good!".
Then, as though (I stress the 2 words)trying to rub it in, a Malaysian officer asked his counterpart "What about your country, how is your progress (in Internet penetration)?"
The Thai officer then put out some documents and nonchalantly said "Oh! Last year we connected 1,000 schools". The Malaysian delegation then sat quietly.

Back to Raslan's column. Even though I am an avid user of the Internet, I wonder how the notion of a wireless city would affect the people on the street, those who can ill afford their very children's daily expenses, let alone purchasing a computer. RM60 million just to set up hotspots in Kuala Lumpur in the first phase, and more to be spent at later phases! Let me just end with this: my tyre rims have been dented several times while driving in KL, just because DBKL would not, or could not ensure the city roads are well maintained and without potholes which persist for months on end and becomes deeper with every passing day. And this is because the mayor wants KL turned into a well-connected world class city? Pardon me while I...


ps. Having read Raslan's column, would I then be right to suggest the Adam and The Ant's video far from being wrong in this issue?