KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) — The government does not fear bloggers but wants to be part of them and know their views even if it is constructive criticism, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“I believe this relationship will be an important relationship based on mutual respect. We might not agree all the time but we cannot be disagreeable.

“What is important for us is to put forward your (bloggers) views, even your constructive critism and together we can build a better Malaysia and future for us,” he said in his keynote address at the First Malaysia-Asean Regional Bloggers’ Conference, here, today.

Also present were the patron of Blog House Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, president of Blog House Malaysia Syed Akbar Ali and Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

Najib said the era of government knowing everything was over and the government needed to know from bloggers who represented the Malaysian community, their views and criticism.

“But we should draw the line; if we use the cyberspace to tell lies and half truths, that is wrong. I agree with Tun Dr Mahathir that there must be a line that we cannot trespass.”

He said if bloggers worked within those parameters, he believed they could indeed play a vital part in shaping a better future for Malaysia and Asean.

Najib said the governments of today were being challenged not just with the use of guerillas and mercenaries armed to the teeth with deadly weapons, but also by the deployment of cybertroopers who waged viral warfare with the might of their keyboards, keypads and smartphones, as the Iran “Twitter” and Egypt “Facebook” Revolution manifested.

“We are also one of the most ardent Facebook fans – there are 10.1 million FB users. I have no doubt whatsoever that Malaysia has one of the liveliest blogospheres in the world and definitely one of the freest if not the most free.

“Malaysians have to thank Tun Dr Mahathir again for this. When he was prime minister and Malaysia was developing its Multimedia Super Corridor, Tun 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,” he said.

Najib believes that the Internet is an engine for economic growth, the portal that opens up to a knowledge society.

“This is applicable to all societies, even a government that is not too keen about the democracy part of ‘digital democracy’ should embrace the digital part, as the economic implications are simply too great to ignore.

“The social media, blogging and microblogging are capable of bringing nations closer as for the first time in the history of mankind, people are
able to communicate with each other in real time and without having to wait for days or even weeks for the mail,” he said.

The two-day conference, starting yesterday with the theme of “Blogging Mindfully and Responsibly” is organised by Blog House Malaysia, an association that provides a platform to derive defensive mechanisms to protect the plethora of bloggers in blogosphere, especially on Malaysia and Malaysia-centric postings.

The objective of this conference is to bring together regional bloggers from the Asean region and to highlight the obstacles faced by these bloggers as well as the adversity that bloggers might experience in their day-to-day tackling of various issues. — BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, 23 April 2011 – Bloggers from ASEAN countries converge in Kuala Lumpur today to participate in the 1st Malaysia-ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference.

Tomorrow, we will have the chance to meet up with Malaysia’s No.1 blogger – Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and of course the man who twits and Facebook his daily thoughts, our YAB Prime Minister – Najib Tun Razak.

Kuala Lumpur Declaration On Blogging and Social Media

1. The establishment of an ASEAN Social Media and Blogging network to promote understanding, good relations, unity and co-operation.
2. To assist achieving and promoting the common values and aspirations of goodwill and to promote greater understand through social media.
3. To promote the freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom from prosecution in South East Asia.
4. To promote ethical practices in social media by constantly encouraging engagement.
5. To meet regularly and promote the  growth and progress of social media in ASEAN.

Although blogs on political issues were prone to contain lies and deceit as a method of character assassination, the same could not be said about political blogs written by former journalists.

“When I blog, I feel free to say anything without being restricted by the organisation that I work for,” said the former Bernama journalist who blogs at www.kudaranggi.blogspot.com (visit site).

He was speaking at a dialogue in a hotel here yesterday organised by the Information Department.

The dialogue, entitled “Between Blogging and News Writing: A Lie or Reality?” was attended by 100 public relations officers from various government departments and ministries.

He added that bloggers should also be expo-sed to ethics and law to avoid writing lies.

“Almost all political parties have their own blogs. Those politicians who used to condemn bloggers have also started blogging because they have realised that it is a medium to reach out to the people especially during elections,” he said.

Another panel member, Information, Communications and Culture Ministry’s broadcasting department director-general Datuk Ibrahim Yahaya said bloggers should reveal their true identities for integrity sake.

Source: The Star Online

It will be good to meet the bloggers in real life and get to know one another better. I have been a fan of responsible blogging – means we have to be responsible for what we post online. Being responsible will reduce fictitious articles and other defamatory issues.

The Venue

For the time being, we haven’t decide on which hotel to use since our favourite venue – Kuching Park Hotel is fully booked on the 27th and 28th of June for some wedding.

We will announce the venue details soonest we get it from our blogger friends in Kuching.

At the point of writing this post, I have received confirmation of bloggers from Bintulu that are interested to join us.. Are you a Dayak who owns a blog, or a portal, or just a member of any Dayak-based forum? If you are, then this is the golden opportunity for us to meet up.. and err… we can’t afford to pay for you to come to Kuching, tho’!

Utusan Borneo Karaoke Finalist

The finalist of the recent UB Karaoke Competition will be invited to perform during this gathering. It is also a way for the bloggers to show their appreciation to the well executed competition lead by event manager, Mr. Mervyn Minin Tajem or better known as Vynne in the cyber community. Mervyn owns RadioKitai.com and runs the online radio and soon the first Iban TV online.

For futher details on this event, please email us at gempuru09@rumahdayak.com

Once a blogger will be a blogger! I have closed my first blog at uchukeling.com earlier today and decided to be more personalised in my approach to blogging. Hence, I decided to register my newest domain – www.jamesjg.com – the short tag for James Joshua Guang.

Today also marked my migration to WordPress 2.8 which shall see the merging of WordPress and WordPress MU at a later date.

Plugins

To my fellow blogger friends, here are the list of plugins that I am using for this blog. And, I will create a special tutorial category for new blogger who would like to have a blog powered by WordPress. The tutorial will be based on the various questions emailed to me. If you have any thing to ask, please send your email to blog[at]jamesjg.com and I will try my best to assist you.

• Comment License shows a license with terms of your choosing in your comments form. You can edit the terms of your license in the options page.
• Most Popular Posts is a basic widget for your sidebar that creates a list of links to the top posts on your blog according to the number of comments on the post. You can customize the widget title, number of links to show and whether or not you want to display the comment count.
• No Duplicate Comments check comments for duplicate content using Google AJAX Search API as they are published. This helps to avoid having duplicate content in your posts. It only checks approved comments that have over 50 words. The plugin searches two random strings, both 8 words length. If one of them finds an exact match, it emails you letting you know so you can check it yourself and decide if you want to delete it.
• Smart Youtube is a plugin that allows you to easily insert Youtube videos/playlists in your post, comments and in RSS feed. The main purpose of the plugin is to correctly embed youtube videos into your blog post. The video will be shown in full in your RSS feed as well.
• WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected, the list of mobile browsers can be customized on the settings page.

Bookmark

To my gentle readers, I will be grateful if you care to amend your bookmark and add this latest blog. To avoid missing any of my post, you can click here for the RSS feed.

Theme

This is the hardest process of owning a personal blog – choosing the right theme to reflect our personality. No doubt there are hundreds of free themes available on the Net, but what we want may comes in bits and pieces, and in the end we may have to choose the one nearest to what we wanted.

Quick loading and readability is definitely the top priority for my blog. That comes in the form of visual-friendly fonts in term of its size and colour. To those of you who are new to blogging and WordPress, the theme can be change via the Appearance (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/themes.php) feature at your administrative settings.

How do I get the theme to appear in the list?

You need to upload the theme to your web server. For me, I am using Core FTP Lite for my FTP. Make sure you upload it to the correct folder, which is usually found at yourdomain.com/wp-content/themes/

Interested to have a domain of your own?

What could be the best thing to have on the Internet if not your own personalised domain name. A personal domain is like having your own home address on the Net. Its like the address of your house where people can send mail, gifts, visit you (of course) and what’s better than to print your own t-shirt with the dotCom on it.

Drop me an email if you are interest to get one just like mine – jamesjg.com!

From YB Andy Chia (ADUN Pujut)

Hello there! Do I detect signs of frustrations?

I don’t blame you. You are right, too many politicians jump to conclusion that all blogs are anti-govt.

We will need a good soild effort to publicise that not all blogs are like that.

Emm, emm, I have been covering for you guys in a few occassions recently. Apparently, your [Rumah Dayak dot com] recent effort with Mercy raised a few eye brows. Dont worry, I will continue to ‘cover’ your backside whenever some politicians raise concern.

Dayak bloggers I associate with are friends. I have no problems with that. YEs, I will continue to cover your back as long as we are on the same right track….

take it easy, James.
All the best.
Rgds,
Andy

Here is a response from YB Malcom Mussem Lamoh (ADUN Batang Ai)

Hi friends!

Dr Robert Resneck’s formula: E(event) + R(response) – O(outcome)….so you’ve control over how to response, if you don’t like the outcome, CHANGE your response or no response….whatever can be created mentally can always be translated into physical reality…whatever opinions or imagination that cropped up in the mind may be … transmutted into possibilities…so we cannot be too judgemental because a man is not the sum of what he is BUT the totality of what he might be…like the tip of an iceberg, major portions of our subconscious mind is submerged that we may not realise its power and full potentials…the more suggestions or opinions we can get through others or divergent thinking, the better would be your chance to arrive at the best option through convergent thinking..so brader I sincerely concur with the quote “feedback is the breakfast of champions…it’s through feedback that we can know what works and what doesn’t work…so we can always readjust and realign our directions in order to arrive at the desired outcomes….as long as goals are clear, stick to them! Dios te bendiga! Dieu vous binesse! GBU!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Posted on 27 April 2009

Hello Sarawak politicians, I am not sure how you perceive blogging, but, one thing for sure, it seem that you generalised bloggers as anti-government.

Every time you go to the media to talk about blog, you refer the bloggers as anti-establishment. Heck, it hurts so many other bloggers who do not write about politics.

Excuse us, dear Sarawakian politicians, next time, when you address bloggers, please address them with the category they fall into. If its politics, then address them as POLITICAL BLOG WRITTERS!

Some of my blogger friends do not write about politics, so, please do not generalised the term blogging as per se.

And the media, should identify what type of blog are these politicians referring to.

Anyway, there are so many different type of blogs – photography, hobbies, finance, sports, food, music, video, etc. Do you get it? I am sure your children have a blog by now.

The Batang Ai by-election will see the exhibition of the latest Internet technologies and the latest craze – mobile blogging among Dayak broadband Internet users.

Among the veteran bloggers, I know Nadai Nama have been the leader (although he seldom highlight it until recently, with his latest toy). Other bloggers like Vynne (he stopped blogging temporarily to assist other new loaded bloggers to have an Internet existence).

We see Pakatan Rakyat’s Cobbold Lusoi embarking on video blogging as well as short-text blog. Cobbold have been going around with his mobile phone (with video feature) capturing interviews with PR politicians.

Celcom Broadband

According to Celcom, the Dayaks are among the top users of their broadband services. Ya.. why not? With the good prices in agriculture commodity and registration from as low as RM199 (in Kuching), they can get a modem and within 30 mins – ta daaaa – they’re online!

So the Dayaks are top in Betong? A Dayak majority area.. heheheee not now. Before, yes, but today the Malay community has taken over the crown as Celcom top users in Betong.

Anyway, for the Dayak bloggers, our hope is on the availability of good 3G or GPRS signal in Lubok Antu, Engkilili, Sri Aman and Saratok from the Purple, Yellow and Red men.

BN campaigners goes blackberry

Ahh.. it is high time that everyone gets a blackberry phone and nevermind the election, at least you can read your email while on the move and give us a reply. Or.. psstt, you can read blogs and portals anywhere and anytime. Good good eh!

Over in Kuching, my friend’s name is all over the place and it is (of course) well inked on the paper now (poster la) that he is the BN candidate for N.29 Batang Ai by-election scheduled for 7th April 2009.

Our Celcom friend also reported an increase in broadband subscription (mind you it comes with a 24-months contract.. heheheeee) from the BN corner. Well of course it is for them to read and track what the hitech opposition side post on blogs and forums.

Sites that are registered during the last weeks – Keadilan Sarawak and Dayak Nation TV covers the latest from the Opposition camps (well, we hope the coverage is true and reliable).

I will not be distracted by bloggers: Jabu
By Churchill Edward

KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang said he will not fall prey to bloggers who are trying to keep him away from his constituents.

Jabu, who holds the portfolios of Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications, said bloggers’ criticism of him would not prevent him from maintaining his personal touch with the grassroots.

Full article at The Borneo Post

When I first read this article, I thought Jabu was referring to another blog. It is not common for the media to mention a website domain name (sometimes, when there’s a press conference on website launch, we will not be given the URL in the printed paper).

Before, you guys screw me, let me get it straight – this is my personal view and I am not siding anyone.

What I see in Jabu

As a member of a Dayak association, Jabu have not failed in helping us (the association) with the educational awards and seminars that we have organise. Yes, we need to justify for the grant, but at the end of the day, it is the Iban students who benefited from it. Though the amount is small, but it is indeed seen as a reward for excellency in education. I hope Jabu will continue to give us that grant this year, as he wish to see us organise a bigger seminar in the future.

Salcra baru!

As far as I am concern, and while I travelled to the Paku, Saratok, Lubok Antu, Serian where SALCRA have their plantation, I did ask around if the people (the participants) are not happy with SALCRA. Non said they are not happy! This is in contrast with claims by various NGOs.

While in Saratok, I did ask the people at Rh. Kumpai, if SALCRA have benefited them in term of employment and other things – they answered yes, we who have little education will work with SALCRA, while we use that money to finance our brothers and sisters to gain higher education. Again this the opposite of what is being claimed.

What I see in Dayakbaru.com

The ideas are good. The young generation can accept it. But how are they going to implement/deliver it?

1. Work with Jabu who is in the government and with all the resources. Sayau ke pemandai bisi tang nadai vehicle to deliver it to the people.
2. You need the government vehicle to make it work. The Dayak cannot wait for a new government to be form to make that happen. Start now! If you win the next State Election, then it is a bonus. If you don’t, will it be deserted?

Plead by the common Dayaks

Can you guys work together and set aside your political differences and implement what is the best for the Dayak community. For a start, Mercy Malaysia is trying to acquire a building in Piasau Garden and transform it to a temporary shelter for the rural poor Dayaks who comes to Miri for medical treatment and other matters.

The contribution may be small, but it means so much to the person who received it.

As long as you guys brings politics into community services, there will be no community services. Look at the newly given Dayak cemetery in Miri.. siko pan nadai meh kita respond when we seek your assistance to develop it – land clearing etc etc.. Where are the other Dayak associations in Miri?

Go to the ground and just do it..

Soon it will be my 41st birthday and I thought it will be better to have a new domain for my no.1 hobby – getting connected and sharing my thoughts with the whole world on this world wide web.

What about UchuKeling.com?

I will still maintain it and it will still be online for my readers.

Why 41Tahun.com?

Tahun in Malay means year. And, the number 41 represent my age.

Why blog about it?

Simply because I love to blog about anything that comes into my mind. It keeps my mind and my fingers busy.

Comments by my readers

Well, I am not going to be responsible for any or all the comments made by my readers. What they commented on is all entirely their own views and they are responsible for it. If you find the comment offensive, do let me know, and, I will review it for further action.

Online Advertisement

Do I really need to put those ads on my blog and start making money? Well, the answers are – 1. it slows down my page loading = NO. 2. the payment is not as expected. They tend to steal the clicks from us.. how do I know? It just don’t match my server statistics – that’s why = NO.

So.. off goes the online ads…

Finally, you do not have to agree with me, but I would love to hear from you.

Cheers!

Regards,

Uchu Keling