Bersih_PR - UMNO_BN Cyberbattle to own the ‘truth’

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Cyberbattle to own the ‘truth’

ANALYSIS  By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

The ‘truth’ is still out there in cyberspace where the Bersih 2.0 rally is concerned.

THE Bersih 2.0 rally might be over but the battle to own its truth is still being fought over social media which had become a fierce battleground.

People from both sides of the political divide have weighed in with their experiences of July 9 on Face­­book, Twitter, blogs and so forth.

Some of the things uploaded now include a video clip of a man who had supposedly died, a hospital that was blasted with water cannons and a PKR activist who died of a heart problem during the rally but his death was blamed on the police.

Discerning true from false: Many accounts of the Bersih 2.0 rally, both true and untrue, have been posted online for Netizens to read and judge for themselves.

 

The person who faked his death on video has been traced and identified as an Al-Arqam member from Selangor. He is said to have run off when the police sent him to hospital.

Then a supposedly “Chinese man” was seen holding a loud hailer for the man (said to fake his death) as he prayed. Eventually, the “Chinese man” had been exposed as a Selangor PKR man who is a Malay. A blogger posted his picture for viewers to judge for themselves.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, meanwhile, was seen grimacing in hospital after the rally but his detractors scoffed at the images.

It’s a war zone out there in cyberspace. The Pakatan Rakyat appears to be winning at times; at other times, the Barisan Nasional.



Pakatan had always enjoyed a well-oiled social media network. It was first seen in action during Anwar’s black eye incident and later in the first sodomy trial and subsequently the purported arsenic poisoning.

One of the prominent websites at that time was the Free Anwar website managed by Raja Petra Kama­ruddin. It did Anwar a great favour and is also credited with helping to free him in 2004.

Pakatan was always a step ahead of Barisan in exploiting the developments in social media.

During the years since the Free Anwar website, Anwar himself led in the fight to exploit social media for its powerful ability to connect disparate people.

Today, social media is working overtime for Pakatan as it seeks to manufacture consent for his political themes.

Tech-savvy youths were checking iPads and smartphones during the days leading to the Bersih 2.0 rally and on the day itself.

They sent out tweets, posted comments and images and wrote about their experiences at the rally.

The truth can sometimes be lost in the maze that is social media but some images do not lie, such as the incident which took place at Tung Shin Hospital.

There is overwhelming evidence that tear gas and water cannon were fired into the hospital area after rally participants ran helter skelter into the hospital area. Images and video clips of the incident were recorded and uploaded online by many people.

It is well known that some ministers lack social media skills or have not found time to watch videos online but still make statements that later put them in a spot.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms have thus become a contested arena with many pro-Barisan Nasional and pro-Pakatan Rakyat supporters arguing over their version of what the “truth” is.

For Anwar, the important thing is to keep up the political momentum achieved by Bersih 2.0. Their hope is that the next general election is held soon to capitalise on the political momentum created by the rally.

He needs the Bersih 2.0 rally to be talked about everywhere, besides calling on his friends in the Western media to write about it.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, on the other hand, has been spending time explaining things. While on a visit to London, he was interviewed on CNN where he took questions on the rally, on police brutality and on his economic transformation plans for the country.

Najib has to put a distance between himself and the effects of the rally on the people, especially the youths who are upwardly mobile.

The social media is Anwar’s strong suit. The same cannot be said about many government leaders.

But not everybody is connected and those who are connected deeply disagree on what really happened on July 9.

The silent majority is out there and when they speak, it will be a roar.

US QE3 sparks concerns !

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Possible US QE3 sparks concerns

By Hu Yuanyuan and Chen Ji 

BEIJING - The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it could ease monetary policy further if the United States failed to see solid growth, which analysts said may add to China's inflation and endanger its $3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserves.

"The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might re-emerge, implying a need for additional policy support," Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, told the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. His remarks were generally interpreted as a signal of a possible QE3 (quantitative easing).

In late 2009, the Fed launched an unprecedented bond-buying drive to boost the economy and make credit more available, spending some $1.7 trillion on mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries before it ended in March 2010. It then initiated a second round of easing, that wrapped up in June, in which $600 billion of bonds were bought.

But the US economy remains weak, prompting the possible launch of a QE3. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday showed that the number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong economic track rose to 63 percent this month, up from 60 percent in June. The country's jobless rate rose to 9.2 percent in June from 9.1 percent in May.



"If the Fed continues to print more money (as Bernanke hinted), it will drag China into a protracted war to limit liquidity and tame inflation," Lu Zhengwei, chief economist with Industrial Bank Co Ltd, said.

China's consumer inflation already surged to a three-year high of 6.4 percent in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This was partly attributable to quantitative easing measures by the US, which drove global capital into the more lucrative developing markets, including China, analysts agreed.

Moreover, the potential injection of money in the US is likely to raise global commodity prices. Crude-oil futures finished higher on Wednesday boosted by Bernanke's comments. The rising prices may force emerging economies, such as China, Brazil and India, to pay more for imported commodities, further exacerbating their inflationary problems.

"It will be a very bad news for emerging countries," Lu said.

Those countries may have to continually tighten their monetary stance, such as by raising interest rates, further incurring capital inflows, Lu said.

Cao Fengqi, director of the Research Center for Finance and Securities at Peking University, told China Daily that a QE3 would lead to faster appreciation of the yuan against the dollar.

According to Cao, if the easing policy became a reality, the resulting flood of US dollars means a faster depreciation of the greenback, which threatens the security of China's foreign exchange stockpile as it will reduce the real value of the dollar-denominated reserves.

"The primary task for China is to control consumer prices and maintain steady and fast economic growth (to counter any external shocks)," Cao said.

The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it hoped the US government would take a responsible attitude to protect investor interests.

Bernanke's hint of a QE3 could also be a strategy to pressure lawmakers to agree on raising the US debt ceiling, analysts said.

US President Barack Obama and the Republicans are bogged down in negotiations to raise the borrowing limit before the Aug 2 deadline.

Bernanke may be "talking up the market" and goading Congress to reach a consensus on the ceiling, Chen Xingdong, chief economist with BNP Paribas Asia Ltd, said.

Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday put its AAA rating on US government bonds on watch for a possible downgrade, citing the "rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis", which would lead to a default on US Treasury debt obligations.

Meanwhile, Chinese rating agency Dagong Global Ratings Co Ltd on Thursday put US ratings on domestic and foreign currencies on a negative watch list because of the country's rising debt.

Dagong said the current political and economic situation had squeezed out room for tax increases, while it is difficult to curtail military and welfare spending.

In the worst-case scenario, the US public debt will continue to grow to 124 percent of the country's GDP in 2015, and the federal government will have to raise the debt limit by $5.5 trillion, Dagong said.

Dagong downgraded US ratings from AA to A+ on Nov 9, 2010 after the US government announced the second round of quantitative easing.

Wei Tian contributed to this story.

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Bersih rally awakening the young voters in Malaysian politics; Registration easy & simple

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Awakening the young voters

ANALYSIS By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

Pakatan Rakyat is seeking to keep the rally’s momentum going, hoping that it can be sustained until an early general election is held. 

NOW that the Bersih 2.0 rally is over, what’s in store for the divided politics of the nation? It’s a question on the minds of many Malaysians.

The Bersih 2.0 rally was a success by some measure because Pakatan Rakyat supporters braved police restrictions, roadblocks and barbed wire to gather in the city centre calling on the Government to institute electoral reform.

Their eight-point demand included issues that the opposition had been campaigning on for many years, like a clean electoral roll, reforming postal voting and a minimum of 21 days for campaigning.

These are fundamentals of a basic election system in a democratic society and few citizens would find this objectionable.

Saturday’s rally, therefore, had an unprecedented impact on society at large and on the election system, comparable to the March 8 political tsunami.

While Saturday’s rally was smaller in size compared to Bersih’s first rally in November 2007, the effects were the same – the awakening of young people to political action to rally for a basic right in defiance of the police.

In 2007, Bersih had the run of the city with huge numbers converging on the Istana to deliver a memorandum to the King.

Anwar called the 2007 Bersih rally an unqualified success.

Three months later, a general election was called that saw a loose coalition, that later became Pakatan Rakyat, winning five state governments and denying Barisan Nasional a two-thirds majority.

This time, too, Anwar is expecting an early election, probably by the fourth quarter of this year to capitalise on the Bersih 2.0 momentum.

709 pictures of the BERSIH march. Malaysians unite!

https://picasaweb.google.com/104201905154669598873/Bersih2Rally090711?authkey=Gv1sRgCN2Bo8PKqdzNIQ#slideshow/5627287829029822

Voices from Malaysian: 

 Patrick Teoh

Teoh has come a very long way from his days as an announcer on the Rediffusion private radio station before establishing himself as one of the pioneers in mobile discos. In fact, till today people still associate Teoh with his voice though he is also into the arts and theatre.

Watch and listen his Video:


By PR’s reckoning, Bersih 2.0 was a major success and big enough to wipe out the series of by-election losses they suffered in recent months and the spate of defections from PKR to BN.

The internal turmoil caused by PKR’s direct elections that also saw many people disheartened with PKR has also been eclipsed.

PR sought to keep its Bersih 2.0 momentum going by organising a large rally in Penang, a PR state, on Monday that was well-attended.

It is hoping that the momentum would be sustained until an early general election is held.

It needs to step up its criticism of BN, organise more Bersih rallies in other states and perhaps take nationwide action to keep the momentum going.

For this reason alone, it is unlikely that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak would call an election this year.

He has to put some distance between the Government and the effects of the Bersih 2.0 rally.

Another reason for Najib to delay the general election is the urban voters whose preference is still with the opposition. He has to come up with imaginative programmes to win over the urban voters whose concerns are very different from the rural electorate.

Najib is also due to meet the Pope next week and hopes to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Vatican. He hopes to consolidate the Christian vote, which accounts for about 9% of the 14 million voters.

On another point, Bersih 2.0 leaders like Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan tried hard to convince Malaysians that her organisation was an independent body and was acting independently.

It is, however, abundantly clear that Bersih 2.0 was an opposition affair from start to finish.

The police handling of the Bersih 2.0 rally is also under the spotlight. Although they were heavy-handed, there was a relative absence of violence except for one death of a PKR activist that was attributed to a heart condition.

The low level of violence as a whole also limited the electoral backlash against the Government.

Therefore, it is an opportune time to release all those arrested, including the six leaders of Parti Sosialis Malaysia who have been detained under the Emergency Ordinance for allegedly reviving communism.

The Bersih 2.0 rally did not come anywhere near those in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria. But it will probably have an impact in the coming general election.

The rally proved its point that a large number of Malaysians can gather, despite police action, and march peacefully.

But Bersih 2.0 is unlikely to be a game changer in the way the first Bersih rally was.

Registration easy & simple

By SHAHANAAZ HABIB and RASHVINJEET S. BEDI sunday@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: Voter registration numbers have gone up significantly, thanks to efforts by political parties.
But some 40% of the new voters they have registered turned out to be ineligible.

“Some are dead, underage or already registered voters,” said Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

“We verify with the National Registration Department (NRD) those who are genuine and get rid of the names of those who are not. This makes it tiring because we have to keep checking,” he told The Star.

Despite this, he said, political parties still registered the highest number, bringing in more half of the new eligible voters.

“Compared to universities and NGOs, the voters we get from political parties are a lot more,” he said.
For May alone, 52% of new eligible voters were registered by political parties.

Twenty per cent were registered through post offices and 13% by government departments.

The EC, meanwhile, roped in 10% of the new voters through its counters and outreach programme. Universities and NGOs helped to register 3% and 2% new voters respectively.

Abdul Aziz added that the EC had appointed political parties, NGOs and universities as assistant registrars to help register new voters, paying RM1 for every clean and confirmed new voter these organisations bring in.

“If they register 1,000 new voters and only 600 are genuine, we pay them RM600,” he said. Between 2008 and 2009, there were 10 million registered voters in the country and another 4.3 million eligible voters who were not registered.

This year, the total number of registered voters increased to 12 million and eligible unregistered voters dropped to 3.7 million.

“We have made registration easy and simple. You can go to the post office, youth bodies, universities, colleges, government departments, NGOs and political parties to register,” he added.

Abdul Aziz said the Malaysian EC was the only one in the world that appointed political parties to assist in registering new voters.

He pointed out that it made sense to rope in political parties. “We appoint an average of two assistant registrars for each state seat. And because they have an interest, they work very hard to register new voters.

“When we do the voter registration ourselves, the response is not very good. We go to events like TV3's Jom Heboh to register new voters but it is difficult for people to come forward.

“This has to do with attitude. People ask what benefit they get by registering as voters. Some people do not have the spirit. They ask what happens if they don't register and when they find out no action is taken, they leave it as it is. Only those who really love the country and would like to choose their own leaders would voluntarily go and register as voters.”

Abdul Aziz also advised the people to vote in their current place of residence as this was stipulated in the law. This would also resolve the issue of phantom voters, where voters allegedly stay in a different place from where they cast their vote.

He said people should not feel attachment to their hometown and balik kampung to cast their votes.
“If I stay in Shah Alam, I shouldn't go back to Penang or my hometown to vote,” he said.

He estimated that about 30% to 40% of Malaysians voted in a different place or state than where they lived.

“I have no power to force them to vote where they live. I can only explain and persuade them,” he added.