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Saturday, January 27, 2007

Interlude

Sat with Rocky and the gang on the upper balcony of the Press Club last night. The Jalur Gemilang unfurled, carried on the back of a gentle breeze. Or perhaps on the voices of the young journalists who sang with their hearts.

Our future is in the hands of the young. Their future is something that only we can guarantee.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The whole of M'sia is watching, as is the world. The outcome of the battle between the combatants is, to me, not that important. The publicity of the case has instilled a new level fear amongst the meek, who would, reagardless who wins/loses, would steer clear of sensitive issues. In this aspect, the M'sian establishment (and its influential owners) has already won.

Anonymous said...

YOUNG VOICES OF HOPE

I give free reins to the young
They give me back creativity

I give encouragement to them
They give me back vibrant energy

I give opportunity to the needy
They give back respect and dignity

What do I get when I write freely?
Thickloads of files in ambiguity

Summoned to the court by the greedy
I fight for my right of integrity

Form over substance in style of pity
Global voices of youth for eternity!

Anonymous said...

A note to the young writers whom we all treasure and rest our future on.

I see in the Jalur Gemilang a theological cloak surreptitiously enveloping Malaysia. A little egg was planted when Article 121 was amended in the early 90s. In about 10 years it germinated to larvae when we, in our haste to chair the Organization of Islamic Conference, declared ourselves an Islamic state. Now we have Islamists within and without, who say they are looking at a full blown mosquito by 2020.

Point I’m making is, you work at a lower register when you defend an onslaught. You work higher when you attack. Are the young writers willing to go higher!

Anonymous said...

you are not just representing another case, my friend.
a lot is at stake here, one of which is no less, the future (of our beloved country).
what happens, what will happen, in the case -- will set the trend, the pace, not just for bloggers, but for writers and anyone who wants to have a go at freedom of expression.
at best, rocky is a responsible blogger, at worst, an outspoken one --- that is my humble opinion.
it appears that, right now, we can be neither.

LUBOK MELAYU said...

Go Malek! Go do what you do best and make sure that our young won't blame us for NOT trying!
In you, Haris and Ed we hope.
In God we trust.

Anonymous said...

wuz there at the Club tht nite and briefly up the balcony when the guys made music with the guitar. what wus missing was a campfire. reminded me of abba's mid-70s hit.
btw, the blogospere is full of stuff about sub-judice. is there a cyber revolution goin'?
cos' i don't want to miss it!!

Can you hear the drums fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar
I could hear the distant drums
And sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar

They were closer now fernando
Every hour every minute seemed to last eternally
I was so afraid fernando
We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die
And I’m not ashamed to say
The roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry

Anonymous said...

Imtiaz,

Why is NSTP doing it?
Who gave this Co. the permission?
But why is NSTP doing it?

Why are you doing it?
Why are those bloggers doing it?

Deanaharan Nair said...

Dear Malik,

I first came across your name during my 'teater muda' days with the Five Arts Centre about the time your play, 'The Wash', was being staged. I also have a friend who used to work at a firm you practised at not so long ago and; one other friend, whose call to the bar you moved sometime last year.

I have been an avid reader of blogs such as Malaysia Today, Screenshots and Rocky's Bru since the middle of last year. It began as an opportunity to keep track with what was happening back home in KL. I read law but never practised and came to Perth to pursue an LL.M. and perhaps, more honestly, to get away from it all.

I found my way to your blog via the link on Screenshots and have been reading your essays and posts with interest. To say that the essence of much of it has struck a chord would be to put it mildly. I have been meaning to start my own blog for some time now but have finally decided to take the plunge after reading yours - it's being constructed as we speak!

Reading "Interlude", it dawned on me that I am 'the young'. I was an undergraduate at the time the Anwar Ibrahim "case" was being 'played-out'. I loved the law and the intricacies and machinations of what, I thought at the time, being a lawyer entailed. Call it wilful delusion if you will but I remember a point in time where such sentiment wasn't the domain of the misguidedly optimistic.

When the head of the examination syndicate is being charged with corruption relating to an examination which only foreign law graduates have to take [repeatedly in most cases] and pass; the bottom kind fell out for me. I thought to myself that I am young and bright and yet my country insists on making me jump through hoops to do something I have always felt I was born to do. So, here I am in a foreign land, hopefully finishing up my LL.M. soon and where I have already been given a job in a commercial capacity where people appreciate what I bring to the table and are trying to support me in a myriad of ways. It beggars believe that people here naturally think that the better I become individually, the better an asset I become to them. How does this most basic form of common sense elude people back home.

I am the young, the young who lined up at 'perhimpunan' every monday morning/evening for 11 years of my school-going life and sang 'negaraku'; the young who grew up hanging out at 'the mall', sungai wang plaza; the young who went clubbing at 'the beach club' etc and seemingly inevitably, the young who finally left to go abroad, spurned by a country that at every turn in the road, resisted the chance to love me back. I meet so many of us young Malaysians who because of our colour, religion and creed have never felt the warm embrace of the country of our birth. We live abroad, plying our trade and peddling our intellect to a foreign master, to whom we do not belong and yet, who treats us as if we more than do.

I admire people such as yourself, Haris Ibrahim, Edmund Bon and Taufiq Khalid. In many ways, it is the kind of work that I set out wanting to do as an undergraduate. I read an article about you where you referenced Raja Aziz Addruse as being a particularly important person in your development. Upon my graduation, I was lucky enough to sit next to the great man on a flight from Singapore to London. I picked his brain over the course of the entire flight and to his great credit, he took the time to answer thoughtfully and indulged me thoroughly. I cannot tell you what a thrill it was for me that when the stewardess forgot to bring something I'd asked her for earlier, RAA called her over and said: "Excuse me, but you forgot to bring 'my friend' what he asked for earlier".

I didn't think that he would remember me when I met him again close to a year later. However, to the great man's credit, he did remember me and was keenly interested in my progress. It is not lost on me that the top you wear to court is not unlike that of RAA's mate.

I am keenly following the Jeff and Rocky's cases and youe essay on defamation and the blogger, to my mind at least, hits the mark square in the centre. I have not always agreed with everything that Rocky and Jeff have had to say but I truly believe in their right to say it. I leave them and you with this quote that is oft-attributed to Gandhi:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at/ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

Anonymous said...

Politics is a short game, one week minimum adn two terms maximum. With such short timeframes to pay with, there is little thought given to the fate of our children and children's children.
Never mind that we may not be in power tomorrow and the same draconian rules that we put in place can be used by our enemies in the future, or at least by the opposition.
With little more than a few hundred pages of threatening legalese, they may have placed more weight than our frail civil liberties can bear.

Tony Yew said...

MIS
I am not here to sing praises to you but I admire your courage and strength to do what is right.
For in the eyes of the law, there is no biasness, or so I am lead to think. Having read your blog, it has become a common stop, and when I do not see a new article which is both enriching, and enlightening as well, I heave a little sigh of disappointment.

To do what you do takes courage. I am sure in your course of discharging your duty, many people will be quick to judge you, and If memory serves me right, there was even a call to harm you.
I pray to god that you keep your path, and hope that your actions will help educate those that are quick to judge you. I know, I am going through similar challenges.

D.Nair, I envy that you have the choice to peddle your trade in greener pastures. With that I feel your loss, the loss of a home, if I may say, for you may be building your house, but it is still not your home. You have described it best "I am the young, the young who lined up at 'perhimpunan' every monday morning/evening for 11 years of my school-going life and sang 'negaraku'; the young who grew up hanging out at 'the mall', sungai wang plaza; the young who went clubbing at 'the beach club' etc and seemingly inevitably, the young who finally left to go abroad, spurned by a country that at every turn in the road, resisted the chance to love me back", and may I add my name to that list, and that of my wife, my brother, my sisters, but yet we persevere, in hope that one day, someone comes along with the open view that we can actually all co-exist and stop encroaching into each others boundaries...
Alas, twas just a dream, or is it.

D.Nair

Milky Tea said...

Dear MIS,
Busy with your briefs, my friend? No worries but we hope to hear from you soon. You know, I didn't know Rocky's real name until NST decided to pound him to a pulp vide the defamation suit.
Makes him more famous, hasn't it? I will certainly read his blog and books now. Thank you, NST for doing this promotional junket for Rocky.

Unknown said...

If you continue to write complicated legalistic essays, Imtiaz, you will let them win.

Simplify what Malaysia needs to achieve in order to guarantee its future as a competitive nation. Don't get me wrong, Malaysia WILL survive, but in its current state, it is a really boring type of survival, with totally no influence over anything else which happens in the world, if you discount the reports which seem to overstate Malaysia's role in terrorist generation.

Putting too many issues out, or overarguing the issues, merely limits your reach to those boring intellectuals who on the average are slow moving people who take an age to decide on action, and really few of them to boot.

You might want to consider to put the issues across very simply, simple enough for today's distracted minds to grasp, and write so sweetly and succinctly that they believe you. Belief is all that is necessary, the entire legal framework is unnecessary in for this purpose.

What's your role? To inspire the rabble (yeah, that includes busy businessmen with net access), or to write some piece which the liberal left (most of the people who put the comments here I classify in that category) `pretend' to read, not get your message and write some short praise here instead?

Beware the liberal left, if they get to power, we'd all have some other kind of hell anyway - observe the crap which the Bush administration has to endure from them ...

Anonymous said...

Imtiaz
Peace!

What
an
interlude disquiet

What
a
lullb4dstorm

Anonymous said...

The Centre for Independent Journalism is working with independent bloggers to set up of an information clearing house and information exchange centre. The objectives of the group are;

-.To provide information for bloggers to protect themselves against infringements of Freedom of Expression (FOE) and to keep up-to-date with the latest developments

-.To provide an avenue for bloggers to access information of public
interest which is not available in or sufficiently covered by the mass
media.


The information exchange will be moderated, and will work through an e-group.

The proposed e-group will be based on the following regulations;

1. All posts have to be concerned with the public interest

2. Contributors can ask for an explanation if their post is rejected

3. The CIJ code of ethics will serve as the guidelines for publishing postings

4. Priority will be given to issues that are not given space in the mass media

5. Opinion will be published at the discretion of the Secretariat

"A council of elders", numbering less than 10 bloggers and comprising among others, the group owners,will be established either by election or appointment.

CIJ proposes the council members will serve for four years, whereby the after two years, the post Chairman and Vice Chairman have to be filled in by new members.

Council members can appoint successors for their respective post whereby the list of nominees will be publicized. A candidate will be appointed if he/she receives a majority support from the members.

Membership is by application to the group owners.

CIJ volunteers to be the Secretariat of the e-group.

For more info email waifong@cijmalaysia.org or visit http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mybloggers/
and www.cijmalaysia.org

Anonymous said...

ISA said...
CERITA DI ROCKY'S BRU

Jakarta Posted! or OUT of TEMPO
(to all mat-mat jawa)

seorang mantan perdan menteri
yang nyanyok
dan perdana menteri
ngorok
turut di tertawa
mas tenggelam timbul seberang yang suka membakar hutan dan hisap asap keretek

sambil-sambilan
anak atan ni pun ngemabuk ngetergelak-gelak
nge-engak lucu.
Yudontknow bimbang
Yudhoyono Banabang
pun tidurrr
sambil air-lay-gal turut
serta
visit malaysia year 2007.

why do cut your nose to spite someone, ahirudin?


9:12 PM

Anonymous said...

Thank you for pressing on in the struggle to empower our young to be responsible for the direction of our shared future...

Tidak apathy is the greatest challenge for genuine change for the good. If we want it bad enuff, if we will put our money where our mouth is...

At least it's good that people are now talking about issues :)