Colin Charles Agenda

Tomorrow, is a big day. If you’re a Malaysian in Melbourne, and are eligible to vote, the absentee (postal) vote registration happens tomorrow (27 February, 2008). Short notice? Apparently, the embassy in Canberra didn’t even know the deadline was to be tomorrow, until a phone call from a certain someone, Tirath, was made today (26 February 2008) at 4:45pm (UTC+10, +1 DST).

Event blurb:

Tomorrow is the ONLY CHANCE to register. Call Malaysia Hall before you go, just to double check that they are open and ready (04 3343 7263 / 03 9529 4507). If you come, make sure you bring your IC and your passport.

Windsor is easy to get to. There’s public transport (a tram stops at Malaysia Hall, or nearby, afaik), and there’s a train station as well. Mad props to Tirath, I hope lots of people go, and register, and vote (the opposition, nonetheless ;) ). Facebook event, if you can see it.

Technorati Tags: melbourne, malaysia votes, voter registration, absentee ballot

With the upcoming elections, there have been some most interesting videos posted on Google Video and YouTube. The opposition is broadcasting on YouTube, sitting on social networks (Anwar and PKR, are on MySpace, Friendster, Facebook). The Internet is becoming more mainstream, for elections and politicians. What does this mean for the 2008 general elections? Definitely, not a 90%+ majority for the ruling Barisan Nasional, I do hope.

Anyway, on to working with video. Lets say, you have found an interesting video on Google Video, and feel that it is your sworn duty to share it with the poor who do not have access to the Internet. Google Video, on the right hand column, allows you to download it for the Video iPod/Sony PSP. Perfect.

What about interesting videos on YouTube? Naturally, you will use youtube-dl. Beware, this software changes often, as and when YouTube changes their protocol, so check back constantly if things stop working. Getting things in .FLV format, is kind of painful, which is why you’ll use ffmpeg to transform your video: ffmpeg -i foo.flv -y foo.avi.

Now, what about creating a VCD or DVD? Whats the easiest way? Hands down, you want DeVeDe. Its available in Fedora, apparently has got some bugs in Ubuntu (something about sound going wonky). Its dead easy to use. It works with Google Video MP4’s as well as AVI files you’ve converted from ffmpeg.

Let DeVeDe do its thing (which is creating a .cue and .bin file), and then, its time to write to a CD. To create a VCD? cdrdao write –device /dev/sr0 movie.cue. I understand, K3B has got all the gizmos to create this in GUI form, but that involves installing KDE libraries, and I’m sure I can use my disk space in a more efficient way. I found HOWTO Make a video (S)VCD a handy guide.

Wait… and you’ll soon have a CD that you can pop into a DVD/VCD player and enjoy viewing.

Technorati Tags: linux, dvd, vcd, devede, youtube-dl, google video, youtube, cdrdao

I realise I was really angry, on Sunday. I mean, I spent a little over a weekend, being a prisoner in my own homeland (thanks to all the police roadblocks, targeting people of the wrong skin colour). I’ve yet to feel this way in Melbourne, where I spend most of my time nowadays.

I am Malaysian. A Malaysian Malaysian. A country that still profiles via race, is doomed, and this thinking will disappear as the young, grow up. A Malaysia where the Gen-Y controls the country, will be a lot better and more open. Besides, with mixed-marriages, and all the normal inter-racial fun, I don’t see why Malaysia, can’t be Truly Asia. Welcome back, the idea of Bangsa Malaysia.

I applaud the protesters that go to the BERSIH or Hindraf rallies. They’re truly Malaysian. Khairil says it best :) I’m really happy that there are people I know of, ordinary folk, whom go to these rallies - read some accounts from Su Ann, and a couple from my junior at school Shazeea.

As a Malaysian, predominantly living overseas and spending copious amounts of time away from my country of birth, there is no point in I getting emotional over things. I’m probably from the upper-medium-class of families, and life is pretty cushy. Heck, by virtue of just not living in Malaysia, makes me not feel the day-to-day pains (like 20% fuel price hikes, toll hikes, etc.), felt by fellow Malaysians. That doesn’t mean I can’t get angry and request change.

So, in my spare time, while I’m in KL, I’m not going to spend it wailing away enjoying cheap drinks and the amazing night-life. I’ve decided that there are only several things I can do, that can really make an impact:

• help the poor, by educating them. I remember back in 1998, there was a NetDay project, where we got old i386 machines, loaded PicoBSD onto them, and made them useful again. I plan on sourcing machines, to be re-purposed in community centres. If a community centre doesn’t exist, maybe the “village leader’s” home can be used. I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and realise that connectivity matters, and so on and I’m hoping that I get “help” and “assistance” to make this flow. I only have aims of ensuring people use FLOSS applications, and hopefully have online connectivity, because that’s clearly where the future is at. I can provide training, setup PCs, and probably do so much more. If you’re in shackles, its because of lacking education - breaking free, is my aim.
• document the poor. One of my hobbies is photography, and I’m not half bad at that. I plan on taking photos of the less fortunate, their living conditions, and tell their stories. I’ll license it under the Creative Commons, so folk can also make use of it, if they see fit. This isn’t going to be easy, because its time consuming, and I’d probably need to get around in a car, but let’s see how far I get. Maybe it’ll inspire others to continue

The poor are everywhere. They’re not only ethnic Indian. There are ethnic Chinese and Malays that are poor too. The last couple of sentences can truly be summed up as - the poor are everywhere, in Malaysia. They’re Malaysian.

Enough ranting, its now time to work on the doing.

For all my life, I have referred to myself as Malaysian. When asked for the “race” field, I usually just leave it blank. On 29 September 2007, I registered to be a voter, and for the first time, I was really required to either place “Cina atau India” in the field (Chinese or Indian). This was a request by the worker at POS Malaysia, because apparently, my identity card (IC) lacks such information. I looked stumped for a while, and said, “Indian”.

Today, on Sunday, 25 November 2007, I can proudly say, that I will no longer be referring to myself as Malaysian - I will be now referring to myself as a Malaysian Indian. The idea of Bangsa Malaysia is a farce, and I’m tempted to rip out the Visit Malaysia 2007 sticker from my laptop, which suggests that we’re “Celebrating 50 years of nationhood”. Malaysia, might be Truly Asia, but there’s just a cauldron, brewing hate, in where the contents aren’t happy with the cooks.

Sunday, 25 November 2007, is the day where the second largest protest (ignore the reformasi crap, where even drug addicts were payed to show up for Anwar) has been held, in about ten years (the last, was two weeks ago, at the BERSIH rally). Various news sources are reporting anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 as the head-count of attendees. I’d take these numbers with a pinch of salt, as 10,000 is the number of choice referred to by The Star (a governmental puppet), and 30,000 is referred to by MalaysiaKini (an anti-governmental puppet). However, let the photos, and videos help you make up your own mind.

People rocked up, around Jalan Ampang, where KLCC is situated, from as early as 7.40am, and the police mentioned that they were given an order to arrest on sight. Some democracy we live in, right?

The police are afraid. The government of the day are afraid. Malaysians, are awakening. And they’re sick and tired of this shit. The Star reports:

“Jalan Ampang, which had been closed from 3am because of the gathering, was reopened at 1pm Sunday. The Avenue K and City Square shopping complexes and the restaurants along Jalan Ampang were closed Sunday morning, while various hotels and Suria KLCC had strict security enforced at their entrances. The KLCC and Ampang Park LRT stations, which were closed from 6am, were reopened at 3.13pm. “

An attendee (or his sister+father), Danny, from The Danesh Project, writes a most interesting piece: Hindraf, proud day for Malaysian Indians. I consider this recommended reading for all. Remember, this was a peaceful gathering that the police, basically turned violent.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and of course today, Sunday, were nasty days to be on the roads in KL. Any road that was inbound, was backlogged with traffic jams, thanks to police roadblocks.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have urged the police to stop racial profiling of motorists in their roadblocks set up to quash a rally in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

Since then, there have been numerous reports of racial profiling by the police who only stop Indian motorists, often inspecting their vehicles and mobile phones. “They were targeting Indians only. They checked everything - our driving licenses, identity cards and even our car boot,” said Dinesh.

“As pointed out by Anwar Ibrahim, we disagree with Hindraf putting the blame for the plight of poor Indians on the Federal Constitution and Article 153,“As far as we are concerned, it is the corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government that is responsible for the marginalisation and neglect of poor Indians and also the poor of all other races,” he said.

Disgusting that a democratic nation has such “emergency” status. Anwar Ibrahim will not question Article 153, but he’s a bloody snake, and is highly untrustworthy. He might be an opposition leader, but the ex-convict, and sodomite, is not to be trusted (neither is his party) - after all, it was during Anwar’s reign in parliament, that there was further Islamisation of the nation.

Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, who’s not within the country as usual (he’s actually at the Commonwealth head’s meeting), gives a warning to the people.

KAMPALA (Uganda): Do not take the police action against three activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as a racial issue, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.

“It has nothing to do with race. People should stop linking or viewing everything that happens in the country as a racial matter,” the Prime Minister said.

“We are not out to victimise anyone. If someone is wrong, then the person must be charged and brought to justice,” Abdullah said.

He said that if people were allowed to openly commit offences, others who were law-abiding citizens would become angry and upset with the authorities.

Nothing to do with race? Really? Just read the silly social contract, and understand what the fuck is going on in Malaysia. Malay rights? For exchange of citizenship? Excuse me, but I was born in Malaysia. I am a bumiputra (i.e. I am truly, a son of the soil). Why do I not get a 7% discount when I need to buy a property? Why do I not get places in local universities? This list can go on…

Funnily enough, he mentions that if someone does something wrong, the person should be charged and brought to justice - why wasn’t Hishamuddin Hussein, our great keris bearing idiot, not charged already? Don’t question the ketuanan Melayu (Malay rights), or feel the wrath of the keris?

Badawi, at the Commonwealth meeting. Pakistan, suspended from the Commonwealth. Why is Malaysia, not suspended, yet? Why is the international community not interfering? It seems now the memorandum will be delivered to Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace - I hope they go there in droves, too.

Via Malaysiakini again, in a great article titled: MIC: Hindraf is stooge of the opposition, I quote:

“It is evident that with the presence of Lim with Hindraf supporters yesterday, the Hindraf gathering (tomorrow) is planned by the stooges of DAP and to a certain extent, PKR,” said Saravanan (right) in a statement.

Does this mean that the MIC is a stooge of the Barisan Nasional? After all, Samy Vellu, was referred to as a “mandore” on Al Jazeera earlier. Which I understand, is a supervisor of an estate, who’s main passion is raping the rubber tappers.

All this aside, this is just the start of more to come. The people, are fed up. Tear gas, chemically-laced water, out of the cannons, all on peaceful protesters? This can only lead to trouble. Rumours of a 20 year old man, being killed? More than 400 detained? Innocent peaceful protesters, beaten up? Up to four police officers to detain one fellow?

I encourage all Malaysians to start reading Gandhi’s autobiography, which he aptly titled, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth”. I picked up a copy from India, a few years ago, for Rs. 100 (about RM10). Its a good read, and it will inspire more to have peaceful protests, via non-violent resistance. His principles behind satyagraha, are just inspiring. Read: A Gandhi-inspired mass civil disobedience in MalaysiaKini (an online newspaper, I can certainly recommend subscribing to).

Resources

If you have some bandwidth, catch some interesting videos (I hope to update this list, the moment more videos become available), all via Al Jazeera (if I’m feeling particularly energetic, I might analyse them later, for your enjoyment):

• An initial update
• A more interesting update, this time with an interview with S.K. Devamany, a Member of Parliament, representing the MIC
• There’s another video update, with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Musa Hassan, speaking about why the police acted the way they did
• Yet another video update, had Samy Vellu on the phone, along with one of the Hindraf lawyers being in the Al Jazeera studios, giving his view on things

Must read resources:

• Jeff Ooi’s Hindraf Rally… (Ethnic) Minority Report
• Ditesh Kumar’s The Hindraf Gathering, and The Hindraf Gathering, part deux
• Malaysia Today’s report
• While not a must read, take a look at Google’s Blog Search, on hindraf.

Technorati Tags: hindraf, rally, memorandum, indians, ethnic indians, malaysia, jalan ampang, bangsa malaysia, malaysian, protest, klcc, arrests, force, FRU, peaceful gathering, police roadblocks, article 153, badawi, social contract, stooges, videos, tear gas, water cannons, chemicals

To be fair, Kenny Sia over-did the “election” vs. “erection” thing. But the transcript, I would have thought was a joke, is actually true. So kudos to Kenny Sia for typing it all up.

Now, an Information Minister (Zainuddin Maidin), speaking to a television station, in that kind of language? Someone ought to send him for media training.

Highly entertaining. Watch the video. I mean, I thought he was stupid a few weeks back, just didn’t know he was this stupid.

In the newspapers, there are some quotable quotes from Zam slams Al Jazeera’s coverage:

• “They also cited a blogger as an independent journalist when the blogger is actually a DAP member,” he said. –> referring to Jeff Ooi, who in every respect is an independent journalist (isn’t that what bloggers generally are? I mean we refer to housewives [and to be politically correct, house-husbands] as domestic engineers…)
• “The police only used water cannons and tear gas and did not shoot anyone,” he said. –> shoot anyone? Really, who knew you could be shot for protesting. Well, maybe you can be in the current situation in Burma, or Pakistan, but in Malaysia? Shocking.
• Zainuddin said Al Jazeera should use its base in Malaysia as an opportunity to strengthen bonds with the West rather than to portray Malaysia as anti-West. –> how is the video in any way, portraying Malaysia as being anti-West? Is the idea of democracy, a Western one? What is the West anyway? India is the world’s largest democracy, and its hardly located in the “West”

All in all, its great to see Wikipedia being used to push truths (or untruths). Currently, as I write this, the neutrality of the article is being disputed. Article in question: 2007 Bersih rally.

Oppressive governments, like the one in Malaysia, is probably really feeling the pain of the Internet. Blogs, video distribution, immediate distribution, rallies being organised via the Net. Wind back a decade ago, and I think the then-prime minister, Dr. Mahathir had no idea of the power of the Internet. Even then, the bungaraya and sangkancil lists were being run, and the early birds saw what was coming. Arguably, soc.culture.malaysia on Usenet was a good venting point for folk too. Yes, there was online political activism, before Jeff Ooi ;)

Technorati Tags: politics, malaysia, information minister, zainuddin maidin, al jazeera, jeff ooi, DAP, english, bad language, media training, democracy, protest, freedom to protest, BERSIH

Some quick, quick notes with regards to Malaysia.

Twitter in Malaysia
It seems that the Malaysians have done it again! They’ve copied Twitter, and they have PacMee. The model requires you to have a mobile phone, so it is obviously more expensive than Twitter. But they’re probably aiming to go on popularity - they’ve got “famous” bloggers like cheesie, nicolekiss and kennysia. The first two are complete camwhores (which is why I have their feeds in Google Reader, so when I’m bored on the train, I get entertained), and they don’t exactly look loathsome, so probably have a good readership. What I found interesting with PacMee is that they’re doing and interesting contest - The Most Happening Babes on Friendster. It just goes to show that Friendster is still very much alive (oh, don’t talk about OpenSocial, just yet), and if you find a “babe”, you might be inclined to follow her on PacMee. All in all, making Maxis/Hotlink a pretty penny. They also have an API!

Bahasa Malaysia
My search-fu doesn’t stretch to show me much information about this archaic organisation, the Overseas Umno Club Alumni. Is it the fact that they’re Umno folk that are overseas? Should they then stop butting into Malaysian issues? These folk seem to think Bahasa Melayu is a better name for the national language. However, the Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin, has said “the use of the term Bahasa Malaysia was a more friendly and effective approach in the effort to unite Malaysians.” A name of a language to unite Malaysians? Surely they assume Malaysians in general are morons, right?

Temple Demolition
When the Taliban destroyed ancient Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan, it made world news. In Malaysia, the governmental agencies decided it was okay to wipe out 60 years of history for a Hindu temple in Kampung Rimba Jaya, not much was said and done. In addition, assaulting the Chief Priest, seemed like a good idea. All before the Hindu festival of Diwali/Deepavali, which ironically, happens today. What is Malaysia coming to? A disgusting place lacking religious freedoms? Let it be my next pet project to document these beautiful structures, lest they disappear.

Via Shashi Tharoor, he quotes a New York Times editorial piece by Tina Rosenberg: “Mobs often seek to destroy religious & ethnic sites, both to intimidate the people who hold them sacred and to send the message ‘you do not belong here.’” 50 years of independence?

Technorati Tags: politics, malaysia, twitter, pacmee, friendster, bahasa malaysia, language, temple, demolition, kampung rimba jaya, hindu

of all the hullabaloo of sending the first malaysian into space, only to find that the great sheikh muszaphar shukor is just a spaceflight participant (link). not an astronaut, but a space tourist. one that the government used tax payer dollars (okay, ringgit) to push him into. thats rm100 million to play children’s games and make teh tarik (pulled tea).

someone like mark shuttleworth, forked out his own cash, between USD$15 to USD$20 million to see space. this was an out-of-pocket expense, and now he’s the first south african in space. why are the malaysian tax-payers funding a space tourist?

malaysian spin-doctors better not make sheikh a laughing stock. now they’re talking about him praying more than 80 times a day, as the first muslim to go to space during ramadhan. was this one large joke?

p/s: rm100 million roughly equates to around USD$30 million. why was mark’s independent trip cheaper than this tax-payer-funded instance?

Update: Read Ditesh’s take titled The Angkasawan Programme is a political sham.

Technorati Tags: politics, tax payer, spaceflight participant, malaysian in space, first malaysian in space, sheikh muszaphar shukor, corruption, laughing stock, malaysia

so, the national union of malaysian muslim students are a bunch of morons. first they make gwen stefani dress up, because she’s got a past record of (get this!) “indecent dressing and obscenity”. these same jokers have made beyonce cop out on having a concert in malaysia. and they were the same jokers that got the authorities to fine the pussycat dolls rm10,000 for indecent exposure.

the idiotic student group says that the artists “need to understand our culture”. bloody tools don’t seem to understand that there’s more culture elsewhere, than their stolen culture. oh, and did i mention more cultures besides the muslim culture? its ironic that indonesia probably has more muslims than malaysia, only to find out that beyonce can dress up the way she wants there.

wong chun wai, in the star, has told them to pick on a worthy issue. claims that they have 10,000 dumb members, who’s Abdul Muntaqim to say gwen’s performance and attire is not suitable for malaysian culture? what is malaysian culture? is it not a copy, mix and merge from all the cultures that landed in malaysia? portuguese, british, indian, chinese, etc. and whats wrong with youths “emulating the Western lifestyle”? watching tv alone will get you that far.

these students, bums, who are provided for by the corrupt regime running malaysia, have nothing else to do. they don’t need to study, they don’t need to pay their fees, heck, they even get a huge allowance. hence, they spend their time on trivial issues. if you don’t like gwen, beyonce, etc. don’t bloody go to their concerts! no one is holding a gun to their heads and saying that they must go. or their puny-minded friends must go.

all i can say is, i’m disgusted. 50 years of nationhood, and malaysia is taking further steps back, on a daily basis.

Technorati Tags: politics, concert, gwen stefani, beyonce, malaysia, malaysian muslim students, national union of malaysian muslim students, culture, lifestyle