Saturday, October 04, 2008

Bloggers news for the Week

Raja Petra to get Special Diet from Syed Hamid

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said officials at the detention centre would be able to accommodate special dietary requirements of detainees.

“If people have a special diet, they will be given a special diet. He should inform the authorities,” Syed Hamid told The Star yesterday.

Syed Hamid was responding to a news report, which quoted Raja Petra’s wife Marina Lee Abdullah as saying her husband had requested for a change in his diet. According to her, Raja Petra could not stomach the usual rice and dishes, which were often smelly.

The blogger had asked prison authorities if they could serve food like bread and eggs instead, as he had vomited many times and suffered from diarrhoea after eating the food.

Marina said camp authorities told her Raja Petra’s request could probably be implemented after Hari Raya. She also expressed disappointment that she was not allowed to meet her husband in the open courtyard like the families of other detainees but had to meet him in his cell on both her visits.


Jeff Ooi gets car dressing down

Vandals smashed Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi’s car rear windscreen, loosened the tyre valve caps and placed a heap of rubbish on his vehicle parked at the Jalan P. Ramlee-Jalan Terengganu junction on Wednesday night.

Nothing was stolen from the vehicle.

Police have classified the case as mischief.

Ooi hoped the police would catch the culprit soon and said that it cost him RM320 in repairs.


Sammy Chan's life is a drama

Sammy Chan posted her apology on her blogsite today and called on everyone to forgive her for her shortsighted outburst in a Sept 23 posting.

“I offer an unconditional apology to every single person out there whom I've offended. I'll not be unfair to other races again and I'll learn to only get angry at those who really hurt me instead of generalising them according to race.”

Chan made the racial remarks after her mobile phone was snatched by two alleged Indian youths when she was having lunch at her office in Kuala Lumpur.

“I did not really mean to stir racial sentiments or offend the Indian community,” she told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

“I did not expect my personal comments to become a national racial issue and invoke such a major public outburst. I’m extremely sorry for the whole controversy caused by my immature and angry remarks.

“I sincerely and honestly apologise to all Malaysians, not just Indians, as my comments have offended them,” said Chan.

The blogger’s inflammatory posting earned the wrath of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which had lodged a police report urging the authorities to take action on the matter.

Chan said she was prepared to cooperate with the police in their investigation and said she would even personally apologise to Hindraf national coordinator RS Thanenthiran over her posting.

Thanenthiran said Hindraf would accept Chan’s apology.



Sources:

The Star on RPK's Special Diet

The Star on Jeff Ooi's V for Vandalism

Malaysiakini on Sammy Chan's life drama

(BTW, Sammy's Blog: sammy-bammy.blogspot.com/ is only for invited guest only. I'm not one of those invited; so I can't access it).

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25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm puzzling. How the hell is sammy chan can expect "all Malaysian" can read her/his "sincere" apology if the blog is only for invited guest? Imagine if Malaysiakini didnt report it. Who the hell is going to know? Doesnt seem sincere enough. Its like you are asking for forgiveness from your mother by sending email but she has no access to her email.
?????

Avatar said...

Dear Maverick,

You can still access it via the cached pages in Google. Do a search and click on the cached link, not the main one.

I've read it and it was, well quite inflammatory. More like a personal diary rant.

Great way to get (bad) publicity for her blog though.

Rgds

Anonymous said...

Let's see. Indians steal her phone and she is angry at Indians. Amazingly enough Hindraf is more outraged at someone calling a spade a spade than they are at the fact that the spade exists. And the spade my friend is that the Indian community commits a disproportionate amount of crime. Yet Hindraf choose to ignore it.

I am really sad that the good blogger did not have the guts to stand by her statement and ask the Indian community to clean itself up first.

Anonymous said...

She is a racist alright. She could have raved and ranted against the youths who snatched her HP without having to refer to their race. It is these two individuals who committed a crime against her, not the RACE.

And please don't cite immaturity or age as the excuse for her racial outburst, it is never too young to have human decency.

Just for the record, I am Chinese and not Indian.

Anonymous said...

Long ago, there was a country in Europe that carried out propaganda to brainwash its citizens that they were supreme to others and therefore they had to conquer and rule other countries. And then there was a country in Asia that kept telling its citizens from young that if they want to have the resources in the world, then they must be prepared to fight and rule the other countries. The two countries since then had brought untold misery to the world.
In our country, those political parties that survive based on race politics will keep on telling the people the importance in protecting their race and religion. They even have programs like the BTN to brainwash the people from young as well as the civil servants about the need to propagate the racial thinking in all fields and their ketuanan towards others. They will tell the people that they will champion the interest of their race above all. Without their protection, the people will not survive in the open. So the people must give them the full support to propagate such ideology. Just like that two dangerous countries, these political parties are doing the same to fortify their political foundation, but in doing so, they are bringing this country to a catastrophic end in the future. Their continuing action to segregate the communities in this country is doing untold damages to the wellbeing of the nation who needs its citizens to be united to meet the global challenges it faces today. Unfortunately these communal political souls only care for their own survival in the present and will never venture out of their propaganda game for the best interest of the nation and its citizens. Divide and rule will be their continuing battle call while the country moves in its peril.

Jackie Lee said...

In the early morning there was a heat argument on my website about Sammy Chan and it was aired lived with updated hits she received until she shut off the blog and open for invited guest only.

please refer :

http://malaysianshares.blogspot.com/2008/10/malaysiakini-bukit-aman-to-arrest.html

please read the comments also

Anonymous said...

First Botak said he had nothing to do with the decision about RPK's arrest.

Now he says RPK can have a special diet. Isn't there an inconsistency here?

If the Police had the final say about RPK's arrest, the prison authorities should have the final say about RPK's diet.

Sadly, as facts go, both these bodies report to the Home Minister.

Maverick SM said...

Avatar,

She is young and is learning to co-exist in this complex society of ours.

Jackie Lee,

Thanks for the link. I will read the articles and comments.

Anonymous said...

blogger sammy chan should be ISA ed to taste dog's food like Tlesa Kioq.

Anonymous said...

Let say if it was a whiteman stole her phone, I wonder what she would have said then.

"Fuhyoo my phone so canggih even whiteman want to pinjam."

mangkuk betul!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous why didn't you suggest that politicians and teachers who made racists remarks to be ISA ed as well ? Is it because sammy do not have any 'defensive mechanism' to protect her ? Is this fair ? I do not condone her actions but i believe she wrote it out of intense anger at that moment while some politicians and teachers did so with intentions.

Helen said...

Mave,

I'm really hopping mad at the Sammy Chan incident. I've not read her posting, but, I believe anyone can sound off what they want on their personal blog. It's the blogger's liberty. Not to mention Sammy is not a political figure and her rants are not politically motivated. What world are we in if we cannot say what we want without somebody going to the police calling us racists?
Sorry lar, that H organization that reported to the police won't get my sympathy in the future.

Maverick SM said...

RotiBhai,

That's not an issue. She is learning to co-exist in a complex society of ours.

The Penquin,

It doesn't matter what Anon says; it's his opinion only. What we are concern is what the govt says; that will affect the community and the society as a whole.

Anonymous said...

hi
well sammy did a whammy with her outburst that made some generalisation about a race. did propose she make her blog private if that is what she wanted it to be in the first place. but sad we have vigilantes who seemed more a pharisee than our simone sammy. it's sad BolehLand likes to persecute those who are kinda of 'ordinary' than those who are even more guilty over this racist thingy. see. www.jonathan66-my.blogspot.com

Getreal said...

I do not condone her outburst against the Indian race no matter what happened to her and who did it. However, at least she apologised. Whether her apology is sincere or not will only be known to her and GOD. This is in contrast to that UMNO member Ahmad Ismail who made those unkind remarks about the Chinese and stubbornly refused to apologise.

Anonymous said...

Today when we talk of certain occupations, the race factor inevitably comes in...e.g. Ah Longs (chinese), police (malays), small-time thieves(indians), robbers (indons). BTW, RPK should take care that his bread and drinks are not from Sanlu, i.e. not melamine-tainted

Anonymous said...

Ahmad the racist is done even have to face the police report, and no action action him. the 3 year ban is by the party, not legal action.

can we have Sammy boss coming out and say we and Sammy from working there for 3 years, is that ok?

if you are in the right party, you can above the law.

Anonymous said...

wonder if sammy chan is related to semi value! confused.

zewt said...

it was not invited guest yesterday. this certainly does not sound like unconditional apology.

Maverick SM said...

Helen,

Liberty is never absolute. No one has the right to hurt a community just because you are hurt.

I think Sammy's apology is sensible and acceptable.

Jonathan,

We have selective prosecution; thus we have to be more careful.

However, that does not give an individual a right to be contemptuous and be asinine.

Getreal,

You are right. But we have selective prosecution and persecution.

Zewt,

I think her blog is flooded with racist remarks which is unbearable. Though she accepted them as appropriate response, however, it could have been difficult for her to be threatened. Thus, I think Sammy did the right thing to restrict commenters.

Anonymous said...

Yes Sammy has apologized and now we should forgive her.
However, I think what Hindraf did is right in highlighting it. I'm happy that they brought this up as this is a good proof of how a particular race is perceived in Malaysia. If anything, this case is a good example of how systematic marginalisation of the Indians have socially affected them to the extent that a 21 year old girl has chosen to degrade the whole community. Yet, the government still chooses to close one eye to the plight of indians in Malaysia claiming only Bumis need special attention. It's time to help these so called drunken, rapist, thieves so that we don't create more Sammy's in the future.

Anonymous said...

Mave,

I understand what you say about liberty and the whole picture in general. But, if you look at Sammy's case per se, I don't see the need to seek 'police' intervention for what is written. Maybe H org could furnish us with some reliable stats to disprove Sammy's outburst?

Helen

Maverick SM said...

Helen,

The police received a report; as a fiduciary duty, they have to investigate. If they investigate fairly, they should just give Sammy a warning; that's all.

Anonymous said...

strict rule demands strict action. you would not know that she goes telling her peers "ha, i go teased the community and with simple apology (after amended 3 times) i finally got away, try this next time".....

you would not want to let a snatch thief getaway after he begged for mercy, repented that he won't do again, and kept saying he got 10 children to feed. it should let the judge to decide his/her fate. same goes to some racist wannabe, you want ppl to forgive and repent, talk to the judge. take a look at first world country like sgpura, which famous for apprehending bloggers for citing racist remark. and this is no ordinary remark (made the pendatang and keling remark so inferior), the blogger challenged the community to sue her, and she's 22, not 12 yrs old!

and don't say that she made the remark out of frustration - it's her own typical rich brat stupidity for openly "displayed" the H/p....

Maverick SM said...

Denzook,

I do not understand why a simple issue which just deserve a rebuttal and possible a stern educating advice is now made as if it is a heinous crime committed.