My Anthem

Friday, February 10, 2006

RIP: Sarawak Tribune

Subtitled: Do you have to kill a fly with a hammer?


DESIDERATA is in mourning.
It was anticipated.
As a Concerned Malaysian, yesterday I sent a PERSONAL APPEAL to
dear Esteemed Prime Minister Pak Lah.
The decision of the Cabinet the day earlier was left in the PM's hands to "implement".
And he fell to pressure as the NST prefaced it with a report making out the suspension was alread a "fait accompli", as fellow blogger JeffOoi of Screenshots.com put in.

Desiderata joined sister Yan in Catsville -- I think Howsy in lundun joined us too, I felt his smell and spell! - in saying prayers for the 300 employees of Sarwak Tribune, especially the Night Editor -- LESTER MELANYI -- who was, in Desi's HO, made a "fall guy".


In our schooldays, whenever there was an Obituary, we always cracked RIP might also stand for RISE IF POSSIBLE
instead of the sombre Rest In Peace.

mGf based in lundun wrote the Ob for Sarawak Tribune earlier, with a pic somemore. He's a gifted one.

Desi, less gifted, but knotty in his wordplay, today will demonstrate SOLIDARITY
with the press fraternity in Sarawak -- especially for the 300 families of the workers at ST now seeking a job in such hard ecoonomic times.
As a Freelance Journalist, Desiderata feels for the ST ex-staff -- but not the bosses! -- Desi wonders if Pak Lah in his promotion of a "CARING SOCIETY" took into consideration the welfare of the 300 ST employees and their families?
Did his stupid, unthinking, unfeeling, out-of-touc-with-the-grassroots, nimcompoop cabinet pressure him to use a hammer to kill a fly?


Desiderata-YLChong will "close" for SE7EN DAYS for normal postings,
But it will remain "open" to all GUESTS, especailly to ST ex-workers,
to pen their thoughts --
whether in sympathy or trying to lift the affected parties' spirits a li'l --
Desi relies of my EsteemedReaders' wisdom.

ALSO, A PERSONAL NOTE TO G7 DELEGATES, PLEASE BE OFFICIALLY INFORMED THE MEETING
SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY EXACTLY ONE WEEK (YES, SE7DAES!), TILL SATRURDAY, FEB 18, 2006. MINTA MAAF, EH!


MEANWHILE, I WELCOME GUESTS TO -- Please use the Comments' Channel to post your writings
and Desi will review them at midnite to try to "promote"
the insightful ones along a theme to the Frontpage
The following Good Morn.

While I express solidarity with the workers, I feel there is a base to think the ST Management are "betraying" their workers' trust.
After "digesting" the news reports, especially the one as carried by The Star page 4 quoting the newspaper's editorial advisor Senator Datuk Idris Buang, Desi's heart indeed sank into Da Darkness.

There is a cutting saying: With such friends, who needs enemies?

I promise Desi will add to today's half-commentary at 3-4.00pm as he has to end here to cari-cari makan.

R.I.P.

SARAWAK TRIBUNE
(1945-2006)


from The Star, frontpage

Tribune suspended

KUALA LUMPUR: The permit of The Sarawak
Press Sdn Bhd, publisher of Sarawak Tribune, has
been suspended immediately until further notice
over its publication of caricatures of Prophet
Muhammad last Saturday.
Priome Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi, who is also the Internal Security Minister,
announced the decision yesterday -- a day after the
Cabinet discussed the daily's reproduction of the
caricatures that were published by several news-
papers in Europe.
>TURN TO PAGE 4

Q: Did you see I "reproduced" the format as it is
in The Star with the para breaks as they appear in
the newspaper. Am I suffering some phobia or what?


UPDATE at 10.00PM:


Sorry folks, I couldn't make the deadline of 4PM to give thee an Update as [promised. My afternoon Editor dared not show up for work -- fallin from the Sarawak Tribune and the strict implementation of the PPPA 1984 (PPPA stands for Printing Press and Publications Act one day, Printing Presses and Publication Act another day, and finally Printing Presses and Publications Act, yes, all spotted in the course of the past week! according to one large circulating -- ovulating?-- Enrund daily...
R.I.P. ChallengiA -- Guess which is the newspaper?
PRIZE: Free subscription to the paper - online, as long as you can RIP!

Sien-lah, paying RM1.20 and we are being re-educated, then un-educated, finally sent back to England on MIRA scholarships ...:) some lucky bast...s!

One reason I was not able to Post from 4PM-10PM was reading, then puking -- I think all the Yee Sang I ate over the past 13 days of CNY came out! Can I seek a refund ah? -- this:

from The Star (I referred to briefly this moUrnin...)
Friday February 10, 2006


Indefinite suspension 61-year-old Sarawak

KUCHING: The 61-year-old Sarawak Tribune may not hit the streets anymore even after the suspension order has been rescinded, said the newspaper’s editorial advisor Senator Datuk Idris Buang.

He said the daily’s board of directors had decided to self-impose an indefinite suspension on publication at their meeting in Sibu yesterday morning, before the Government issued the suspension order.

“There may not be a Sarawak Tribune anymore,” he told a press conference at the newspaper’s office in Jalan Abell last night.

Idris said the board fully supported the Federal Government’s stand to suspend the licence of the Sarawak Tribune.

“We fully uphold the views and sentiments expressed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,” he said.

“We are extremely ashamed of the damage and hurt caused to all Malaysians and the country due to the gross insensitivity and lack of responsibility on the part of whosoever involved among the staff in question, particularly the editor-on-duty.

“We join all Malaysians in condemning this act (reproduction of the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad),” he added.

Asked about the position of group editor Toman Mamora, Idris replied: “We cannot reveal anything at the moment.”

DESIDERATA:

This guy is "amazing" -- a newspaper's boss "supporting" the suspension (killing off!) of his own newspaper!

Then he added insult to injury that he spoke ion behalf of "all Malaysians ...on TWO occasions.

Hey, Desiderata --I'm a blue-blooded journalist, am proud of it! -did not wish to be represented by you. Especially a politician first, not even a journalist second!
Did I whisper earlier: With such friends, who needs enemies?

The other "friend" refers to Toman.
Encik Toman, according to JeffOOi's latest entry, had relinquished his post as ST's Editor-in-chief today, describing it as "an honourable retirement from journalism", quoting MerdekaReview.

I herewith reproduce with some "editing" what I wrote at Converrsation at Screenshots:

"This guy Toman and his big boss Idris Buang were scapegoating Lester Malanyi all the way, now Toman wants to flag himself as a "honourable" hero. Yes, I heard Mark Antony say so many times too (after Julius Caesar's murder): Brutus and all the assasins were honourable men ... transfer the Roman public square to the Malaysian poliitcal (BN) stage ... and Shakespeare would have quietly smiled in his grave...
Maybe Toman will place some bouquets at the Sarawak Tribune tombstone: R.I.P. -- I hope it stands for my more optimistic (when I was a child...)version: RISE IF POSSIBLE.

With friends like Idris and Toman, the people at ST need no enemies..."

Do you agree, mGf and mGe ...e stands for electronic-lah, not enemies!
Desi has NO enemies -- rivals maybe,foes perhaps, even Devil-nemesis mayhaps, NO ENEMIES!

Hey, my ER< what are you doing up at 10.33PM in this steal of the Malaysian nite?
You have work to do tomorrow, yes?

Oh, it's TGIF! I forGAVE!

GOoD Night, Sleep Thee Well,
Tomorrow is another GOoD Morning!:)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

a fly will never understand the hammer. If it will, then it will become a hammer...

sweetspirits said...

Well Desi
Just to brighten you up ,take a peek at my youngest daughters site.
http://pic3.piczo.com/go/announced

Gucci Girl is her cyber nick,,
cheerz tcz

Howsy said...

Yes, I'm a notty boi! Hehe :P

Seriously, why would Lester wants to 'catch a worm and insert it into his a**hole' in the first place. Unless he is living under a coconut shell, he couldn't have missed the hoo-haa all around the world on those cartoons.

Things are very fishy ...a conspi or sabo mayhaps?

It's the power to the bloggers now to compliment the mainstream media (MSM). But then again, what is the internet (and broadband) penetration in Malaysia?

chong y l said...

hi anonymous:
I'd rather be a hammer than a fly
yes, I would, if I only could
i'd surely would
Then I'd hammer all the Senators like the Buang kaki
Sampai=-sampai all his companies mati-mati
Then he can laugh somemore
To build more tombstones?
I though I was reading "Gunfight at the Ok Corral in Modern Times" when the Boss gangs up with the Bandits to rape his own daughter -- I think I'm 1/2way to 'ollywoood!:)

chong y l said...

sweets:

yes, will surely visit proud daughter's site, before I sleep tonight cos I dowan these Malaysian nightmares like the one hitting Sarawak Tribune...:)
Thaks :) plus
pass one :) to yr daughter2!

chong y l said...

howsy:

is my apply for SIEN nespaper APproved -- or art thopu waiting me to offer KOpi-oh money?
Tehtarik kenORknot?

Many things in Malaysia are in deed fishy -- and this is the Year of the Dog!
Oh, these politikus also lohsang!:(

Hey, I like yr Roti banjir better, like in space summore; can raise enuf money to invest in my
"spiriteDestination fire"?
Howsy and Desi organise a joint Launch, ok? Invite all the brave Sarawak papers, even their bosses, pay for their meals2, maybe add some arse-..c?

I agree with your eCons Theory -- do another Sarawak entry ala UMNO-to-Sabah? Can I jointV to write a PhD thesis on this ah? Your enrund combined with Desi's flighten the English professers, noh? Ohmah!:(

Don't llah, not in the posterior opening --they can tahan one, skin thick like Crocodile.
Now I dare now talke my "mentees" to dine next to Dat Farm Restron...

Broadband penetration -- here they only push for narrow, PEN-istration ala Cowboi on that Hill...:(

Enuf script-writ(H)for now, Seya!
RISE IF POSSIBLE, OK!:):) to both of us, JVers!

JOEPSC said...

Hi Desi,

I see two groups of politicians at play here: one group may be considered the "directors" (not necessarily intellectual) and the other goup consists of "ants" (common dim-witted runners).

These "directors", by virtue of their political leanings, work for their own interests first, and the interests of 'friendly' paying parties who are interested in this specific event. The "ants" being mere followers will only do the biddings of their "directors" for some smaller benefits thrown at them like breadcrumbs.

The "directors" called for the closure of ST in Sarawak, in the hpyocritical veil of being devout, but have hidden agenda, for examples, to implant a new paper or transplant an existing mainland paper into the eastern territory; or to get even with ST for whatever reasons they have been harbouring. Having your paper in the east is equivalent to controlling what the people there should hear. The "ants" will start instigating through loud noises in parliamentary meetings or in public to give impression of a "majority" voice.

Meanwhile, the innocent folks lost their livelihood in ST while a few senior ones will have "new" responsibilities soon, all played out according to the "directors'" script. The irony is that these politicians themselves do not serve the great religion of Islam any favour, by displaying their unforgiving and selfish nature.

Not everyone can be an "effective" politician - you need to have 'metallic' components, such as, the heart, hands, etc. Furthermore, you need to gamble with your soul as stake! To lose one's life is only a one-time affair, but to lose one's soul, is eternal!

We must pray that our politicians have, at least, some measure of mercy for those struggling to make ends meet. Is that so hard to expect of a fellow human being?