Announcement: Seminar on internet regulatory reform, Singapore, 21 June

Or, in other words, as much de-regulation as possible.

The bloggers group I belong to - that is proposing greater liberalisation of the internet in Singapore - is organising this seminar to share and discuss our views. Please see the announcement below for details.

From The Online Citizen:

—–

Media Release

There will be a public forum this Saturday, 21 June 2008, on Internet regulatory reform. Organised by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, it
aims to contribute ideas to the government’s ongoing review of Internet regulations. It will discuss the proposals submitted to the government recently by a group of independent bloggers.

Mr Arun Mahizhnan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, will provide a bird’s eye view with his opening remarks. Members of the bloggers’ initiative for Internet reform will present the key elements of their proposals, and there will lots of time set aside for questions and open debate.

Says Assistant Professor Cherian George from the Wee Kim Wee School: “Some of the key issues to be discussed are deeply contentious, even within the blogging community. We don’t expect a consensus at the end of the day, but we can at least aim for a better understanding of the various positions.”

Mr Choo Zheng Xi, editor-in-chief of The Online Citizen: “Public awareness and discussion are critical. It is important that as many stakeholders as possible are involved in shaping the future of new
media, and there is no more important stakeholder than every single member of the public.”

Mr Tan Tarn How, a media researcher with the Institute of Policy Studies: “The proposals call for a fundamental reassessment of Singapore’s Internet regulations. Anyone who is concerned about the current regulation regime for new media - its philosophical underpinnings, its enforceability, and its wider effects on society - ought to give the proposal serious consideration, and the forum is a good occasion for doing it.”

The forum, formally titled “Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform”, will be held at the Function Hall (level 5) of the URA Centre on Maxwell Road, on Saturday 21, June 2008, at 2 p.m.

Admission is free and the event will be open to media reporting.

To reserve a seat, please register by signing up with the online group
<irr-singapore-subscribe@googlegroups.com>

—–

Hope to see you there.

Bloggers Unite for human rights

From Bloggers Unite:

While the words might change from country to country and are sometimes taken for granted, human rights represent one of the universally agreed upon ideas — that all people are born with basic rights and freedoms that include life, liberty, and justice. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations.

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15. What those topics may include — the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the Internet. What is important is that on one day, thousands of bloggers unite and share their unified support of human rights everywhere.

What you can do to participate:

1. Before May 15th, add a badge to your blog and spread the word.

2. On May 15th get the word out and blog about a human rights issue!

3. Spread the love, share your post in the Bloggers Unite Group.

“Thai women are fighters” - for World Press Freedom Day 2008

In 2003, Thai media rights activist Supinya Klangnarong was sued by former Thai prime minister’s Thaksin Shinawatra’s Shin Corp over comments quoted in a Thai newspaper. She never imagined the case would be drawn out over three years and have possible far-reaching repercussions.

This was an impression I received from watching the documentary of her saga, “The Truth Be Told: the cases against Supinya Klangnarong”. It was shown at this year’s 21st Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) recently. The first public and international screening outside of Thailand, the film was only previously shown in Bangkok to a private, invitation-only audience last September.*

Supinya had stated in the Thai Post on 16 July 2003 that Shin Corp had benefitted through favourable government policies, as it was politically connected to the Thaksin government and suffered from conflicts of interest. Because they claimed that Supinya’s allegations adversely affected Shin Corp’s stock value and credit rating, the conglomerate sued both her and the newspaper for criminal and civil libel. The latter suit sought 400 million baht (that’s about 18.2 million Singapore dollars, give or take a few hundred thousand) in compensation.

Photo from Poakpong

Director Pimpaka Towira showed key snapshots of her life throughout the years of her trial, culminating in the Criminal Court throwing out the criminal suit in March 2006 and Shin Corp dropping the civil suit in May that same year. For the former lawsuit, the court ruled that the article in the Thai Post was presented in good faith and in the public’s best interest.

The film actually has a subtler but more powerful underlying theme - that of an activist fighting for media reform to put power into the hands of the ordinary people; to control national resources such as radio and television broadcasts, from production to consumption. The timing of the screening in Singapore was incidentally appropriate for this year’s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, and as expressed by the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) focus this year - empowering people through media freedom and access to information.

No one said it would be easy

And as I post this, it is still going on.

In my previous post about the success of Malaysia’s opposition political party coalition in the recent polls, I gushed about how they broke the Barisan Nasional’s two-thirds majority in parliament. Well, they’ve since started to have their share of problems.

The latest is how the new (opposition) state government of Penang have come under fire from civil society representatives for their first Councillors list, which did not include a sufficient number of non-business-based civil society organisations/NGOs (four out of seven organisations in the line-up were from Chambers of Commerce). This was among other complaints such as the distributing of posts among party members instead of on merit, as well as the lack of transparency in the selection process.

This started with the outgoing BN/Umno government shredding all manner of documents in the Selangor state office (of which were caught by reporters with cameras), to “missing” official papers at Kedah’s Menteri Besar (chief executive/minister) and executive councillors’ offices, to reports of initial spats within the opposition alliance about issues of ideology, party policies (e.g. the implementation of hudud laws in Kedah), and who gets to be chief exec of the state (in Perak).

Then Selangor new Menteri Besar gets flak from my friend Susan and Malaysian human rights organisation Suaram regarding his proposed policies on migrant workers.

Malaysia, boleh! Opposition wins significant victory in general election 2008

Congratulations to the people of Malaysia! Opposition wins in 5 states.

The Malaysia general elections of Saturday, 8 March 2008 have resulted in stunning victories for the opposition coalition, Barisan Rakyat. The largest parties - DAP, PKR and PAS - have between them taken the state governments of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor.

Excluding Kelantan, the opposition wins in the other four states have been described as a “shock defeat” by Bernama news because the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition has lost its two-thirds majority “for the first time in history” (since 1969, that is. Malaysian history, lah). Instead it has won a simple majority.

PAS retained Kelantan, which has been governed by the Islamic-values based party since 1990. From that single opposition-governed state since the last 2004 election, there are now five. The BN government still have overall control of the country, made up of 13 states and three “Federal Territories” (two of which, in my humble opinion, are really too small to count).

Among those who ran for the elections and won parliamentary or state seats are fellow bloggers and acquaintances Eli Wong and Jeff Ooi, from the information I received. I’m not completely sure what the status of Eli’s win is, like whether she would become a member of the State Legislative Assembly in Selangor’s Bukit Lanjan state seat (is it dependent on who wins the overarching parliamentary Subang seat - of which Bukit Lanjan is one of three state seats - in Selangor?); but apparently Jeff has for the first time an opportunity to be part of the Penang state government. Congrats!