A crude (oil) awakening New

A crude (oil) awakening

New York Times: Oil prices surged to nearly $40 a barrel, their highest point since Iraq invaded Kuwait 12 years ago, and then retreated.

Independent UK: The price of a gallon of fuel on British forecourts exceeded the £3.50 mark yesterday. Government urged to cut fuel tax as oil price soars to 13-year high

Thanks to Farouk for your email. I hear you say:

"... The CEO (of Wal-Mart: Fortune 500, revenue US$219 billion) had disclosed that approximately 25% of (his) business comes from people who are living paycheque to paycheque, without bank accounts, etc. He expressed concern that any upward shift in oil prices would take away the money these customers would perhaps spend at Wal-Mart."

Oil is a hopeless Old Economy? Newsweek Feb 17 quotes Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates:

"The International Monetary Fund estimates that a $15 increase in oil prices over a year would directly cut world economic growth by 1 percent—a loss of more than $300 billion from world GDP.

"... Also particularly at risk are developing countries, which see their import bills go up, and their ability to pay decline, as high oil prices also weaken the markets for their own exports."

Screenshots of a pending war

Screenshots of a pending war

GOOD CATCH of the day at Guardian UK:

Protagonists: If not war then what?

• Ronan Bennett: 'Any fool can make war'


• Zadie Smith: 'We proceed in Iraq as hypocrites and cowards'


• Julian Barnes: 'The US and UK don't care about Iraqis - they've been killing them for years'

Antagonists: Disarm, Moral Ground, Exile, Democracy After Saddam

• Simon Tisdall: War remains the option of first resort - not last

Short takes; My Streamyx is

Short takes; My Streamyx is unstable

I BEGIN to distrust those TM Net - Streamyx guys who answered my feedbacks on their service quality.

Incidents of stranded packets while logged on had been happening the past one month or so. Two days ago, the problem got compounded as my ADSL link became unstable. It got auto disconnected every few minutes. If I didn't save as I type, my web-based blog updates would be gone. It's very painful as I type at mind speed, with a scribe's juices flowing in orgasm.

Every time I faced any connectivity problems with Streamyx - which had been plentiful - I would always check my Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), my PC, all cables and connections, and even time manager for my NIC, before I complained. Any faults beyond the last mile to the Internet gateway would be Streamyx's baby. This time round, I am satisfied my properties are functioning perfectly well.

My office Streamyx (I Mbps) has been slow for months and it went down for several hours yesterday. This morning, I had to make 6 calls to the so-called Customer Interactive Centre before someone answered to tell me Streamyx was still down - central server problems the guy said - and it's nation-wide. "Nationwide problem" has conveniently become a new mantra for Streamyx guys to cover their arse for not knowing what to do with the micro-management of specific problems.

But this morning's "nationwide problem" isn't true. My home broadband in USJ Subang Jaya is still down this morning. But my office Streamyx was already up since 4.30pm yesterday, and it's still up and running right now as I blog this. Oon Yeoh, who lives on the other side away from my town, has good Streamyx last night. Though he, like me, keeps his fingers crossed every night he goes back home, praying that Streamyx won't screw us up when we blog.

These Streamyx guys really wasted my time. They should have learned after 18 months in the business of brandband. From their CEO to the janitor should know I don't give a f*ck if their NOC got burned down. You have a contract with me, you take my money that you dictated, you just need to get my problems fixed.

Beware! You are made to pay for every second while you wait for the other end of 1300-88-9515 to finally decide to take your call, because the CustCare line is not using toll-free 1800 number. And they have the cheek to tell you "Please hold on, you call is important to us..."

I suggest if TM Net can't outsource a good Customer Call Centre operator, the board of directors had better start outsourcing their CEO, COO and CTO - before they themselves get outsourced. If not, we should each buy one lot of Telekom shares and f*ck the directors upside-down at every AGM.

Today, you are going to see very short blogs from me. Without always-on residential broadband, I can't surf, I can't exchange emails and I can't blog the way I wanted.

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Blair gets bloody nose GUARDIAN:

Blair gets bloody nose

GUARDIAN: Rebel vote stuns Blair: Tony Blair's Iraqi war strategy was shaken to the core last night. 121 Labour backbenchers voted against war, defying a three-line whip to join a cross-party revolt - the biggest rebellion ever against a British government in a century. Timely Tory support led by Duncan Smith helped save the PM.

BBC News: Blair presses on for a second UN resolution for now.

The superlative race CNN/Associated Press:

The superlative race

CNN/Associated Press: The replacement to the Osama-hit World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York will be the tallest building in the world. It takes the shape of angular buildings with a 1,776-foot spire. Click here to view the design. The original WTC tower once stood at 1,350 feet, while Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers stands at 1,483 feet.

Will Dr Mahathir's successor be obsessed with the superlative race?

Excellent! Is her scholarship on

Excellent! Is her scholarship on the way?

Yap Sui Lin of SM (P) Kuen Cheng created history yesterday by scoring 16As in the 2002 SPM examination.

She had fifteen 1As in all the subjects she took except for Bahasa Melayu, for which she got 2A. Her 15 1As came from English, Chinese, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Moral Education, History, Art, English Literature, Commerce, Economics, Accounting and English 1119.

No, she is definitely not a nerd.

She lost her father when she was 10 years old. She was a slow starter who began to speak only after three (Guangming Daily). She has a string of awards and achievements from co-curricular activities, she helps coach orphaned students at Rumah Hope.

Her mother, Dr Gan Lay Chin, left her job as a geologist after her husband’s death and devoted her time to looking after Sui Lin, living off her husband’s pension. Her husband had served with Jabatan Telekom for 21 years.

Sui Lin studied both arts and science as she aspires to be a financial engineer, a profession which demands a combination of knowledge in both science and commerce. She will apply for scholarships, mindful that her mother is a single parent. I hope she gets many offers and may she succeed all the way.

2002 SPM exam produced 663 candidates who obtained 1A for all subjects, and 2,732 candidates obtaining a combination of 1A and 2As, an improvement over the previous year's results. Syabas Malaysia!

Rising Sun MAGIC FIGURES! Circulation:

Rising Sun

MAGIC FIGURES! Circulation: Audited Average Net Distribution of 142,966 copies per day. Readership: 80% are below 40 years old, 63% are white collar, and 100% from urban.

The Sun is now effectively Malaysia's second largest English daily in terms of distribution by strategic locations. I learned this when I attended The Sun's presentation on its readership profile yesterday.

A free newspaper with a controlled circulation (Weekdays 150,000 copies, Saturday 110,000), The Sun has to get its circulation audited and endorsed by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Malaysia (ABC) before its membership into the authoritative trade body is accepted. The Sun became an ABC member last month.

According to ABC's audit for the period July through December, here are the stats for average daily circulation of the three leading English papers:

• The Star (The People's Paper): 268,596


• The Sun: 142,966


• New Straits Times (All the News That Matter): 114,349

Caveat: The comparison is limited to where The Sun targets its audience, i.e. PMEB's in market centres and key cities that cover Kuala Lumpur, Selangor (PJ, Shah Alam, Klang), Penang, Johor (JB), Perak (Ipoh), Melaka (Malacca) and Negri Sembilan (Seremban). It must be recognised that these are essentially the areas where English newspapers have the best outreach to readers.

I understand the readership data based on The Sun's weekday market penetration of 150,000 copies will only mature in June, the management has commissioned A.C. Nielsen to do a survey to determine the readership profile. This provides the premises to entice advertisers and advertising agencies to put their adspend on papers that give the best CPM (Cost Per Thousand).

Snapshots of The Sun's readership profile:

• Distribution Channels: 72% picked up, 19% delivered by vendors


• Reading Habit: Over 80% of readers spend not less than 15 minutes (50% of total read between 16 - 30 minutes)


• Time of Day: Over 50% of the readers read it before 10.00am (New prime time for ad exposures), 38% after 2.00pm


• Gender: Male dominant (62.9%)


• Race: Balanced (Malay 38.8%, Chinese 35.5%, Others 25.7%)


• Age: Young (20 - 29 yrs old 40.5%, 30 - 39 group 18%, 40 - 49 group 20.8%, 50 and above 11.4%)


• Occupation: 72.7% are working adults (PMEBs 33.6%, other white collar 28.8%)


• Household Income: 36.8% live in households with income of over RM4,000 monthly.

Something to ponder: Urban household income of RM4,000 per month is reflective of the financial health of a "stuck-in-the-middle" working class. Many are people who would have the first car, first wife/husband (oops!), first house, first kid after entering the job market. Their income will easily evaporate in daily subsistence like housing loans, car loans, credit card loans, child education and overall cost of living.

My take: The Sun now has the reach to an urban readership, advertising money may not be enticing as yet. It may have captured a young, urban audience with dismal disposal income, hence weak buying power for non-daily essential products and services.

It's doubtful whether the BMWs among the advertisers will move their cheese for now.

The Sun has a turbulent path since its inception in the mid 90's (in terms of marketshare, editorial and corporate manouevres). It changed to the "free business model" on April 8 last year. I hope The Sun succeeds as a leading publisher of free newspaper, much like the Metro Group (started in Sweden now in major Europe and Hong Kong). I would like to take it as Malaysia's best bet to break the duopoly in the English newspapers scene.

Meanwhile, the New Straits Times is targeting to increase its circulation to its previous peak of 180,000 from the existing average of 145,000 copies. "Give us another year," said NST Group Editor-in-Chief cum NSTP executive director Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad.

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Swearing on morality, but you

Swearing on morality, but you lied!

UPDATED 5:30 PM:
Dr Peter Zimmerman accepts apology from US embassy

A RECENT story in Guardian UK, quoted by Malaysiakini, has US Embassy Kuala Lumpur in a snafu (situation normal, all f*cked-up).

Feb 5: This is the story by Maggie O'Kane, published by Guardian:

"In 1990 as the US prepared for its first war with Iraq there was heavy reliance on the use of "classified" satellite photographs purporting to show that in September 1990 - a month after the invasion of Kuwait - 265,000 Iraqi soldiers and 1,500 tanks were massing on the border to gear up to invade Saudi Arabia. The threat of Saddam aggressively expanding his empire to Saudi Arabia was crucial to the decision to go to war, but the satellite pictures were never made public... (for security reasons, according to Brent Scowcroft, President Bush senior's national security advisor).

"Jean Heller, an investigative reporter on the St Petersburg Times, persuaded her newspaper to buy the same independently commissioned satellite photos from a commercial satellite - the Soyuz Karta - to verify the Pentagon's line, she saw no sign of a quarter of a million troops or their tanks.

"(To verify the facts), she took the photographs for analysis to two experts, including Dr Peter Zimmerman, a satellite expert at George Washington University.

"'The satellite pictures were so clear that at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia you could see American planes sitting wingtip to wingtip,' Heller says. (But the Iraqi troops weren't there).

"...A year later, Powell would admit to getting the numbers wrong. There was no massive build-up. But by then, the war had been fought."

Let me hasten to highlight that both Jean Heller and Dr Zimmerman are no ordinary people. Heller is a five-times nominated Pulitzer prize-winning journalist while Dr Zimmerman has served with the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Here's what Dr Zimmerman was quoted as saying in the 1991 report by Heller:

"The Pentagon kept saying the bad guys were there, but we don't see anything to indicate an Iraqi force in Kuwait of even 20 percent the size the administration claimed."

"...We could see five C-141s, o­ne C-5A and four smaller transport aircraft, probably C-130s."

Jean Heller's story "Photos don't show buildup" was originally published on January 6, 1991, unfortunately the URL has expired (UPDATED 05.40PM FEB 27: and thanks to Fahmi Fadzil, it can be read in toto here.) However, Associated Press, solicited by her newspaper, refused to put it on wire. But this article: How Washington manufactured a war crisis and another one by www.iraqwar.org captured good excerpts.

Building on Heller's story, Maggie O'Kane's No casus belli? Invent one! exposed how George Bush senior used misinformation to stage Gulf War I (1990), a guilt hitherto undenied by the White House. It also exposed how Bush junior is now aping his father to set up the premises for a Gulf War II.

Before this, December 5 last year, O'Kane wrote on the same subject: This time I'm scared, but it received relatively less exposure. Subhead of the story was: "US propaganda fuelled the first Gulf war. It will fuel this one too - and the risks are even greater".

And this was how Malaysiakini ambushed the US Embassador on her country's dark history.

Feb 10: Malaysiakini interviewed US Ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huhtala to get information on her country’s case for war o­n Iraq. That was after Secretary of State Colin Powell had presented “irrefutable and undeniable” evidence gathered from intelligence reports to the UN Security Council in New York (Feb 5). The Embassador ducked the question, saying she was unprepared for it to be raised.

She also went on record to tell Malaysiakini: "Of course, our country (the US) has never been involved in disinformation."

Feb 17: Frank J Whitaker, Press Officer of US Embassy Kuala Lumpur wrote to Malaysiakini, claiming that the reports by St Petersburg Times and Guardian UK were not anchored on verified sources, and casting implied doubts on the credibility of journalist Jean Heller and her expert referee Dr Zimmerman. In fact, the press officer claimed that Dr Zimmerman has changed his stand.

In short, it was a state of denial as Whitaker hoped Malaysiakini "will take the opportunity to set the record straight o­n the inaccuracies in The Guardian article, now that its false accusations have been disseminated in Malaysia as well."

Feb 24: Whitaker wrote again to Malaysiakini, this time offering an apology:

In the process of trying to condense a great volume of information into a short letter to you, I made the mistake of suggesting that in the years following the Gulf War, Dr Peter Zimmerman of the US had changed his original analysis of the Iraqi troop levels o­n the Saudi border.

Dr Zimmerman stands by his original statements, as reported in the St Petersburg Times article (Photos don't show buildup) and re-reported in the Guardian (No casus belli? Invent o­ne!). I apologise to him and to malaysiakini for any mischaracterisation of his remarks.

Feb 25: Malaysiakini editor Steven Gan wrote a story saying that Jean Heller was contacted and she defended her report against claims by the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur that it was ‘false’.

She said in her email to Malaysiakini:

"Let me state this as unequivocally as I can. The St Petersburg Times stands by the original story. As its author, I stand by it. And the two satellite imaging specialists who examined the Soviet satellite photos for us stand by it more strongly than ever."

Feb 26: Dr Zimmerman wrote to Malaysiakini:

"I am happy to accept (press officer of the US embassy in Malaysia) Mr Frank Whitaker's apology for mischaracterising my position o­n the interpretation of satellite photos of Kuwait."

I will read more on this argument on "a war justified in the name of morality". But I am more than convinced those US buggers lied.

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Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

I find Pentagon's Recipe For Propaganda by Carol Brightman enlightening.

There is no doubt print and electronic media with international outreach has helped disseminate Bush's war propaganda far and wide. The way CNN, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal dismissed the Feb 15 world-wide mass anti-war protests is a good evidence of how public opinion can be shaped with spin-doctoring.

Inundated with daily messages of war-mongering, I turned to US media watch-dog FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) for advisory, to discern information from misinformation. I think you should do the same.

In Media Advisory (Feb 4): Iraq's Hidden Weapons: From Allegation to Fact, FAIR noted the media's intensive coverage of the U.N. inspections has repeatedly glided from reporting the allegation that Iraq is hiding banned weapons materials to repeating it as a statement of fact. It said:

Through constant repetition of phrases like "the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the media convey to the public the impression that the alleged banned weapons on which the Bush administration rests its case for war are known to exist and that the question is simply whether inspectors are skillful enough to find them.

In fact, whether or not Iraq possesses banned weapons is very much an open question, one which no publicly available evidence can answer one way or the other. As they routinely do in other cases, journalists should make a habit of using the modifier "alleged" when referring to Iraq's alleged hidden weapons.

The media FAIR found faulting the line includes Washington Post, NBC, Time, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CBS and CNN.

In Media Advisory (Feb 10): A Failure of Skepticism in Powell Coverage: Disproof of previous claims underlines need for scrutiny, FAIR repeated:

In reporting on Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5 presentation to the United Nations Security Council, many journalists treated allegations made by Powell as though they were facts.

Reporters at several major outlets neglected to observe the journalistic rule of prefacing unverified assertions with words like "claimed" or "alleged."

The media FAIR found faulting on this occasion includes New York Daily News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, St Petersburg, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Independent UK, The Mirror UK.

FAIR urged that "Responsible journalists should avoid playing a part in such a conversion by making a clear distinction between what has been alleged by the U.S. government and what has been independently verified."

Admittedly, there are still many good journalists who are holding on to their virtues. Carl Bernstein, who shared fame with Bob Woodward in breaking the Watergate story three decades ago in Washington Post, criticized Bush for being very selective in whom he names among evil-doers.

But Bernstein reserved his most stinging criticism for none others than his fellow journalists - accusing them of abandoning the search for the best obtainable version of the truth for news that sells. He cited American media's coverage of worldwide peace demonstrations last weekend as an example of news without proper context.

"Our stake in maintaining the myth and the attendant self-image that we are doing a great job is every bit as great a fiction as that of the American Congress serving the people...The gravest threat to the truth today may well be within our own profession."

"Whether we agree with those demonstrations or whether we believe they were out of line or wrong headed, these were huge events that are helping to shape what is happening in the United Nations and whether we go to war... Yet on television those demonstrations . . . were treated dismissively, condescendingly and patronizingly as if they were not important news."

Bernstein said journalists must be willing to go after the hard stories, digging to find all of the facts and presenting them in broad context. "But reporters can't do it alone," he said. "We need courage, we need willingness on the part of publishers to commit to finding the best obtainable version of the truth, however difficult that might be."

In this context, what fellow blogger Oon Yeoh wrote in Transition yesterday is an awakening call to media owners and journalists in Malaysia. He said:

The only way for Malaysia to progress in the information age is for its citizens to be exposed to a diversity of views. Unfortunately, we cannot get this in the mainstream press (quoting reporting on the Iraq standoff as an example of reality in Malaysian media)...

(What) a truly responsible news organisation should do (is to) Offer readers different viewpoints, so that they can make up their own minds on the various issues of the day. In this country, only Malaysiakini is committed to that principle.

Oon has attracted wide-ranging response for his anti-Anti-War stance, from people like a senior mainstream media editor, and readers who are either "with us or not with us". But they get published in Malaysiakini.

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Soaring oil prices BEHIND the

Soaring oil prices

BEHIND the war drums, so you say, the US is after Iraq's oil? Will a US-led victory over Saddam Hussein eventually result in a gusher of oil from a liberated Iraq, bringing down petroleum prices? It's anything but a mixed bag of views:

( 1 ) Iraq is the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, selling roughly two million barrels per day (bpd) into the international market.

( 2 ) The prized 64-year old Kirkuk field in Iraq has been showing a decline in the quality of the crude, an indication that output capacity may be waning.

( 3 ) The all-time high oil price after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 was about US$33 per barrel.

( 4 ) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on the sideline of NAM Summit, warned oil prices could reach unprecedented levels -- perhaps as high as US$50 a barrel -- if U.S.-led forces attack Iraq. (Agreed, this M-speak is the least quantifed statement, but let's take it as the worst-case scenario.)

Impact of oil price gyration on US economy: About 40 percent of the retail cost of gasoline is attributed to the price of crude oil, which has risen 19 percent since the start of the year to $36.79 per barrel at one point. Immediate knee-jerk panic is triggered by the additional energy requirement due to abnormal snowy winter that struck mid-west and north-east.

Last week, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for April delivery stood at US$32.28 a barrel from US$32.45 a week earlier. In New York, April-dated light sweet crude futures traded at US$35.45 from US$35.36 the previous week.

The world responds, direction unclear:

IslamOnline: Oil prices gyrated after news of a massive blast at an oil and gas facility off Staten Island in New York sparked panic on a market already nervous about the threat of war in Iraq.

BBC: Oil prices are being driven by war nerves, responding to every twist in the United Nations' deliberations on whether to back a war on Iraq led by the United States. They peaked at $36.80 in New York as Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, delivered his report to the UN Security Council on 14 February.

Times: Oil fears prompt Putin to send envoy to Baghdad shortly before speaking to Tony Blair by telephone Sunday.

New York Times: Iraq is a strategic issue for oil giants, too.

Traders fear war could disrupt supplies from other producers in the Middle East, which supply 40% of world exports. No one can predict the magnitude of oil price volatility in the event of a war, and during its aftermath.

Oil prices go up, all prices go up. Parties immersed in squabbles over the morality of War on Iraq had better save a breath for mundane issues of bare-bone economics.

With the premises for war articulated in heightened intensity, I am convinced it's Bush's war. Not mine nor my family's.

* * *

ONLINE version of my opinion piece in Star In-Tech Feb 20: War could hit industry from many sides is now available here.

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The two Datuks I blogged

The two Datuks

I blogged this from Penang. My conjunctivitis is being relieved. Sigh...

It was a good lunch with CM Tan Sri Koh Tsu Khoon and the two Datuks he invited to the gathering set up for software developers in Penang.

The Datuks are of the breed who earned their honorifics for the impact they created in their professional careers. One is P.Y. Lai and the other is New York-based Kelvin Wong. The two Datuks were generous in sharing their experiences with our IT hopefuls. Among those who turned up were Jobstreet CTO Dr Albert Wong and semicon specialist (ex-Intel) Dr SH Tan.

I will develop the story for my next instalment in Malaysian Business.

Paper says Mahathir makes Singapore people angry

Thanks Gerald of Singapore for pointing me to this article by a Singapore Straits Times writer: We sayang you too, Dr Mahathir.

It says Goh Chok Tong is one of the best loved, if not the most liked, politicians in Singapore. Many say he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. By taking potshots at Goh, Mahathir has made Singapore people angry because "when you hit the office of the Prime Minister, you hit out at all of us as well." Why? "Because we put him there."

I wonder beyond the politicians and their verbal acrobatics there's still room for people-to-people and business-to-business relationships?

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War and Morality Middle East

War and Morality

Middle East Online: Blair sticks to moral justification for war on Iraq. He will meet the Pope.
London Times: The Pope made a new plea for peace yesterday, undermining Blair’s attempt to make a moral case for war with Iraq.

The Pope said 48 hours before his audience with Blair: “Neither the threat of war nor war itself should be allowed to alienate Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or any other religion. All religions should strive for peace. War is always a defeat for humanity. It is a tragedy for religion.”

I would rather believe the Pope on morality.

Sanning in blurred vision: BBC

Sanning in blurred vision:

BBC News on Google - Blogger deal:
Bill Thompson: Is Google too powerful? Blogging is not journalism.
Giles Turnbull: Fame or misfortune beckons for weblogs?
Alfred Hermida: Weblogs give a voice to Iranian women

I am f*cked. Conjunctivitis.

I am f*cked.
Conjunctivitis.

Local IT industry braces for

Local IT industry braces for war

NOT MANY realise that when Bush-Blair wage an Iraqi war, the fallout could reach our shores, and the local IT industry would be the first to get the impact.

To say the least, local IT industry has been in the doldrum, and a downward spiral since the September 11 attack. 2002 IT spending in Malaysia clocked in about RM7.2 billion. The prime industry driver has been the public sector, especially from education. This year, we expect to see the entire supply chain clinging precariously onto the government. Competition will be very keen. Only those with track records and solid networking will thrive.

Industry players say the growth rate could maintain at 10%, bringing the cake to about RM8 billion. (Download: Outlook by PIKOM). If war erupts, the calculation may go astray.

Here are some questions our journalists and industry players asked:

Best-case Scenario: (i.e. Quick war; US forces welcomed in Baghdad with flower garlands; Saddam out; Iraq disarmed; everyone happy except Osama; etc.) How might the IT industry here be affected? Will there be no more than a temporary hiccup?

Worst-case Scenario: (e.g. conflict widens into entire Middle East; world community polarised; North Korea takes advantage; war drags on, maybe into 2004; etc.) What might be the long-term effects for Malaysia and the IT industry?

Who will get it worst? Which segments of the IT industry would be most affected by a war? Would the industry be depressed across the board, or would some segments actually benefit from increased demand due to a war? If the latter, which segments might those be?

Technology flow: Would there be any wartime restrictions on exports of US technology and travel of staff between affected countries and the US? If so, what form might these restrictions take, and how onerous might they be? Could they affect the flow of new technologies to Malaysia? Could they slow down our agenda in MSC?

Those are real issues as local IT industry braces for war. According to local players here (Star In-Tech: Feb 20), the IT industry is expected to turn around quickly after a war, buoyed by a combination of relief and the need for businesses to re-equip and upgrade their IT infrastructure.

But with one caveat: A recovery could still be restrained by concerns of a potential terrorism-gripped aftermath to the war.

People Star In-Tech interviewed includes Harres Tan (Group CEO of HT Consulting (Asia) Sdn Bhd and Pikom chairman for international relations), T.F, Chong (Hewlett-Packard Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director). I offered my two cents' worth as well (in the print version for now).

We have yet to hear of contigency plans, or see the parachute after you press the "seat-eject" button.

Now, you still want war? Stick to your gun and fight!

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US 'plans new nuclear weapons'

US 'plans new nuclear weapons'

"[Not achieving a nuclear test ban] would have to be classed as the greatest disappointment of any administration, of any decade, of any time and of any party." President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961.

BBC News: "A leaked document suggests that Washington is beginning detailed planning for a new generation of smaller nuclear weapons.

"The Los Alamos Study Group claims the plans would challenge the foundations of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which limits the development of new designs for nuclear bombs."

"The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the plans clearly fit in with the wider Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes in the future when the US feels itself to be threatened."

Click here to download html document (120kb.)
Click here to view press release and summary

War on Iraq: Beneficiaries and

War on Iraq: Beneficiaries and Losers

I received email questions from a journalist friend, this is one of them:

Do you agree with the suggestion, made by Newsweek, that if war on Iraq were declared and the current uncertainty thus lifted, it would be beneficial for the world economy?

I thought a war, any war for that matter, benefits nobody but the war merchants and arms manufacturers. It’s the best time for them to bankroll their R&D; incubated over the short years. That’s why war has become cyclical.

More on this tomorrow, but here's how the war deck stacks up, so far:

US - TURKEY: US needs Turkey as a launchpad to prepare a northern front against Saddam Hussein. A high-risk poker game ensues. The Turkish government has delayed a parliamentary vote authorising US troop deployments. No parliamentary sanction unless US guarantees a financial deal "to provide compensation for the cost of the conflict". US tightens arm-twisting.

CNN: Launching attack from Turkey looks less likely. Financial Times: US may present new resolution this week. ABC Online: The United Nations (UN) Security Council has begun an open meeting to enable other UN member states to express their views about war on Iraq.

FRANCE - NEW EUROPE: President Jacques Chirac outburst, sharply critcising eastern European countries, that are seeking EU membership, for signing letters (a scoop by Wall Street Journal: United We Stand) to back the US position on Iraq, a stance he termed "childish" and "dangerous". Chirac said: "You have missed a great opportunity to shut up."

Independent, UK: New Europe strikes back. IHT: Chirac's outburst exposes contradiction within EU.

IRAQ AFTER SADDAM: Despite making the "moral case" for overthrowing Saddam Hussein by military action, Tony Blair refused to specify what sort of regime might follow the dictator's ouster in Iraq.

Talk of humanity, it's wishful thinking to place hope on the US as the benign messiah coming down to liberate Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam. Nobody crows how much the Iraqi people have suffered under the decade-old economic sanction, upon whom the world prescribed.

Read Robert Fisk:
( 1 ) Facing disaster, the Arabs are like mice
( 2 ) People worldwide tired of being lied to by Bush, Blair

Meanwhile, if humanity is no less universal, here's something to chew on.

( 1 ) Death toll from suspected Ebola in Congo approached 60, still counting. Africa remains very much the dark continent.

( 2 ) In UK, stats released Feb 14 show patients waiting for admission into hospitals at the end of December 2002 stood at 1,056,600. Tory spokeman said it was evidence of the government’s failure on health policy. “One million plus patients have a right to know why.”

The scorch of war burns best on alien turf, never on one's own backyard. Those 'moral case' humanity fighters should labour to search their souls.

Hackers captured 8 million credit cards account numbers

Hackers gained access to 8 million credit card account numbers by breaching the security of a company that processes transactions for merchants. Card issuers affected: Visa (estimated 3.4 million), MasterCard (2.2 million) and American Express (can't give specific figures).

The issues: ( 1 ) All three card companies have "zero-liability policies" protecting customers from fraudulent uses of their cards. ( 2 ) None of them would identify the third-party processor or say exactly when or how the unauthorized intrusion occurred. According to Dan Gillmor, ( 3 ) news reports gave the impression that the card companies would not call the account holders proactively to offer remedies.

He said: "It's also amazing how lax security continues to be among the card issuers. Nothing seems to change."

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25 years of BBS, thanks

25 years of BBS, thanks to 2 hackers caught in a snowstorm

(Computerised) Bulletin Board System (BBS) is about online community, thanks to two Chicago hackers - Ward Christensen and Randy Suess - who got stuck in a snowstorm in 1978. They came out with an idea to put a computer on the phone line so people could leave messages in time like this. They put their system up in two weeks.

Call that the days of a hobbyist's art. Imagine, a single 173K storage on an 8-inch floppy disk, 300-baud modem, 8-bit processor running at a megahertz or so. Oh yes, memory was running at 64kb.

BBS celebrates its 25th birthday on February 16. Read about the fathers of BBS.

Misinformation and spin-doctoring WE HAVE

Misinformation and spin-doctoring

WE HAVE several of these.

Singapore-Malaysia Spat: Goh Chok Tong called Dr Mahathir "a very good spin doctor". Before that, a nameless Ministry of Foreign Affairs officer termed him "an entertaining storyteller". Singapore Straits Times said Mahathir's tit-for-tat was a hint that he had a stockpile of memories that could be tapped to embarrass Singapore.

Gulf War I (1991): US embassy in KL said a Feb 5 Guardian article implying that the country acted o­n misinformation about Iraqi troops prior to the 1990 Gulf War was inaccurate. The issue was raised by Malaysiakini when it interviewed US Ambassador Marie T Huhtala. "It's not fair", writes Frank J Whitaker, Press Officer of US embassy.

Gulf War II: A reader accused Malaysiakini's editorial on Iraq being one-sided and contra to US. Editor Steven Gan answers:

"The editorial is focused o­n the current US policy o­n Iraq with the aim of
highlighting its double standards... There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is oppressive, ruthless and brutal. My point is that any change to the regime, however vile it is, should be decided by the Iraqi people, not by Washington.

Cowboy 1: George Bush: Iraq, and whoever 'happens' to be there, is about to be annihilated.

Cowboy 2: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's offensive remarks about European allies are making it difficult for Washington to win compromises on Iraq

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More on Google - Blogger

More on Google - Blogger deal

Before the buyout, Pyra/Blogger founder Evan Williams (picture) was working by himself from home (He hasn't had a car in three years, but just bought one yesterday), with his fair share of struggles like warding off hackers and bandwidth constraints.

Now, Williams is feeling simply great as he will have access to resources (not just money, and servers, and bandwidth, and traffic, and the index, but incredible brains) to "build on the vision I've been working on for years.''

Dan Gillmore has uploaded a full-length story on the Google-Blogger deal in his Sunday column. He made yet another important statement on weblog:

Part of that vision, shared by other blogging pioneers, has been to help democratize the creation and flow of news in a world where giant companies control so much of what most people see, hear and read.

Weblogs are also becoming a valuable communication tool for groups of people, and have begun to infiltrate the corporate, university and government spheres.

New York Times reports it. Nick Denton suggests a new name: Bloogle.

Google buys Blogger's maker... IT

Google buys Blogger's maker...

IT TAKES a blogger to break a big news on Blogger.

Dan Gillmor - Weblogs are going Googling - reported Sunday: Google has bought over Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company which developed Blogger, the nano publishing tool I use to update this blog.

Immediate response among bloggers has been exhilarating. Nick Denton, who uses rival software Movable Type, expects Blogger-powered sites to show up in Google search results minutes after the post, rather than days for now.

Both Gillmor and Denton, however, have concerns on how Google will manage the Blogger software and Pyra's hosting service. This may present some tricky issues. Denton says the search side of Google indexes weblogs from all of the major blogging platforms, including Movable Type and Userland Radio. Any hint of proprietary favoritism would meet harsh criticism. Gillmor posed the same question to Google earlier, but there wasn't an early answer.

Joi Toi, another Moveble Type user, wonders whether the buyover is good news for people using other blogging software. Writers at Guardian's OnlineBlog, which uses Blogger, promised to run a full story today.

It's only half a year ago when Gillmor said journalism was being revolutionised by the latest technology: He said: "We have gone from Old Media, through New Media, to We Media: The idea of using the power and the knowledge and the energy of people at the edges."

Guardian recounted how other bloggers responded to Gillmor's observation:

Instapundit.com's Glenn Reynolds: "I think we've moved profoundly from the older period in which news was a lecture. Now the job is that we tell you what we have learned, you tell us if you think we are correct, then we all discuss it."

Ben Hammersley, Guardian: "On the internet, everyone is the same size - and by allowing experts in their field to correct others, and be corrected themselves, almost in real time, blogs release the voice of the readership. They give an alternative."

I reckon Blogger sites may even be used to enhance Google News which now returns bland results that are often too US-centric.

* * *

Just heard over CNN as I blogged: NATO has ditched France (19 minus 1 - Germany and Belgium cracked!) to reach a compromise on the impasse they tried to resolve at a protracted meeting which lasted 13 hours on Sunday. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said the coalition has approved defensive planning for Turkey in case of war against Iraq.

Is Gulf War II postponed or accelerated? Watch this space.

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Give peace a chance... NOT

Give peace a chance...

NOT SINCE VIETNAM... 600 cities answer to the call of "Your are either with us, or you are not with us". CITIES London | New York | Rome | Berlin | Paris | Canberra | Oslo | Copenhagen | Cape Town | Johannesburg | Damascus... COUNTRIES Ukraine | Bosnia | Cyprus | Ireland | Netherlands | Austria | Spain | Greece | Bulgaria | Czech Republic | Japan | India | Bangladesh | Hungary | South Korea | Malaysia | Hong Kong | Thailand...

SOURCES: Guardian/Observer | BBC News | Salon | San Francisco Chronicle | Washington Post | New York Times | Associated Press

All we are saying is...
Give peace a chance...

Two, one two three four
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism,
Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism, ism, ism.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.

Com'n
Ev'rybody's talking about ministers,
Sinister, Banister.
And canisters, Bishops, Fishops,
Rabbis, and Pop eyes, Bye bye, bye byes.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.

Let me tell you now
Revolution, evolution, masterbation,
flagellation, regulation, integrations,
meditations, United Nations.
Congratulations.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.

Ev'rybody's talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan,
Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna ,
Hare Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.

By Lennon/McCartney

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Only Singaporeans are capable of

Only Singaporeans are capable of these...

HOLD YOUR BREATH. There is a pile of jaw-dropping content which normally filths soc.alt.culture usenet newsgroups but has found its way to the interactive chatboard on the website of The Straits Times (ST), Singapore's bastion of journalism that has "set high standards and delivered high-quality content".

I would be violating a cardinal sin if I made excerpts of the debate: Diversion tactic of a Malaysian site: Acceptable? Malaysia, its leaders and its people were called by expletives, including four-letter words, that are totally unprintable.

And no, the topic has nothing to do with the water issue, or Batu Puteh dispute.

The cyber-ranting erupted February 13 after it was revealed that the www.studysingapore.com website is not about Singapore schools and the educational system there, but is actually a listing of Malaysian private schools, colleges and universities.

The man behind the website that pricked Singaporeans is Tan Mui Hong of Concept Challenger, a Kuala Lumpur company that publishes a 'Study in Malaysia' handbook. Read the originating story in Singapore ST.

The Sun executive editor R. Nadeswaran by-lined his commentary today, stressing that the issue should be taken up with the private company, and Singapore ST should not allow a tirade against Dr Mahathir Mohamad, leaders and the people of Malaysia. He demanded an unconditional apology to the Malaysian leaders and citizens.

Writers must register with AsiaOne, an online subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings, before posting any messages on the chatboard. Some wrote as professed Malaysians albeit their Malaysia-bashing, but the chatboard's editors just passed them through.

For some helpings of the batter, click here. Don't say you have not been forewarned.

* * *

YESTERDAY, Dr Mahathir Mohamad sent his Valentine greetings to people in Singapore, promising to supply them water till the end of time (Utusan: Sampai kiamat).

He said Goh Chok Tong is nostalgic of the Causeway, the replacement bridge could only be built after the Singapore PM retires. A Straits Times Singapore story today is headlined: Laughter and applause as Mahathir takes digs at S'pore. Excerpts:

On roads: In Singapore, there are roads but when shifting into fourth gear, you fall into the sea because it (the country) is not big. (Laughter)

The problem of Singapore is like Perlis. In Perlis when you shift into fourth gear, you are already in Thailand. Change direction, and in fourth gear you are in Kedah. (Laughter)

So it is like Singapore. It is only 18 miles from Keppel harbour to the Causeway. Not even time to change into fourth gear. You buy a Ferrari you can't change into fourth gear, there is no use. So we want to give them the opportunity to change into fourth gear on our roads.

On his love for Singaporeans: Actually, we know that Singaporeans live in a small country. Every week, tak tahan (can't bear) to live in the small country, an independent country, but small, so they need to breathe and we have a big area in Johor and Malaysia for them to breathe.

Come over, we welcome them and love them. Singapore is very clean, with beautiful buildings, everything is nice. But four million people live on the island, it is not nice. Langkawi is the same size as Singapore, but Langkawi has 70,000, Singapore has four million. So we like them to come.

We love you. On Valentine's Day, we love you. (Claps and laughter) Please come. Please come.

Parting words from Dr M:

I am just jesting. When you meet Singaporeans, tell them: Don't take the Malaysian PM seriously. He likes to talk like that. He doesn't mean it, he has a good heart. (Applause)

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Dubya Desperado THE LATEST Osama

Dubya Desperado

THE LATEST Osama audiotape saw the U.S. putting a foot in its mouth.

Ahead of the broadcast over al-Jazeera, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the message confirmed the "links" between al Qaeda and Iraq. Analysts said the tape sounded generic with Osama's typical calls for the overthrow of governments supporting the US - Nigeria, Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In fact, Osama called Saddam an apostate, infidel, whose blood is halal.

The White House misled the world and the American media was the first to be hoodwinked. CNN tanked with a premature story: "Undeniably links Iraq with al-Qaeda"

Read this piece by Firas Al-Atraqchi, a columnist at YellowTimes.org, which is currently down, believed to have been DoS-ed by pro-U.S. hackers.

NATO cancelled the scheduled meeting on Iraq-Standoff yesterday after Germany insisted on waiting for the U.N. weapons inspectors' latest reports.

Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are scheduled to present their latest reports to U.N.Security Council which meets later today. BBC analysis says they are likely to contain plusses and minuses. CNN says their reports, previewed by commissioners of the inspection team, will be interim.

Blix expressed concern in the meeting that the parts of his reports that are favorable to Iraq are being ignored by the media and "other groups."

Tomorrow, February 15: United For Peace and Justice anti-war march in New York City. (New York Times: Federal District Court judge Barbara S. Jones has ruled demonstrators may not march past the United Nations complex or anywhere else in Manhattan, arguing her ruling did not violate First Amendment rights.)

Similar protests are already being planned from Antartica to Reykjavic.

Get the message right and your mind clear: Care nothing for Saddam Hussein but the people in Iraq. Bush can butcher Saddam, but not the Iraqians. Say no to blood for oil.

Critical stage at the UN and Malaysia: To pass a resolution on War on Iraq, the UN Security Council must generate nine "Yes" votes and no vetoes. Malaysia is obliged to endorse what the UN decides. UPDATED: For Malaysia, the government will not support a war against Iraq even if the United Nations Security Council gives the go-ahead, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Friday (Feb 14), significantly hardening his position against an attack.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ONLINE: Email members of the UN Security Council directly. Ask them to oppose war on Iraq.

Permanent members (with veto power): France, Russian Federation, People's Republic of China, United Kingdom and the United States.

Non-permanent member states: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico, Syrian Arab Republic, Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan, and Spain.

Here are their email addresses:

• Russian Federation: Ambassador Sergey Lavrov: rusun@un.int


• France: Ambassador S.E.M. Jean-David Levitte: france-presse@un.int


• People's Republic of China: Ambassador Wang Yingfan: chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn


• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Ambassador Sir Jeremy Quentin Greenstock, KCMG: uk@un.int


• United States: Ambassador John D. Negroponte: usa@un.int


• Republic of Bulgaria: Ambassador H.E. Mr. Stefan Tafrov: bulgaria@un.int


• Republic of Cameroon: Ambassador Son Excellence Martin Belinga Eboutou: info@cameroonmission.org


• Republic of Guinea: Ambassador Mamady Traore: guinea@un.int


• Mexico: Ambassador Alfonso Aquilar Zinser: mexico@un.int


• Syrian Arab Republic: Ambassador Mikhail Wahba: syria@un.int


• Republic of Angola: Ambassador S.E. Dr. Ismael Gaspar Martins: ang-un@angolamissionun.org


• Chile Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes: chile@un.int


• Germany: Ambassador Dr. Gunter Pleuger: contact@germany-un.org


• Pakistan: Ambassador Munir Akram: Pakistan@un.int


• Spain: Ambassador H. E. Mr. Inocencio F. Arias: spain@spainun.org

For more information go to United for Peace and Justice anti-war activists website.
Samples of "War is BUSHit" stickers can be downloaded here.

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Gulf War: Worst-case scenario If

Gulf War: Worst-case scenario

If the U.S. invades Iraq, Flash-enabled.
Recommended by Nick Denton of Moreover.com, Gizmodo and Gawker fame.

Make no mistake of Bush's

Make no mistake of Bush's double standards

THE WORLD watches how the U.S. handles George Bush's dualism on disarming weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and North Korea.

Disarming Iraq: Wednesday, Germany said the latest audio-taped message by Osama bin Laden, broadcast over pan-Arab al-Jazeera, did not prove "links" between al Qaeda and Iraq. Ahead of the broadcast, Colin Powell said it did.

Osama's message carries the call to "Fight America Anywhere". CIA Director George Tenet said the U.S. is looking at whether it "is a signal of a pending attack."

Just as Bush and Powell had been huffing and puffing to prove a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, International Herald Tribune says Osama's latest tape is a god-send to salvage Bush from being a big bluff.

Sunday, President Mohammad Khatami said Iran possessed reserves of enriched uranium and had begun mining operations for more. CIA warns of Iran's 'pretext' for nukes which may trigger a nuclear arms race.

Bush has a new ironic dilemma: Iraq is expected to start chairing the UN Conference on Disarmament in March, just as some military analysts believe a war may begin. The U.S. said it would temporarily find a way not to take part in the Geneva-based panel that negotiates arms treaties.

NATO is still split: Awhile ago (Wednesday night in Europe), the 19-nation coalition failed to reach agreement on a plan to protect Turkey from Iraq if the war starts. France, Germany and Belgium still refused to go along with the U.S plan that would send surveillance planes, Patriot missiles and chemical and biological detection teams to Turkey in the eventuality.

Wednesday, NATO entered into the third day of emergency talks on the issue. The diplomats would resume later today. Here's an analysis of internal NATO dispute over War with Iraq.

Disarming North Korea: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, has passed a resolution declaring North Korea in breach of international commitment. It referred North Korea to the Security Council for possible sanctions. The decision was taken after an emergency meeting attended by the agency's 35-nation board of governors. Russia and Cuba abstained from the vote. A stand-off ensues.

Testifying at a Senate committee hearing in Washington yesterday, CIA's Tenet said North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of hitting the west coast of the United States.

U.S. Economy: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan finds friends in the lion's cage. Democrats praised him for criticizing Bush's new round of $1.3 trillion in tax cuts as too expensive in light of soaring budget deficits.

Wednesday, Greenspan repeated there was an urgent need to restore budget discipline, and cautioned it was hard to gauge the U.S. economy's health amid war worries. There is a new issue posed by financial specialists: Who in the U.S. would foot the war bills?

I was listerning to CNN as I blogged. CNN termed it as a rift between Bush and Greenspan.

In summary, a war on Iraq is not a war on al-Qaeda (Christian Science Monitor).

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Digitalcam and e-Content: A new

Digitalcam and e-Content: A new affinity

THE POWER of Internet lies in its capacity to interconnet and interact with the Netizens. BBC News Online fully understands this ahead of others who develop e-Content.

Taken a good picture lately? BBC acknowledges that, with digital cameras, people are now regularly taking pictures and sending them around the world within hours, sometimes sooner. The phenomena now is sending large full-size images, usually 640x480 pixels (otherwise they are too small to publish), using mobile phones. So BBC News is calling out to people who found themselves in the right place at the right time, taking the right pictures:

Are you going to the march against military action in Iraq? Are you affected by the congestion charges about to be brought in, in London? Your part in the news is important to us.

BBC News Online wants to report the world from your perspective.

BBC News Online requires a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and to use the material in any way and in any media it wants, but the photographers get to retain the copyrights and the freedom to re-publish their pictures elsewhere. Here's the email address: yourpics@bbc.co.uk

Click here for a sample of the 200 pictures selected and published by BBC News Online so far.

Earlier this month when the shuttle Columbia went down, The Dallas Morning News took the same approach. It asked the readers to submit text and pictures of what they were seeing of the tragedy to one email destination: Witness to History. The paper then published the readers' pictures and commentary online. It also, in the process, created a database that let other readers search by keyword and community.

Here's how it works.

* * *

MICROSOFT is bound for new hot soup in Europe. An IT coalition, including AOL, Sun, Yahoo, Nokia, is the latest to file antitrust complaint with EC, accusing it of violating European antitrust law with the new Windows XP.

What interests me greatly is that the plaintiff, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), is Washington-based. It represents a coalition of computer, telephone and Internet companies. The CCIA said it filed a formal, confidential complaint Jan 31 with the European Commission, which enforces EU competition laws.

Before this, there has been an investigation underway for more than three years into Microsoft. Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said in December he expects to close the case in the 'first part' of 2003.

December 20 last year, the CCIA and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) jointly filed a motion with the District Court seeking to intervene for the purposes of appealing the District Court’s ruling on the Tunney Act in U.S. v. Microsoft.

* * *

BUSH'S WAR ON IRAQ: Beijing joins Paris, Berlin and Moscow to take a common stance on Iraq - let the U.N. weapons inspectors do their job unhurried.

Osman bin Laden's voice echoed again over Al-Jazeera. Osama's audio-taped message calls for Muslims to stand with the Iraqi people against the United States. Colin Powell jumps in quickly to strengthen his pitch on the terrorists-Iraq nexus. Also read the Arab View on an Iraq War in the New York Times.

U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is downbeat on US economy, part-paralysed by the threat of war against Iraq. Greenspan warned U.S. senators that the huge budget deficits contemplated by Bush's economic plan would have negative economic consequences, and that there was an urgent need to restore budget discipline.

His statement found himself in the lion's den.

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Enemies from within STANDARD &

Enemies from within

STANDARD & POORS warned yesterday that Malaysia's plan to use a RM10 billion fund to buy stocks may pose a risk to the country's finances. The fear was that the government may channel taxpayers' money into ValueCap Sdn, the state-controlled fund used to support the market. Analysts say a burden on finances may delay a balanced budget, increasing the likelihood of a cut to Malaysia's credit rating.

That would be bad as we are preparing hard for the eventuality of a new Gulf War and to marginalise Singapore in world trade.

* * *

FRIDAY, The Star executive editor Wong Chun Wai shared by-line with senior journalist Lourdes Charles (see picture) in a story that pin-pointed Abdul Hadi Awang, Terengganu menteri besar and MP for Marang, for having attended a three-day Islamic congress in Makassar, Sulawesi, in October 2000.

The two journalists say the Makassar rendezvous was intimately linked to Islamic militants Abubakar Ba’asyir and Agus Dwikarna, who are now captured, and Hambali (also known as Riduan Isamuddin), the mastermind of Jemaah Islam (JI) and al-Qaeda’s operations leader in Southeast Asia, who is now at large.

The next day, Hadi said he attended as a guest of the Islamic congress in his capacity as head of a state government. He said his invitation came from Universiti Hassanuddin and several NGOs in the Sulawesi city, asking him to give a talk in conjunction with the amendment of Indonesia’s constitution to provide autonomous powers to its provinces, including Sulawesi. He denied his involvement or link with any radical or militant group, leader or activity, either in Malaysia or abroad.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the IGP Norian Mai said the authorities would investigate the matter to determine whether PAS has links with militancy. PAS officials assured that the party and Hadi would give full co-operation to the authorities to clear Hadi's name.

I do hope the authorities, with their intelligence, get to the bottom of the probe and take 'pre-emptive' action if something can be established fast of an event that is two-year old.

I expect Chun Wai and his team to do nothing less than a follow-up in the next few days. They are not the breed with a track record for holding trials by media.

* * *

SUNDAY, Mingguan Malaysia interviewed Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who pledged not to rival any party leaders. He gave the reasons why he has been keeping a low profile in Malaysian and UMNO politics. In between the lines, he hinted strongly UMNO could only be strong with all factions - Malays in and out of UMNO - brought together.

On a question whether he harboured any ill-feelings against PM-in-waiting, Pak Lah, who did not follow him to the defunct Parti Melayu Semangat 46, he avoided answering but recounted the days when others who were with him: Musa (Hitam), Rais (Yatim), Syed Hamid (Albar) and Kadir (Sheikh Fadzir); and even Najib (Tun Razak) and Muhyiddin (Yassin). He stressed he can't say much about Pak Lah as he has never worked under him.

Somehow, The Star excerpted the story on different accent. It can't be blind to the headline: "Ku Li tidak mahu disalah anggap cuba menjadi saingan sesiapa" (Ku Li doesn't want to be misconstrued as rivalling anybody).

Read my Friday blog about the plentiful on Pak Lah's plate.

* * *

WAR ON IRAQ: George Bush faces more detractors as cracks developed over NATO solidarity. International Herald Tribune described the United States is now encountering "potentially serious complications on several fronts".

France, Russia and Germany had jointly called for strengthened U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq. Notably, French President Jacques Chirac read the joint declaration in the presence of visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Giving the weapons inspectors more time has been a part of a diplomatic initiative that is aimed at disarming Saddam Hussein without war, but the U.S. opposed it.

Monday, the 19-member NATO bloc was plunged into its deepest crisis for decades after France, Germany and Belgium vetoed plans to deploy early-warning aircraft, patriot anti-missile defenses and anti-chemical warfare teams to Turkey ahead of a possible conflict with Iraq. Turkey is the only Muslim state in NATO.

How I long to see the limping duck in Bush.

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Fondest memories... I thought it's

Fondest memories...

I thought it's not too late to observe a moment of fond memories of Malaysia's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj, who was born on February 8 a hundred years ago.

The last glimpse I had of him was when he, speaking frailly on a wheelchair against a backdrop of heavy rain, appealed to Malays to unite, not necessarily within UMNO.

Typical of Malaysians who have short memory, I have lost that photograph, and neither can I recall which year it was.

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"We are one family, let’s

"We are one family, let’s stop pretending"

CHINESE MALAYSIANS have taken offence to two TV commercials (TVCs) Perodua aired over the Lunar New Year. They saw the ads as being insensitive and disrespectful to the community.

The TVCs were executed in black-and-white, featuring Chinese opera-style characters reminiscent of the 1950's. One version depicted three women showing off their jewellery while the other showed a family discriminatively ignoring the arrival of a poor relative but giving a grand reception for a visiting “Datuk” . Both TVCs ended with the banner: “We are one family, let’s stop pretending”.

Chinese-based associations and business groups urged Perodua and TV stations to stop airing the TVCs immediately. The youth wing of the Malaysian Chinese Hall claimed that the commercials had hurt the feelings of the community. It also claimed the TVCs gave the wrong impression that all Chinese were boastful, materialistic and pretentious.

Penang DAP urged Perodua to apologise to the Chinese as the commercials not only failed to deliver festive greetings but had insulted the community. The party's political researcher Looi Hui Yee said the Chinese community had expressed their displeasure when the advertisements were first aired last year but Perodua had disregarded their feelings by running the advertisements again this year.

Not to be outdone by the Opposition, Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Khoon clarioned the same thing.

Chinese press devoted ample space for public opinion on the issue, pro and contra. Perodua was said to be adamant, claiming it would not apologise or retract the TVCs. The company claimed the commercials were educational.

Anyway, by the time the issue reaches crescendo, the Lunar New Year would have been over, and the commercials finished their runs.

* * *

THE GOVERNMENT has flown home members of the Malaysian Embassy staff in Iraq in view of the impending war in the area. Only eight staff members remain in the embassy now. They will also be flown home if the United States attacks Iraq.

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War on Iraq: A comedic

War on Iraq: A comedic tragedy

EGGS all over Powell's face, and it's all because of Tony Blair.

At the U.N. Security Council presentation Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell singled out a 19-page dossier on Iraq, prepared by the British government, as a "fine paper... which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities." Sorry Powell, you stepped on the Brits' banana peel.

The dossier, which Blair's office claimed to have based on "intelligence material", has been exposed as a piece of plagiarised work! It butchered from three sources, including outdated materials (12 years old!) and an article by an American post-graduate student. None of these sources is acknowledged. The Guardian, my favourite U.K. broadsheet, headlined it as a sham. Military analysts and opposition politicians in the UK described the copying as "scandalous". The Mirror UK says it's a rip-off.

"The British government's dossier is 19 pages long, and most of pages 6 to 16 are copied directly from that document word for word, even the grammatical errors and typographical mistakes," said Glen Rangwala, a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University.

The Guardian: "Evidence of an electronic cut-and-paste operation by Whitehall officials can be found in the way the dossier preserves textual quirks from its original sources. One sentence in Dr (Ibrahim al-)Marashi's article includes a misplaced comma in referring to Iraq's head of military intelligence during the 1991 Gulf war. The same sentence in Downing Street's report contains the same misplaced comma."

After UK's Channel 4 News exposed the blunder, Blair's office said the report was "accurate" and that the government never claimed exclusive authorship.

Sounds very much like Clinton: "I smoked (pot), but I didn't inhale."

Compare the key documents:
The government's paper
The academic's paper

* * *

AS U.S. WEIGHS its options on Iraq, George Bush is getting prepared for cyber-warfare. Washington Post reported that the president has signed a secret directive ordering the government to develop, for the first time, national-level guidance for determining when and how the U.S.would launch cyber-attacks against enemy computer networks. Another pre-emptive action?

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in Germany Friday where he remarked the country's anti-war stance put it on a par with Libya and Cuba. He faces a hostile reception from German politicians and peace activists.

The U.S. government - Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller - raised the national threat level from "yellow" to "orange," indicating a "high risk of terrorist attacks". Orange is the second-highest level in the color-coded system.

Read the transcript.

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Book battle in Japan BOOK

Book battle in Japan

BOOK publishers in Japan are blaming library boom for killing their business, reports Newsweek February 3 edition.

Due to the chronic economic slump, Japanese are buying less books, but they pack the public libraries especially on weekends. While the number of books libraries lend out - free of charge - doubled to 546 million in the past decade, book sales in 2001 managed to cash in US$7.9 billion, down by 13% from 1996.

As public libraries stock multiple copies of popular titles, they pose unfair competition to the publishers and affected their sale. In the past, publishers said they have been losing grounds to videogames, mobile phones, music CDs and used bookstores. So, now the publishers are asking libraries not to lend out popular new titles for six months. They also ask for the authors to get paid for the books the libraries loan out. The tussle between the publishers and the libraries is still on.

It is noted that public lending rights are observed in the U.K.. The rate per loan is about US$0.07, and the most an author can earn in one year is restricted to a maximum of US$9,800. More than 17,000 British authors benefitted under this plan last year.

Probably, Malaysia won't face such a problem. Because our people don't read that much.

* * *

WEDNESDAY, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell - hawkish Bush's most prominent dove - presented an exhaustive account of Iraq’s weapons programs to the UN Security Council, calling for quick military action. He was greeted with lukewarm response.

Newsweek said the seating plan of the Security Council chamber itself made the politics of the moment crystal clear. European nations remained unmoved, while UN Security Council remains divided.

Click here for the 45-slide presentation by Powell.

* * *

REPERCUSSION starts to creep in of U.S. Senator (D-CA) Barbara Boxer's statement delivered January 28 on the Senate floor in advance of the President's State of the Union address:

So, except for Iraq, the emerging Bush Foreign Policy Doctrine appears to be a policy of "designed neglect": disengage from the world's problems and wait for the next crisis to come along. This modus operandi is already causing serious unrest in Latin America and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, North Korea Thursday warned of "total war" if the United States attacked its nuclear complex.

Breaking News alert from CNN at 6.34am as I blogged this entry: State Department issues worldwide caution to Americans abroad, warning of heightened threat of terror attacks including possible use of chemical or biological agents.

* * *

PM-IN-WAITING Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will have a big headache come October.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad quashed rumours of general election being held before his exit, and Pak Lah has to decide on the date - after he steps down. He also announced there would be no cabinet reshuffle until the final curtain (Dr Ling Liong Sik saved by the bell?). Retired Judge Harun Hashim said when PM resigns, the entire Cabinet should quit with him.

The Ku Li - Najib Factor: Quite a problem. According to grapevine, Pak Lah has some plan for Muhyiddin Yassin. Najib Tun Razak is courting Tengku Razaleigh to be his Number One.

The Anwar Factor: Speculation that jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim may be freed o­n April 14 is causing excitement in opposition circles. Malaysiakini says this is technically possible as by then Anwar would have served two-thirds of his six-year jail sentence for corruption.

His lawyers are working to file an application for a stay of execution o­n his nine-year jail sentence for sodomy. They will also file an application for bail pending the outcome of the appeal - now before the Court of Appeal - against the charges.

More tests for Pak Lah: Bernama: Dr Mahathir will go o­n leave in March and April, and his deputy will be acting prime minister during this period.

Fingers crossed for many politicians from both sides of the fence.

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European press chides Wall Street

European press chides Wall Street Journal for hawkish journalism...

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is noted for its persistent stance since the 1991 Gulf War, which calls for the removal of Saddam Hussein. There's also no doubt about WSJ having strong connections within the White House for its news sources. Political supernovas, and has-beens like senior Bush's Secretary of State James A. Baker III (The case for military action in Iraq is now conclusive), write in its Opinion/Editorial (Op-Ed) pages. Some simply call the paper hawkish.

January 30, WSJ published a statement titled "United We Stand", co-written by the heads of government from eight countries which it bragged as the New Europe. The letter was authored by prime ministers Jose María Aznar (Spain), Jose-Manuel Durão Barroso (Portugal), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Tony Blair (the U.K.), Vaclav Havel (Hungary), Peter Medgyessy (Poland), Leszek Miller (Denmark), and Czech president Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

All eight co-authors of the letter, anchored by Michael Gonzalez, WSJ Europe's editorial page deputy editor, pledged their solidarity behind George Bush. WSJ says the views of the Continent's pro-American majority weren't being heard, and implied that Germany and France, two countries still resisting Bush's war overtures, could not speak on behalf of the entire Europe.

That aroused strong reactions from notable press in Germany and France. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, labelled as "normally serious", ended its January 31 report with a probing question: "Did The Wall Street Journal really come up with the idea to suggest a declaration by the eight leaders, or did someone lend a helping hand?"

The French newspaper Liberation, wrote that, "The very strong links between The Wall Street Journal and the 'hawks' of the Bush Administration also raise the question of the role Washington played in the initiative."

WSJ responded February 3 with the article "The Op-Ed Alliance", saying that it scooped the statement from the eight heads of government entirely on its own. Columnist Dan Gillmor cast strong doubt ("Impossible to believe"!), saying WSJ's editorial page doesn't just have sources inside this government. It is very much part of the enterprise.

As a regular reader of WSJ Op-Ed pages, I don't take it too easy with its opinions and leader stories. But I must confess I truly admire what it declared, shamelessly, that "The Wall Street Journal stands accused of committing journalism. We plead guilty."

"We admit to committing journalism. And if our critics want to accuse these pages of having so much clout that we can dictate policy to eight European heads of state, we will humbly accept.

Editors at The Star, the NST, Utusan Malaysian and Berita Harian should learn from this. It's not a sin to make a stand, whichever way their masters may dictate. But it's certainly shameful for not having the courage to stand accused for what they print.

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More helpings of U.S. supremacy

More helpings of U.S. supremacy and systemic malfunction

TALK OF U.S. supremacy and systemic malfunction, there are two other domains where it will be put to severe test.

MILITARY SUPREMACY: Secretary of State Colin Powell promised to provide a "compelling demonstration" to the UN Security Council, scheduled later today, that Saddam Hussein "is concealing the evidence of his weapons of mass destruction". Powell will use the power of multimedia for his presentation: photographs of mobile biological weapons and transcripts of overheard Iraqi conversations. He will try to sway a skeptical world with back-up by top CIA officials.

However, he said he would not present a "smoking gun" just yet.

Helping to push Powell's sail, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix warned it's "five minutes to midnight'', and pleaded with the Iraqi government to produce evidence about its weapons programs without further delay.

Meanwhile, CNN reported the Pentagon has launched an investigation into allegations of possible misconduct by Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command and the man who would lead U.S. forces in the event of a military strike on Iraq.

SOFTWARE SUPREMACY: Microsoft warns Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the threat of Open Source - not to the world, but to its own business model.

In its latest 10-Q quarterly filing with the SEC, Microsoft says it may in the future be forced to lower its software prices as a result of the growth of open source.

According to Microsoft, the threat includes "recent efforts by proponents of the open source model to convince governments worldwide to mandate the use of open source software in their purchase and deployment of software products", a trend that also takes hold in Malaysia.

Last June, the German government announced that it was moving to standardize on Linux and an open-source IT model at the federal, state and communal levels. But, Germany is not to be taken as a first-mover. There are more than 75 Open Source/Linux adopters among government agencies, ranging from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force and Pinellas County, Fla., and agencies in the governments of China, Singapore and Australia. It's a living list that keeps growing.

Perhaps, it would do Microsoft some good if it cares to take stock of its root problem: A traditional business model that is based on customers paying to license its software. The controversial Licensing 6 and Software Assurance program, which it implemented last year, has also alienated many of its largest customers.

In contrast, Open Source provides an alternative approach in answering to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of IT. Software is produced and supported by global communities of programmers, with the resulting software and intellectual property licensed to end users at little or no cost. Source codes can be accessed, modified, enhanced and shared.

Interestingly, Microsoft's greatest Open Source threat may come from within.

According to research and consulting firm Meta Group Inc., Microsoft Corp. is predicted to begin moving some of its current proprietary application enablers, such as the components of its software-as-a-service .Net strategy, to the Linux environment in late 2004.

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Columbia tragedy and systemic malfunction

Columbia tragedy and systemic malfunction

IF YOU THINK freedom of speech thrives in the USA, think harder.

New York Times reported: "When an expert NASA panel warned last year that safety troubles loomed for the fleet of shuttles if the agency's budget was not increased, NASA removed five of the panel's nine members and two of its consultants. Some of them now say the agency was trying to suppress their criticisms."

NASA, the country's pinnacle of space technology, is said to have developed institutional myopia and zero tolerance for dissent. When challenged, they shoot the messengers.

And there's no lack of hind-sight rhetorics and finger-pointing among law makers in the aftermath of the Columbia tragedy. New York Times ran an editorial which recounted NASA's "famous" attempt to cover up its shortcomings in the early stages of the 1986 Challenger investigation. It calls for an independent presidential commission and the Congress to conduct separate investigations.

Immediate future shuttle flights have been shelved while there are three cosmonauts still locked up in the International Space Station up in the outer space.

On the surface, the Columbia tragedy has put renewed focus on a series of government and independent reports that questioned the fitness of the aging shuttle fleet, the impact of scarce federal money, competing priorities and programs at NASA and a changing work force.

Deep beneath, it points to a systemic malfunction that slowly breaks up the perceived US supremacy in many areas.

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Resignation calls: Pak Lah getting

Resignation calls:
Pak Lah getting embarrassed

STOP IT! The DPM said. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wanted cabinet ministers and Barisan Narional elected representatives to stop making any more public announcement about their offer to resign. He said it was not proper because Dr Mahathir was still leading the country.

Political punters told me Pak Lah is not only getting embarrassed. He wouldn't want to be dragged into murky waters and become a casualty at this critical juncture of his political career.

January 26, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it would be good for all party leaders to resign so that his deputy can make fresh appointments. There are both wisdom, and crouching tiger and hidden dragon in his words, observers said, the zen in which I don't really understand.

On Chinese New Year day, Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik suggested that all members of Dr Mahathir's cabinet resign when the Prime Minister retired in October to enable Abdullah, as the successor, to form his own cabinet. Dr Lim said this is in accordance with parliamentary principles and practices. He also said there was no point for leaders to express their intention to resign.

"If you want to go, then do it. This kind of statement is very destructive as it takes the focus away from the country. We are not near any election, so stop all these talks."

Sunday, Mingguan Malaysia interviewed former DPM Musa Hitam. He said if Dr M is bent on leaving, "it was probably time for others to do the same". New Straits Times highlights a common process practised in democracy: "According to political experts, in the United States, when a new president takes over, all the cabinet secretaries resign to enable him to choose his new, preferred line-up. But of course some of them would be reappointed."

Notably, many high-stake ministers and menteris besar considered Dr Lim's suggestion as merely his personal opinion. Those who have said they disagreed with Dr Lim's suggestion include Youth and Sports Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Works Minister S. Samy Vellu and Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali. Even Awang Sulung, a ghost writer representing Utusan Malaysia's senior editors, offered the same view.

But clearly, all took the cue from MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik who perfected the ‘leave-it-to-the-president syndrome' model.

* * *

THE WAR of nerves between Singapore and Malaysian media continues.

Straits Times Singapore's KL correspondent filed a story today, zooming in on Singaporeans' poor sex drive, the country's 'rising crime rate', and the thousands of its people who flocked to Malaysia over Chinese New Year.

Auteurs of such reports include NTV7, NST Group Editor-in-Chief Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, Utusan Malaysia and The Star. Awang Sulung said in Mingguan Malaysia that the Singapore Government uses its media to 'make the water issue a people's dispute, but it's no more a government-to-government dispute'.

Meanwhile, two Singapore cabinet ministers said relations between Singapore and Malaysia are not beyond repair.

* * *

WAR ON IRAQ. Bush and Blair have been called several names but their own.

Jonathan Eyal, director of studies at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, referred to the war-chanting duo as a tale of dogs and tails. He said:

"The reality is that Mr Blair is neither America's poodle nor Europe's rottweiler. Yet, he remains just a tail, while the real dog is firmly on its feet in Washington."

Telekom Malaysia director/Celcom chairman Munir Majid wrote in his Sunday column in New Sunday Times, likening the duo as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:

"Many will recall Sundance was a superb gun-fighter who followed Butch to his death."

Meanwhile, Peace Malaysia campaign is gathering force.

Peace Malaysia is a coalition of 237 NGOs. It is collecting one million signatures to be presented at the 13th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Kuala Lumpur.

Click here to submit your online signature.

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