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Reme Ahmad
Assistant Foreign Editor
Dear friends...
April 03, 2009 Friday, 02:44 PM
Reme Ahmad gets an e-mail from Najib Razak. No, seriously!
I RECEIVED an email from the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, yesterday evening (which means he was still PM-designate then). I am not kidding. In my Inbox was this: When I opened the mail, it said: "On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Najib Razak wrote:" In the email, the PM-deignate wrote to, ahem, me that although a lot of attention had been focused on the Umno annual general assembly, he has been busy because he is now the party's president. The mail gets personal, by taking on a conversational 'I am your buddy' tone - ie far and away from the usual "I am a politician, you people listen to me". Look at this sentence: "The next few days will be no less busy for me, but I will share with you some exclusive content of coming events..." Of course, it was no surprise that when I depressed the Reply button, the email address was press@1Malaysia.com.my. 1Malaysia.com.my is of course the website and blog of Mr Najib that he started some months ago. He can be expected to be active on this - speaking through his aides of course. Well, I guess it's about time. The government has learnt from last year's general elections when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and Umno were thrashed because they failed to engage Netizens and the phletora of accusations in cyberspace. I guess the new PM's people now realise that half the public relations battle, and the fight for the hearts of minds of Malaysians and the wired-up international community, is on the Internet. Mr Najib had better get active real fast. Top opposition leaders Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim have popular blogs that question almost every government move. They have been joined by dozens of other opposition politicians. There are the very popular blogs by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, of course - the duo that’s been busily attacking the government (of former PM Abdullah Badawi). And the role played by opposition news website Harakahdaily.net (Harakah the newspaper is the organ of Parti Islam SeMalaysia). It is in Bahasa Malaysia and popular among pro-PAS netizens. Then there are the major pro-opposition online newspapers like Malaysiakini and Siasahdaily (also in Bahasa). There is also the blog portal Malaysia Today organised by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a wildly popular 'anti-government' figure. The government has two websites seen to be alilgned to it - The Malaysian Insider and Agendadaily (in Bahasa). But the rest of Malaysian so-po (social-political) blogs and websites seem to be full of writers who have, at minimum, a cynical view of all things government, and at worst, think the government is an uncontrollable lying rapist of public funds. So it's about time that the new PM, filled with new energy and new officers, answers all the cynicism and the critics out there. I include below the contents of the, ahem, personal mail from PM Najib to this lowly scribe: On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Najib Razak wrote: As you know the country for the past week had been largely focused on the UMNO General Assembly and the outcome of the party elections. The next few days will be no less busy for me, but I will share with you some exclusive content of coming events, only on www.1Malaysia.com.my. Be sure to check in regularly to view them! Najib CHANGING OF THE GUARD Read the speeches and watch the videos » Read the full blog and comment » Tags: blogs, malaysia, online, websites 
Your comments are welcome. The following rules apply: |
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Like what S C Chan said, the local newspapers in Malaysia are too polite or seems to avoid critisizing too much about politicians and policies. However it would be fair to note that there is an iron fist rule when it comes to publishing these kind of matters. The Government regularly censor and control the media, and anything which is found to be too offensive for the Government, especially UMNO, are pretty much restricted. Have you heard of the recent ban of two local newspapers published by the opposition parties ? Haven't you heard of the Government using the ISA to detain political opponents who critisizes the ruling party or to peacefully demand change ? It is the younger generations who are better educated now who wishes to see a more positive change for the country and the political system. The younger generations of not only the minority Chinese and Indians, and even the emerging Malays who understand the need of all the races to be united. These are the people who are at the same time more tech savvy and often resort to medias which cannot be effectively or totally controlled by the Government, such as the internet. Najib may be taking a new step in doing this, and I commend on his effort. However he would have to understand that unless he is able to truely provide a better change and more press freedom, he can forget about getting the votes of the people. We are no longer interested in what he has to say. Politicians are after all the best story tellers of all time. We will be waiting to see the results he provide instead. Time to proof his existance.
I don't think the new so-called PM or someone who has been accused of murder could change or resolve much. The people has no power to voice out and for years it has been controlled by closed minded government.
It will be great if our own ministers started a blog to interact with us, the public.
Because after all, we can't get so,so many of our letters published in the ST (for their own reasons)and its rare we even get a reply from ST.
Hi Reme, this is S C Chan in Kuching. Quite co-incidentally in Malaysian newspapers today, reports about the incoming PM Najib Tun Razak (before the swearing-in this morning at Istana Negera) readers were asked in fact to go to his blog too.
I can believe that the new PM will spend some time on his blog because when you are up there and has little time to go to the ground and get the feels of things of the ground ( Did he do that before,anyway?) you'd want to get some feedbacks from thepublic. Malaysian newspapers,except for those that take an anti Government stance report both sides of the stories. I suppose the mainstream newspapers in this country aremuch too polite and have always been no matter how angry the public may be with certain policies.
So let's hope Najib will spend more time on his blog and respond to some of the comments. That's a good two-way communication. Your aides are not likely to know or tell you eerything.
S C Chan
Kuching,Sarawak
East Malaysia