Sesión realizada para el diseñador Israel Camus, Locación Quinta Vergara, Viña del Mar.

Modelos:

Karin Alfaro

Mery Bravo

Alejandra Mancilla

Karen

Bro,” Steven Gan paid fitting tribute to our dear friends at Malaysiakini dinner.So touching and tears flow from my eyes.For your information thanks.”

audie61 had the privilege to interact with both these gentleman and they both had given us sound advice and the true meaning of journalism.

We reposts here the Malaysiakini article:- Five years ago – at our fifth anniversary – I paid tribute to Harun Rashid. A prolific writer and Malaysiakini columnist, Harun did not make it to our 2004 get-together.

Tonight, we hail another doyen of Internet journalism – MGG Pillai (left). Also a Malaysiakini columnist – unlike Harun – MGG was at our fifth anniversary. He died two years after. Had he lived to witness the 2008 tsunami, he would have said, “I told you so.”

Also not with us tonight is SC Chan (right), better known in Malaysiakini as Tony Thien. Tony, who was our Kuching correspondent, had almost single-handedly helped ensure Sabah and Sarawak remain prominent in the frontpages of Malaysiakini.

To MGG and to Tony, both of you are sorely missed, and whereever you are, our thoughts are with you tonight.

It’s now our turn to bear their torch. We must not, and cannot, fail them.

An unenviable task

It has been 10 tough, frustrating and yet exciting years.

In the process, we have upset a lot of people. Where we were wrong, I apologise. Where we were right, we’re just doing our job. No hard feelings really – some of you are even here tonight.

A decade ago, the few of us at Malaysiakini set about doing an unenviable task.

Along the way, we gave Dr Mahathir Mohamad a pain in the neck. We gave Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s spin-doctors a run for their money. Looking ahead, we intend to put Najib Abdul Razak’s 1Malaysia to the test.

Indeed, our task is not done. As we close one chapter, we are opening another. This new page has yet to be written. We know not what story we are going to tell.

But in Chapter Two, our mission will remain the same. It’s our job as journalists to hold politicians – be they government or the opposition – accountable to those who put them in power.

Independent financing

We have done the easy part – putting Malaysiakini on the map. More difficult, however, was for Malaysiakini to be financially stable.

Independent media needs independent financing – that has always been our unwritten motto.

Malaysiakini today is one of the two news websites in the world – the other being Wall Street Journal – which have made the subscription model a success. It’s a feat which has gone relatively unnoticed.

When the online editor of New York Times came to KL to speak to us about our business model, surely we must be doing something right.

All this, thanks to the thousands of subscribers for forking out RM20 every month to access Malaysiakini.

But as we grow, so too are our costs.

Both subscription and advertising alone may not be able to sustain Malaysiakini. Which is why we cannot quite figure out how free websites elsewhere can survive.

In the months to come, Malaysiakini will be leveraging on our content, our technology, our know-how, our 10 years of experience – and most of all, our passion – to venture into new areas.

Our aim is to ensure that Malaysiakini can continue to grow to better serve Malaysians.

After all, only by being financially independent can we be truly independent.

Go to the people

And talking about mottos, allow me to share my own – this came from ‘Old Master’ Lao Tzu, a great Chinese philosopher.

He said: “Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have.”

“But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, ‘We have done this ourselves’.”

And so with Malaysiakini, it is not just reaching our destination that is important.

When we do get there – hopefully very soon – Malaysians will say, “We have done this together.”

DUNGUN – PAS Dungun menjadi kawasan yang pertama berjaya menubuhkan Kelab Veteran PAS selepast ditubuhan di peringkat negeri, apabila dengan rasminya ia ditubuhkan oleh PAS Cawangan Sura Tengah, disini. 

Majlis penubuhan kelab tersebut diadakan dalam satu majlis pada jam 5.00 petang di Masjid Lama Sura, 10 November 2009, lalu.

Ketua penajanya, Ustaz Harun Daud berkata, 30 ‘orang lama PAS’  telah hadir dan bersepakat pada mesyuarat pertama itu bagi memilih 10 ahli jawatankuasanya.

Beliau berkata, kelab berkenaan akan berusaha mengumpul seramai mungkin ahli-ahli dikalangan ‘veteran’ yang akan bertindak menyalurkan  idea-idea kepada PAS Kawasan dan negeri, untuk dikongsi bersama antara pemimpin semasa dengan bekas pimpinannya.

“Kemungkinan pada masa muda remaja, dia (veteran) memang seorang yang aktif tetapi apabila telah lanjut usia mereka (veteran) tidak ada ruang dan ‘platform’ untuk bersuara dan menyampaikan pemikiran,

“Inilah (kelab veteran) yang akan menjadi ruang dan peluang untuk golongan (veteran) ini memberikan pandangan dan idea masing-masing untuk perjuangan Islam PAS,” jelasnya.

Dalam majlis itu juga, katany, ahli-ahli kelab tersebut telah berikrar dengan segala usaha dan tindakan bagi menumbangkan Umno dan Barisan Nasional (BN) Terengganu pada pilihanraya umum ke-13 akan datang.

Foto – Model: la mamma

_________

“…bar matteotti farmacia via calogero isgrò stalteri millepiedi…”, la mia faccia era appiccicata al finestrino dell’auto e stavo leggendo veloce veloce tutto quello che passava davanti ai miei occhi. “Questa è la strada degli scarpari!”, aveva annunciato mia madre. Lo diceva ogni volta che la percorrevamo. “Su, adesso continua. A voce alta”, ed io giù a leggere. Tutto, perfino gli avvisi di affitto. Ormai ero diventato bravo. Mizzica se ero bravo!

Avrò avuto cinque o sei anni e quel gioco era nato poco dopo esserci trasferiti tutti quanti a Marsala. Dovevo leggere alla perfezione quello che scorreva davanti ai miei occhi mentre mia madre guidava per la città. E se sbagliavo, mi correggeva.

Non è che mi divertisse tantissimo, eh! Il fatto è che non c’era nient’altro da fare in macchina. E, ad ogni modo, quando mia madre dava il via, quel gioco diventava una sfida. Per ogni parola corretta o per quelle che mi facevo sfuggire, battevo i pugni sulle cosce. E, giuro, avrei perfino imprecato, se solo avessi saputo come si faceva.
Questa storia era andata avanti così per un paio di anni -era tutta una scusa per farmi imparare a leggere, no? Ma io mica l’avevo capito allora.

A ripensarci adesso, è stata una gran bella furbata quella di mia madre. A scuola sapevo leggere come nessun altro e quella città, che all’inizio mi era sconosciuta, dopo poco era diventata come un grande libro fatto d’insegne colorate. Ogni strada, una storia diversa. La Via Roma ti raccontava di vestiti, di scarpe e di moda, la Via Frisella di fotografia e biciclette. Ma la mia preferita era la Via Mazzini. Là c’era una vetrina grandissima, tutta piena di giocattoli, e, non appena la vedevo, gridavo l’insegna: TOYLANDIA!!!

Mia madre capiva subito. E, a volte, si fermava pure.

-
Con questo breve racconto ho partecipato alla selezione per un corso di scrittura organizzato dalla Scuola Holden di Torino. L’ho scritto in occasione del ritratto di mia madre che ho pubblicato qui su Flickr tempo fa. Ma, dato che dovevo parteciapere ad un concorso, mi pareva incauto pubblicarlo allora su internet.
Ora che ho superato la selezione, no

Yeah!

p.s. il tema del concorso era “scrivi in 1800 battute un racconto dal quale si evinca il tuo legame con la città di Marsala”.

Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. España

©Fotografía, Jaime García G.

“Una foto al día”

Llevaba tiempo sin ir a Vitoria, así que no había tenido oportunidad de ver el tranvía. Como una niña pequeña me puse con la cámara cuando vi que venía. Es lo que tenemos los de pueblo, que nos emocionamos con estas cosas .

It seems that 99.51 percent  of Iban voters in the 9731 Baleh Constituency will see a challenge forthcoming during the next State elections. In the last state elections Dr.Masing (President of Party Rakyat Sarawak) was challenged by Lucius Jimbun using the SNAP symbol but he truomphed quite easily.

The likes of strong man and party Presidents Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon( news flash:- A big surprise! Penang State Chief Minister has LOST!) and Sammy Vellu were soundly defeated in the 308 elections and James will be very wary of the threat that will be posed this time round from PKR. The divisional chief of PKR Ulu Rejang Frankie Bendindang is speculated to give James a ”good fight” and touted to be the candidate favoured by PKR.

However the voters of Baleh thinks otherwise according to a survey conducted by Natasha and Joey of audie61 and team. The results indicate that the voters are in favour of another candidate who gave the BN a lot of sleepless nights in the last 308 elections.It was found out that he losts the lasts parliamentary seat as BN had the full machinery and also only the ENEMY FROM WITHIN  his own camp derailed his path to Parliament. He was an independant candidate then but if he is a PKR candidate surely Baleh will be an EXPLOSIVE SEAT.

According to a veteran voter and a local from Baleh in 1983 when James stepped in the world of politics he brought GOOD and BIG Hopes for the Ibans in Baleh. Dr.James is afterall a doctor of Philosophy and he graduated from the Australian National University Canberra. He also served as a senior research officer with SESCO(Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation) He has all the credentials to be helping and assisting all his fellow Ibans in the area.

Has he done sufficiently enough after two and half  decades as Assemblyman for the area? He has all the facilities within his reach and if he has done enough there would not be any more rumblings and disgruntled Ibans would they? This is what James envisage in his vision for the 2006 elections. If he is relected he will bring more infrastructure development and land development for large scale farming  and plantations in Baleh.

He will ensure all schools in the area are supplied by electricity as part of the plan to equip the schools with the necessary infrastructure and facilities to facilitate the promotion of the information and communications technology.As for roads,James said the first phase of the proposed 37 Km Kapit-Nanga Mujong-Baleh-Nanga Gat Road would be completed by 2007 while the second phase was due for completion by 2010.

Baleh being one of the remotest and biggest rural state constituencies James has done sufficently enough to stay in power for the last two and half decades but  they are still many oppostion voices harping on his failures to deliver as promised.  WHAT WAS PROMISED..?? WAS IT THE CHIEF MINISTERS SEAT.Hmmm.??

This is the very question now being asked in Baleh,’What other hopes has  James to deliver to the Ibans in Baleh.?” Will James be able to withstand the next challenge? Will they be tears flowing or champagne to reach his third decade? This audie61 picked up from an internet blog,”I suspect that in the subconscious psyche of many Sarawakians, they do not believe that opposition parties can defeat the BN in the state general election.

Will PKR stop the champagne flow for James as he looks forward to three decades of being a State Assemblyman or will this be a hurdle too far for James? We shall monitor N56 with interests and for now we shall leave it to the people of Baleh to see who is mosts suited to represent them in the State legislative Assembly. 

.

I’ve read with utmost disgust on the article by the the most fabricated lies ever by a netizen using the guise of I Love Malaysia at Malaysiatoday website. Apparently this particular writer, I Love Malaysia , is being paid solely to write without knowing the truth. How can one promote truth and justice when there are self-interest at hand. Hereby demand that this writer checked his facts right before harming any people especially when it is done at the expenses at hitting out MyLivingWall, Ms AL and Bangsar Group. We strongly opposed the article as we know the real truth behind. The writer also spelt the former President Ka Ting name wrongly. It is stupidity at work.

Also to expose these invisible cyber crooks sprouting lies, demand that the writer. I Love Malaysia in his column at MalaysiaToday reveal his funder and motives truthfully to the world.

http://malaysia-today.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28725:the-bald-truth-about-how-one-bn-partys-venture-into-cyberspace-hit-a-wall&catid=22:the-corridors-of-power&Itemid=100085

Excerpts are the article at malaysia-today.net

It’s Thanksgiving Day. Gobble Gobble and all that jazz. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving I feel like I should reflect on what I’m thankful for. I can pretty much sum it up in one word: EVERYTHING!

I have a great family, an absolutely amazing boyfriend, and the best friends a girl could find. I also love grad school, and am experiencing the wonderful feeling of know that I’m doing the right thing with my life. Other people would probably find the school work I do boring and would dread being a librarian, but I am so excited by it. I just got a job at Barnes and Noble and I can’t wait to start making use of my discount.

Probably the only downside is I don’t have a dog of my own. But I’m thankful for everything else!

En ésta me lo he pasado muy bien jugando con los blancos y los negros. Bueno, más bien con los negros, porque me ha quedado oscurita, oscurita .

Kerusi  DUN  N. 3  Kota  Siputeh  diistihar  oleh  Mahkamah  sebagai  Kosong  pada  16 November  2009.     ADUN  terakhir  ialah  Datuk  Abu  Hassan Sarif  dan  beliau  bukanlah  orang  baru  sebagai  ADUN.     Tidak  ada  alasan  untuk    beliau  tidak  tahu  adanya  Peruntukan Undang-Undang mengenai  kehadiran  Ahli  Dewan   yang  terkandung  dalam  Undang-Undang  Tubuh  Negeri  Kedah.  Beliau  adalah  seorang  Penggubal  Undang-Undang  diDewan  Undangan  Negeri   itu  sendiri.  Tambahan  pula  beliau  mewakili  sebuah  Parti  yang   sangat   ternama  dan established.

Sebagai  rakyat  biasapun  sekiranya  menghadapi  pendakwaan/pertuduhan  diMahkamah  kita    sama  sekali  tidak  boleh  memberikan    alasan  tidak  tahu Undang-Undang   terhadap  Kes  yang  didakwa.    Setiap   kita  wajib    mengambil  tahu   perkara  yang  bersangkut  paut  dengan  Undang-Undang.  Lagipun  tidak  ada  sesiapapun   Above The  Law.

Begitu  jugalah  dalam  Kes   ADUN  Kota  Siputeh  ini.    Beliau  sepatutnya   akur  kepada  keputusan  Mahkamah   dan  beri  peluang  kepada  orang  lain  yang   mampu   memberi   sepenuh   komitmen   terhadap  tanggungjawab  serta   sentiasa  bersedia  memberikan  perkhidmatan  terbaik   untuk   masyarakatnya.

Memang  betul  ada  avenue dimana  beliau  berhak  mengemukakan  rayuan  terhadap  keputusan  Mahkamah  tersebut.  Itu  adalah  hak  mutlak  peribadi  beliau.    Dimana  pula  keadilan  untuk     para  pengundi?     Mengapa   mereka  perlu  menunggu    satu  tempoh  yang  ta`  dapat  dijangka    untuk   Kerusi  tersebut  berpenghuni  kembali.   Jika  tidak  ada   sebarang  rayuan   sudah  pasti   selewat-lewatnya  dalam  tempoh  2  bulan   sahaja  penduduk  Kota  Siputeh  akan  menerima  Y.B.  baru.

Setiap  yang  merayu  mempunyai  alasan   tersendiri.    Ada  yang  mengatakan  Pilihanraya  Kecil  jika  diadakan   akan    merugikan  rakyat   juga     kerana    urusan   mengendalikan  satu-satu  Pilihanraya  itu   memerlukan   satu  perbelanjaan  yang  sangat   besar.      Tidak  dinafikan  kebenaran  kata-kata  itu.   Berbalik  kepada  peristiwa    bagaimana    boleh  berlakunya  kekosongan,    bukankah   ianya  akibat  dari   sikap  yang  tidak  bertanggungjawab  seseorang.    Apakah   perbuatan  ini    tidak  merugikan  rakyat?

Amalan  demokrasi  sangat  segar  dalam  negara  ini.   Setiap  orang  mempunyai  hak  dalam  Undang-Undang  dan  ini  termasuklah  kelebihan  untuk  membuat  rayuan   hingga  keperingkat  paling   Atas  (Mahkamah  Agong).  Jika  perkara-perkara  kecil  seperti  wajib  kehadiran ini   dipatuhi    masa-masa  yang  berharga  dapat  diselamatkan  daripada  ia  dihabiskan  semata-mata   untuk   naik   turun   Mahkamah.

Today was first day of my new job as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. It was your basic first day orientation stuff–filling out paperwork and touring the store. However it didn’t take me long to figure out the greatest danger of working at B&N–all the things I want to buy with my great discount. For a person who wants to have a personal library, a bookstore is a dangerous place to work (especially when you don’t make a whole lot more than minimum wage). And not only do they have books, they have DVD’s and CD’s. I guess this will be an opportunity to learn self-restraint…

]]> http://rodrigoaravena.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/retratos-y-personas-2/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:43:44 +0000 Rodrigo http://rodrigoaravena.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/retratos-y-personas-2/

Ésta es otra de las que me ha costado poner recta y, aún así, no está bien conseguida. Sobre todo porque no había ni una sola línea que fuera recta en esa fachada!!!!

     Again, the status of UMNO in the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) as the big brother (or maybe father, even grandfather now……) was proved again, this time is if you need UMNO’s help, you must be silent, or ‘zipped’, one of the conditions if you want his hands……

     (I have to stop here and have my readers’ feedback first, maybe will never be continued or be proceed….sorry)

Lisboa,Portugal

©Fotografía, Jaime García G.

“Una foto al día”

]]> http://lbonura.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/ebook-readers-and-standards-where-to-now/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:57:05 +0000 lbonura http://lbonura.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/ebook-readers-and-standards-where-to-now/

On 18 Nov, I joined more than 600 other publishing peers for an Aptara webinar on “eBook Readers and Standards…Where to Now?” The presentation looked at the rapidly unfolding eBook market, and how publishers are struggling to adapt as competitive and consumer pressures demand that their titles be compatible with the multitude of new eBook applications and eReaders coming to market. For those working on the development of a successful eBook production strategy, this presentation gave a clear position on where the market is today and will be tomorrow.

The presenters were Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester Research’s eBook Market Analyst, and Michael Smith, Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), which manages the EPUB standard. Here are some highlights:

From Sarah Rotman Epps on a Forrester Research survey completed in the third quarter 2009:

• Q2 2008, 37% had never heard of an electronic book device; in Q3 2009, that number dropped to 17%
• US eReader outlook:
  • Sell-through of 3 million units in 2009
    • Amazon 60%
    • Sony 35%
    • Others less than 5%
  • 40% of 2009 sales (1.2M) in Q4, with 900,000 in November/December holiday season
  • A conservative estimate for 2010 would be for sales to increase from 6M (2009) to 10M units
• What’s coming in 2010:
  • First eReaders not using E Ink screens
  • New screen sizes, color, and non-E Ink video
  • New category-bending devices: dual screens, web tablets, smartphones better optimized for reading
  • More competition: B&N, others
  • Global growth
  • 2007 is to eReaders what 2001 was to MP3 players
• US consumers:
  • 3% now use their desktop computer to reader eBooks
  • 2% use their laptop computer
  • 1% use an eReader device, such as a Kindle or Sony Reader
  • 1% use a netbook
  • 1% use a mobile phone or PDA
• Of consumers who say they are interested in eBooks, the value they saw included:
  • Take up less space: 54%
  • Can access multiple books on the go: 47%
  • Can adjust text size: 37%
  • Better for the environment than print books: 37%
  • Can read in dark/low light: 37%
  • Cheaper than print books: 35%
  • Easy to search: 26%
  • Easy to look up a word in a dictionary: 22%
• When asked how interested they would be in reading different forms of media on an eBook reader, consumers who were very interested replied:
  • Books: 29%
  • Magazines: 15%
  • Newspapers: 14%
  • Textbooks: 11%
  • Wikipedia: 9%
  • Comics: 7%
  • Blogs: 4%
• What should book publishers take away from the survey:
  • Stay “device agnostic”
  • The features that matter when it comes to content:
    • Ability to reflow content and look good on any device
    • Ability to sync up content across multiple devices
    • Ability to share content with a friend
• What will eBooks mean for a publisher’s bottom line?
  • Expect small revenues from any one channel, but expect growth over time across devices
  • Could be incremental, but much will be replacement
    • Plan for a smaller business
    • But potentially still a profitable one as you cut back print operations over time
  • New opportunities
    • Subscriptions
    • Incremental content sales
    • Advertising

From Michael Smith’s presentation:

• Industry predictions:
  • Continued growth of eBooks and eReaders as they become more mainstream
  • Younger generations (digital natives) begin to read electronically for pleasure
  • Hockey stick sales growth: 2010-2011
• eBook wholesale numbers:
  • 2009: $109,900,000 (Q1-Q3)
  • 2008: $53,500,000
  • 2007: $31,800,000
  • 2006: $20,000,000
• eBook formats: What’s right for your content?
  • Final form content vs. digital reflowable text
    • PDF vs. EPUB
  • How will content be consumed?
    • Web
    • Mobile
    • E Ink Display
• Current standards landscape
  • EPUB is an open and non-proprietary standard
    • Key to healthy eBook ecosystem
    • PDF is an ISO Standard
    • DAISY, ONIX, ISBN, XML, XHTML, CSS all important
  • Others promoting non-EPUB formats
• What’s pivotal to pervasive EPUB adoption?
  • Publisher adoption — Critical mass of content
  • Consumer adoption — EPUB prefect for small screen apps
  • Continuous evolution and improvements — EPUB Maintenance Working Group + EPUB 3.0
• Future of EPUB — Not a matter of “if,” but how fast it will become the dominant format/preferred standard
  • Continued worldwide adoption of EPUB with strong push throughout Europe, China and Japan
  • Move from primarily trade titles into Science/Technology/Math and then Higher-Ed
  • Continued growth in Library markets
  • Adoption of EPUB format to be a factor in rise of accessible titles available for Print Disabled community

By Sim Kwang Yang

Being severed from the Malayan Peninsula by a vast expanse of water, the political sky over the fair land of Sarawak has very different hues and colours. Sometimes, the political quirks and kinks can seem incomprehensible to politicians and people from outside the state.

Part of the reason for this discrepancy is that the collective imagination of Sarawakians is not shaped by the national media entirely, but also by the local media in Sarawak in all forms, including and especially the radio which is often the only source of information about the outside world in much of the Sarawak rural heartland.

All the newspapers in various languages are pro-BN government of course. They are all owned by companies and business interests that depend on the state government for survival. The BN control over the formation of public opinions is water-tight.

In this way, the Sarawak BN is able to monopolise the content and the style of political discourse throughout the entire state. Alternative or dissident voices can hardly ever find the space to articulate their views. With telephone access limited to the towns and some semi-urban areas, the power of the Internet has yet to establish a foothold.

In contrast, the flow of information from the state government and its leaders to the people even in the most remote village communities is entrenched by a tightly controlled system of government administration, encompassing the police, the Residents, the district officers, the information officers, and the agriculture officers.

In the rural areas, this firewall of information control does mean that the political frame of reference of the voters is designed by the BN leaders to legitimate their position as patrons, with the villagers being brainwashed into the dependence syndrome. The carrot must be reinforced with the stick, so fear of losing this patronage is instilled into their minds over the past decades.

Quality of political narratives

In the towns, the voters are likely to be much better informed. Now they also enjoy the convenience of the Internet. Being financially independent and expecting development as a right, many urban voters in Sarawak are less vulnerable to the carrot and the stick. That explains partly why the DAP and the PKR were able to win seats in the 2006 Sarawak election. Many Chinese voters in smaller towns still tend to be blinded by the awesome BN propaganda machine.

One casualty of this closure of the public space in Sarawak is the questionable quality of political narratives in Sarawak.

In 1978, I suffered reverse cultural shock when I returned from a first world country like Canada to a third world territory like Sarawak. The intellectual, cultural, and political backwardness of Sarawakians hit me in my face like a train.

When I helped to pioneer the formation of the DAP Kuching Branch that year, it was the first time that the opposition party was making a serious entry into Sarawak state politics. Sarawakians knew next to nothing about this political party, though they had been a brand name party in West Malaysia since 1967.

Immediately, my main opponents in the Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp) branded the DAP as a Peninsular party, and therefore “foreign” and “alien”, neither acceptable nor relevant to the political life in Sarawak. I, together with other DAP local leaders, were portrayed as merely “treacherous running dogs” for Orang Malaya, a term tinged with undisguised contempt for all things that originated from West Malaysia.

This twisted piece of anaemic logic worked in favour of Supp in my nearly 20 year involvement in active politics. I could win in the Kuching parliamentary constituency three consecutive times, but my many attempts to win a state seat failed. I believe this silly piece of garbage argument was finally laid to rest in the 2006 general election, almost 30 years after the appearance of the DAP on the shores of Sarawak!

This twisted logic of branding the DAP has a West Malaysian worked for the good part of three decades because of the BN’s failure in regional integration through equitable socio-economic development. For 45 years after independence, the lived experience of Sarawakians is one of post-colonial exploitation by Kuala Lumpur.

Widespread of discontent

While the rich natural resources like oil and gas in Sarawak has been largely sucked into the national coffer, to be used as a cash cow by the federal government for the benefits of non-Sarawakians, all socio-economic indicators in Sarawak are many decades behind richer states like Selangor and Johore. There has been next to nothing for Sarawak’s industrial and manufacturing sectors.

This widespread of discontent among Sarawakians of all races has been projected onto the social and ethnic level as well. Sarawakians’ mistrust of anything to do with West Malaysians borders on the xenophobic.

There are quite a few large army camps in and around Kuching City. The soldiers from these camps are almost exclusively Malays from West Malaysia. Their relationship with the Sarawak Malays has sometimes been strained, because of some soldiers’ unsatisfactory relationship with Sarawak Malay ladies. Once, in the late 60s, this strain erupted into a public fight near the renowned Kuching open air market. Such brief altercations have still been reported until today.

The Sarawak Malays have a name for these soldiers: lipih, which in the local Malay dialect means “cockroach”! My Malay friends in Kuching tell me they have more friends among the local Chinese and Dayaks than with Orang Malaya.

The Sarawak Malays do speak a kind of Malay dialect which would sound like a foreign language to a Malay first time visitor from West Malaysia. The tone and the vocabulary are vastly different from the West Malaysian Malay dialects and the official Bahasa Malaysia.

Without doing research, I cannot ascertain the lineage of the Sarawak Malays. But their approach to religion is also unique.

Sarawak Malays are deeply devoted Muslims too. But they have been spared the kind of religious radicalisation that has emerged in West Malaysia since the 1970s. That is why numerous attempts by PAS to establish a bridgehead in Sarawak have not yielded any success. By and large, the Sarawak Malay/Melanau Muslims are far more tolerant in matters of religious freedom than their Peninsular counterparts.

A similar trend of alienation also exists among the Sarawak Chinese. Generally, they have a low opinion of West Malaysian Chinese, calling them “Sai Bay Kia”, (small people from the west).

They may all be Chinese, but they speak so differently. My impression is that the Sarawak Chinese find their visitors from across the South China Sea too aggressive, too “Kia Su”, and too cold. As for me, I certainly have many more friends of all races in Sarawak than those in West Malaysia, despite my long residence in the Klang Valley.

I hear that this strange sense of self-identity exists in the university campuses located in West Malaysia. While students there will flock together as Indians, Malays, and Chinese, Sarawakian and Sabahan students tend to socialise as Anak Sarawak or Anak Sabah.

In the political consciousness of Sarawakians, they are probably Sarawakians first, and Malaysians second. I still read on the Internet postings on Sarawak blog sites reviving the call “Sarawak for Sarawakians”, the battle cry of the Sarawak National Party (Snap) in the early 1970s, when they were vanquished to the political wilderness.

Therefore, this anti-West sentiment was successfully manipulated by the Supp against the DAP in Sarawak throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By now, it has lost the magic of its empty logic.

There are two good reasons why I wish to revisit this old haunt for me.

PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim has announced the grand intention of the Pakatan Rakyat to launch a full-scale offensive to take power in Sarawak in the next state election there.

Already, there are many postings by supposedly Dayak netizens on the sites of Sarawak bloggers calling PKR a “West Malaysian party”. They could be genuinely misinformed Sarawakians, but then they could be agents provocateurs preparing the ground for BN parties. It is time I examine again why such a perception is faulty.

Secondly, my analysis here may help PKR leaders and grassroots workers understand the unique social and ethnic milieu in Sarawak, so that when they go to campaign in Sarawak, they would not shoot themselves on their foot, or land on landmines planted by the local BN.

(To be continued tomorrow…)

This article was first published in Malaysiakini in  2008, and has been edited for Hornbill Unleashed.

Sim Kwang Yang can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com