Watch your blogs, warns PM

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted by the Sunday Star as warning bloggers are as liable for defamation as publishers of printed materials.

"It is wrong for bloggers to go overboard, especially if they post slanderous articles against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Islam on the website. This is not something one can take lightly," he told reporters at Kuantan yesterday.

Reaksi Terhadap Kawalan Laman Blog

Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Nazri telah memberi amaran kepada penulis blog supaya tidak keterlaluan dalam penulisan mereka. Nazri mengumumkan sudah sampai masa bagi Kerajaan mengisytiharkan perang terhadap penulis blog yang tidak bertanggungjawab telah menimbulkan pelbagai reaksi, antaranya :

1. Lidah pengarang Sin Chew Daily pada 26 Julai 2007 bertajuk “Berhati-hati Tangani Masalah Penulis Blog” berpendapat bahawa baru-baru ini, penulis blog, Nathaniel Tan ditahan polis, selepas itu, pemilik laman web Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Kamaruddin dipanggil untuk memberi keterangan kepada polis berikutan laporan polis yang dibuat oleh Ketua Penerangan UMNO, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib pada Isnin lalu terhadap laman webnya yang didakwa menyiarkan komen sensitif berhubung kedaulatan Yang di-Pertuan Agong, keagamaan dan perkauman.
Menurut lidah pengarang harian ini, seandainya Kerajaan meminda akta untuk menyekat penulis laman web dan blog, ia akan melanggar hasrat Kerajaan untuk menjayakan rancangan Koridor Raya Multimedia (MSC) dan memungkiri janjinya untuk memberi kebebasan kepada pembangunan media elektronik.
Sekiranya Kerajaan melonggarkan sekatan terhadap laporan media massa, pembaca mungkin berpuas hati dengan laporan akhbar dan tidak akan mempercayai sesetengah penulisan yang tidak tepat yang disiarkan di laman web.
Walau bagaimanapun, sekiranya pemilik dan penulis laman web mahu mempertahankan kebebasan menulis, mereka harus berdisiplinkan diri masing-masing, iaitu tidak menyiarkan kenyataan yang berunsur merangsang dan memburukkan seseorang tanpa bukti kerana perbuatan sedemikian bukan sahaja menjejaskan kewibawaan penulis blog, malah menggangu-gugat perpaduan negara.

2. Sehubungan itu, lidah pengarang Nanyang Siang Pau yang bertajuk "Laman Blog dan Kebebasan Berucap” berpendapat, Kerajaan telah mengadakan undang-undang menyekat media cetak dan kebebasan akhbar telah terkawal. Kemunculan laman blog telah memberi kebebasan kepada pemilik untuk menyuarakan pandangan dan cadangan secara bebas dalam semua perkara. Ketika mengingatkan pemilik blog supaya berdisiplin, Kerajaan pula diminta bersikap terbuka dan menerima pandangan dan cadangan yang membina.

3. Sementara itu, lidah pengarang Oriental Daily News dalam artikel bertajuk “Cara Lama dan Minda Baru" pada 26 Julai 2007 berasa kesal terhadap tindakan Kerajaan yang ingin mengambil langkah keras terhadap pemilik blog. Pada zaman teknologi maklumat sekarang Kerajaan harus mempunyai minda baru terhadap media Internet dan laman blog.
Sekiranya Kerajaan masih menggunakan cara lama untuk mengawal media massa, nescaya lebih ramai pembaca akan lebih cenderung kepada laman blog untuk mendapatkan maklumat. Kerajaan digesa memberi kebebasan kepada laporan media massa utama supaya pembaca lebih percaya kepada laporan media arus perdana. Keadaan sekarang menggambarkan cara lama tidak mampu menangani wujudnya media baru dan minda baru.

4. Penulis akhbar Sin Chew Daily, Ong Kee Hua dalam artikelnya bertajuk “Penulis Blog Harus Disiplinkan Diri” berpendapat penulis blog boleh dibenarkan menyiarkan rencana dan artikel mereka dengan bebas di laman web, tetapi mereka tidak harus mencabar kewibawaan Kerajaan atau menyiarkan berita-berita yang tidak benar yang mungkin menjejaskan keselamatan negara. Manakala Kerajaan harus mengendalikan isu sedemikian dengan cara yang lembut dan bukan dengan kuasa keras kerana tindakan tegas sebaliknya akan mencetuskan banyak lagi suara bantahan dan ketidakpuasan daripada mereka.

5. Akhbar Kwong Wah Yit Poh dalam laporan yang bertajuk “Kebebasan Media Elektronik" melaporkan Ahli Jawatankuasa Pusat Gerakan, Datuk Dr Toh Kin Woon berkata, daripada penahanan Nathaniel Tan baru-baru ini dan tindakan UMNO menggesa polis supaya mengambil tindakan terhadap "Malaysia Today”, jelas menunjukkan bahawa pembaca dan penulis laman web yang membangkitkan pandangan tidak sama itu semakin dikenakan tekanan.

Kerajaan memberi jaminan untuk membenarkan kebebasan media elektronik bagi menjayakan rancangan Koridor Raya Multimedia (MSC) tetapi tindakan yang diambil baru-baru ini menunjukkan ia telah bertentangan janji-janji sebelumnya, tegas beliau.

6. Nanyang Siang Pau dalam artikel bertajuk “Parlimen Bantah Laman Blog” melaporkan Ketua Pembangkang, Lim Kit Siang mempersoalkan sama ada Parlimen Malaysia ingin menjadi Parlimen pertama di dunia yang membantah laman blog. Amaran Kerajaan terhadap pemilik laman blog membuktikan Kerajaan tidak dapat merealisasikan janjinya pada pilihan raya umum 2004 untuk menjadi Kerajaan yang bersikap terbuka, bertanggungjawab dan telus dalam pentadbiran negara.

7. Sehubungan itu, Nanyang Siang Pau dalam artikel bertajuk “Peluang Berucap Disekat” melaporkan Ketua Penerangan Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Tian Chua berkata Kerajaan sedang mencari peluang mengambil tindakan terhadap media elektronik serta menghapuskan ruang berucap sebelum pilihan raya umum. Partinya terpaksa membuat laporan melalui Internet kerana permit untuk menerbitkan majalah tidak diluluskan. Sekarang Kerajaan pula ingin mengambil tindakan terhadap laman blog.

8. Sementara itu, Sin Chew Daily dalam berita bertajuk “Tindakan Kerajaan Untuk Jejas Operasi Media Laman Web” melaporkan Ketua Penerangan Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Tian Chua percaya pihak polis menggunakan cara yang digunakan terhadap Nathaniel Tan untuk melayan Raja Petra bertujuan menjejaskan operasi media laman web dan PKR akan memberi sokongan penuh kepada Raja Petra. Pada masa yang sama, beliau percaya pilihan raya umum semakin dekat.

8. Sin Chew Daily dalam berita bertajuk“Tindakan Terhadap Penulis Blog Tidak Harus Keterlaluan” melaporkan Setiausaha Agung Pemuda MCA, Dr Wee Ka Seong menganggap tindakan untuk menarik balik kewarganegaraan terhadap penulis blog adalah keterlaluan. Katanya, Kerajaan perlu mengendalikan maklumat yang tidak tepat disiarkan di dalam laman web dengan rasional dan berkomunikasi dengan penulis blog serta membekalkan pandangan yang baik untuk mengelakkan disiminasi maklumat yang bersifat negatif di laman web.

9. Sin Chew Daily dalam laporan bertajuk“Tindakan Kerajaan Cetus Ketakutan Putih” melaporkan Timbalan Pengerusi Persekutuan Blog, Ooi Chuan Aun berkata, selagi penulis blog bertanggungjawab dan menulis rencana berdasarkan fakta, mereka tidak perlu berasa takut.
Menurut beliau, Kerajaan tidak boleh menafikan semua penulis blog beroperasi secara negatif. Katanya, mengisytiharkan perang terhadap penulis blog menunjukkan Kerajaan menggunakan kuasa keras bagi menyekat ruang kebebasan menulis rencana di dalam laman web. Perbuatan sedemikian dianggap akan mencetuskan 'ketakutan putih'.

10. Sin Chew Daily dalam laporan bertajuk "Tindakan Terhadap Penulis Blog Mungkin Cetus Bantahan” melaporkan Penasihat Ekonomi kepada Setiausaha Agung DAP, Tony Phua berkata, Kerajaan mengisytiharkan perang terhadap penulis blog mungkin akan mencetuskan bantahan dan ketidakpuasan hati orang ramai.
Tony Phua berkata, sekiranya penulis blog sering menyiarkan rencana dan artikel yang tidak benar di laman web, Kerajaan boleh menyiasat dan kemudian mendakwa mereka memfitnah. Kerajaan tidak perlu mengambil tindakan secara keras terhadap mereka.

11. Sehubungan itu, Nanyang Siang Pau dalam laporan bertajuk“Hormati Hak Asasi Manusia” melaporkan Pusat Media Bebas membantah tindakan Kerajaan untuk menggunakan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri bagi menutup mulut pemilik blog yang aktif. Pusat itu menggesa Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri menarik balik amarannya terhadap para pemilik blog serta menghormati hak asasi manusia dan kebebasan bersuara.

12. Dalam laporan bertajuk“Tidak Perlu Guna ISA Terhadap Pemilik Blog”, Nanyang Siang Pau melaporkan Naib Presiden Majlis Peguam Malaysia berkata, Malaysia mempunyai undang-undang yang mencukupi untuk mengambil tindakan terhadap perbuatan fitnah dan kenyataan palsu melalui laman blog. Pengguna Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) tidak diperlukan untuk menangani penyalahgunaan laman blog.

13. Sementara itu, Nanyang Siang Pau dalam laporan bertajuk“Reaksi Terhadap Kawalan Laman Blog”melaporkan pemilik laman blog pada keseluruhannya berpendapat amaran Kerajaan untuk mengambil tindakan keras terhadap pemilik blog tidak bertanggungjawab bertujuan menyekat kebebasan berucap serta menutup segala kenyataan tidak membawa manfaat kepada Kerajaan.

ISA, SEDITION ACT AND PENAL CODE AGAINST ‘FLAMING’ BLOGS

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said three laws could be used against the bloggers who flagrantly belittled Islam or the Yang di-Pertuan Agong : The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code, New Straits Times reported on Wednesday, 25 July 2007.

Section 121b deals with offences against the authority of the king, ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

During the Dewan Negara debate on the Electronic Government Activities Bill 2007, he said the government was looking at formulating new laws allowing it to monitor and act against offending bloggers.

"This is in areas not provided for by the ISA, Sedition Act or Section 121b of the Penal Code and the proposed legislation was not intended to strangle the freedom of the Internet."

"This is to put a stop to the freedom to lie in the blogosphere. We want blogs to be clean, a place to obtain accurate information, a reference point for honest opinion, not a platform to abuse and slander people. The government had lost its patience with bloggers who broke the law and it could not be "seen as impotent or weak" in the face of their defiance."

He said bloggers had come to believe they were like members of parliament, who enjoyed immunity to say what they wanted under the law. But the reality is that, despite the immunity, MPs and senators have to play by some basic rules.

Nazri told senators that writings describing Islam as "a big lie fabricated by Arabs who had put a huge rock(the Kaabah)in the middle of the desert were not only ill-mannered but could provoke anger among Muslims".

Speaking at the Malaysian Press Institute Press Awards Night yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government was deeply troubled by the growth of "irresponsible" alternative media.

"In the name of freedom, these websites allow the broadcast of slander, lies and swearing, the use of harsh, degrading language and racial slurs without regard for the reader or those concerned. Even though the government has been tolerant of anti-government positions and criticisms on the Internet, we are very concerned about statements that insult religion and reek of racism," he said.

Najib said webmasters and web journalists were not exempted from the laws of the country and the government was duty-bound to protect the peace.

"We will not permit any party to disturb the nation’s harmony and cause unease among the community," he said.

"Too sexy for my bus", German sales clerk told

A German bus driver threatened to throw off a 20-year-old sexy sales clerk off his bus in the southern town of Lindau, Berlin because he said she was too sexy, Reuters reported on Monday, 16 July 2007.

The sexy sales clerk named Debora C. told Bild newspaper that the driver suddenly stopped the bus, opened the door and shouted at her "Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus."
The sexy sales clerk, wearing her snug-fitting summer clothes with the plunging neckline, said she moved to another seat but was humiliated by the bus driver.
According to the report, a spokesman for the bus company defended the driver.
"The bus driver is allowed to do that and he did the right thing," the spokesman said. "A bus driver cannot be distracted because it's a danger to the safety of all the passengers."

Soft drinks

Soft drinks have subversive and destructive physiological consequences that contribute to early aging. In the 1500's, the Spanish colonists noted how the Indians of South America were able to allay fatigue by chewing the leaves of the coca shrub. However, that observation lay dormant for three centuries, as the science of organic chemistry developed. By 1860, in Germany, the first pure crystals of cocaine were extracted from coca. In small quantities, it was then used as a stimulant in beverages. By the 1880's, in Paris, a druggist named Angelo Mariani created an immensely popular cocaine-laced wine (vin Mariani). It contained about 30 mg of cocaine in five ounces. Pope Leo XIII gave a gold metal to Mariani for being a benefactor of humanity. Thomas Edison praised the beverage. In the late 1880's, in Atlanta, a new non-alcoholic drink was born to quench thirsts and provide pep during steamy summers. Coca-Cola contained cocaine from the coca plant and lots of caffeine from the kola bean. Other ingredients were lots of sugar, caramel coloring, lime juice, citric acid, phosphoric acid, nutmeg, coriander, neroli (orange flavoring), and cinnamon.
The new beverage was sold as a syrup that would be mixed with cold soda water at local drugstores (with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—after refrigerators came on the scene in the 1930's)—it became a coke float. In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, and the official in charge of its enforcement set out to prove that the 'Coca Cola habit' was harmful to health. By 1922, that official claimed in Good Housekeeping magazine that a child who drank three or four cokes (6 oz.) a day would probably ruin his health for life.
According to Dr.Mercola(USA), your risk for obesity increases by a whopping 60 percent for each can of soda you drink a day, and that obesity may actually lower the average age of death in the USA to a point so low that your children will be dying at a younger age than you do for the first time in history.

Out of over 100 soft drinks and other beverages analyzed by the USA government, five contained levels of benzene--a cancer-causing chemical linked to leukemia--that exceed federal standards set for benzene in drinking water, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Today, we know why that's true:
1. In many states in USA, the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. Putting a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3.To clean a toilet:Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and .......Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. 30 minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
9. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
10. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
11. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

How about Lemonade drinks ?...................

http://www.theliberalblogger.com/forum/f3/prank-lemonade-2345/

Man with extra body

Have you ever seen the man with extra body?

The source say, the Dinakaran Tamil language newspaper reported that a man with an extra body joined to his stomach was seen at a check point.

As seen from the picture, it is very amazing as a man with extra body joined to his stomach. He says that doctors are unable to remove it and has lived with it for 43 years. He is married with children.

No further details forwarded to me. Is it a genuine case ? Can anyone provide the details?