2 posts tagged “kuala lumpur”
I feel tough! I've just completed three articles in the span of an hour. I think I shall do the same tomorrow. It is Thursday, August 13th 2009, and it is 2:34AM. I feel overworked, overstretched, and overstressed.
I think what I need is a vacation.
So I think I'll have one. Young Gordo(n) Smith:
is spending a week in KL where he's working at TELL! He's also staying at this most gorgeous place, a place a couple of minutes from Masjid Jamek called BackHome KL, and I went there to check it out (under the pretense of a story - which there is, really, brah!) and I fell in love instantly.
It's a two floor place that has like an open-air courtyard thingy. I realize I'm being a little too concise here with my descriptions, but the ground floor has some rooms, and the first floor also has some rooms. Actually, the first floor is just made of rooms (there is a bathroom annexe building that is connected by a gorgeous bridge), too. I took some photos in between bouts of me going, "BAM, I THINK I'VE FALLEN IN LOVE!" This time, it was a lodge. It's easily as nice - if not nicer - as Singgahsana in Kuching, my favorite place in the universe.
The beds are for only RM35 a night! Against quite possibly my better judgment I made the call to reserve two nights there, starting from tomorrow. God knows I need the rest.
CITIZEN REPORTING: The August 1, 2009 ISA Rallies
by AMIRUL B RUSLAN (all photographs taken by The Edge Malaysia - view the full set here)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The city is choking today.
There are roadblocks everywhere in the city, and heavy police presence. Traffic jams permeate the major roads of Kuala Lumpur, with frustrated drivers recognizing - cursing as the thought comes - that they would be stuck in these roads for hours.
For the last few days, the buzz had been that today would be a rally by people against the Internal Security Act, enacted in 1960, a law that allows the preventive detention of any person without trial for two years. Top police officials and even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak have made statements discouraging the protest.
“Demonstrations cannot solve matters being considered by the Government but some are planning to do so to fit their political agenda," said the Prime Minister.
The demonstrations was more than just an anti-ISA rally, with pro-ISA groups taking to the streets as well. Both sides claimed they could rally up to 100,000 followers on their side, easily the biggest demonstration since the 2007 BERSIH rally (estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000 people demonstrating).
SPECTATING FROM THE BLEACHERS
Sitting here at home in Ampang, I'm connected to the rally now by Twitter: major media organizations, politicians present at the rally, even ordinary people stuck in the middle. These citizen reporters are the ones whose tweets give flavor to the analysis of the event, giving the latest updates by the minute.
Political leaders from both the Government and the Opposition are tweeting live. Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Tian Chua (MP for Batu; @tianchua) tweets: "It's Ppl's Victory! Anti-ISA rally closed w/crowd dispersed peacefully" at 3:52PM, followed later at 4:01PM: "FRU shooting tear gas in front of PAS HQ despite the ppl r dispersing peacefully." The Star's Group Chief Editor Wong Chun Wai (@chunwai09) had been giving regular updates, like "ISA demo: Situation outside Sogo remains tense with over 4,000 ppl. Stand off with the cops."
The hashcode being used is apparently #antiISA, but like most Twitter hashcodes - a short tag to let users search and find other posts talking about the same event - it's being inconsistently used by everybody. The Edge Malaysia (@edgemy) adds #antiISA at the end of most of their posts.
Retweeting is popular, especially with the particularly informative tweets. For instance, UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin (@khairykj) made this retweet an hour ago: "RT @chunwai09: ISA demo: Pro-ISA group says they are staying away. So it's strictly anti-ISA."
It's not the first time Twitter has been given such a prominent role in reporting news: the Iran elections and the subsequent demonstrations were a perfect example of Twitter usage. Keenly aware of the possibility of Twitter leading a shift in public opinion, China blocked the website as the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests beckoned.
The BERSIH rally of 2007 benefited from advocacy from the blogosphere, practically the only source of news on the event. The mainstream media had received a blackout order from reporting that rally, and practically no news was reported in newspapers throughout the nation.
The trend reverses with Twitter, with so many recognizing the potential of the medium for quick (and quickly updated) broadcasting of news. There are flaws in this medium, of course: inaccuracies are rife and are prone to be retweeted quickly by well-meaning users. Tweets are rarely unbiased or unopinionated the way a news article might be. For instance, consider the credibility of the sources. With ultra-fast posting, sensational news is more likely to be pushed forward without the full extent of research and fact-checking.
Tech-savvy politicians, journalists and onlookers provide the bulk of the posts. From their perches far removed from the action, people like me read these tweets with fascination, a picture of the events painted by the updates. A vivid image despite each tweet's 140 character limit.
