Will the Perlis Mufti be gagged soon?

February 22nd, 2007 gier

In Malaysiakini.com, there was a February 13th article which stated that, “Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Dr Abdullah Mohamed Zin sekali lagi menegur Mufti Perlis Dr Mohamed Asri Zainul Abidin supaya mengelak daripada mengeluarkan pandangan yang mengelirukan.” This was, in a sense, a follow up to his earlier statement reported in another Malaysiakini article, where he asserted that the mufti’s statements “mencerminkan pandangan mufti itu sebagai seorang yang masih muda.“

What Datuk Dr. Abdullah really wanted to say is, “The mufti shouldn’t be saying anything that we don’t agree on.” Where the “we” in there is the Majlis Fatwa Negeri, Jawatankuasa Fatwa Kebangsaan, the Persatuan Peguam Syarie Malaysia and other bodies and ulama’s who are share the same outlook as Abdullah. This is especially rich, since in one of the interviews carried out by Malaysiakini with the good mufti, he said that, “(The conservatives) seek to stuff the mouths of the public and tell them, ‘Don’t speak of religion. Religion is our (exclusive) right’, as what was done by the (Catholic) Church. ‘Stop what you’re doing and just listen’, they would say. This cannot be accepted by the younger generations because they know they cannot be stopped from thinking.â€?

Could it be that Dr. Abdullah and the others didn’t actually read the interviews on Dr. Asri? Because, honestly, he had just described them, and then being true to type, those dudes are now asking him to shut up.

Let’s further examine the situation. In the same Nov. 27th interview, Dr. Asri also said, “We are of the stand that the ulama, no matter how prominent they may be, are not ma’sum (divinely protected from error). They are fair targets for criticism and their ideas are fair targets for review.”

On the other hand, in the Surat Pembaca section of Harakah Daily, a reader wrote in to say that “Mufti Perlis perlu diberi kaunseling.” You think?

The Perlis Mufti has certainly courted controversy, simply by saying things which are counter to the accepted conventional and collective wisdom of the current religious hierarchy. His views on apostasy, moral policing and discourse have made many uncomfortable. As such, I reckon that it’s just a matter of time before the dude is forcibly gagged, or at worst, removed from his job. For his and our sakes, I hope that that doesn’t happen.

Bloggers Walk With United Us!

Posted in Rant | 5 Comments »

Microsoft on Interoperability (with sideswipes to IBM)

February 16th, 2007 gier

There was this one time, at this organisation called the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) where a bunch of people from various places would gather on and offline to discuss e-business standards. These people were/are from the likes of BEA, Adobe, IBM, Dell, Boeing, Nokia, General Motors, Red Hat and Microsoft. See their Sponsor Organisations page for the list.

Upon visiting their site, the first thing you’d think of may be, “I wonder if I can download “Don’t Look Back In Anger” in mp3 format?” If that was so, then you have to have another think which would probably go, “Hmm … I think this ain’t about Oasis, the band.” Followed by, “Wow! These dudes have a lot of standards.”

In amongst those standards is one called Open Document v1.0 (plus another one below it, v1.1). Long before it became Open Document v1.0 (now generally referred to as ODF), it was called the OASIS Open Office XML Format or something similar[1]. The way these guys work in developing the standards is by having Technical Committees (TC), and for the pre-ODF standard, a bunch of those guys got together in a TC to do it. The TC included Sun Microsystems, National Archives of Australia, Boeing and a bunch of other people[2]. One rather conspicuous absence in the TC was Microsoft.

So, after some time, their Open XML thingy became the ODF which then became the ISO 26300 standard. You don’t have to pay anyone to use the standard, nor ask for permission. Take it, use it, implement it, whatever.

Our friends from Microsoft, who elected from the very beginning to NOT join that TC, then got very stroppy. They campaigned, complained, whinged, lobbied and generally made a nuisance of themselves to whoever would listen that the ODF/ISO 26300 thingy is not good. This mealy-mouthed whingeing had recently culminated in a open letter on the 14th of February, more or less aimed at IBM. In that letter, two Microsoft GMs complained that their efforts to have their own open XML standard is being undermined by IBM (and other paragraphs to justify Microsoft’s actions and how much love they’ve been getting from everyone else, apart from IBM — which, by the way, used to recommend Microsoft Windows XP for their desktops and Thinkpads back in the day when they used to sell them).

The long and the short of it is that Microsoft is upset that IBM is fully supporting ODF which was developed within a TC that they (i.e. Microsoft) chose not to be in and that IBM is not giving them love by supporting the Microsoft document standard. In other words, after choosing to not co-develop a single standard that everyone can use (for free, without having to pay anyone, without having a reverse engineer anything, that is perpetually available, etc.), Microsoft in now upset that some people are choosing to not support ANOTHER standard (which is free, without having to pay anyone, without having to reverse engineer anything, that is perpetually available).

After all, from Microsoft’s perspective, any standard that is not their standard is not very interoperable, since they have elected not to use it. It would mean that their customers cannot interoperate with other people’s customers. In Microsoft’s universe, there wouldn’t be any interoperability issues … because everyone would be using their software. Because every customer is Microsoft’s customer.

And there are all these bunch of people in this organisation which they themselves are a member of that is trying to stop them. “Not fair,” says Microsoft. “We want everyone to play with our toys only.”
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[1] I don’t recall exactly and am too lazy to wind through the old mailing list archives.

[2] I really can’t remember now, since this thing started in 2002.

Posted in Open Source, Rant | No Comments »

The Tun shoots a video on a webcam?

February 7th, 2007 gier

So, somebody uploaded onto YouTube a vid of the Tun talking about criminalising war. The blurb for the vid says:

“Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad speaks out about the dangers of war. He films himself via computer.”

Then, Mr. Ooi esq. cottons on to it and puts it up on his blog, saying that it’s “From the 81-year-old man who understands the power of Internet and Web2.0. He filmed himself in front of a computer using a regular webcam, and the aides got it uploaded on YouTube!”

AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

If he did it himself, then who’s the lady with that Australian accent who told him, “OK, it’s rolling.” And is she hot or not?

The clip ended with the lady saying to him, “That’s wonderful, thank you.”

Damn it, the Tun’s message is important, but don’t la add the spin that he filmed it himself … because then the focus goes less to the message and more to the fact that an octogenarian knows how to handle a webcam. At least, for me it initially was. I have met the great man before, some 5 years ago in his office showing him that he could use a Linux box to get his emails, and he went, “Tunjuk kat saya buat apa. Saya bukan tau nak baca. Tunjuk kat depa ni” while gesturing to his aides and other assembled persons. So, I was genuinely surprised that he had progressed from not even reading his emails to manipulating a webcam.

Then I watched the vid and heard some Aussie bird’s voice first. Peh!

Further, does the Tun have an aide who is a 35-year old Australian lady by the name of Maryann? Because she was the one who uploaded the vid.

Btw, I tried to comment on this on Mr. Ooi, esq.’s blog, but typekey had a problem, saying that “The sign-in validation failed.” Wahlau, lucky I got my own blog … can still vent.

Blogger pre-unite?

Posted in Rant | 4 Comments »