Sunday, January 06, 2008

Malaysian is Indonesia's Top 10 Bloggers

Unspun rocks! Blogger Ong Hock Chuan, who has worked and lived in Jakarta for over a decade, has been included in an important Top 10 Indonesian Bloggers list. Ong, who runs the Unspun blog, was instrumental in making the Pesta Blogger in October a reality. As a result of the Pesta Blogger, the Indonesian government declared Oct 27 as the republic's National Blogging Day.
Check out A. Fatih Syuhud's Blogger Indonesia for the other 9 on his list.
p.s. We are hoping to get a day in May, starting from 2008, as the National Blogging Day for Malaysia. Perhaps we'll try and get our blogging bros and sis from Indonesia to help ...

Awang Goneng rocks! Wan Hulaimi, a London-based Malaysian author-blogger, who is in Malaysia to promote his book GUiT (Growing up in Terengganu), seems to have been promoting blogging as well. In a recent interview, he was quoted as saying:
“People say lots of things about bloggers, most of them uncomplimentary, but I’m very upset about that ... Blogs are very special tools for honing your writing skills or to get you started on writing."
Sharon Bakar has a posting on the man who blogs as Awang Goneng. According to Sharon, "one politician who has been most vociferous in his condemnation of bloggers was right at the front of the queue to get his copy of GUiT signed at the book launch!"
I do wonder who that politician was.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:25 am

    Blogging will eventually become part of the Malaysian culture given that the country is sliding towards fascism and intolerence. Views that are not palatable to the government don't get a chance to reach the mainstream. The government has this perverse notion that anything unpleasant that is not published in the press will not reach the masses. But they have failed to reckon with the power of blogs. Although blogs may not reach the Malay heartland given the limited access to the net at the moment, they have managed to punch above their weight. Blogs have managed to penetrate the intelligentsia, a vital component in the battle to shape hearts and minds. It is a matter of time before blogs prick the conscience of the people. Umno's treacherous pit of lies, treachery, duplicity will be fully exposed one day, and blogs will be at the forefront of the struggle agaisnt the filth coming from the Umno propaganda machine.

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  2. NBD in May'08? Sounds like a plan, bro.

    Btw do we need the government's endorsement to make it 'national' as in 'official' or knowing how like-able we bloggers are to the powers that be, shall we just proceed with NBD and make it a day for nationwide civil disobedience as well? It would be a win-win, either way. Especially, if the GE is done by then.

    All-Bloggers Unite.

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  3. Rocky,
    Wonder no more. Look at the pic here:
    http://sangsura.blogspot.com/
    Salam,
    Pokku

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  4. Yay...Awang Goneng! Yay, Hulaimi!

    Rocky...consider this.
    i have for company (bloggers)

    Besides you and Jeff and really great and kind blogger friends, i have Awang Goneng, Kak Teh, Sharon Bakar, Yasmin, Afdlin, Dalilah Tamrin. Azmi Talib, Wan Shana,Eliza Haberdashery, Pi Bani, Marina Mahathir....

    okay, what.

    and on the other side... you know-lah. Yecch!

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  5. since blogging is such a taboo word for our G, maybe we should declare our own National Blogging Day...sayyyy, on Zam's birthday for example? hihi...

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  6. ........tahniah to sdr awang goneng........

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  7. Malaysian own Blogging Day? Are you serious? You think we need a blogging day and that the fact that Indonesia has one makes us "behind"?

    On another note, there is nothing wrong about the "politician" queing to get a copy of the book although he is alleged to be well known for his condemnation of bloggers. Even if he always condemn the writer of GUiT as a blogger dosent makes it wrong for him to buy the book.

    A blogger and a writer is 2 different thing altogether

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  8. Anonymous1:03 am

    To be honest, I'm not surprise at all. There are thousands of talents Malaysian out there who doesn't even bother to come back. Reason? Only the government knows about it :0)

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  9. It's good to read, I enjoyed myself here.

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