Something rotten in our blogosphere

With updates, 1pm June 9:

RPK's My apology to Rusdi.

Original posting:

"When they threaten your family ....". There's a very sickening trend in Malaysian blogosphere, where some socio-political bloggers are exposing bloggers who are Anons or who use nicknames, especially if they are not politically like-minded.

In the most recent attempt at exposing their enemies, some pro-Anwar bloggers, led by the self-exiled Raja Petra Kamaruddin himself, have published in their blogs the picture of a Najib aide whom they believe to be the provocative pro-Najib blogger, Pasquale.

RPK's Malaysia Today even published a photograph (see screenshot) of Rusdi Mustapha (the Najib aide) with his wife and only daughter, thus inviting hate comments against all three even in Rusdi's blog, Seri Menanti.

Both Rusdi and Pasquale are on my blogroll: Rusdi's under Special Interest category and Pasquale under the Politics Anonymous category.

Rusdi may or may not be Pasquale. But if Rusdi was, do you have to drag his family in? Blogger Sakmongkol, who attempted to expose a couple of pro-Umno bloggers the other day, said Rusdi is Pasquale and Pasquale is Rusdi. But the two ladies in the photograph are not Pasquale. They are Rusdi's wife and daughter and they are not related to Pasquale at all.

I thought we were all grown-ups who should understand where to draw the line, to separate the personal and the politics, and what should be kept private and made public. Obvioulsy, some of us are still two-year olds.

Now please read Rusdi Mustapha's "When they threaten your family, it's time to shut the blog" here. Rusdi told me he will keep it there for a few days, after which Seri Menanti will be accessible only to his friends and family members.

p.s. Let me put on record here that when RPK's son was in the news, neither Pasquale not Rusdi Mustapha put up a post on the matter. I didn't to, either. That's his personal/family affair, man.

Read also Big Dog's take here.
"Bloggers yang tak bertanggung-jawab", di sini.

Toyata Avanza, WRW 8402, Green

Get this Road Bully! The coward in his 30s who assaulted a 72-year old pensioner in Damansara Damai is probably holed up at home, beating up his wife, children or perhaps his own parents.

If you know the driver/owner of the green Avanza (see pic) bearing the above registration number, please make a report to the nearest police station.

Do not try to engage him, especially if you are old and weak, a woman, or a helpless child.

Read the Star's story here on what the bully did to someone old enough to be his dad.

Only 16 % unhappy with Najib as PM

"Survey shows only 45% of Malaysians happy with Najib"
That's the heading used by the Malaysian Insider.

"Survey shows only 16% of Malaysians unhappy with Najib"
That's the headline the Malaysian Insider could have used.

The one that they used is not wrong. The latest Merdeka Centre survey did find that 45% of the 1,067 respondents were happy with Najib's performance as Prime Minister so far.

But notice the use of the word "only". Why is that word there?

I think most of us will agree if you say, "Only 1 out of 100".
But not 45.
45 out of 100 is quite a substantial amount.

The RM1 million blogger, meanwhile, interprets the survey's 45% as something else together. According to her, it means that "we do know how many want Najib to leave (leave the country/leave the job as PM?)". Don't laugh!

Poll findings cut both ways. Double-edged. You can report that 45% are happy with Najib or 16% unhappy with Najib, and both are correct.
But if you say "only 45%", you risk being accused of trying to spin.
I mean, you'd be accused of trying to spin if you say "only 16%" are unhappy with Najib.

And yet, that is a fact:
The findings of the survey indeed show that ONLY 16% of Malaysians are unhappy with Najib.
And now we do know that many want Najib to stay!

p.s. Another interesting fact is that 4 (not "only 4") out of 1o respondents refused to answer the question in Merdeka Centre's latest survey. A group of bloggers and journalists met with Sir Robert Worcester in Kuala Lumpur last week and one of the things the "UK King of Polling" stressed was the need to have professionals to deal with respondents.

The Scribe's loss

Alfatihah. A. Kadir Jasin, who runs the blog The Scribe, lost his dad just before midnight yesterday due to old age.
AKJ, who helmed the NSTP for more than a decade, has been in his hometown Alor Setar for the past week to spend time with his dad. At the end of his latest posting around noon yesterday (Tuesday), Kadir left a footnote about his dying father:

Footnote: I thank sincerely the many debaters who offered their prayers and best wishes for my father’s speedy recovery. But he’s an old man. He’s 85 and there’ so much modern medicine can do for him. But thank you nevertheless for your kind thoughts and prayers.