KuLi is kool but cilipadi Chedet has last laugh

By Helen Ang

Latest at Tengku Razaleigh’s blog:

“Our hope for a more democratic future depends on our ability to build a strong public opinion. It’s good news that a vigorous body of public opinion, aided by information and communication technologies, is in making on the internet.

“I myself rely on it through my blog. If not for my blog, what I say would scarcely get out in the mainstream media.

“We need a freedom of information act, and I call for the repeal of the Printing Presses Act. It is silly that we limit the number of newspapers while every person with a blog or a twitter account can publish to the world.

“In limiting the printed media we have only succeeded in dumbing it down, so that those who rely only on the printed mass media and the terrestrial broadcast channels are actually the poorer for it.”

More at, http://razaleigh.com/2009/10/16/constitution-of-consensus/

World record

Ku Li says if not for his blog, he’d not be able to get his say out to the public.

Whereas his old (and I do wish those hacks would stop bodeking this ‘minister mentor’ by insisting on calling him an “elder statesman”) nemesis Dr Mahathir Mohamad started his blog in May 2008, two months after the political tsunami.

The Old Man of Kubang Pasu must have thought, “Ale, ’napa pula dok bagi diorang, apanama, Pakatan dan penyokong depa, buat bolot ruang siber semua?”

So, no sooner than you can say ‘Hey Petronas’, err, “Hey Presto, Dr M’s blog took off like an astrolite on Prozac. (‘Astrolite’ is rocket-like satellite technology developed by the Amanda Krishan space consortium of Onederland).

And … gasp! Chedet has logged 24 million-plus hits since he first began blogging 18 months ago.

Trivia

After Dr M encountered technical problems with his blog domain, he decided to switch servers.

But wait.

He couldn’t get the ‘chedet’ address registered. It seems, dah ada orang kebas pula ni. So he had to use this one, http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/. The ‘cc’ in the url, he has revealed, stands for “carbon copy”. Ha-ha.

He may sneer but he’s got a stinging sense of humour.

Rumble

Of the two alpha bloggers, is it the Tun (Dr M) or the Tan Sri (Tengku) who is more New Media savvy?

TDM says “follow me on Twitter” and “Find me at Facebook”. Like Dr M, KuLi twitters too and has 1,694 Facebook friends.

Nonetheless, the Dr M Facebook pages have 25,179 fans and a whopping 107,749 supporters!

KuLi’s blog is relatively more low key. A lot of the content comprise of his speeches. He has been updating his blog sporadically since March 2008. Reporters pinch his postings for their quotes.

By comparison, Dr M’s blog is a virtual, full-blown Press briefing. All the major media keep tabs on his every opinionated word; his opinions more often than not make the news.

Ye Olde Machiavellian

Plus he doesn't only use his blog as a podium but also for his proactive cyber campaigns, like the online poll conducted on the PPSMI about-turn. More than 100,000 Netizens took part in his survey.

Does it indicate that the 86,360 respondents – Double gasp! Demographics: professionals, suburbia, including churchgoers who are friends of my friend of my friend – or in other words, the 86% that support Math and Science in English, are avid readers of Dr M’s blog?

Well perhaps not. Maybe they just dropped in to vote.

They may hate his guts but when it comes to grasping at a straw – they think Dr M has the ear of Najib and can pull strings for a reversal of the policy – then why not let Dr M be their flag bearer to demand that English be retained.

So when it’s expedient, it seems Malaysians are still willing to flock to him to represent them, to be their 1spokesman on the issue.

Dr M has read the Malaysian middle-class psyche like an open book for 22 years. And at 84, he’s not lost it.

Ha-ha. The last hurrah goes to Dr M.

Labels: Mahathir

Anonymous merepek ... permalink ... 10/19/2009 01:14:00 am ...