From left: Editorial Advisor to New Straits Times, Kalimullah Hassan; Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin; Prime Minister Abdullah “sleepy” Badawi: PM’s son-in-law who holds no official government post but is allegedly the most powerful person in the country, Khairy Jamaluddin; and Tourism Minister Adnan “bloggers are liars and most are unemployed women” Mansor.
Poster by Mob’s Crib.

Soon, Malaysia will have broadband wifi access everywhere.

The nation’s most widely read English-language newspaper, The Star, reported today:

“WiMAX, a technology that enables wireless broadband access, is close to being implemented nationwide after the Government awarded four companies yesterday with licences to operate such networks.”

But our Internal Security Deputy Minister Fu Ah Kiow told national news agency BERNAMA also today:

“As the deputy minister responsible in enforcing the Act, sometimes I’ve to call up to remind the media concerned when sensitive issues are published.

“While some accepted the reprimand, others feel I am a super media editor.”

So, Malaysia is now the only country in the world to have a “SUPER MEDIA EDITOR”. WOW, another first for the cartoon cabinet!

(more…)

From Bernama, via The Malaysian:

SINGAPORE, March 15 (Bernama) — Georgetown, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang, has moved up in the list of best locations in Asia for Asian expatriates, a latest survey shows.

The city, ranked 12th five years ago, is now ranked 10th in the Location Ranking Survey conducted by ECA International, a leading knowledge and solutions provider for international human resource professionals.

The Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur is in ninth position, down from seventh five years ago.

Do you hear that, Georgies?

On a sunny day, with the breeze blowing just right, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre Park is the place to be. A patch of greenery amidst a jungle of concrete and glass.

Those working the Petronas Twin Towers and other building towers that skirt the park jostle for their place in the sun with tourists and shoppers crowding the Suria KLCC shopping complex for that favourite past time of mall rats – shopping.

Then again, some just sit and watch the world go by.

Download file

well..i basically live in the heart of kuala lumpur town which is bukit bintang, bukit bintang is a well-known place as a shopping heaven where at least four big shopping complexs were located around the area and with a great variety of stuffs too, you can just grape whatever you want here, in bukit bintang, the three most famous shopping malls are such as sungai wang, lot 10 and bukit bintang plaza. in terms of fashionable clothes, you can either purchase branded apparel or affordable clothings and both of these type of clothings owned the elements of the recent most trendy designs. apart from being a shopping heaven, bukit bintang was well known for its food as well, there were exotic kind of foods available in bukit bintang, from malay style to indian style. however, the popular beat of food especially for those of you who have a great fancy of chinese food, you guys must come to jalan alor which located at bukit bintang because this is the heaven of chinese food lovers where you can taste any chinese food you want here, hence for those who love shopping and eating, make sure you guys don’t miss this beat at bukit bintang because you guys can really feel the atmosphere of shopping and eating frenzy here..haha…catch this place once you get down from the place, haha.

Went to our really swanky administrative capital today — Putrajaya.

Today is also the second week of my political career. And I am having a ball.

Opposition politicians are usually painted in a less than positive light due to our repressed media here. Mainstream media like newspapers, tv and radio are constrained by the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, which allows a media licence to be revoked at the whim of the Information Minister. So, they usually tow the line. And the major media companies are owned by political parties.

I am now editing an Opposition newsletter – The Rocket, which at its height had a monthly circulation of 80,000 but is now lingering around 10,000. But it offers an alternative viewpoint and hence, may be threatened at times.

Malaysian politics is like cowboy and Indians. Everyone is a cowboy and everyone is an Indian.

It’s getting exciting.

The general election is coming up and I now have a medium to highlight issues.

YAY!

Not too long ago, I announced my intention to set up Metroblogging Kuala Lumpur. Now, here it is.

However, we are still looking for contributors for this lovely city in Southeast Asia. If you are interested in blogging on anything about Kuala Lumpur, be it in the form of text, graphics or in audio form, please join us.

You could join us by sending an email to the admins of Metroblogging. In it, just say, you would like to join Metroblogging Kuala Lumpur. There are of course some restrictions: you will to live or work in or around Kuala Lumpur (Klang Valley is okay too. The Valley is practically Kuala Lumpur anyway) and you will need to post at least thrice a week.

Yup. That’s all.

It isn’t too hard to fulfill, is it?

Come then!

When the Reader’s Digest ranked Kuala Lumpur as one of the rudest among 30 something cities of the world, there was an uproar. Some called the ranking biased. Some agreed. Some shrugged it off.

This year, according to another poll, Kuala Lumpur is no longer one of the rudest city in the list! Yeah!

THE nation’s capital has redeemed itself in terms of courtesy level after a shocking readers’ poll last year by Reader’s Digest which labelled Kuala Lumpur as the third rudest city in the world, Kosmo! reported.

Out of 35 cities, Kuala Lumpur is now the 33rd most polite city in the list!

Or rather, the 3rd last placed city in the list.

People say that there are two ways to look at things: it is either half empty or half full. But this is ridiculous.

The joke around Kuala Lumpur is that the expatriates have displaced the local Indians from Bangsar Telawi into Brickfields, the other Little India in KL, and that recently the Malaysian Indians have made a strong comeback to reclaim what was lost.

They have succeded in actually regaining half a road (Jalan Telawi 2) so far.

If you were one of the expatriates who ‘took over’ Bangsar Telawi in the 90s and have not been back ever since, the new Bangsar will seen like another city from the Twilight Zone.
(more…)

Hey its St Patrick’s Day this weekend and while mainly Muslim Malaysia does not honour the sainted Irish man, some of us do with a couple of rounds at the neighbourhood pub.

Have actually already started at Bulldog’s over in Sri Hartamas but understand the makers of the black brew Guinness have already started promotions across the city.

So this is the thing about Kuala Lumpur, it isn’t exactly a microcosm of the country Malaysia but a lot more cosmopolitan than other parts of the country that is the southern-most part of the Asian continent.

Hence the St Paddy’s day bash and run-up to the festivities.
(more…)