Tag: nikicheong

Personal notes on the #stop114A campaign

As some of you have seen from my previous postings about my media features regarding the Evidence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2012, Central of Independent Journalism (CIJ), A. Asohan (Digital News Asia), myself and many others have been quite active in trying to get this new law repealed (See my “Grave Repercussions for Internet Users” article). This campaign is famously known as the #stop114A campaign.


Forum on “Section 114A Evidence Act: Crime-busting or Online Control” at the Chinese Assembly Hall on 12 June 2012. It was my first time meeting people from CIJ. CIJ gave me RM300 as a token of appreciation. I donated part of it back to them. I think I should donate any monetary tokens back to non profit organisations next time.

After all the talks and media features, we took a bigger step. We went to Parliament to meet with Members of Parliament to persuade them to revoke this law. Thanks to CIJ, Jac Sm Kee, A. Asohan and I managed to meet some important people.

I’ve never thought that I will ever enter Parliament compound or even lobby for a law to be revoked. It was certainly a unique experience.

Getting into Parliament was surprisingly quite easy. All I had to say is that I have a meeting with so and so and hand them my identity card. There was no body search or even car search. I guess it’s not necessary since Malaysia is relatively a peaceful country.

I saw some politicians that I always see on TV, such as our Deputy Prime Minister and former Penang Chief Minister.


Inside the old Parliament


Iconic building


View from inside the iconic building

The compound wasn’t really big either. The iconic building is actually offices. The Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat are at another building behind it. One of the MPs (whom I know from a case which I did. He was my opponent) brought me into Dewan Rakyat to watch the proceedings. I was checking out the computers of the MPs and none of them were on Facebook.

CIJ initiated an online petition to call for the withdrawal of the new law. It had over 3000 signatures and it had to be presented before the Parliament session ends.

CIJ managed to fix a meeting with de facto Law Minister Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri for us to present the petition. However, it was called off few minutes before the event.

We presented the petition on the next day to the Deputy Law Minister Datuk VK Liew at the media corner of Parliament. It’s a small corner for MPs to do their press conferences.

At the media conference..

VK Liew (to me): You Bar Council?
Me: No, KL Bar.
VK Liew: No, you’re Bar Council!
Me: -_-|||

While commenting on the Bill..

VK Liew: Bar Council should get professional advice..
Me: -_-|||

We persuaded Datuk VK Liew to rethink about this law but unfortunately, he wasn’t receptive about it and played it down by calling our fears “misplaced”.

“Burden of proof is still on the prosecution!”

“But that is after you are arrested and charged!”

“That’s a different issue!”.

-_-|||

Days later, CIJ managed to fix a meeting with the opposition MPs for us to brief them about the new amendments. Jac Sm Kee and I briefing Sivarasa, Nurul Izzah, Fong Poh Kuan and a few others on the repercussions of the new law.


Meeting with Pakatan MPs at the “Bilik Pembangkang” in Parliament

We were fortunate that the opposition coalition took our position and called for the new amendments to be revoked. Unfortunately, the coverage was weak. Only Free Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini covered this story. Weeks ago, we briefed the Pakatan senators on the law. It went well. The senators expressed their intention to help.

Things took a turn when Liew of Cari Internet came on board to support #stop114a. Liew and I had dealings together when I was in my old firm.

CIJ called me a meeting to discuss in 12 July 2012. The response was lukewarm. It was probably about 12 people and most of them were from CIJ and NGOs. Cari Internet was the only non-NGO. During the discussion, the idea of Internet Blackout Day – a virtual strike when several U.S. sites protested the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – was brought up and adopted by us.

In this Internet Blackout Day, we decided that participating websites will have a popup highlighting the effects of 114A. We managed to get Malaysiakini, BFM and a few other prominent websites involved. Soon, well known online personalities like Sultan Muzaffar and Nikicheong came on board.

I first met Sultan Muzaffar when we shot the Astro B.yond TVC in January 2010. I met him again at Timothy Tiah & Audrey’s wedding. I told him about our intention to organise the Internet Blackout Day. He agreed without hesitation. If you haven’t realise, Sultan Muzaffar has more than 200,000 followers on Twitter!

3 days before our Internet Blackout Day, National Young Lawyers Committee, CIJ and LoyarBurok jointly organized a forum on 114A at the Bar Council. Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Higher Education, Dato Saifuddin Abdullah, lawyers Faisal Moideen and K Shanmuga and myself were invited as speakers. All of us except Faisal were against 114A. Faisal on the other hand was not against 114A but said that one part of the section is too wide.

The participants were given a chance to vote before and after the talk ie whether in support of 114A or not. Before the event, 30 over people is against 114A but 6 is in support. After the talk, 50 over people voted against 114A and none supported 114A!

The good news for me is that Dato Saifuddin Abdullah has mentioned that he will rally his fellow BN members to act against 114A.

On 13 August 2012, we probably had about 20 participating websites. The Stop114A Facebook group had only 400 likes. By evening of 13 August 2012, Twitterjaya was buzzed with the #stop114a hashtag. By midnight, participating websites activated the #stop114A popup and banners. More websites started to join the cause. Someone even created a Wikipedia page to mark this event.

The response started to grow and eventually it exploded! By midnight of 14 August 2012, the Stop114A Facebook group had 43,000 likes.


It was number 2 on the Malaysia Twitter trending list. It’s should be number 1 on the Malaysia Twitter trends because the no. 1 trending topic was also trending worldwide.


www.xes.cx participated as well.

This is probably one of Malaysia’s most successful social media campaign.

It gained so much attention that Australia, United Kingdom and United States media reported about it. I was contacted by BBC Radio to be part of a live discussion but unfortunately, when I was about to go live, they dropped by participation. I guess they had enough participants.

In the evening, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak tweeted: “I have asked the cabinet to discuss section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950. Whatever we do we must put people first.”. It felt like victory to us but it was not enough until the amendments get repealed.

Unfortunately, weeks later the PM announced that they will keep 114A to protect the people.

Notwithstanding all these bad news, we’ve not given up. We’re still engaging various people to persuade the Government to repeal the law.

To me, this new law brought me new experience, insights and network. Lobbying for legislative changes is something I’ve never thought I would do in my legal practice.

I will update everyone again if there are any positive changes.

Life Online Show 16: Naughty things

I was invited as a guest to speak at the Life Online Show podcast #16 (also known LOLShow a Malaysian podcast on social media and all things on the web) specifically on the amendment to the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA). If you recall, the Government recently announced that it has plans to expand the ambit of the PPPA to cover online newspaper. This means anyone running an online news portal would need to register themselves under the PPPA failing which they will run foul of the PPPA. This would also mean that the life or death of the online news portal would depend on the Government. The online news portals’ impartiality may be affected by this.

Other than PPPA, the following topics were discussed with host John Lim, David Wang from theclickstarter.com, David Lian from Text100, journalist Niki Cheong:

1) Groupon coming into Malaysia by acquiring GroupsMore.com

2) Google establishing a bigger foothold in Malaysia with an office in KLCC.

3) The Malaysian Prime Minister has sent citizens Chinese New Year greetings, but how did he get their e-mail addresses in the first place?

Pecha Kucha Kuala Lumpur – Vol. 11 – Getting Social

The event organised by British Council at Delucca was a success. The turnout was great notwithstanding that traffic was horrendous. The speakers (excluding myself) were witty, entertaining and informative.


http://www.nikicheong.com/ started the event with his presentation.


http://julianhopkins.net/. I first met him when I gave a talk at eLawyer’s Law Forum. I remember him posting a tough, tough question to me. Now he knows how it feels to be on stage. Hehe.


Tengku Zatashah Idris, founder of http://originalo.com.my/


Low Ngai Yuen – Director, producer and head of the newly revived www.kakiseni.com/ team


Fellow lawyer Jonson Chong – Human rights lawyer and former KEADILAN communications director


Rev Sivin Kit – Pastor at Bangsar Lutheran Church and social activist

I was the 9th speaker. My presentation was about the development of social media and the legal cases relating to it.

Although I had practiced my talk for nearly 2 hours, I couldn’t deliver it in the manner I practiced. In my talks lately, I would speak slowly and quite formal but the earlier speakers spoke quite fast! I decided to ditch the formal style and went Old Klang Road style. There are a few times I spoke too fast until I had spare time before my next slide. Gah.

If you’re wondering what is that green thing on my shirt, it is an ornament made from lego bricks courtesy of Laedglo. I was asked too wear it for this event. Sort of like a product endorsement! You can check out other Lego brick ornaments at their website at their Facebook page.

The last speaker was Daphne Iking – TV host and actress. She was funny!


Daphne Iking looks like she’s take a flight hehe


Me & Daphne Iking *starstruck*


Me, Ngai Yuen and Malko.S (I bet she will get tons of clicks on her link!)


Me and Malko.S

More pixs at Tian Chad’s!

Community Service Notice:

The 4th Young Lawyers Convention 2011 is coming up from Feb 19-20 2011, at Concorde Hotel KL. Do visit the Malaysian Bar website for more information.

The Year 2010 at a Glance

2010 went by like a breeze. I must say it has been a good year overall – although there had been some downs. Work was enjoyable, got promoted, parents are well, A and I hit our 3 years mark, got featured in newspapers and media and so on.

I read from somewhere that one should always look back on what has been achieved throughout the year and vow to achieve better next year. It is also good to reminisce the good and bad times in a year.

Here’s a summary of it. Click on the links for the full story 😀

In January, I got featured in Astro B.yond TVC together with other fellow bloggers.


Looolllinnnggg

In the same month, my 2nd article on Putik Lada was featured in The Star. I wrote about Social Media and Law

The entry was retweeted many times and got me a cool 400 page view! I’ll be writing another article on Putik Lada again in January – stay tuned!

April wasn’t a good month as I had a streak of bad luck. It started off with a RM100 parking fine. Then Mum had an accident, my car broke down in Court and got towed, tyre was punctured and petrol leaked from my car thereafter!

But the month of April was an eye opener. Jamie Toh broke “the world record” by finishing 10 sticks of raw siham cockles.


PURE RAW COCKLES SOAKED IN BLOOD!

May marks the death of my brother in law. May his soul rest in peace.

On the same month, I travelled to Boston to attend the International Trade Mark Association conference. In the meantime, I stopped by New York City.

I met up with Timothy Tiah and fourfeetnine there as well.

You can read all my entries on NYC and Boston here.

June sparked my interest in Data Protection. I was featured in The Star newspaper in an article entitled Keeping it Private.

It spearheaded me in this data protection field and got invited by various organisations to talk about the impending Personal Data Protection Act 2010. I did probably around 15 talks on this topic alone. Work started trickling in after all these talks.

Data protection wasn’t the only topic I spoke about. I spoke about social media as a panelist in the Asian Blogger & Social Media Conference with other fellow bloggers fehmes Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia and KinkyBlueFairy.

Right after the conference, I was featured in The Star newspaper in the article “Tweet below the law”

September is the month where civilians p4wned a robber. The security guards at my area caught a robber and got the robber’s picture published in a leaflet!

In November, I was featured in Klue magazine as one of Malaysia’s Top Ten Hottest Bloggers.

It was embarrassing -___-

Later in that month, the KL Bar IT Committee organised the IT Law Forum @ KDU College of Law and Business on 12.11.2010. Organising it wasn’t easy. We had so many twists and turns.

In the end, it went well!

December was an entry busy month for me. Although I took the entire month off to clear my leave, I had to go to the office everyday. Gah.

Anyway, I look forward to 2011. Happy New Year everyone!!! Have a great year ahead!

IT Law Forum @ KDU College of Law and Business on 12.11.2010

After 6 months of organising this event, the KL Bar Information Technology Committee’s efforts finally paid off. The number of participants were around 100 people which consists mostly lawyers.

The events leading to the forum were quite dramatic. First, we had problems finding speakers. I was in charge of finding speakers from the social media session. My thought was to find someone from the business, journalism and political sides to give their version of their story on how social media has impacted them. Malaysia Top 10 Hottest Blogger Niki Cheong and Nuffnang Nicholas Chay were kind enough to address the part on journalism and business respectively. My top choice for politics side was UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin. However, he did not respond to our invitation and didn’t even bother to send a reply. I even sent him two messages to his twitter!

I couldn’t think of another politician who is well verse with social media except for opposition party politicians. We invited YB Datuk #Yorais Yatim, Minister of Information to grace the opening hence I don’t think it is wise to invite an opposition politician. Furthermore, we already invited fellow DAP member, Jeff Ooi to speak in our previous forum.

Fortunately, Timothy Tiah hooked me with someone from DiGi and I managed to get Azizi Jennis to speak.

Then few days before the event, #Yorais informed us we couldn’t make it but fortunately, Deputy Minister II Senator Datuk Maglin Dennis D’Cruz came.

There were many other problems were encountered but I guess this is part and parcel of event management. We had to be very, very flexible with changes in plans.

We had a huge problem with our caterer as well. They came extremely later. The Deputy Minister came earlier than them! They served our VIP sandwiches that looked like as if it were pressed using their fingers. Their coffee was so sweet as if they were trying to give us diabetes.

There were also no water. I had to supply them with my own supply of mineral water (which I keep in my car).

The worst part was that one of the waiters spilled a tray of curry, which was supposed to be for lunch, on the floor -___- We had to get KDU College to provide us with a new dish.

In regards to the speakers, the KL Bar Blog’s blog entry below sums it up the best:

Three speakers spoke on the Censorship on Malaysian Internet and all three of them spoke against censorship; though Mr Jagdish Singh of the Internet Society did promote internet censorship to protect certain segment of society such as young Children. Mr Steven Gan of Malaysiakini gave a resounding speech from a Journalist’s point of view and impressed upon the delegates that Internet Censorship should not exist in Malaysia. Mr HR Dipendra, a lawyer but speaking in his capacity as part of the international Media Defence Group articulated his point for a non-censored internet to allow the Media on the Net to flourish.

The 2nd Session saw two heavyweights in Data Protection Law in the form of Professor Abu Bakar Munir of University Malaya and Professor Sonny Zulhuda of International Islamic University of Malaysia. They spoke on the recently passed Personal Data Protection Act 2010, currently waiting to be in operation. The two Professors shared many intricate and delicate views on the matter. Professor Abu Bakar Munir, in particular, had inside knowledge of the Act, as he was in fact part of the team who drafted the Act.Many delegates posed interesting and sometimes difficult questions to the two Professors. The replies from the Academicians were extremely helpful and clarified many anomalies of the Act.

After the lunch break; the Forum saw three giants on Social Media speaking. Representing Nuffnang was Mr Nicholas Chay whilst DiGi sent their Head of Online, Mr Azizi Jennis. The trio was completed by the famous Blogger Mr Niki Cheong.They spoke candidly of the growth of Social Media and how far Social Media may grow in Malaysia. All three of them appeared to take the view that Social Media will be a major player in the dissemination of information in future. There were also survey results which indicated that people seems to trust what is written on famous blogs more than what the advertisement says. This may suggest that the trend of advertisement in the future may vary on the Internet.


The KL Bar IT Committee 2010.


Press conference by Deputy Minister after the first session! Reporters crammed in a small room just to hear Deputy Minister speak.

This will be my last term serving the KL Bar IT Committee. It was great serving the KL Bar IT Committee as it was an eye opener and gave me plenty of opportunity and training. I will concentrate in the Bar Council Intellectual Property Committee next year – it takes up quite a lot of my time serving two committees.

Till next year!

Malaysia’s Top Ten Hottest Bloggers

Few days ago, a client called me and said, “I didn’t know you’re a blogger! Saw you in a magazine!”.

-______-

I wouldn’t be so embarrassed if it was not a feature in Faces magazine as Malaysia’s Top 10 Hottest Bloggers.

My picture was shot at the bridge of G Tower. It was a small bar with great view of the city.

Before my shoot, I was interviewed and thereafter had make up put on me. My make up artist made me cry. I couldn’t stand having powder in my eyes!

Then I had hairspray all over my hair. I felt like Rosmah.


Rosmah’s Epic Hairstyle. Heh. Bad photoshop.

After hundred over shots of the same pose, we were done. I was the last person to be shot.

Tada! The end results.

There’s a picture of me in Alliance Bank You:nique credit card too!


The other 9 fellow bloggers are as follows:


No 1 Hottest Blogger in Malaysia, Niki Cheong & Ming


Joyce The Fairy & Cindy Tey


Proudduck & Zainal


Tziaa & me


Hanis & Kimberlycun

There are also small blurbs on what are their unusual reader reaction and most interesting post. Mine was this:


I couldn’t think what is my most interesting post hence I merely gave an example of an interesting post I posted (at the time of the interview). Didn’t know it will become THE most interesting post.

As for most unusual reader comment, some of my old readers would remember the commenter iloveu. You can read the post here. Man, I miss those good old days where my readers were interactive.


This is Hanis’ blurb on Most unusual reader reaction. Happened to me once.


Kimberlycun’s one is EPIC!! HAHAH

Lastly… a page on “What are the perks of being a blogger”.

Thanks to Nuffnang for nominating me!

IT Law Forum on 12.11.2010

The IT Committee of the KL Bar, having organised two successful “mini” Forums on “Blogging & Defamation Law” and “Identity Theft in CyberSpace” in 2008, mooted a third Forum in 2009 but due to unforeseen circumstances, could not proceed with it. Intending to go beyond organising seasonal forums, the IT Committee embarked on this IT Law Forum some six months ago in the hope of making it an annual affair with the primary purpose of creating a platform for exchange of views and expansion of knowledge on areas of law related to IT.

This Forum, hosted at the KDU Law School, will see 3 topics being discussed. The opening topic concerns the discussion of imposing Internet Censorship in Malaysia. Borrowing the Chinese Government’s internet censorship’s nickname, ‘The Green Dam’, the topic is called, “The Green Dam – Internet Censorship…a Cat & Mouse Game?”. The principle discussion would be the legality of imposing such a “Dam” and the extent of censorship, if it ever happens in Malaysia. The IT Committee has long taken a stand that censorship on the internet is strongly disapproved. Instead, the appropriate approach would be to educate internet users on what should or should not be said on the Net. The speakers for this topic are Steven Gan of Malaysiakini, Jagdish Singh of Internet Society and H.R. Dipendra, an Advocate and Solicitor.

Another ‘hot’ topic up for discussion is the newly legislated Personal Data Protection Act. Professor Abu Bakar Munir of University Malaya, a leading academician on this area of law will be presenting his views on this new Act. It will be interesting to hear the views of the other delegates as well. This new Act has far reaching effects on the way Commercial businesses do their work and Professor Abu Bakar would be able to help elucidate on that.

The final topic will see a discussion on the future of Social Media. Recently, Newspapers in US and UK announced losses in advertising revenue. Advertisers now see the Social Media as an alternative place to advertise and this forum may discuss on that issue. The speakers would also likely discuss about the current status of social media in their industry and also the future of social media in Malaysia. This topic has attracted some top speakers, namely Nicholas Chay of Nuffnang, a social media advertising company with offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Philippines, well known blogger cum journalist Niki Cheong from The Star Newspaper and Azizi Jennis, Head of Online of DiGi.

There will be an Opening Address by Y.B. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim, Minister of Information, Communication and Culture. Details of the Forum are:

Date
12 November 2010 (Friday)
Time
8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Venue
KDU University College
Section 13 Campus
76 Jalan University
46200 Petaling Jaya

RM50 per participant. Only 100 seats available. Registration must be accompanied with payment to guarantee your place and strictly on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here for the registration form.

—————————————————

I will be moderating the Future of Social Media session. Space is running out hence please sign up as soon as possible!

Asian Blogger & Social Media Conference @ Times Square Hotel

I was invited as a panelist in the panel discussion of this two-day conference at Times Square Hotel. The invitation to be a panel member was quite last minute. I only gave in my confirmation letter and profile 2 days before the conference.

I couldn’t attend the first day of the conference because I had another talk to give. It was a rather stressful week. I had to give 3 talks in 3 consecutive days. Fortunately, the 3 days went well.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir gave the opening address. I heard it was quite out of topic.

The event was featured in the Malay Mail the next day. I realised that my photograph was on the conference banner. I didn’t even send the conference organisers my photograph!

Thank god I wasn’t wearing the same shirt. *phew*

The panel discussion was the last event of the conference. Other panel members were the honourable Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia, Kinkybluefairy and a few others. The topic for discussion was Freedom of Speech. The moderator proposed that each speaker give their views on this topic for 5 minutes before opening the floor for Q&A. I was shocked! I wasn’t prepared for it at all!


At this point, Kinkybluefairy said to me, “F**k, what am i supposed to say??”

The moderator called up names randomly by picking pieces of papers inside his pocket. It felt like back in school again. It was like waiting in line to be caned in school!

Then when it came to my turn, I confessed to the crowd that I wasn’t prepared for the speech at all.

Fortunately, my past talks on Blogging and Law and also article on Social Media and the Law helped me to fill up the 5 minutes that I was supposed to fulfill.

Some twitterers complained that our session wasn’t a panel discussion at all. I thought this would turn around when they open the floor for discussion.

Unfortunately, VIP of the day, Federal Territory Minister Raja Nong Raja Chik came early and the discussion had to be cancelled.

The organiser was nice enough to give me a token of appreciation. I was invited to the stage to receive the token presented by the FT Minister.


The Minister – I shook his hand when I went to the stage to collect my token. His handshake was rather soft. Not something I expect from a Minister. HE SHOULD HAVE CRUSHED MY HAND!

Overall, it was a good event. Wish I had spent longer time there!

[Picture credits to TianChad!]