Khaled - End gender discrimination against women academicians or face RM10 salary cut

Khaled Nordin should answer Rafiah’s serious charges of “kurang ajar” manner of termination and gender discrimination against university academic staff or face a RM10-cut censure motion

Lippo's Globe

When The Point took to the streets in 2006 as Indonesia’s second national English daily, nobody thought it could survive long. It had no editorial direction, its distribution network was bad, and it had no deep pockets.

No one was proven wrong. One year after I have blogged about it, The Point is no more.

Yesterday, I was holding for the first time a copy of the Jakarta Globe, its 9th day of publication.

With the tagline ‘Great Stories, Global News’, the Jakarta Globe runs six days a week in 48 full colour pages packed in three sections — main news & My Jakarta metro news, Business & Sports, and Life & Times. Cover price is Rp 8,500.

Full-page full-colour advertisements from notable brandnames like LG, Master Card and in-house placements by Lippo Group of companies have dotted the print run.

As a serious photographer, I like the way the Globe places emphasis in photo-journalism in the same league as South China Morning Post and Straits Times Singapore. In fact more, the centre-spread of Life & Times section is devoted to a pictorial feature, named “Eyewitness”, comprisng several images reminiscing the LIFE magazine era.

After decades of complacency, I reckon the dominant Jakarta Post finally meets its perfect rival. The editor at the Post had better start keeping track of the Globe. I don’t think the Post, with its 28-page configuration including the classified and news and features befitting the appetite of a village paper, could match the Globe in terms of width and depth in content. And content is king, as can be seen in most Bahasa Indonesia news and business dailies.

Interesting, the Jakarta Globe is linked to James Riady of the Lippo Group, a personality T. Ananda Krishnan’s deceased ASTRO operations in Indonesia are at odds with.

(According to Indonesia’s Investor Daily yesterday (Page 7, National & Politics), satellite TV subscribers in Surabaya who are left uncompensated subsequent to unilateral service termination are ganging up to hurl ASTRO to a class action registered under No. 671/Pdt.G/2008 with the Pengadilan Negeri, dated November 18, 2008.)

I hope Editor-in-Chief Wim Tangkilisan and CEO Marshall Cooper will stay the course and keep the Globe growing. With its English-speaking populace on the increase, and its expatriate business communuty forever expanding, Indonesia deserves a far better English daily than what it has now.

All the best!

Technorati Tags: ba

Najib should further reduce the price of petrol

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should allow the people to benefit from the RM 10 billion in fuel subsidy savings, by further reducing the price of petrol from RM 2 to RM 1.62 per litre to reflect current declining fuel price

Mistaken (online) identity

Help! I have an identity problem in Indonesia, thanks to Kompas, one of the big league newspapers in the country.

No, I didn’t send Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (as seen in KOMPAS picture, above) to be my representative in Pesta Blogger 2008… KOMPAS Tekno, November 4, 2008

I am slated to speak at Pesta Blogger 2008 in Jakarta today, meeting three ministers and over a thousand Indonesian bloggers across the country.

My keynotes will touch on my eye-witness account of unity in myriad cultural diversities, vibrancy of media freedom comparable to India, and the engagement/endearment of bloggers by the present Indonesian government — and a contrast to the current situation in Malaysia. I hope the Malaysian Embassy folks can sacrifice a day of their golf to listen to what I talk.

BY THE WAY… Will the right Jeff Ooi please stand up.

Technorati Tags: malaysia, malay, malaysian, penang

Will former Pampena Chairman Chor Chee Heong step forward to explain the RM50 million Pempena scandals?

Will former Pampena Chairman Chor Chee Heong step forward to explain the RM50 million Pempena scandals as Chew Mei Fun claims they happen before her time or is the Pempena scandals a MCA mess?

Peoples’ power reigns in the decision to declassify highway concessions

I applaud the decision by the government to declassify the highway concession contracts. This move could be the first and important step towards good governance, accountability and transparency in the country.

Is RTM halving airtime for Mandarin news?

I have received credible information, subject to clarification by the Minister, that the weekly airtime of Mandarin news and information will be reduced from the current 8 hours and 25 minutes to 4 and half hour from 1st January.

Federal Govt must approve a RM 200m interest-free loan and RM 5m grant to preserve and promote George Town

The Federal Government must approve a RM 200 million interest-free loan and RM 5 million grant to preserve and promote George Town which belongs not only to Penang alone but also all Malaysians and the world

Technorati Tags: malaysia, malay, malaysian, penang

Idris v Rafiah - what is more important is relentless drop in standards of Malaysian universities

Higher Education Deputy Minister Idris Haron should either defend his insinuation against Rafiah Salim in Parliament implying that former MU VC was lacking in “high level of performance” or he should be gentleman enough to apologise

Technorati Tags: parliament

Insinuation of PR ’secret agreement’ on Malay special rights - baseless, mischievous and unworthy of a professional journalist

Imputation that I had been dishonest and opportunistic in signing on behalf of DAP a “secret” compact to uphold Malay rights and status of Islam as the official religion baseless, mischievous and unworthy of a professional journalist

Technorati Tags: malay, dap, ba

Next Page »