Sunday, January 14, 2007

Freedom: The Chicken That Supress Story


Freedom! Freedom! (4x)

Sometimes I feel, Like a motherless child (3x)

A long
Way
From my home, yeah
Yeah

Sing
Freedom, Freedom (4x)

Sometimes I feel, Like I'm almost gone (3x)
Yeah

A long, long, long
Way
Way from my home, yeah
Yeah

Clap your hands, Clap your hands (4x)

Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, yeah yeah yeah yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah yeah yeah yeah

I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from heart
(2x)

When I need my brother / (Brother)
Brother / (Brother)

When I need my father / (Father)
Father, hey / (Father)
Mother / (Mother)
Mother, hey / (Mother)
Sister / (Sister)
Yeah / (Yeah)

When I need my brother / (Brother)
Brother, hey / (Brother)
Mother / (Father)
Mother / (Mother) (2x)

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah-yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah (4x)

--- Richie Haven, Woodstock Live (1969)


This Rock classic is dedicated to Rocky, Jeff Ooi, KickdeFella, Sang Kelembai, and other Bloggers facing harrassment, legal intimidation, and persecution for excising their God-given freedom to practise amal makruf nahi mungkar. I am sure it is universal to all religion.

Last year, it was Sang Kelembai being expelled by UMNO for excercising his rights, as an UMNO member, as enshrined in their Constitution, to “tegur” the leadership and was denied audience and “proper” channel to voice his grievances.

Near the end of 2006, KickdeFella was believed to have been harassed and again recently.

Words are a buzzed last Friday that a legal demand was to be presented by the law firm of Shearn Delamore to Rocky and Jeff Ooi by Kalimullah to retract certain words from their blog. It is believed to be Rocky’s comment in his January 10th blog.

In case Rocky and Jeff retracts it, Kali can copulate with his choice of inanimate object ‘coz I have reproduced the extract below and will assure those words continue to exist in Blogosphere:


…..there was a lot more freedom then. but not because the government allowed the media to be freer or dr m was more tolerant. there was more freedom then because there were editors and journalists then who were pushing the line of tolerance because they craved for that freedom for themselves and for their readers. 
when i was made acting editor of business times (97) pak samad told me that i must, if i wanted to make a difference as editor in this country, swim against the tide/current. that i have tried to do, which is why i've never been ashamed to say, yes, i was editor of the mainstream media before. 
among many editors then, there was no fear of losing our positions as editors. editors were supposed to "die bloody deaths", anyway. (kadir jasin, dolah kok lanas, johan jaafar, nazri abdullah, rejal arbee, ahmad talib, zainudin maidin, mazlan nordin, and even pak samad were all booted out, sacked, or asked to leave at one time or another for their views and the stand they took). 
just before kalimullah joined the NSTP, i told him at austin chase in bangsar, which used to be his favourite hangout before i decided to take over, that he would die a bloody death, just as editors before him did. he told me he will not. true enough, he did not. 
but that's because he was not pushing any barriers or parameters, he wasn't doing what an editor should be doing. he had stopped being a journalist a while ago. he was at nstp to take care of his and some people's interests. he does not believe in press freedom because a free press would have devoured him - and his friends - alive. 
the situation is not hopeless, though. theSun, on certain days, gives me hope. Syed Nadzri, the new group editor of NST, will be pushing harder than Brendan. 
And we have Malaysiakini and MalaysiaToday and AgendaDaily and KMU. And the blogs and bloggers, like you and I.


Another Brick In The Wall will hereon use the Bloggers United logo to join hands with other Bloggerrs to protect our freedom to blog.

Can we not plead protection under the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Isn't Blogger.com US cyber territory? Let 'em sue, its worth the fight.

Together, we will rock this joint!

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
A Voice
Kuala Lumpur
January 14th, 2007 10:00 p.m.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Brother, the above two comments are actually spam.

Having a blog is one thing. Maintaining it is another.

But all the best anyway.

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