We Shall Overcome: Many Voices, Many Initiatives, No Party Politics

Many Voices

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day

Chorus:
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day

We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand some day

Chorus

We shall all be free
We shall all be free
We shall all be free some day

Chorus

We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid some day

Chorus

We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone some day

Chorus

The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around some day

Chorus

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day

-- Guy Carawan, Candy Carawan, and others from Highlander Research and Education Center, Knoxville, Tennessee from Charles Tindley's gospel song "I'll Overcome Some Day" (1900) and "No More Auction Block for Me" (19th-century before the Civil War)


Having done my subuh prayers this morning, I went straight to the already turned-on PC, logged-on the Internet, and opened Berita KMU. The first thing that my sleepy eye picked up was the following:

Then I opened Walk With Us, the portion of the AFP report, "Bloggers undeterred by lawsuit" below caught my attention:

Two things stuck my mind: the ECM-Libra episode and what can we learn and do from that episode. With ideas gushing through my sleepy head, I typed my thoughts into the response box. When clerk-of-work put it up as a posting "Injunction after injunctions: How Kalimullah abused law to silence critics", it was an embarassing piece filled with grammar and spelling errors. Nevertheless, thanks for thinking it was worth giving the prominence. I am just doing my duty of care to those due.

In the nutshell, I proposed the following:

• Use of blogging to get around the misuse of legal injunctions to curtail freedom of expression.
• Encourage blogging to promote citizen journalism and a powerful watchdog mechanism with the caveat that it is done responsibly.
• Provide a platform for aggregating socio-political, socio-economic and public interest blog, complimented with archiving and search ability.
• Mechanism to overcome the diminishing coverage of issues that is characteristic in print and television media due to competition for media space.
• Complimenting the information dissemination and public discussion fucntions with actual citizen action group.
• Stress the need to maintain a "civil society" approach and refrain from partisan politics.

A voice is not enough. It takes many voices.

We shall overcome some day

A Voice
Kuala Lumpur
January 31st, 2007 9:00 p.m.

Update:

Its only fair to provide an updated comment to my list of proposals so as to be aware of examples and efforts done.

Blogging to Get Around Suppression of Information
Walk With Us, Law of Defamation , Defamation - Case Law and Defamation Malaysian Cases. is doing their part. MalaysiaKini here and here. I'm trying here and here.

Encourage Blogging
Jeff and Rocky is walking the talk. Retiree as frontliner? Hmmm .... interesting.

Bloggers Watchdog
If not for Berita KMU, Malaysia Today, and Rocky, you won't know Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad is not Government here, would you?

Blog Aggregator for Socio-Eco-Political and Public Interest Issues
Lets see what kickdefella and Blogger United will evolve into. They are few also here, and here. Was Jeff involved in Petaling Street Project?

Sustaining an Issue
Apart from Walk With Us, there is Education in Malaysia and Malaysia’s Scholarship Centre focus on education. Gabungan Rakyat Pemantau USFTA Malaysia on US-Malaysia FTA discussion. PGPO's Global Peace.

Actual Citizen Action Group
Usually its Citizen Action group initiating information dissemination online to gain support. Legal Fund for Rocky and Jeff is one.

NO partisan politics, Issues Only
Oh boy, this is a tough one. Even for me. Definately for Kit, Ron, and many many others. It needs a major psycho-cultural reform. Lets start by reducing the blame habit.

See the potential and possibilities? It takes many voice. Many many many ...

We shall overcome someday.

A Voice
Kuala Lumpur
February 1st, 2007 10:00 a.m.