Courtesy of TV Smith.

On the 25th of August ‘07, Rocky (Ahirudin Attan), the National Alliance of Bloggers’ pro-tem President, officially announced the opening of Bloghouse in conjunction with the inaugural gathering of Bangsa Malaysia participants initiated by Haris Ibrahim which included bloggers, non-bloggers and a handful of non-supporters too.

(Dang! I’m sure the All-Blogs logo was unveiled too).

The evening started with a forum meant for about 30 participants but apparently, 76 turned up and registered for this event alone. Fortunately, the premises was large enough to accommodate the crowd and despite some misgivings with the crappy P.A. system, I believe the statements from the panel of speakers and responses from the supporters came through loud and clear.

More turned up later, swelling the crowd to well over 150 people (I think) and I do not wish to identify anyone in particular because every individual who was there is important in their own right. Except for Tony Yew, the guy who practically ran around the whole day and evening, checking to make sure all was ship-shape plus the ad-libbing commentaries when things were not moving according to schedule. Just glad that nobody plonked a guitar in his hands and asked him to sing!

The Negara ku was sung twice and during the first rendition, I could feel the passion and emotion put in by everybody, so much so, it was as if the entire world outside Malaysia did not exist for about 3 minutes. Not even the police patrol car that came by and stopped to ‘ask for directions’ (swiftly taken care of by one of the lawyers present) could dampen everybody’s spirit.

Pelitar, the association created to formulate the concept and aspirations of Bangsa Malaysia, was also launched and you can get more information on this grouping from here.

Meanwhile, it is prudent to remember the Merdeka Statement put forward by the Centre for Public Policy Studies on 2nd August ‘07 which summarily states the following:-

a) Strengthening National Unity.

b) Enhancing International Competitiveness.

c) Creating an Innovative Economy.

d) Redressing Imbalances.

e) Reinforcing Institutions.

f) Reforming Education.

g) Ensuring Quality of Life.

h) Improving Governance and Fighting Corruption.

You can get the full text of the Merdeka Statement here.

In contrast, the minister for agriculture, Muhyiddin Yassin, had this to say:

“There is a need to set up forums where political leaders can discuss the matter (social contract)…….such discussions be held first behind close doors among Barisan Nasional leaders, including the youth wings, and inputs be obtained later from the public.” Read more here. Shows how much emphasis our elected politicians give to the Malaysian civil society, doesn’t it, folks.

Every vote count towards ridding ourselves of pompous, incompetent and corrupt politicians. Have you registered yourself to vote in the next G.E.? There are about 5 million who have not done so.

Some of us are doing something with our lives, including your future too. Care to join us?