When you do a Google search (through www.google.com) on Malaysia, you will find some pretty targeted (and accurate) results. But there’s one thing that irks me. 3 out of the Top 5 search results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for Malaysia are from non-Malaysian sites.

I know that this is pretty irrelevant given that national borders are completely useless over the internet, but still… Anyway, when you switch to www.google.com.my, only 2 out of the Top 5 are from overseas sites: The CIA World Factbook and Geographia.com. I would have expected all of the Top 5 positions being Malaysian sites, but I suppose even Google’s regional targeting gets us so far.

The primary reason for these results is probably a lack of keyword targeting on Malaysia by top Malaysian sites - which is a bit surprising to me. In fact, it is even more surprising not to see the Malaysian Government’s site (not the Tourism Board) in the Top 5, or even the Top 10 for that matter. Thank god we’re not alone though. Do a search on the names of every major country and you’ll find most of them with at least The CIA World Factbook on their Top 5 search results, including Singapore. But if you do check out the SERP for Singapore, you’ll find that only one of their Top 5 is from an overseas site, i.e. The CIA World Factbook. And the Singapore Government’s site is in the Top 5.

All this goes to prove my point that more Malaysian sites should hold the top few positions of Malaysia’s SERP. After all, if Singapore can do it, why can’t we?

And… Vanessa Atkinson beats top seed Nicol David in a rather tight game (9-6, 9-2, 9-10, 9-7) that saw Atkitson drop her first game in New York. This means that Vanessa Atkinson has captured the first major women’s squash title this year, and is progressing steadily towards unseating our champion Nicol David of her World No. 1 ranking.

If Nicol David fails to win the Kuala Lumpur Open (Feb 15-18), of which she is defending champion, Vanessa Atkinson will regain the World No. 1 ranking lost to her in January this year.

Note: I’m not very sure about what I wrote in the paragraph above this one. It could be that Vanessa Atkinson has already regained the World No. 1 ranking with this victory over Nicol David (regardless of whether Nicol wins or loses the KL Open). Support for this version of events can be seen in today’s New Straits Times:

The Malaysian faced World No 2 Vanessa Atkinson of the Netherlands in the final early this morning with the winner is assured of the World No 1 ranking next month.

Edit: Today’s (9th Feb.) Malay Mail article on Nicol David’s loss clarifies this. Apparently, this loss will not affect her World No. 1 ranking.

When I said earlier that it was only a matter of time before an editor of the Sarawak Tribune newspaper would have to resign, I probably didn’t realise that it was just the tip of the iceberg. Today, it has been reported that the Internal Security Ministry has summoned the senior managment of the Sarawak Tribune to explain the caricature reprinting incident.

And according to the news report, this isn’t Sarawak Tribune’s first time at pushing the limits either:

Noh revealed that the Sarawak Tribune had been issued three notices last year, advising it to be careful with the type of pictures it published.

“The paper has been cited over pictures of sexily-dressed women and horrific pictures of accidents which show a lot of blood and gore,” he explained.

Truthfully, I’m not terribly interested in seeing how this will progress since this is a pretty clear-cut case. But as a Malaysian, I sincerely hope that the situation in Malaysia does not degrade the same way it has in Afghanistan and Lebanon (I doubt it will anyway).

(Source: The Squash Site)

On a more positive note (compared to today’s other posts), our top women’s squash player - and current World No. 1 - Nicol David, has progressed to the Apawamis Open finals by beating Rachael Grinham (AUS) in the semi-finals, 9-7, 9-2, 1-9, and 9-5.

The day before, Nicol David beat Engy Kheirallah of Egypt to reach the Apawamis Open semi-finals. Her next match will be against Vanessa Atkinson of the Netherlands - who could unseat Nicol David from her World No. 1 ranking if Nicol fails to win either the Apawamis Open or the Kuala Lumpur Open on Feb 15 to 18.

RM 1 million is the magic number this time as the 11 men who had their heads shaved while in police custody will sue the government and police for exactly that much money. Not surprisingly, the lawyers that will take the case of the 11 men are DAP lawyers, with DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng saying that:

It is an illegal practice (to shave a detainee bald) as the Lock-Up Rules do not provide for it. I have been detained before and never have they shaved my head bald.

Hopefully, gambling rules pertaining to mahjong will also be made clear as this case progresses as it seems unfortunate that, “Now nobody in our village dares to touch mahjong and all the elderly folk have to pass the time drinking tea and having no fun.”

Given the recent condemnation of the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad by our Prime Minister, it was only a matter of time before an editor of Sarawak’s Sunday Tribune newspaper would have to resign. Why? Because he allegedly allowed the reprinting of the controversial caricatures “…all alone by himself without authority in compliance with the prescribed procedures as required for such news.”

But in my opinion, his greatest mistake was allowing this headline to pass inspection: “Cartoon not much impact here.” (Source: paper form of the New Straits Times) In a predominantly Muslim country, I believe it should be obvious that the caricatures would have significant impact. That is, if they were allowed the (un)necessary exposure. The caricatures have not had much impact solely because of the discretion of Malaysia’s largest newspapers and of course, our PM’s call for calmness.

So, the forced balding we saw with the 11 men recently is not standard practice in any state, except Selangor it seems. In the New Sunday Times today, police chiefs from a wide range of districts around Malaysia publicly stated that hair is trimmed only when necessary (and even trimming is said to be rare), while shaving is almost unheard of.

So, what does this say of Kajang police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Noor Hakim Kassim when he said that their act of shaving the heads of detainees “…was a normal practice under the Lock-ups Procedure Act…”? Is this another clear-cut case of discrimination and human rights violations? From the information we have now, I’d say so.

More importantly, I wonder how many more of these cases will be exposed to the public as victims become emboldened to share the truth, as a result of the public exposure and governmental response we are seeing on this case (as we saw earlier with the nude squats issue).

1. Cartoon Firestorm - Our PM has made a statement on the issue - denouncing the cartoons, yet urging calmness.
   

   “They should cease and desist from doing so,” Abdullah added, though he stressed that Malaysians should remain calm and not take any irrational measures to protest the caricatures.

2. Chinese vs Public Schools - Should we not aim to send our children to public schools, instead of differentiating through vernacular schools? A poster on the Star’s Citizen Blog blogs on this.
   

   I mean, she basically needed money to send them to a chinese vernacular school. However, in her situation, where money is scarce, shouldn’t she just consider sending them to a normal government school, which is free?

   Indeed, anyone has to admit that such an action would be a logical one. But the real issue here isn’t the money, the donations, our education system or class differentiation. It is our freedom of choice. The mother is free to choose which school to send her child to and the public is free to choose whether or not to donate (a right that the blog post’s writer has exercised).

3. Asian Youth Championships: 1-2 Finish - Congratulations to Aaron Kong and Zulmazran Zulkifli for their 1-2 finish at Fairlanes Bowling Centre yesterday.

That is exactly what happened when 11 men - including 10 senior citizens - “…were arrested during a mahjong session here on the second day of Chinese New Year.” With the nude squats issue out of the way, we now have forced balding as another “normal practice“ conducted by police on detainees.

But we might see an early resolution to this. Our PM has after all taken quick action:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ordered the police to investigate whether the action by the Kajang officers to shave bald 10 senior citizens caught playing mahjong was done according to procedures.

So, all that remains is the fact that the men suffered the degradation and humiliation of having their heads shaved (and therefore being “…presumed guilty..” before they were even tried) - even though everyone is supposedly “…innocent until proven guilty.”

I’ve talked about this before, and I’ll do it again. Just when we thought one case was closed, others just pop out of nowhere. First it was click fraud, now it’s official Google Adsense web site look-a-likes.

For those who have been left blank by the previous paragraph, Google Adsense is an advertising program that allows web publishers (such as bloggers) to place Adsense adverts on their pages in return for payment every time someone clicks on an advert. In recent years, a sizable number of Malaysians have committed what is known as click fraud, where webmasters (and/or their friends) repeatedly click on their own adverts to inflate their earnings from Google.

Recently, LiewCF wrote a simple yet clear post on this, with his personal feelings made clear:

I am feeling so disappointed by his so called “simple trick”, which is ruining Malaysia’s reputation in Google.

I concur, but that’s all I’m going to say about this for now. After all, I’ve written a pretty long rant on this already. So, just consider this post as a reminder of my stand against Adsense fraud.