Participants at the Independent Living Seminar.

There was a time, should someone ask me to name great men, I would have rattled off names of larger-than-life military leaders throughout history who commanded huge armies to conquer vast territories. That perception was seriously flawed. The greatest men are those that achieved more with less. I had the privilege to be acquainted with not only two of such great people but fifteen more of them recently.

Participants of the Independent Living Workshop.

The Independent Living Seminar & Workshop was the most amazing five days that radically changed all that I knew about being a Person with Disabilities (PWD). The concept of Independent Living (IL) was something I had not expected. It is not about being able to do all the things by myself. Rather, it is about choices – the choice to determine how I want to live my life, either by myself or with the help of others. One hundred PWDs and people involved with PWDs attended the one day seminar on September 10. Sixteen PWDs participated in the four-day live-in workshop from September 11 to 14. Each sixteeen of us suffers from some form of physical disabilities, most more severely than me, and had come from all parts of Malaysia to attend this workshop. Travelling is always a problem for PWDs and it was this determination that really inspired me.

(L - r) Resource persons Ms. Aiko Tsutsumi and Ms. Hiroko Akiyama.

The two resource persons were the most remarkable role models I could have ever asked for. Ms. Hiroko Akiyama is totally paralysed and needs round-the-clock assistance. Ms. Aiko Tsutsumi is a paraplegia and was always very animated in her presentations. Both resource persons took turns to conduct each day’s sessions that lasted from 9.00am to 5.00pm with breaks in between for lunch and tea. Each session was an eye-opener because all that was shared with us was something we have never learnt before. Below is a brief bio of each resource person:

Ms. Hiroko Akiyama, Director of Hino IL Centre
Worked as a consultant on IL for JICA in Thailand, and has conducted training courses in the Philippines and Korea. Has published several books on IL and peer-counseling in Japanese.

Ms. Aiko Tsusumi, Vice President of Machida Human Network (IL Centre)
Published several books on IL, peer-counseling, and issues on Eugenic protection law in Japanese. She was also in charge of several training programmes on IL for international participants.

During one session at Independent Living Workshop.

I had my first revelation in the vision I had just before Mum passed on. That changed my spiritual conviction and opened up a new path in my life based on the teachings of Jesus. This workshop is the second revelation. It has given me a new direction and a sense of purpose in my crusade for disability issues in Malaysia. Over the next twelve months, the sixteen of us participants will be embarking on a series of awareness campaigns and seminars on Independent Living throughout Malaysia. We have pledged to support each other to realise one common dream - to establish the first Independent Living Centre in Malaysia within three years. This roadshow will be the initial step in our ambition to create the first of many Independent Living Centres here.

In today’s edition of the Malay Mail:

SEDITIOUS MESSAGE ON PERSONAL BLOG
Another blogger to lodge report
Halim Said
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17: The ‘good man’ struck again, picking another blog this time.

Blogger Ameer Zulkifli, or Mack Zulkifli in the virtual world, received a seditious message in his blog, brandmalaysia.com from ‘good man’ in a commentary forum column at 8.30am yesterday.

The Malay Mail had highlighted the frustration of a blogger, Peter Tan of petertan.com/blog over a message containing similar sentiments from an anonymous sender who used ‘good man’ as his handle.

The message content was both seditious and explicit.

Ameer yesterday told The Malay Mail his blog management software prompted him to approve the message but after reading it, he decided not to publish it on the weblog commentary post as it was seditious.

The sender also introduced himself as ‘good man’. Ameer said the writing style is similar to the person who posted the seditious message on petertan.com/ blog.

He said this was not the first time he had received comments from ‘good man’ but the previous postings were not as disturbing as the present one.

“This time, he went too far as the content was insulting,” he said.

“A few blogs I visited had different seditious and malicious messages from the same nickname in the past two months.”

“However there are also other nicknames, to name a few, xxx pig no brain, malaysia has no future, kill all xxx pig and malaysia is no class.”

Ameer, 34, a management consultancy senior engagement director from Subang Jaya, said he is keeping the message as evidence and will lodge a police report today.

“I hope the police would nab this cyber criminal,” said Ameer who started his weblog last year.

Ameer called on responsible bloggers to notify the police of seditious messages posted in their blogs.

Excerpts of ‘good man’s’ postings:

It’s undeniable that xxxxx (deleted) are stupid, lazy and incapable. Why don’t they just humbly admit the facts and repent and learn from other races especially xxxxxxx?

Drug abuse, hate, incest, liberal extremism (culture of miniskirts and gay marriages), murder, racism, rape, religious fanaticism, parochialism, snatch theft, spoilt-bratty behaviour, tribalism, wife abuse, child abuse, all that is associated with the xxxxx race.

The xxxxx race is the biggest impediment towards building a truly Malaysian nation, and should be chucked into the dustbins of history.

(Peter Tan’s response)

Peter Tan says: This is an example of the blatant abuse of the freedom of expression. If one is brave enough to post such comments, one should also be brave enough to face the consequences of breaking the laws of the land.

Posted by: good man on September 11, 2005 07:16PM - On Peter Tan’s blog

The “xxxxxxxxxx” stole the land from Orang Asli. By right all of Malaysia should belong to them.

If (we) recall history, the current generation of xxxxxx came over from Sumatera, Jawa and the island around. If your thinking remains the same, please go back to Indonesia where you can proudly call yourself xxxx there. - On Mack Zulkifli’s blog.

The online version is here.

Related entry:
Blog-buster

In today’s edition of the Malay Mail:

BLOG-BUSTER
Blogger to pull plug on culprit
Halim Said
Kuala Lumpur, Sept 16:
A blogger, angered by a seditious message on his weblog, intends to lodge a police report today against the sender.

Peter Tan, who owns petertan.com/blog, said he will provide the Internet protocol (IP) address of the sender, nicknamed ‘good man’ to the police.

Tan, who started his blog two years ago, said the abusive message containing racial slurs was posted at 7.16pm last Sunday.

Tan, 39, from Penang, said he was puzzled when he saw the message, days after it was posted, as he was away attending a seminar for the disabled between Sept 10 and 14.

“As I had no access to the Net during the seminar, I could not screen the messages coming into the blog,” said Tan, a paraplegic.

Tan admitted that he had received several malicious messages on the blog last month but had deleted them.

“I’m keeping this one (message) for the authorities. This has gone too far and I want the person who did it to be held accountable.”

He said if this is allowed to go unchecked, it will give a negative impression of bloggers.

“Several bloggers also received such messages. We would just delete them.”

He said although the message was sent anonymously, bloggers should be responsible.

“Although my blog stresses the freedom of expression, each sender must be responsible for what they write.”

The blog, petertan.com/blog covers Tan’s life, disability issues and religious matters.

He said he will not be able to stop such messages but will constantly check and clear his blog of racist messages.

In the first case of its kind in Singapore, two men were charged in a district court on Sept 12 with making racist comments on the Internet. (see accompanying story)

They faced charges under the Sedition Act, which has been in place since 1948. Though the Act was amended in 1972 and 1985, this is the first time it has ever been used against individuals.

Offences under the Act carry a maximum jail term of three years and a S$5,000 (RM12,000) fine.

The online version is here.

I have not read the printed version of the Malay Mail yet. I know Jeff Ooi was interviewed. His entry is here. Apparently other bloggers were interviewed regarding this matter too. As an emerging force in society, bloggers should be united in promoting social responsibility on the Internet to stamp out such misuse. As Jeff puts it simply: What is illegal offline is also illegal online.

I am back. This blog and the entire website was taken offline at around 2.00pm yesterday to deal with the malicious and out of topic comment posted in the previous entry. I had to get my webhost to take the entire site offline because there was no Internet connection where I was.

I urge all who would like to leave comments here to do it responsibly. If requested I will not hesitate to co-operate with the authorities should any law be broken in relation to comments left in this blog. Always remember that the freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite hatred, cause disunity and spread false information. Read Mack’s Peter Tan’s digital awakening interrupted and Kamigoroshi’s Freedom of Speech: The Continuing Stupidity for context.

I will be attending a one-day Independent Living Seminar tomorrow at the Institut Latihan Majilis Kebajikan dan Pembangunan Masyarakat Kebangsaan Malaysia in Bandar Baru Sentul. This seminar is organised by the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia together with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It will be conducted by two resource persons from Japan. The following is the blurb from the invitation:

This is an introductory seminar on IL. The objective of this seminar is to introduce the basic philosophy and practices of IL to people who are working on disability issues in Malaysia.

From Sunday to Wednesday, I will also be participating the live-in workshop on Independent Living at the same venue conducted by the same two resource persons. I look forward to learning as much as I can regarding these matters and hopefully be able to use this knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the betterment of the disabled community here in Malaysia.