Malaysian bloggers united

Malaysian bloggers are rejoicing over their establishment of the first association for bloggers following the lawsuit against two household names. The so-called National Alliance of Bloggers is led by President Ahirudin Attan or better known as Rocky, Vice President Jeff Ooi, and Secretary Nuraina A. Samad.

They have many supporters such as the artistic kickdefella (who created the poster of Rocky) and prolific Susan Loone. The popular bloggers Rocky and Jeff are embroiled in a landmark suit with New Straits Times and associates.

According to Rocky, the Alliance will not exist just in cyberspace or blogosphere. It will have a physical premise, office bearers, and subscription-paying members, just like any other registered societies.

Its main objectives will be to help protect bloggers and promote blogging.

It's definitely a right move to set up such an institution, which will add more clout to bloggers in Malaysia although the outcome of the defamation suit is still pending.

I wonder whether there's room for a Singapore chapter or a completely new club for the fast growing number of bloggers in Singapore.

Bloggers in Singapore may also face more lawsuits one day.

New Malaysian First Lady?

Malaysian blogs have been agog with speculation that Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or better known as Pak Lah has finally found a new wife although it's been in the grapevine for the last six months or so.

Susan Loone has quite an interesting synopsis of the rumour although it has yet to be established:

Malaysia-today has an interesting article on Pak Lah’s love life. It says: “Anyway, while on the subject of the Prime Minister’s wife, some say Pak Lah married Jean Danker on 22 January 2007 while others say he will be marrying her tomorrow, 22 February 2007."

Now, which one is true we do not quite know yet but she is already following Pak Lah on his overseas trips. In the trip he made to Perth to officiate his brother’s Nasi Kandar restaurant, it seems his daughter, Nori, went berserk when she found Jean in Pak Lah’s bedroom. Only after Pak Lah explained that there is nothing sinister about the whole thing because they are already married did Nori calm down and, like it or not, accept the fact that her father had remarried.

The word being spread through a whispering campaign is that, just before she died, Kak Endon had endorsed Pak Lah’s marriage to Jean.

Time will tell whether the rumour is indeed true, but we will probably never find out for sure if Badawi's late wife had indeed endorsed the union before her death from cancer last year. Did she ask Jean to take care of her husband or to marry him or both?

PS: kickdefella (who created the poster) has posted a letter to Jean Danker.