U.S. defended Egyptian activist's YouTube videos

By Declan McCullagh

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U.S. State Department officials successfully pressured Google to restore a YouTube video showing torture and murder by Egypt's state police, a WikiLeaks cable reveals.

The Cairo embassy and the State Department's bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor "worked to convince Google to restore" a prominent blogger's account that was suspended in late 2007, the recently released cable says.

Nearly a year later, the same blogger contacted the State Department to report that "YouTube removed from his website two videos exposing police abuses," including a woman being tortured at a police station and Sinai Bedouin allegedly shot by police and thrown in a garbage dump.

The cable doesn't reveal the blogger's name, but it appears to be Wael Abbas, who disclosed at the time that his YouTube channel was suspended due to complaints and the videos he uploaded replaced with this message: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

There was no evidence that Google's decision was prompted by President Hosni Mubarak's state security apparatus. Rather, Abbas encountered a more prosaic obstacle: YouTube's terms of service and community guidelines, which prohibit "graphic" violence. The guidelines say "if a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional context and information."

YouTube said in a statement at the time that Abbas could re-upload the videos if he added that context: "In this case, our general policy against graphic violence led to the removal of videos documenting alleged human rights abuses because the context was not apparent...(If Abbas chooses to) upload the video again with sufficient context so that users can understand his important message we will of course leave it on the site."

Abbas, a democracy and anti-torture activist, was subsequently targeted by state security and was convicted last year of "providing a telecommunications service to the public without permission." The International Center for Journalists presented him with the Knight International Journalism Award. Videos on his now-restored YouTube channel have received nearly 44 million views.

The State Department dispatch doesn't say what Google employees were involved in the discussions with Google, but one not-fully-redacted line mentions the name "Pablo." Pablo Chavez is a senior policy counsel in Washington, D.C. who works on topics including censorship and free speech.

Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Disclosure: McCullagh is married to a Google employee not involved with this issue
 

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Arab marching to the beat of their own drums

DIPLOMATICALLY SPEAKING By DENNIS IGNATIUS duta.thestar@gmail.com

Arab citizens now marching to the beat of their own drums

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THE mass demonstrations that continue to rock the Middle East are not just a threat to the region’s entrenched despots — they represent an unravelling of the American imperium no less.

Some long-held assumptions about the political inclinations of Arab citizens are also being challenged.

Over the last 60 years, the United States and its Western allies progressively advanced their dominion over much of the Middle East by deposing unfriendly or uncooperative regimes and propping up friendly governments through political and military alliances.

What evolved was a system of local satraps who were deeply unpopular with their own people but supportive of America’s broader regional objectives — control over the region’s oil wealth, protecting Israel’s security and containing radical Islam.

Lost in the midst of this grand strategy were both the interests of the people themselves and the very principles of democracy that once earned America admiration and respect in the developing world.

The grand failure of American diplomacy was that it never found a way to reconcile its own strategic interests in the region with the hopes and aspirations of Arab citizens.

Particularly after Islamists won elections first in Algeria and then in Gaza, it chose to put its faith in a few ruthless dictators instead of genuinely working to empower civil society and developing strong national institutions.

It was a case of security and stability trumping democracy and development. Many, both local and foreign, warned that such a strategy was unsustainable but hubris overwhelmed wisdom, especially during the Bush years.

Now that the day of reckoning has arrived, Western governments are rushing to find common cause with the Arab street.

France, Switzerland and Italy, for example, quickly closed their doors to deposed Tunisian dictator Ben Ali and his family and froze their assets. Canada is presently seeking to evict Ben Ali’s family members though it was happy to give them permanent residence when they ruled Tunisia.

As the shouts for “hurriyya” or liberty grew louder on the streets of Egypt, Western capitals gushed with sudden admiration for its citizens. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unabashedly said that America had been on the side of Egyptians for the past 30 years!

How hollow and shallow all this must sound to Arab citizens.

They may be poor and oppressed but they are not stupid. They know who stood with their oppressors all these years. They know it’s easy to kick a despot when he’s down but it takes real conviction to stand up to one when he’s at the height of his power.

Despite this, there has been a remarkable absence of anti-American or anti-Western rancour on the streets of Arab cities. Thus far at least, there are no chants of “death to America.”

On the contrary, Arab citizens appear to be generally looking to the West for support and sympathy. What they want is not more pious platitudes but unequivocal support, pressure on the security forces not to resort to violence and a firm commitment to real and meaningful democratic change.

Of course, there is always the possibility that Islamic radicals might come out of the shadows and seize power as they did in Iran after the Shah was toppled. Iran’s mullahs are certainly wishing for this, forgetting that there is a restlessness for change on their own streets, as witnessed last year following flawed presidential elections there.

The last thing the Arab world needs, after decades of oppression by secular despots, is yet more oppression by religious zealots. They need to move forward into modernity, not backward into past mirages. But this is something that Arab citizens themselves will have to grapple with.

The sooner strong democratic institutions — a free press, an impartial judiciary, a transparent, accountable and responsive governance system — are established, the better they will be able to resist both forms of tyranny.

For now, it must certainly speak volumes about their politics that the cry for what the American Declaration of Independence so eloquently called “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” united, galvanised and energised the Arab street to a degree that Osama bin Laden and his ilk can only envy.

Change has come not in response to Obama or Osama but in response to their own yearning for freedom and dignity.

America and the West must now support an orderly transition by taking a clear stand. Once Arab citizens are convinced that the West is committed to genuine change, they are more likely to be trusting, for example, of an interim administration in Egypt, pending free and fair elections.

What is also urgently needed is a bold and visionary development agenda, a new Marshall Plan even, that will help transform the Middle East into a dynamic region of growth and prosperity. It is the only way to ensure lasting stability in this important region. It will be a lot cheaper than another war.

Whatever happens, Arab citizens now see themselves differently. They are sending a clear message that they will not allow Western priorities to take precedence over their own hopes and aspirations for a better future. They are marching to the beat of their own drums and there is no going back to the days of the American imperium.

Malaysian mind change

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In the short run, the old policy of  "divide and rule" may succeed but the future lies with the new forces.

TO the social observer, subtle changes are taking place in society. I refer to the opening of the Malaysian mind.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, but an important one with significant ramifications for the socio-economic-political future of the country.

On one hand, there is the closing of the Malaysian mind that is oblivious to the changing world and its consequences for the country.

These are the reactionary forces who are unable to understand the global forces at work. They continue to live in the past, buttressed by archaic structures and outmoded forces.

They believe they can retain the past and enjoy their privileges. These forces are still strong and wield much power, taking advantage of ignorance and divisions within society.

They seemingly champion changes but in reality, manipulate the system to maintain the status quo. It is important to recognise this group for what they are, lest we are taken in by their rhetorics.

The exciting development is not the closing of the Malaysian mind but its opening, which offers tremendous potential for the future growth and direction of the country.

We see a new thinking taking shape among Malaysians that cuts across race, religion and rural-urban divide. This is a growing group, mostly young but not solely.

They have an open mind to religious freedom, transparency, equal opportunity, competition, authority and personal freedom. They represent a breath of fresh air. Admittedly, their number is small but growing.

Paradoxically, it is the past policies and initiatives of the Barisan government that have laid the foundation for the emergence of this new social change.

The change is led not by the elite that is heavily beholden to vested interests and have lost the capacity to provide objective leadership.

Neither is the change coming from the academic corridors. Sadly, academics have become partisan and have compromised their independence to lead change.

The public bureaucracy, too, has lost its neutrality to initiate meaningful changes. Many of the civil society organisations have also become aligned to interest groups.

Interestingly, the change is coming from ordinary people in the streets and coffeeshops with common sense, decency and innocence. Because they have not been spoilt by power, money and position, they are able to see the changes necessary to shape the future of Malaysia.

These are the people, for example, who see the importance of an English education for their children and the broader issues in religion, culture, race and public accountability.

They are politically streetwise and see the trees for the forest. They are becoming hard to be manipulated by the elite through promises of goodies. This is not people power but street wisdom.

As this group grows in size and reaches a critical mass, we will see a gradual change in the politics of the country for the better.

The old and the new emerging forces are at loggerheads. One stands for real change and the other for pseudo change.

The new forces are genuine, cut across race and are global.

They see a Malaysia losing out to the region and the world unless there is real economic, social and political change.

Irrespective of who wants to govern Malaysia, the secret to success lies in how one manages the new social forces.

In the short run, the old policy of divide and rule may succeed but the future lies with the new forces.

The political leaders of both camps seem to be unable to understand the implications of the new emerging forces.

One thing is clear though, the opening of the Malaysian mind is a welcome change and augurs well for the country. Also, it is a force that cannot be contained or suppressed for too long. It can only grow with time.

Will our leaders rise to the occasion and harvest the forces of change for the sake of the country or will they continue to indulge in manipulation and rhetoric for political interest?

Dr I. LOURDESAMY,
Petaling Jaya.

US at a loss to deal with new Middle East intifada

By Eric S. Margolis

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ARE we looking at a Middle East version of the 1989 uprisings across Eastern Europe that brought down its Communist regimes and the Soviet Union?  

There are certainly strong similarities between the old Soviet East Bloc and the spreading intifada across America’s Middle East Raj. Corrupt, repressive governments; rapacious oligarchies; high youth unemployment and stagnation; widespread feelings of frustration, hopelessness and fury.

But there is also a big difference. The principled Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Communist rulers of Eastern Europe, refused to turn their army’s guns against the rebelling people.

In Tunisia, where the Arab uprising began, the army has so far stayed admirably neutral. But in other Arab states now seething with rebellion – Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco, Libya – there may be no such reservations. Their ruthless security forces and military could quickly crush the uprisings unless the soldiers refuse to shoot down their own people – as happened in Moscow in 1991.

Washington is watching this growing intifada in its Middle East Raj with alarm and confusion. Ignore the Obama administration’s hypocritical platitudes about Middle East "democracy". All of the authoritarian Arab rulers now under siege by their people have been armed, financed and supported for decades by the US. Only in the Arab Gulf oil states is there real stability and genuine government concern for citizens’ welfare.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urges "restraint" on both sides. One supposes she means those being beaten by clubs, or tortured by electric drills must show proper restraint. Egypt, as this column has long said, is a ticking bomb. Half of 85 million Egyptians subsist below the UN’s US$2 daily poverty level.

Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since 1981. All opposition to his regime has been crushed. But now Mubarak’s time may be running out. Nobel-prize laureate Mohammed al-Baradei has returned to Egypt to challenge Mubarak and his designated successor, son, Gamal. Arab league chief Amr Moussa may also move against Mubarak.

Washington has previously lauded Mubarak for "wise leadership" and "stability". The US pays Egypt over US$2 billion annually not to confront Israel, to jail Islamists, and to keep Hamas in the open air prison of Gaza. The US Congress provides half of Egypt’s food. Since Israel effectively controls the US Congress, Israel exercises extraordinary influence over Egypt.

So far, none of the intifadas across the Arab world have produced effective leadership. But this could soon change.

Now, thanks to the bombshell "Palestinian Papers" leaked to Al-Jazeera, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has been exposed as an eager collaborator with Israel and its West Bank occupation. The endless Israeli-Palestinian "peace talks" are shown to be a total fraud. Israel’s Mossad and its Palestinian Quislings have worked closely to destroy the democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza.

We also learn from these papers that in 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice proposed shipping millions of Palestinian refugees to Latin America. This after Israel, financed by the US, imported one million Russian settlers, many of them not even Jewish. One is reminded of British proposals in the 1930’s to move Germany’s endangered Jews to Kenya.

This was Washington’s modern version of US-taxpayer financed ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Christians.
The "Palestinian Papers" and Wikileaks show the US government often indistinguishable from Israel, and at all times taking Israel’s side. So much for being an honest-broker.

The US-Israeli backed Palestinian Authority has lost its last shreds of credibility. This news will surely fan the flames spreading across the Arab and greater Muslim world as their peoples realise the full extent of the betrayal of the Palestinians.

These dramatic events are poorly understood by most North Americans. The US and Canadian media frame news of the regional intifada in terms of the so-called war on terror, and a false choice between dictatorial "stability" and Islamic political extremism. Much of what’s happening is seen through Israel’s eyes, and is badly distorted.

Platitudes aside, there is little concern in the US about bringing real democracy and modern society in the Arab world. Washington wants obedience, not pluralism, in its Middle East Raj. As with the British Empire, democracy at home is fine but it’s not right for the nations of the Arab world.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist, writing mainly about the Middle East and South Asia. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

TM & NTT Com to Construct Submarine Cable System Worth RM427mil

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Telekom Malaysia (TM) has teamed up with Japan's NTT Communications (NTT Com) to build a new US$140 million (RM427 million) international submarine cable system to enhance Internet protocol communications in the region.

TM's Group Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said the submarine cable system will have six fiber pairs to be developed at a cost of US$412 million.

He said TM will own two pairs named Cahaya Malaysia which will span a distance of 7,000 kilometers and link Malaysia to Hong Kong and Japan utilizing dense wavelength division multiplexing technology (DWDM).

"NTT Com will own the remaining four fiber pairs which they plan to develop with other regional carriers to provide landing points in the Philippines and Singapore," he told reporters after the signing of an agreement here today.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim.     

Zamzamzairani said the project funded internally by the company, would enable TM to improve latency connectivity by 25 percent.

"Phase one of the cable system linking Malaysia to Japan will be completed by the middle of 2012, while phase two linking Malaysia to Hong Kong is expected to be completed by the end of 2012."

Zamzamzairani said the cable system is the first in the region based on 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) DWDM technology with a design capacity of 15 terabyte per second.

He said the cable system will be capable of supporting the upcoming 100Gbps DWDM technology which will effectively raise its capacity to several times its initial capacity.

"This cable system will also provide an alternative, diverse routing within the Asia-Pacific region to avoid areas prone to seismic activities which are hazardous to undersea cables," he said.

Currently, TM owns or leases capacity on more than 10 submarine cable systems, which span more than 60,000 fiber routes miles around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that it uses to carry traffic between the Asia-Pacific region and North America.


- Bernama

How to guarantee roaring book sales

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MONDAY STARTERS By SOO EWE JIN ewejin@thestar.com.my

YOU have to hand it to the Americans. They really know how to market themselves.

Just before Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother hit the bookstores, its author Amy Chua wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Why Chinese mothers are superior”.

The resulting controversy certainly boosted sales of this book.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to give Amy, a professor at Yale Law School, a piece of their mind, even without reading the book.

As one reviewer remarked: “The book is actually rather tame... the frenzy over an excerpt was more exciting than the actual book.”

And, true to form, Hollywood is already thinking of bringing the book to the screen.

I am sure Amy’s two earlier books, Day of Empire and World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, will generate even better sales now.

Across the Causeway, we see Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew generating as much debate with the release of his latest book Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.

And closer to home, the Interlok issue continues to fester even though I get the feeling the majority of those who commented have not even read the book.

As the people in public relations, and also the politicians, will say: “Bad publicity is better than no publicity.”
If only such book-related controversies are a reflection that we are indeed a book-loving society, then not only will more books be sold, but prices will also come down because of increasing demand.

In this fast-paced world of ours, I wonder how many of us really find the time to read books.

Malaysians now read an average of seven or eight books in 2010, according to a study by the National Library on the public’s reading profile. This is certainly a vast improvement compared with 1996, when Malaysians read an average of two books a year.

The average may go up a bit more if the National Library includes the new generation of e-Book readers.
Friends who invest in e-Book readers often tell me how many books they have downloaded, all accessible at the touch of the screen. Yes, but do they ever get read, I wonder.

I am one of those strange people who read a number of books at any one time. They are placed in strategic sections of the house, one in the living room, one in the toilet, one in the bedroom, you get the idea.

Occasionally, I may get a book that I simply cannot put down, and so the book will go wherever I go.

Recently, I finished John Grisham’s latest novel, The Confession, in three sittings. But that was still not as good as my dear octogenarian friend, Peter, who stayed awake till the early hours to finish the book even faster. I must be careful what I buy him for Christmas next year.

A friend gave me a clip-on reading light recently and I find that when everyone has gone to bed, and all the lights in my home have been turned off, that little light always reminds me that light shines brightest when it is darkest.

In the same way, I believe, reading can truly enlighten darkened minds – if we choose our reading material with care.

• Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin is struggling to clear his bookshelves of books that his two sons grew up with but finds that the process is very difficult because every book holds such fond memories of his early parenting days. He is happy to declare that unlike Amy the Tiger Mother, he is just a Pussycat Father.

Higher income status will help grow real estate sector

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THE REAL ESTATE WITH ANGIE NG  angie@thestar.com.my

WE are in very interesting times when changes are happening in almost every sphere of our lives and in every part of the world. We are certainly experiencing first hand the age old saying that “the only constant thing is change”.

With change comes challenges and opportunities. To avoid being left behind, all alike from the common folks to governments and organisations should be proactive and take the necessary steps to be part of the big wheel of change.

One of the big changes underway for the country is the need to take the big step forward to become a high income nation. This is indeed a welcoming change that will allow all working Malaysians to progress up the income ladder and to look forward to bigger pay checks and maintain a higher standard and quality of living.

Widening the pool of high income earners is certainly good for the country to take a leapfrog forward across all the economic sectors. This is because it will promote higher domestic consumption and more sustainable growth for the country.

In the real estate sector, one of the keys to ensure sustainability in the local market is to increase the people's per capita income at least to the level of the other developed countries in Asia.

Unless we grow our per capita income, we will not be able to move up the value chain and see a phenomenal growth in our real estate sector.

The vast difference in per capita income compared with the high income countries of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan could be the reason for the big property price gap here compared with that in those countries. Likewise in the other sectors, there are also many growth opportunities to be tapped by moving up the value chain.

It does not help that the country is still dependent on so many foreign workers which is causing substantial outflow of foreign exchange to the other countries. Instead of relying on these supposedly lower wage foreign labour, it is time to revert back to our own Malaysian workforce which will have substantial spillover benefits to the local economy.

Although the pay structure will have to be revamped upwards, employing our own workers will ensure that they will be duly employed and prevent them from getting involved in other undesirable activities if they remain unemployed.

Like many high-income countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, foreigners should only be allowed to work as domestic maids and high skilled and critical professional jobs that are in short supply locally.

This way, the people's wages will have a chance to move upwards and not kept artificially low like what is happening now. There will also be less outflow of funds from the country.

In the real estate sector, one of the most obvious changes is the rapid appreciation of property valuation and the sudden windfall for many property investors.

The sharp rise in property prices in some parts of the country has caused both anxiety and excitement depending on which side of the scale one is at.

Developers certainly have a big role to play in the way property prices move. The pace and size of their project launches will determine the supply coming into the market.

When there is still a strong pent-up demand for more affordably to higher priced houses like what is happening now, it will help if developers speed up on their launches and help to ease the supply flow.

The price of a property when it was first launched is an important factor, but beyond that, the rate of how much a property will appreciate or depreciate is dependent on a number of factors including demand and supply. While location is a major factor that determines a property's value, other important considerations include infastructure network, accessibility, security, and the amenities and facilities provided.

I have observed that while there are townships and neighbourhoods that continue to be relevant and look refreshing and happening, there are also many that are dreary without much going for them. Of course, the value of properties will also differ accordingly.

Developers should continue to establish strong rapport with their buyers even after the projects are handed over to buyers.

We should give the thumbs up to developers who consider the handing over of completed projects as the beginning of their relationship with their customers.

They continue to listen to their buyers, help to form active and engaging community activities and add value to the townships they build.

It is important not to undermine good after-sales service as they can work wonders for a developer's reputation and promote loyalty and repeat purchase from customers.

• Deputy news editor Angie Ng hopes to see developers sprucing up parks in their townships instead of cannibalising them and deprive residents of a healthy form of recreation.