The live bullet was accompanied with a note warning him against speaking out on the controversial issues of Malay rights and the constitutional powers of the Sultans.

To be frank, if the person who sent the bullet does want to harm Karpal, he would have use the bullet straight away. Not saying that we should take this death threat lightly though; it’s better to be safe than sorry.

What I really don’t want to see is the whole situation being blown out of proportion… some bloggers are already turning this death threat into a racial issue, but fact is the threat is probably plotted by one single individual and not a whole race.

I wish Karpal well… hopefully it’s just an act of cowardness instead of a serious threat.

He apologised to the non-Malays that the keris wielding has caused unease, while apologised to Malays for failing to uphold the Malay emblem as their symbol of heritage (video below)…

Thing is, most of the non-Malays have never denied the importance of keris as a symbol of Malay heritage… the non-Malays are offended because it was used at the wrong place, wrong function, and wrong timing.

And to add fuel to the fire, Hishammudin has in numerous occasions ridiculed the non-Malays for being too sensitive towards the keris issue instead of looking into the responds seriously.

In fact in this so call apology, he is trying to say that the non-Malays are scared of the keris as a Malay symbol, and as if the non-Malays are trying to take away a Malay heritage. Yet again the non-Malays are being ridiculed while he is trying to make himself a Malay hero.

The next thing he would say is that he has apologised, but too bad some of the Malaysians are not that forgiving… yada.

Frankly, I can’t see anything sentimental with the video, but it makes it giggle, and I like it. The person who designed the campaign slogan (Just Do Change It) and the Nike logo should be shot though… that’s quite an obvious plagiarism.

Five other members of the commission are former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Amar Steve Shim Lip Kiong, former Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar, former Solicitor-General Puan Sri Zaitun Zawiyah Puteh, Academician-Historian Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim and Datuk Abdullah Sani Ab Hamid (as commission secretary).

I don’t have enough knowledge to justify if these people are suitable candidates to investigate the matter, and I am not sure if the royal panel could produce anything more meaningful than the earlier 3-men panel.

Regardless of the result, I doubt that the findings could change the current situation where our judiciary system is being controlled (or at least influenced) by our BN lead government.

Even if the tape is found genuine, the people that will be penalized would probably be Lingam and Fairuz while the rest of the VIPs that are involved would keep hidden behind the curtain and not being punished.

The tape might help raise some public awareness that our country administration is not as clean as the government is trying to portray… perhaps it is the only meaningful purpose that it could serve in the end.

Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim has released the full version of the video…

Below is a video on PKR’s information chief Tian Chua being arrested near the Parliament House. He had probably resisted the arrest… but does he deserved the punch after he was apprehended? I wonder…

Lee Song Yong, a second-year computer science student is in a battle with Universiti Putra Malaysia to get back a notebook that security personnel confiscated on Aug 22.

UPM on the other hand is seeking disciplinary action against Lee for not cooperating with the varsity officers during the confiscation.

This is not the 1st time UPM is involved with similar confrontation; another student had his laptop confiscated in September but his issue is settled sooner with the involvement of some opposition politicians.

I don’t like seeing lawyers and politicians involving in university affairs, but the lack of transparency from UPM in handling these disciplinary issues has left me no choice but to believe that the student is being victimized instead of some political agendas.

The disciplinary proceeding is a really bad joke as Lee’s lawyer mentioned. Do UPM authorities really expect the students to just hand over their expensive belongings when told to do so without questions asked? Besides, do they have enough reasons to do so?

Update Nov 23 – Lee is suspended for one semester for ‘obstructing campus officers from performing their duty’. [MP Lim]

Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) recently formalized their partnership in content development and distribution.

The collaboration consists of the co-production and global marketing of the 26 episodes of Saladin 3D Animated Television Series, which is planned for broadcast on Al Jazeera Children’s Channel in the last quarter of 2008. [Middle-east-online]

MDeC has claimed that the animation has gained global attention since releasing the 6-minute trailer (below) in early 2006, but I think this is their first successful deal in marketing the project outside of Malaysia.

The project itself has garnered some critics previously, particular in its mismanagement of funds. It’s alleged that the animation has cost RM20 millions and most of the spending were rather wasteful. [Teresakok]

Set aside the financial controversies, I think we are heading the right track at the moment. The 6-minutes trailer shows good qualities and decent story plot; if we could keep the level of consistency for all the episodes, it’s going to be a job well done.

Entertainment industry is a huge global business, and Malaysia is lagging far behind at the moment. Besides the profit from the core venture (movies, music, anime…) itself, other industries like tourism, merchandising etc. will also benefit from it.

The success of Korean drama in the past decade is a great example of how influential the entertainment industry could be in lifting a countries’ international status. The tourism of the country is also largely boosted thanks to their dramas’ success.

It’s not too late for Malaysia to catch up; Koreans take just 10-years or less from virtually unnoticed to the major player in Asian entertainment market… we can do that too with proper planning and government support.

Saladin makes a decent start at the moment; I hope that it is not going to be a one off project, and that government will have plans to work with local talents and private investors to produce strings of successful animations and possibly real-life series.

I am not surprised with the scandal, but am surprised that something like that was caught on tape (or video, whatever). Our judiciary system is losing faith among Malaysians since former PM Mahathir Mohamad fired the chief judge in 1988. Since then Malaysia no longer have a judiciary that is independent from government administration.

It is therefore no surprise that money and relationship play a greater part in determining the position of senior judges rather than based on pure merit.

The main media has been extremely quiet on this saga; the news is not completely blackout, but the scale of the reports is pathetic.

Meanwhile DPM Najib Abdul Razak has said that the government will first confirm the authenticity of the ‘VK Lingam’ video before deciding on the next course of action. [Malaysiakini]

You can read the draft transcript via PKR’s website or Malaysiakini.

[Follow this tag for updates about Lingam Tape Scandal]

Friday night, 4 staff members of the student affairs department (HEP) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, raided the room of Yee Yang Yang, a first-year student in Hostel 13 who is a member of a pro-student grouping.

He was interrogated from 11pm to 1am, and his laptop, handphone, MP4 player, 2 pendrives, leaflets and personal documents were confiscated. [Jeff Ooi]

It may seem as a daylight robbery for some people, but the irony part is that our Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 does allow some sort of action for universities officials to act (in a university compound) beyond what police officers could do in public.

The act itself is stupid in a lot of ways, and it becomes increasingly ridiculous when it is abused by university personnel.

Yee was told that the items would be returned last Saturday, this did not happen – and a 75-minute meeting with unit director Mej Othman Jailani today did not produce results either.

“They (security officials) wanted me to give them the password for my phone and laptop so that they could check the contents,” he told reporters outside the campus security’s office this afternoon (Sep 17).

“I refused. I want them to return my things and to apologise to me publicly because they did not follow proper procedures when they took away my belongings.

“Not only were they not in uniform, but they were also rude when I asked questions.”

Yee’s effort on Saturday was recorded in a nine-minute video by one of his friends.

It included a tense stand-off between the students and Zamali Samsi, the head of the university’s Special Task Unit, a student-monitoring outfit which is part of the campus security.

The students stood in front and the back of the vehicle carrying Zamali to stop him from leaving until they got their letter of acknowledgement [see video].

Yee also said two attempts to lodge a police report against the security unit had failed on Saturday because Sri Serdang police personnel had contacted the security personnel and were told that he would get back his belongings.

As at the time of writing, about 7pm, Yee was at the police station to make another attempt at lodging the report.

If the police cannot do anything about his predicament, Yee intends to serve the university a legal notice. [Malaysiakini]

Update Sep 29 – UPM has finally returned the belongings of Yee [Malaysiakini]