The 2011 historical Malaysia event

Without doubt, I’m putting this recent Malaysia rally; Bersih 2.0, as the historical event of our country for 2011.

bersih 2.0 rally
It was a peaceful rally - honest

Apparently this is the 2nd rendition of a campaign run, hence the two-point-zero since 2007. Its purpose still remains the same – raise the awareness and demand for a fair electoral system independent of third parties.

I’m not a person likely to discuss politics and I prefer avoiding any of conflicts whatsoever. I love living a fruitful and un-stressful life with loved ones while doing what I love doing. Thus, I’m only going to write about the noticeable affects to this event.

Unnecessary traffic congestion due to roadblocks

Days leading up to this day, some of my friends have complained roadblocks on highways causing congestion. And a day before today, another friend on Facebook shared that some roadblocks made congestion last until 2:15AM into the morning.

Malaysia traffic congestion at night
Hope there were rest stops

I seriously wouldn’t want to be caught in that situation. Imagine if you had to pee! OMG!!!

Nationwide curfew rumor caused concern

It did make me worry. Not because whether I’d bump into rally members. More so because of police roadblocks and being unnecessarily questioned. Plus, the whole idea of curfew was plain dumb – Malaysians mamak and clubbing hours is part of our culture. But yeah, I don’t like being in cumbersome situations.

Escalating news coverage

In the morning, news of the rally had begun coming in. By the late afternoon, its flooded my Twitter timeline. But it was good to know what was happening, despite my neutrality.

malaysia police barricade
1st time I've seen them use this

Especially by being an outsider, you’ve the benefit to observe both sides.

Acts affecting businesses

Hear say some people got hurt in the rally by authorities. But I’ll leave that to be clarified by the news publishers unswayed by third parties. Instead, after watching a video of the authorities having to use tear gas, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t business traders nearby be affected too?”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616ODL1z6dQ]

Plus, they fired more than 1 tear gas canister into the area. -_-|||

We (Malaysians) are really intuitive people

Friend of mine actually took this opportunity and came up with a pet project of his own to aggregate information of the event. Let me highlight one of the geeky things about the project.

malaysians around the world
Malaysians sharing the burden

That’s a map showing the Twitter conversations happening in areas co-relating to this event. If you zoom out, you’ll even notice the event affecting Malaysia across the world from the US to down under Australia.

The wonders of technology. And Malaysia’s historical event of 2011.

Can we trust Pos Malaysia?

The main headline of TheStar made me sick. Credit card fraud has reached a stage even involving Pos Malaysia postman! The very people responsible to deliver simple letters to wedding gifts from relatives who may be overseas.

20110413-092018.jpg

This has diminished all my credibility of using Pos Malaysia’s services. Especially when I, myself am applying a credit card. It’s like if my bank told me they’re going to use PosLaju, I’d either tell them I’ll collect it from their nearest branch or I’ll refuse to apply a card with them.

Not to mention, Pos Malaysia has been actively advertising their PostMe service on TV. The spillover of this credibility crisis will not be overlooked by those customers. Who’s to guarantee my Ducati item will be sent to me?

I pray this Pos Malaysia incident slaps the higher-ups in the face and they think through to come up with a good solution. Otherwise, I’ll never use Pos Malaysia – ever again.