Berapa 'moderate' nya Malaysia dan Indonesia sebagai negara Islam?

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments

Musim untuk bersederhana atau 'moderate' sudah tiba lagi apabila pemimpin-pemimpin negara Barat yang membangun, di dalam usaha mencari negara dan pemimpin Islam yang 'moderate' untuk dibawa berbincang mengenai peranan strategik, ekonomi dan sekutu politik.

Secara ringkasnya, pemimpin dan kerajaan dari dunia Islam menyambut baik terhadap jemputan ini, terutamanya yang datang dari White House. Terdapat beberapa pemimpin dan kerajaan Islam bersiap sedia untuk mengubah dasar mereka dalam memenuhi tuntutan pemimpin yang menerajui White House kini.

Dalam pada itu, ianya adalah sesuatu pengiktirafan jika dilabel sebagai sebuah negara Islam yang 'moderate'. Ini menjadi impian kepada pemimpin-pemimpin Islam yang berpaksikan fakta bahawa pengikitrafan ini hadir bersama sokongan terhadap polisi domestik, pembangunan ekonomi serta bantuan politik dan ketenteraan buat mereka.

Ketika tahun pemerintahan Bush yang gelap, negara-negara seperti Thailand dan Australia diiktiraf sebagai sekutu setia Washington di Asia. Thailand diberi penghormatan sebagai rakan strategik nombor satu Amerika bukan daripada NATO; manakala Australia (dibawah pimpinan Howard) pula diiktiraf sebagai Sheriff Amerika di Asia – sebuah penghormatan kepada kedua buah negara yang terkenal dengan dasar anti-Muslim dan anti-Islam mereka.

Kini, kunci White House telah beralih tangan dan Presiden baru Amerika itu dijangka melawat Indonesia dalam waktu yang terdekat, membuktikan bahawa negara-negara membangun kini dalam usaha mencari pemimpin Islam yang 'moderate' untuk mereka rujuk dan pengaruhi. Malaysia dan Indonesia adalah calon terbaik dalam memenuhi slot 'negara Islam paling moderate' di Asia. (Maka kerajaan Burma, Thailand, Kemboja, Singapura sudah pastinya mencerca nasib mereka dek kerana kurangnya masyarakat Islam di negara mereka untuk memenuhi carta tersebut..)

Namun sebelum kita bersorak riang dengan penghormatan tersebut – Malaysia dan Indonesia- tanyakan persoalan ini kepada diri sendiri, “Layakkah kedua-dua negara ini dilabel sebagai negara Islam yang 'Moderate'?”

Indonesia yang merana dek publisiti yang buruk mengenai kejadian pengeboman Bali dan bagaimana kedudukan negara itu di mata media antarabangsa sejak peristiwa 2002 tersebut. Namun sedih dan tidak adil bagi Indonesia yang mempunyai rekod lapuk mengenai keganasan, tidak pula diikitraf usahanya dalam menjunjung demokrasi dan proses pendemokrasian.

Sebagai permulaan, mari kita berbicara mengenai sejarah panjang mengenai keganasan politik di Indonesia, seseorang itu perlu meletakkan diri dalam perbincangan mengikut konteks sejarah yang benar dan mengenalpasti segala agen dan dalang yang terlibat dalam sandiwara politik ini.

Kenyataannya, memang Indonesia mempunyai sejarah yang panjang mengenai keganasan politik, marilah kita mengimbas kembali bahawa keganasan itu tidak pula dibendung malah mendapat pengiktirafan daripada masyarakat dunia yang sama sahaja bersalah dalam menentukan pertumbuhan samseng politik di Indonesia selama beberapa dekad yang lepas.

Ketika era keganasan dan tragedi berdarah penentangan komunis pada 1965 misalnya, direkodkan bahawa beribu-ribu suspek komunis dan ahli PKI serta penyokong mereka dihapuskan oleh pihak sayap kanan pemerintahan yang berpaksikan agama; Nahdatul Ulama dengan sepenuh sokongan (walaupun tanpa campurtangan) pihak Barat.

Ketika proses penjajahan terhadap Timur Timor pada tahun 1974-75, negara-negara Barat ini membutakan mata mereka terhadap keganasan yang berlaku di bumi Timur Timor yang mungkin menjadi negara Cuba di ASEAN - memberikan ancaman terhadap Australia dan negara-negara ASEAN.

Walaupun sudah tiga dekad berlalu terhadap keganasan dan pimpinan diktator di bawah tampuk Suharto dan Panglima Perangnya, Indonesia kini telah membangun dan menjadi antara negara yang mengamalkan demokrasi sejati di ASEAN; kebebasan bersuara yang lebih merdeka daripada jiran-jirannya.

Kita juga seharusnya ingat bahawa, pemimpin-pemimpin reformasi yang menggulingkan kerajaan Suharto dan bala tenteranya adalah terdiri daripada bekas aktivis pelajar yang antara mereka adalah aktivis dan pemikir-pemikir Islamis, berbeza mengenai imej Islam yang sekian lama dikaitkan dengan palitan darah di tangan dengan pemerintahan yang bercorak totalitarian.

Kini, Univerisiti Islam di Indonesia adalah benteng utama pendidikan Islam moden dan antara yang pertama dalam menghasilkan pemikir Muslim yang rasional, berobjektif serta memahami isu agama itu secara lebih kritikal. Namun, tiada satu pun laporan mengenainya oleh media antarabangsa yang terus-terusan mencanangkan bahawa Indonesia adalah sarang pengganas Islam yang radikal.

Relatifnya, Malaysia memperlihatkan bingkai rujukan yang berbeza mengenai Islam. Malaysia dilihat sebagai sebuah negara Islam yang 'Moderate' dan model ikutan kepada banyak negara.

Namun jika dijalankan tinjauan umum ringkas mengenai imej Malaysia yang berbeza tentang amalan normatif Islam di Malaysia pada hari ini; inilah negaranya yang rajin mengharamkan itu dan ini dan memperlihatkan kontradiksi memalukan mengenai pengharaman karya Karen Armstrong yang penulis itu sendiri dijemput untuk ke pelbagai persidangan Islam di merata negara. Inilah negaranya, di mana polis moral mempraktikan undang-undang di tangan mereka sendiri; di mana NGO Feminis Muslim seperti Sisters in Islam seringkali dihukum dan dilabel sebagai jahat. Ruang untuk membicarakan pemikiran, ekspresi dan kehidupan sosial Islam semakin mengecil sejak tahun 1970.

Meski terdapat pelbagai kontradiksi, Malaysia dilihat lebih positif berbanding Indonesia. Yang jelasnya, siapa sahaja yang memahami permainan normatif Islam kedua-dua negara ini pasti mempunyai tanggapan bahawa ruang normatif bagi masyarakat Islam di Indonesia adalah jauh lebih luas. Dan dalam pemahamam secara meluas serta batas-batas normatif budaya kehidupan Islam dan amalan di kedua-dua buah negara, jelas kelihatannya bahawa ruangan kehidupan masyarakat Islam di Indonesia masih lebih luas berbanding Malaysia. Jadi, persoalannya, mengapa Indonesia masih lagi dilabel dengan sebegitu negatif apabila mereka berpaksikan amalan normatif Islam?

Kita dapat simpulkan bahawa imej negatif Indonesia yang digambarkan ini adalah sebahagian daripada memori selektif media Barat yang tidak mampu mentafsir fakta sejarah pengeboman Bali dan realitinya terhadap konteks Indonesia hari ini. Dengan memberi persepsi bahawa Bali sebagai sebuah “tragedi bagi Barat” dan meletakkannya sebagai satu serangan terhadap Australia dan dunia Barat amnya, media antarabangsa dan negara-negara membangun bukan sahaja menafikan hak Indonesia untuk berduka dan merasai kesakitan, malah menempatkan Indonesia dalam indentiti dan sejarah yang penuh darah dan kematian.

Dengan tindakan ini, mereka di dalam senario bahaya apabila terpaksa menghadapi perkembangan terkini di sebuah negara yang mungkin telah mengalami pengalaman paling mahal dan penuh ranjau dalam merevolusikan demokrasi di rantau ASEAN ini. Tindakan mereka ini juga dilihat sebagai, menafikan kemungkinan bagi mereka untuk bekerjasama dengan sebuah kerajaan yang benar-benar 'Moderate' dan demokratik. Itulah kerugian yang ditanggung oleh Indonesia, namun yang lebih rugi adalah dunia Barat. Mungkin penjelajahan dunia Barat untuk mencari sekutu baru daripada dunia Islam akan mengambil masa seribu tahun lagi? Mungkin juga.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

SPEECH BY TUN DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD - Criminalise War Conference - 28th October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments
Labels:

VOTE!! MAKE WAR A CRIME!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments



Support us in criminalising war. WAR IS ABOUT KILLING, MASSIVE KILLING. Tell a friend about this site. Spread the word about the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War !

KLFCW wants people of the World to unite and UNANIMOUSLY AGREE that war is a crime.

Regardless of Nationality, Racial Origin, Religion, Belief, Political View, Age, Gender or other forms of Impermissible Differentiations; we should work TOGETHER towards ENDING this EVIL called WAR. My Country or yours could be next.

If there is a huge following towards this cause, we believe it will put pressure on world leaders to cooperate.

We aim to get at least 30% of the world population to get involved in our mission and YES, that is a lot of work and it will take time and it also needs assistance from people like you.

Let's work together and promote, create awareness towards the violence and monstrosity of war, and gain more supporters.

We want to make sure that attacks like what happened in Gaza will never repeat again.

KLFCW needs your continuing strong support to Criminalise War and to Energise Peace.

VOTE!!
MAKE WAR A CRIME, THE LEAST WE CAN DO

After casting your vote please forward to friends and family, invite all.

We must unite to be heard.
Do you agree that war should be criminalised? Say your VOTE

 SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

Time off

Saturday, October 17, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments
Blogged-off for a while. Busy with UMNO General Assembly 2009. Up next is BUDGET 2010. Will resumes afterward. Thanks for visiting.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

Scenes of Guerrilla Warfare

Monday, October 12, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments
SCENES OF GUERRILLA WARFARE

BY CHRIS PURSELL

ECONOMICAL STUNTS IMPACT THE POWER OF GENERATING BUZZ

We’ve all heard the phrases, whether it’s “Think Global, Act Local” or “All Promotion is Local,” as a mantra for good campaigns, but the collapse of marketing budgets around the industry has seen an increased need for local stunts and guerrilla marketing as executives scramble for resources and cut so-called frills.

“A creative PR stunt can provide an extremely cost-effective way to gain cut-through into the news and editorial media pages and provide a significantly higher return on investment than paid for advertising,” said Peter Mountstevens, managing partner of Taylor Herring Public Relations in London. “With the right idea, a brand can also engage with its audience on a far more meaningful level than traditional marketing channels allow — building in experiential and interactive elements.”

Successful promotional stunts continue to draw the attention, not just of potential audiences, but millions of dollars in free media coverage as well. In fact, recent studies found that media channel effectiveness for building brand equity has also shifted materially.

While television is still ranked as the most important outlet for effectiveness in building brand equity with 64 percent, according to a recent study, guerrilla/word-of-mouth/buzz marketing now ranked nearly on par at 57 percent. Recent examples of stunting include AMC broadcasting the first episode of “Mad Men” in New York’s Times Square while CBS targeted nail salons in major markets to breed word of mouth for the upcoming comedy “Accidentally on Purpose.” The salons were given nail dryers embedded with video screens that ran a clip of the show as well as branded nail files.

Fox recently created nationwide interest as well as national publicity for the summer-long guerrilla marketing promotion for season six of “House,” prominently displaying a cryptic image of snake entwined on a cane, drawing the symbol in chalk on New York City streets, among other places, to spread the symbol sans context. Phase two featured a countdown clock to the show’s premiere date while short subliminal ads aired on the channel and a full page ad ran in a publication without a title or tune in date.

Joe Earley, Fox’s EVP marketing and communications, noted that creating word of mouth buzz has become increasingly instrumental in a world of more choices but smaller budgets. “It’s incredibly important to get a great grassroots, word-of-mouth discussion going across the country,” said Earley. “I think that you can see a lot of networks and brands focusing on word-of-mouth right now, it’s a nice, buzzy phrase but you want to make sure the audience continues to be engaged.”

Experts say that its engagement that provide the best results. “The best events provide an engaging,relevant interaction that crystallizes the brand message, lets people sample the brand and leaves them wanting more,” said Stuart Ruderfer, Co-CEO of Civic Entertainment Group. “Authenticity can make a profound impact, too. To promote HBO’s film ‘Recount,’ we hunted down the actual voting booths from Florida responsible for the “hanging chads” that triggered the 2000 recount. We brought them to Union Square in NYC and The Grove in LA for consumers to punch genuine butterfly ballots and see if their votes would have counted.”

For HBO, which has held promotional events that captured media attention for series ranging from “Entourage” to “True Blood,” the keys to success are to stay true to their brand. “The nature of our shows has created a great platform for guerrilla tactics,” said Zach

Enterlin, VP of advertising and promotions at HBO. “From an HBO perspective, it’s really great to have something different and innovative that goes beyond the normal campaign and pays dividends for us.” Ruderfer, who has been involved in a number of promotional events with HBO, noted that with shoestring budgets, smaller companies should be utilizing these tactics, although with the proper planning. “An emerging company can use events to quickly capture attention — news stories about a stunt reach a much broader audience than the event itself.

And experiential marketing can be tightly targeted, by geography or audience, helpful when budgets are tight,” he said, noting that careful planning would be needed to avoid disaster. “Plan ahead, and work with experts,” he said. “Before staging an event, consider location, timing, traffic, security, staffing, talent, weather. Choose a location that’s appropriate to your brand as well as your audience, where your message will stand out. See your event the way the public will see it when they come to it cold. Know what else is going at the same time around you — sporting events, concerts, conventions — so you don’t get upstaged.” Of course, there are pitfalls.

In 2005, Snapple created the world’s largest frozen juice popsicle in New York City, weighing 17.5 tons as a promotional gimmick. Unfortunately the giant treat melted in transit and flooded the streets surrounding Union Square Park. Experts suggest thinking the idea through for any possible negative reaction for implementing stunts.“Stay focused on the ROI and the desired outcome.

Always interrogate the idea thoroughly and consider anything that could go wrong,” said Mountstevens. “We all recall the Superbowl’s ‘Nipplegate’ meltdown and Cartoon Network’s stunt for ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ when magnetic lights that were positioned around Boston looked a little too similar to explosive devices and lead to a full-scale bomb scare. Similarly, an official looking mail shot to promote the TV crime show CSI in the UK caused widespread panic a few years back as old ladies opened their mail and believed a serial killer was on the loose.”


SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

Be Sweet, Please Retweet!

TX by Roulefx View Comments
BE SWEET, PLEASE RETWEET
by MIKE WALSH

RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PUTS AD GAMES INTO WHOLE NEW CONTEXT

There has always been something alluring about the myth of the creative advertising genius. A “Mad Man” style maven sitting in a palatial corner office, twirling a pencil and then devising a diabolical way to sell more cigarettes, cars or potato chips. But the new media landscape has made a mockery of that. It used to be enough to make ads that people remembered when they watched them. Now, being a great creative means being smart enough to ensure people watch them at all.

Early this year, I spoke at a PromaxBDA event in Czechoslovakia. Prague is a beautiful city. Look outside your window and you will be rewarded with an exquisite gothic skyline marred only by a single building — the Žižkov TV tower. When I asked about it, I was told that the Soviets thought that if they beamed out a strong enough TV signal, they could blanket out any competing programming from Western countries. It was a cunning plan and quite possible in a world where television had a monopoly on moving pictures and sound in households. For the last 50 years or so, you could literally buy people’s attention. Now, it’s not so easy.

On the Internet, there is no concept of prime time. You can program television, but when online people discover and consume content, it is often because it has been sent to them by other people they know. Whether a tweet on Twitter, a blog post on Wordpress or a shared link on Facebook, the most influential distribution assets now are not broadcast networks but rather audience networks.

Consider the recent transformation of the social media space. Social networks have evolved from an orgy of self-expression to brand communication channels and tools of political influence. The new prize is realtime search. Traditional search is great for finding non-time-sensitive material, but if you want to know what people are saying and thinking right now about your brand, TV show or anything else, you need to be able to dip into the live stream of social chatter and link sharing.

From a creative perspective, real-time search creates a unique challenge. Stunning art direction is useless if no one actually watches your ad. In a world of audience networks, people will only forward your content to their friends and followers if it makes them look smarter or cooler by doing so. Their brand, not yours is at stake. You would be surprised how few marketers take that into account and are left wondering when their viral campaigns are socially vaccinated before they get off the ground.

Funnily enough, one of the best examples of smart social creativity came from the other side of the world. In far North Australia, Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” campaign took three Grand Prix awards at the Cannes advertising awards this year. The campaign, which was ostensibly just promoting a caretaker job on Hamilton Island, generated more than AU$332 million in media coverage, 34,684 video entries from 197 countries and eight million site visits with an average of eight minutes and 15 seconds spent on the site per visitor. What made the campaign so effectively viral was not how it looked or where the ads were placed, but rather the power of its core idea. After all, who wouldn’t want to get paid to hang out on a desert island? Great ideas are social candy to consumer networks.

Social media doesn’t mean the death of TV advertising, but it does place it into context. Broadcast is a powerful medium for rapidly raising awareness, but the reality of media fragmentation means that to get real engagement requires your customers to do the distribution for you. And that, quite frankly, is not easy. The trick of turning audiences into advocates requires more than just savvy media planning or bribing people with free iPods. It takes true creative genius.

Source: Digital Edition



SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

American goes Black!

Thursday, October 08, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments

American to launch BlackAtlas.com

 

American Airlines said Monday that it plans to launch later this month a social networking site, BlackAtlas.com, aimed at African-Americans.

The site will feature discussion boards and blogs on which users can share pictures, video and travel stories and tips, along with rating and recommending businesses and travel destinations. BlackAtlas will also feature video blogs and commentaries on travel by author and film maker Nelson George.

American spokewoman Stacey Frantz declined to reveal how much American is spending on BlackAtlas. In an interview, she said the goal of the site isn’t so much generating revenue as “building brand loyalty in the African-American community.”

American, a subsidiary of AMR Corp., has recently begun using social networking sites to woo specific demographic groups. In a first for the company, American recently began using Twitter and Facebook, along with old-school media such as television, print and radio, to target Hispanics.

Frantz said American is using social media to get the word out about BlackAtlas. “We are deeply involved in talking to bloggers and Tweeters” about the site, she said.

PS: Any say from AirAsia in targeting different demographics to their social media marketing campaign? Dato' Tony Fernandez, you should check this out! 

source: http://dallas.bizjournals.com

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

Bar Code: Google’s Logo Celebrates Its Anniversary

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 TX by Roulefx View Comments
Another day, another Google Logo (or “Google Doodle,” if you’re so inclined). Today’s is a simple and straight up bar code that celebrates the 57th anniversary of the bar code’s patent on October 7, 1952.

The bar code (or barcode, another acceptable spelling) is a representation of data that is machine-readable. You’ve probably seen them close to everywhere, on almost every product you can buy that was mass-produced somewhere.

The classic bar code consists of parallel lines at different widths and spacings, which Google’s (Google) logo depicts. Other patterns including squares, dots and other patterns can also be referred to as bar codes.

US Patent 2,612,994 owners Joseph Woodland, Bernard Silver, and Jordin Johanson would undoubtedly be proud to see their invention up in lights on the internet’s veritable information hub.

What’s your favorite Google logo so far: Bar Code? Confucius? Gandhi? The cryptic H.G. Wells series? Let me know about it!

source: www.mashable.com

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think

TX by Roulefx View Comments
Is Social Media a Fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Welcome to the Social Media Revolution:







SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels:

New media in Germany propels Green vote

TX by Roulefx View Comments
By Santha Oorjitham

Robert Heinrich didn’t get much sleep over the last three days of the campaign for Germany’s Federal elections on Sept 27. But it was worth it for the 33-year-old director of communications for Alliance 90/The Greens.

Their “3 Days Awake” blog answered over 12,000 questions and published the answers live. The tactic was also covered by local newspapers and TV stations, giving the party further exposure.

“It has helped with the closing mobilisation of our voters,” he said at the party’s election night celebrations in an event hall near a train station in eastern Berlin.


Supporters of The Greens check out the results online on election night.

Bathed in green light, the party faithful were checking the results online (10.7 per cent of the votes, a record “double digits” for the environmentalist party) and celebrating to the strains of Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (better known as the theme for Space Odyssey 2001).

Another powerful tool was the call for supporters to choose sites on a Google map where they wanted to donate election billboards, paying by bank transfers.

Over 2,200 people donated over 200,000 Euros (about RM1,013,000) worth of billboards.

That was a windfall for the Greens, Heinrich said, since their total election budget was 3.4 million Euros: “It shows that fundraising on the Internet can work if you give the people something concrete to donate to, not just abstract things like money.”

The Greens, Heinrich added, were also the first German party to use Twitter and now have over 8,000 followers—as well as 3,000 followers on Facebook and 30,000 students on their studivz social network (the biggest network of all the parties).



New media was one of the cores of the party’s election campaign and worked well with typical Greens supporters—who are young, better educated and mainly entrepreneurs, office workers and government officials.

“We have been inspired by the Barack Obama campaign, of course,” said Heinrich.

“Although the differences are tremendous, Obama and the Greens have the same campaign style. We have both combined the tradition of grassroots campaigning with the techniques of modern digital media.”

“The Greens had the best interactive campaign,” claimed Max Stocker at the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation in Munich.

The new media was not as important in Germany’s federal elections as in Obama's election campaign, he reckoned. But Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel did give a weekly message online while candidates blogged and sent messages online to their social networks.

Use of the Internet was not as “decisive” in Germany’s Federal elections as in the Obama campaign, agreed Dr Frank Buchwald, correspondent with ZDF public television in Berlin: “But all the candidates had blogs and their own websites, and their supporters set up websites for them as well.”


SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Labels: