MISJUDGMENT CAUSED BN LOST THE CYBER WAR

The price paid for the serious misjudgment and ignore cyber-campaigning on the Internet is too high. It caused the powerful Barisan Nasional coalition suffered its worst-ever results in March 8 polls that left five states and a third of parliamentary seats in opposition hands.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said his "biggest mistake" in disastrous elections was to ignore cyber-campaigning on the Internet which was seized by the opposition.

"We certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber-war," Abdullah said in a speech to an investment conference.

"It was a serious misjudgment. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important," he said.

"We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television was supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMS and blogs."

"It was painful ... but it came at the right time, not too late," he said.

The foreign analysis observed that the opposition, which was largely ignored by government-linked mainstream media, instead waged an enormously successful online campaign using blogs, news websites and SMS text messages.

The comments are a major about-face for the government, which had vilified bloggers, calling them liars and threatening them with detention without trial under draconian internal security laws.

The mainstream media are "often compelled to ignore or to play down" opposition events.

Bernama apologises to Lim for false May 13 attribution

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Bernama apologises to Lim for false May 13 attribution

By : Melisa Darlyne Chow

GEORGE TOWN, Sat: Bernama has apologised to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for the “sloppy editing” in its news story on March 12 which mistakenly quoted Lim as commenting on the May 13 incident.

The issue of the Penang government marginalizing anybody in the state does not arise following the apology letter issued by Bernama on Friday that stated that the news agency had mistakenly quoted Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said as commenting on the May 13, 1969 tragedy.

"I consider the issue closed, as the issue of DAP marginalizing Penangites did not arise at all in the first place, Lim told a press conference after opening the Artistic Malaysia Gallery here today. "Until now, the state government has not implemented any policies that were not profitable to Penangites, except for one company. Even that is not a Bumiputera company.”

Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong said upon a thorough review, the inclusion of the fact along with Lim's quote was deemed inappropriate. Yong noted the inclusion of the fact was intended to give background on the establishment of the NEP in 1971.

It was earlier reported that the new state government had outlined several reforms it plans to undertake in the state administration, starting with doing away with the practices under the NEP. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had warned Lim not to make statements, which could stoke racial tension, which the latter later refuted.

Some 1,000 Penang Umno members and supporters had held demonstrations at Komtar on Friday in protest over Lim's move to abolish the NEP.

Lim said the state government had only wanted all government procurement and contracts be done through the open tender system. Even this was made into an issue, then there was nothing he could do about it.

"We have to move forward. Let us move on to an era where there is transparency and integrity, to ensure the state's resources can be shared among everyone. The Prime Minister has also given his assurance that federal government projects here will go on as usual. We cannot allow certain quarters to make an issue out of this. Penang Umno must respect the people's wishes.

"Let us carry on with the task of leading the state, which has been entrusted to us by the people," he said. “The state government has not discriminated anybody.”

Lim said he did not want to prolong the matter further and the state government would move on from here to implement policies that were beneficial to all Penangites.