Learn good driving habits for health's sake

Learn good driving habits for health's sake

Sat, Sep 27, 2008 The Straits Times

By Jovanda Biston

Those magnificent young men in their F1 machines are the talk of the town as Singapore awaits their arrival and the flag off the island's first Formula One race. Even at the end of a gruelling race, they still manage to jump out of their high-powered machines looking fit and fab.

Apart from the occasional penalty for breaking a rule, no one can accuse them of poor driving habits.

For us lesser mortals, however, poor driving habits can make a dent in our health. Mind Your Body spoke to doctors who said drivers should keep their cool and adopt good habits behind the wheel to minimise health risks.

Heart health

Always keep calm and avoid road rage, said Dr Yong Quek Wei, senior consultant cardiologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Outbursts of anger can help bring on heart disease and even trigger a heart attack up to 24 hours later.

Listening to soft music or sucking on a sweet can help a tense driver feel a sense of calm

Speed devils need to slow down in the name of health. Not only is speeding to save a few minutes not worth the stress and the attendant higher risk of accidents, but driving fast also increases the adrenaline level and can cause palpitations and even lead to chest pains or a heart attack, said Dr Yong.

Excessive amounts of caffeine - from chugging coffee or other caffeinated drinks to stay alert - can hamper judgment, cause anxiety and even lead to irregular heart palpitations and chest discomfort.

Back to comfort

Sitting in a car is quite different from resting on a couch because when the vehicle is moving, the body is subject to different forces - accelerations and decelerations, lateral swaying and up-down vibrations, said DrFong Shee Yan, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

To minimise back and neck discomfort, he said, have car seats with good lumbar cushion support for the lower back and headrests for neck support.

Car seats should recline at about 100 degrees horizontally, with the knees slightly above hip level. The driver's seat should be moved close to the steering wheel to best support the curve of one's back and to allow the knees to bend.

During a long drive, it is important to take frequent rest breaks and do some stretching exercises to ease the discomfort and pressure on the spine.

Keep eyes on the road

Protect your eyes, said Dr Vernon Yong, consultant opthalmologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He said: 'Wear sunglasses when driving in glaring sunlight. Our eyelids tend to narrow as a natural protective reflex to bright light and, over a long period, this can cause eye strain.'

To reduce eye fatigue, he said it is best to have adequate rest after every two hours of continuous driving.

jbiston@sph.com.sg

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- Outbursts of anger can trigger a heart attack up to 24 hours later

- Car seats should recline at about 100 deg horizontally, with the knees slightly above hip level

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This story was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times, on Aug 25, 2008.

More than skin deep-scarring

More than skin deep-scarring

Fri, Oct 03, 2008 The Straits Times

[Top: A child stricken with eczema.]

By Jovanda Biston

An "angel's kiss" is a small pink birthmark on a baby's forehead or eyelids that will fade over time.

But not all irregular skin conditions that affect children are harmless. Nor do they have such pretty names.

"Some birthmarks such as giant moles and naevus sebaceus are associated with a small risk of turning cancerous," said Dr Chan Yuin Chew, consultant dermatologist at Dermatology Associates.

Naevus sebaceum: It is usually a single yellow or somewhat oily-looking lesion at birth or in early childhood, said Dr Wendy Subothini Sinnathamby, consultant paediatrician at the National University Hospital's University Children's Medical Institute.

She recommended removal of the lesion before puberty as there is a 10 to 20 per cent risk it will become cancerous in the child's teenage years.

Port-wine stain: This birthmark is a blood vessel abnormality. The most famous person who has one located on his forehead is former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (right).

The National Skin Centre estimates that this condition affects up to 0.5 per cent of Singapore's population.

Dr Chan said parents of children with cosmetically significant birthmarks on areas such as the face and neck may wish to consider removing the mark so that that their child will not be subjected to psychologically damaging teasing at school.

The port-wine stain can be removed using laser treatment.

Impetigo: Unlike birthmarks, impetigo is an acute bacterial infection of the skin that is contagious.

Assistant Professor Wong Soon Tee, consultant dermatologist at Raffles Hospital, said that it is common among pre-school children in Singapore.

The infection, which appears as skin blisters that later become crusty yellowish scars, spreads when kids come into close contact with an infected child or when they share toys.

Dr Sinnathamby said that topical and oral antibiotics for lesions are used to treat it.

Atopic dermatitis: Commonly known as eczema, it is a chronic inflammatory condition. The skin is initially dry and itchy but can later develop features such as swelling, cracking, scaling and may even blister.

Dr Sinnathamby had a 12-year-old patient whose skin became so itchy, it affected his sleep. The boy felt irritable and tired in the day. His peers also shunned him, believing mistakenly that eczema is contagious.

Dr Chan said that eczema often starts in infancy and early childhood and can persist for years but it tends to improve with age.

The treatment mainly involves controlling the symptoms with avoidance of aggravating factors, frequent moisturising, use of topical steroids and antihistamines for itch.

Psoriasis: Sufferers experience very itchy skin. This chronic inflammatory skin disease is non-contagious and is characterised by rapid growth of the outer skin layer, resulting in thick, silvery scales on raised pinkish red skin.

The National Skin Centre estimates that psoriasis affects 1 to 2 per cent of the population in Singapore. It is one of the top 10 commonest skin diseases treated here.

There is no cure for psoriasis but mild cases are usually treated with topical creams and scalp solutions. More severe psoriasis may require phototherapy with ultraviolet A (UVA) or B (UVB) light.

Ms Josephine Lim, 44, developed psoriasis when she was 12 years old. "I had very bad rashes with red patchy skin that flaked off and a lot of dandruff. I was a sociable kid but become withdrawn when the rashes were especially bad as I was embarrassed," she said.

She remembered seeing people get out of the swimming pool when she got in.

With her itchy skin, she found it hard to sleep at night and hard to concentrate on schoolwork during the day. She enjoyed outdoor activities but could not take part because being under the sun aggravated her psoriasis symptoms.

Hairdressers recoiled in horror from her flaky scalp so Josephine's mother learnt to trim her hair to spare her then teenage daughter from such unpleasant visits to hair salons.

Although she had the support of a caring and close-knit family, she was hurt by the reactions of others.
"I'd think, 'I didn't do anything wrong so why do people shun me?' "

This story was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times, on Sept 25, 2008.

Was I really inferior to straight-A students?

Was I really inferior to straight-A students?

Mon, Sep 29, 2008 The New Paper

By Ng Tze Yong

HE has walked the same cobblestones as JRR Tolkien, Margaret Thatcher, Steve Forbes and Bill Clinton.

Mr Lim Wah Guan, 28, belongs to a rare breed of Singaporeans to have studied at two of the world's most prestigious universities - Oxford and Princeton.

Last year, Mr Lim, a happy-go-lucky chap with a hoot of a laugh, completed his master's degree at Oxford in the UK. He is now a PhD student at Princeton in the US.

However, he did not take the usual Singaporean route to the hallowed hallways of these premier institutions.

He does not hold a prestigious scholarship. He is not a 'GEPer' (someone from the Gifted Education Programme). He does not even, well, come from a top junior college.

Mr Lim is, in his own words, an 'NUS reject'.

He had to retake his A-level examination, after getting C, E and O grades for Mathematics C, Higher Chinese and History respectively. The second time round, he got B, D and D.

Four times, he applied for a spot at the arts faculty at the National University of Singapore (NUS) - and failed

Somewhere inside him was a hidden talent, one that was enough for the pinnacle of academia. But for a long while, that talent was undiscovered, not nurtured, and in danger of being lost forever.

Recently, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said that it was time for Singapore's education system to evolve, to recognise students who learn in different ways.

Shortly afterwards, The New Paper columnist Reggie J raised the question of identifying the 'Churchills' in our midst - students who do not do well at their O and A levels, but who excel subsequently.

Mr Lim seems to be a 'Churchill'.

Initially, he did well in school, scoring 252 for his Primary School Leaving Examination, and 12 points for his O-level exam. But those were mostly for maths and science subjects.

It was in junior college, when Mr Lim pursued his interest in the humanities, specifically theatre, history and Chinese literature, that his grades started to slide.

At National Junior College, he was the only one in his cohort with a combination of Mathematics C, Higher Chinese and History, and spent his years there like a nomad, moving from class to class for the lessons.

His Chinese teacher, Mr Ng Thian Lye, said: 'He knew what his interests were at a young age. Not many students can say the same. Most students just followed the science stream without much thinking.'

Somehow, Mr Lim's passion did not translate into aces. After his first attempt at the A-level exam, his relatives encouraged him to switch to the science stream because they thought 'it was easier to score well in it'.

Mr Lim struggled with this dilemma but deep down, he believed his goal - a spot at the arts faculty at NUS - was attainable.

'The arts faculty was a place people criticised as a 'dumping ground'. It didn't matter to me, but I thought I would at least be able to make it to such a place,' he said.

Harsh reality

His idealism met with harsh reality when, a year later, Mr Lim's improved grades still proved insufficient.

He said: 'Looking back, it was ironic that I got the best grade both times for mathematics, the subject I had the least interest in. But I think it was because it was the subject which lent itself best to exams.'

Mr Lim applied to NUS four times, the final time with an appeal letter from his Member of Parliament.

'I was still trying to find my way back into the system,' he said. 'In Singapore, if you're not in the system, you aren't anything at all.'

He could not help but look at his peers.

One of them, he remembered, was a straight-A student who had never heard of the Quran.

'I could not understand why this was happening to me,' he said. 'I asked myself, was I really inferior to them?'

Mr Lim's mother, Madam Lily Soon, 57, said: 'He doesn't learn well in a classroom and we were beginning to think that the Singapore system isn't best suited for him.'

Still, when Mr Lim eventually decided to apply for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, his decision broke his mother's heart. It was a tough decision then but today, Mr Lim jokingly describes his time at UNSW as when 'I turned into Cinderella'.

Four years after his rejection from NUS, Mr Lim graduated from UNSW near the top of his cohort with a first class honours in Chinese and Theatre Studies.

In a referral letter, his supervisor, Dr Jon Kowallis, wrote that Mr Lim 'is truly a unique student of the calibre that one comes across once every 10 or 15 years'.

Another, written by his Dean of Residents, Dr James Pietsch, said: '...it is not on the basis of his grades that I wish to recommend him for a postgraduate program - there are many residents here who can boast high grades.

'However, Wah Guan stands apart in terms of his attitude to his study. Wah Guan has an intellectual inquisitiveness... (he is) not driven by grades or competition, but by a genuine desire to learn.'

Still, his glowing report card was muted by personal pain. In 2003, his parents' business was hard-hit by the economic recession and a guilt-ridden Mr Lim forced himself to accelerate his study course to save money.

During his time abroad, he also missed the funerals of his grandmother and primary school teacher to whom he was very close.

There continued to be times when he saw himself as an 'NUS reject'. 'It was a huge mental block I needed to overcome,' he said.

At Oxford, Mr Lim completed a master's in Chinese Studies, focusing on the work of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and made it into the East Asian Studies PhD programme at Princeton University a year later.

His academic adviser, Professor Perry Link, praised Mr Lim as 'better than the average among graduate students at Princeton - which is an extremely elite group.'

Usually eloquent, Mr Lim was stumped when asked just how exactly he made good.

'I just don't think a three-hour exam is the best way to test any student's ability' was what he finally said.

Does he plan to return to Singapore? Will he turn his back on a system that rejected him?

It is another question that vexes him. He misses home terribly, but it is evident he has not gotten over the disappointment. He will only say for now - maybe.

Long road to success

PSLE & O LEVELS: Mr Lim scores 252 for PSLE, and 12 points for his O-level exam. He scores well mostly for maths and science subjects. A LEVELS: He retakes A-level exams, after getting C, E and O grades for Maths C, Higher Chinese and History respectively. The second time round, he got B, D and D. NUS: He applies for a spot at the arts faculty at NUS - and fails - four times. The fourth time was with an appeal letter from his Member of Parliament. UNSW: He applies for UNSW in Australia and he graduates near the top of his cohort with a first class honours in Chinese and Theatre Studies. OXFORD: He completes a master's in Chinese Studies, focusing on the work of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. PRINCETON: He makes it into the East Asian Studies PhD programme at Princeton University.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 26, 2008.

Are plastic bottles and drink cans safe?

Are plastic bottles and drink cans safe?

Thu, Oct 02, 2008 The New Paper

By Ng Wan Ching

CONSUMERS, alarmed by the melamine contamination in Chinese diary products which have claimed the lives of at least three babies, now have one more hazard to worry about: The Biphenol-A (BPA) controversy.

And it is still raging in the US - with studies linking it to diabetes and heart disease.

BPA is a chemical component of a resin used in the lacquer coating of the inside surfaces of food and drink cans. The coating prevents metal corrosion and allows the cans to withstand high temperatures during the food sterilisation process.

Used in everything from polycarbonate plastic bottles to the linings of metal cans, it is one of the highest production-volume chemicals in the world, with 2 million tons made every year. Demand is growing at up to 10 per cent yearly.

Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have detected it in the urine of 93 per cent of Americans tested.

As recently as 16 Sep, a study linked BPA to diabetes and heart disease.

It was reported in USA Today that although scientists have published hundreds of studies about BPA's health risks, most experiments have used animals or cells, with only a handful of small studies on people.

The study's co-author, Dr David Melzer of the University of Exeter in UK, said his study shows that adults with the highest BPA levels were more than twice as likely to have diabetes or cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest.

How worried should we be?

Not too worried, so say Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), the European Union (EU) and the US.

All three bodies have approved the use of BPA in the production of food-contact applications and they have established limits for BPA to ensure that it does not present a human health risk.

An AVA spokesman said: 'The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which serve as the scientific advisory body to the EU on food safety, has carried out a safety review on BPA in 2006.'

Safe

It concluded that the levels at which BPA migrates into food from food-contact materials, including from metal can lacquers, does not pose a risk to human health. The EFSA has further reaffirmed the safety of BPA this year after taking into consideration new scientific data.

The AVA spokesman said that the US Food & Drug Administration has completed a safety review of BPA this year and has indicated that there is no safety concern for the chemical at current dietary exposures.

Safety assessments conducted by Health Canada this year also concluded that BPA migration levels from canned food are very low and consumers have to consume several hundred cans of food per day to reach the tolerable limit.

AVA itself has conducted tests on canned food and beverages for BPA migration and the tests showed that the canned food and beverages are safe for consumption.

The spokesman said: 'AVA is closely monitoring the scientific developments as well as the latest recommendations made by international food safety regulators on the safety of BPA, and will provide appropriate advice to our consumers.'

This story was first published in The New Paper on Sept 30, 2008.

Sinophobia smolders in Malaysia

Sinophobia smolders in Malaysia
By Hui Yew-Foong

SINGAPORE - As an ethnic minority in most of Southeast Asia, the Chinese have, from time to time, been subject to outbursts of anti-Chinese sentiments. The latest tirade came from Ahmad Ismail, a division chief of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in Penang, Malaysia earlier this month. The UMNO is the leading component party of the ruling coalition, Barisan National (BN).

According to a local Chinese newspaper, the Sinchew Daily, Ahmad had said that the "Chinese were merely squatting in Malaysia", and thereby "do not deserve equal rights". Despite repeated calls for an apology from Ahmad, the UMNO grassroots leader remained defiant, and later in a press conference warned Chinese Malaysians not to mimic American Jews, who not only sought to control the country's economy, but also its politics.

Such arguments, that Chinese, being of foreign origin, do not deserve the same citizenship rights as indigenous peoples, or the comparison of Chinese with Jews, are not new to the region. Perhaps the earliest allusion to such a comparison came from King Vajiravudh of Thailand, who dubbed the Chinese as "Jews of the Orient" in an essay written in 1914. Writing under a pseudonym, the Thai king had questioned the political loyalty of the Chinese, given their penchant for economic gain.

The same comparison was rehearsed in Indonesia in the 1950s, through what was coined the "Chinese problem". The prevailing rhetoric then was that the Chinese were fickle and opportunistic, as evident in their having at different times cooperated with the Dutch, collaborated with the Japanese, or bore allegiance to their native China. The argument was that such a people whose political loyalty was questionable should not be accorded the same economic privileges as indigenous businessmen.

The result of such a current of thought was the infamous Presidential Decree No 10 of 1959, which banned retail trade by non-citizens in rural areas. In large part, this decree targeted ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, many of whom had not yet gotten Indonesian citizenship. The renowned Indonesian writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, spoke out against the decree in his book Hoakiau di Indonesia (recently translated into English as The Chinese in Indonesia), for which he was subsequently jailed.

At one point, Pram, as he was popularly called, went so far as to argue that everyone, including so-called indigenous Indonesians, were of immigrant origin in the long history of human settlement. I suppose this would have been his rebuttal to Ahmad's "Chinese were squatters" line had he still been alive.

But despite Pram's arguments, Indonesia became increasingly anti-Chinese under the Suharto regime, which spanned the 32-year period of 1966-1998. Branding Chinese as non-pribumi (non-indigenous), the state systematically and actively sought to erase the foreignness of this minority by banning Chinese language education and all public manifestations of Chinese culture.

Chinese Indonesians were also encouraged to adopt Indonesian-sounding names to accentuate the localization process. At the same time, this ethnic minority was largely confined to the economic realm and denied roles in government or the state infrastructure. In the Indonesian context, what were also disturbing are the spates of anti-Chinese violence that have marked the nation's history. One of the most notorious episodes in recent history was the riots of May 1998, during which Chinese women were sexually assaulted, and in some cases, killed.

Interestingly, since the 1998 episode and the resignation of Suharto, there have not been anti-Chinese riots of national significance in Indonesia. Recently, there have been anti-Chinese riots in West Kalimantan, but these may be attributed to the vicissitudes of regional politics. The prevailing political rhetoric seems to have shifted to some form of multiculturalism in Indonesia, such that discriminatory policies are repealed and politicians are habitually endorsing Chinese cultural events with their presence.

Although Malaysia has also experienced its share of ethnic violence, in the form of the May 13 Sino-Malay race riots in 1969, Chinese Malaysians have not had to endure ethnic discrimination on the same scale and intensity as Chinese Indonesians. Ethnic discrimination in the Malaysian context is indirect, inflicted through affirmative action policies that privilege the Malay-Muslim majority, often at the expense of not just the Chinese, but Indians as well.

Nevertheless, disgruntlement with the excesses of this form of discrimination led to a large swing of votes to the opposition parties during the March general election this year, where the ruling BN coalition was denied its usual two-thirds majority in parliament. It seems that the opposition alliance, also known as the Pakatan Rakyat, had struck a cord with voters through its multicultural agenda.

Even the UMNO leadership has come to recognize that blatant promotion of Ketuanan Melayu, or Malay supremacy, is not consonant with the sensibilities of a multiracial electorate in the current political climate. Someone no less than the Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has publicly apologized for Ahmad's remarks.

At the same time, other BN component parties, especially those which are Chinese-based, have been vociferous in their censure of Ahmad. One of these, Gerakan, has even threatened to leave the ruling coalition. Eventually, the UMNO leadership decided to suspend Ahmad for three years.

What is telling here is that statements, such as those made by Ahmad, that might have been glossed over not too long ago, are now considered definitely offensive. It seems that after the March election, Malaysia, like Indonesia, has begun to embrace a political culture that assumes genuine multiracialism as one of its key tenets.

Yet one has to be circumspect and not overly quick or optimistic in any prognosis of a greater multiracialism. Change that is too drastic may lead to a backlash. Whether Ahmad's remarks are the dying embers of a receding sensibility or the first ripples of new waves of racial tension remain to be seen.

Hui Yew-Foong is a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore.

Link To This Article

How to be a Billionaire

Want to be a Billionaire?
.....Migrate to Zimbabwe.....
Everybody here is a billionaire....

500 million dollar bills were being printed in May 2008.
Everybody can have it.... it is just enough for breakfast/lunch (equal to about USD 2)

To buy tidbits in a plastic packet......you'll have to spend at least 10 million

To buy vegetables.....5 million

To buy Eggs.........6000 million

To buy chicken......how many millions???

If you want to eat in a restaurant, have your money ready........

For a beer after office hours........

Your monthly salary.........you need to hire a taxi or lorry to bring the money home.....

This young boy is already a multi- millionaire......

If you don't want to carry a lot of money.....just change it to USD

Nobody wants to count the money, just weigh it......

Otherwise, this is what you have to do
every time you go to the shops, market, bus station, etc.....

Wednesday October 1, 2008 MYT 3:15:01 PM

Raja Petra’s family visit him at Kamunting

By G. MANIMARAN

(The Star) PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, recently sentenced to two-year detention without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA), looks to be in normal condition, said his wife Marina Lee Abdullah.

Marina said she was allowed to meet with him for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

“I arrived at the Kamunting detention centre at about 7.30am and was allowed to see him at about 9am,” she said.

Marina, accompanied by her family, said she would meet him again on Thursday.

“We spoke about developments in the outside world and our family,” she said. “He seemed to be his usual self.”

On Tuesday, Raja Petra’s lawyers filed a second habeas corpus application against his detention, at the Shah Alam High Court.

This second application involved his detention under Section 8(1) of the ISA. The first was filed on Sept 22 against his detention under Section 73(1) of the same act.

Raja Petra has been detained since Sept 12, for allegedly insulting Islam via his Malaysia Today portal.

September 30, 2008 9:14 AM PDT

Blogger jailing backfires on Malaysian government

Posted by Lee Min Keong

If the Malaysian government had hoped that the recent detention of controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin would quell the country's vociferous blogger community, it may need to look elsewhere.

Bloggers, civil-rights groups, nongovernment organizations, and politicians from both sides of the camp have stepped out to condemn the detention of the founder and editor of the blocked Malaysia Today news portal. Raja Petra was detained earlier this month for two years under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which permits detention without trial.

Raja Petra, in addition to Sin Chew Daily newspaper reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok, were arrested September 12. While Kok and Tan were subsequently released, Raja Petra was remanded in a two-year detention at the Kamunting ISA detention center in Perak state. He also faces charges of sedition and criminal defamation for linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to the murder of a Mongolian woman.

The ISA is a security law, inherited from the British colonial government, specifically to fight against communist terrorists. Civil-rights groups, politicians, and various international bodies have condemned the use of the ISA against bloggers and members of the media.

Zaid Ibrahim, appointed a minister after the March 2008 elections to oversee legal affairs and judicial reform, resigned from the prime minister's cabinet in protest of the arrests.

Galvanizing effect
Various groups and bloggers have been attempting to garner international support against the incarceration of the Malaysia Today editor.

According to blogger Jeff Ooi, who was voted into parliament during the country's March election, Raja Petra's detention will galvanize the country's blogger community to further resist any perceived injustice, corruption, and abuse of power.

In a phone interview with ZDNet Asia, Penang-based Ooi said the government's use of the ISA on bloggers signaled that it has lost the cyberspace battle, resorting to oppressive security laws to silence growing online dissent.

"The government has lost the plot on how best to handle Raja Petra," he said. "For the government to invoke the ISA means that they can't fast-track the legal process, which includes his sedition and criminal defamation cases, to stop Raja Petra."

On the effect on bloggers, Ooi added: "Malaysia has lost a voice of dissent, and it does send a chilling message to other bloggers (who) are asking, 'who is next'? As we move toward freedom of expression, we are now pegged back by the government's action against prominent bloggers like Raja Petra."

Ooi concedes that some bloggers, especially the younger, less experienced ones, may be intimidated by the government crackdown. "But the committed and more matured bloggers won't be," he said. "They will carry on the struggle. The Malaysian blogging community remains committed to fight against injustice, corruption, and government excesses."

He added that he will speak out in support Raja Petra when the parliament meets again in mid-October, both in his position as a member of Parliament and a fellow blogger: "I hope to speak at overseas events to highlight the unjust treatment of Raja Petra, and the way the government is acting against bloggers."

Asked if he feared facing similar ISA charges over his blog posts, Ooi said, "If Raja Petra and the reporter can be arrested, I don't think I'm immune to this possibility. However, the government's actions won't deter me; I will continue to write without fear or favor, as always."

Global criticism
The Kuala Lumpur-based Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) also condemned Raja Petra's detention, calling it a "clear abuse of an archaic law." Its executive director, V. Gayathry, said in a statement that the current administration is using the ISA "to safeguard its shaky position."

The CIJ further expressed its concern that Raja Petra's detention would send "a chilling message" to other bloggers, discourage future whistle-blowers from exposing any future wrongdoing, and dampen the fervor of public discussion on critical issues.

The government's action has also raised the ire of international watchdog organizations, such as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which noted that the blogger's detention sent an alarming message to all critics of the government that dissent will not be tolerated.

"In a time of political instability, a free media is all the more crucial to ensure a proper democratic process," the IFJ Asia-Pacific said in a statement. "Far from setting an example in the region, Malaysia is hurtling down an antidemocratic and authoritarian path." The watchdog asked that the government release Raja Petra, and "cease using the ISA to clamp down on journalism and free expression in Malaysia."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said online commentators should not be jailed because of their articles. "A two-year jail term imposed at the government's sole discretion against one of its known critics is cause for real concern. We call on the home minister to overturn this sentence immediately," Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator from the CPJ, said in a statement:

Lee Min Keong is a freelance IT writer for ZDNet Asia based in Malaysia.