Umno recruiting team of writers to fight ‘cyber war’

I found this interesting.

Umno recruiting team of writers to fight ‘cyber war’

KOTA KINABALU: Umno is set to do battle in cyberspace ahead of the anticipated general election by assembling a team of writers from every state to counter allegations about the party and its leadership on certain websites.

Umno supreme council member Datuk Azalina Othman Said said she had been recently tasked by party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take charge of this “cyber war.”

“This is among our key strategies in preparation for the elections. The other is getting our members to register as voters,” she said yesterday after opening the Kota Kinabalu Umno Youth, Wanita and Puteri meetings.

Azalina, the Youth and Sports Minister, said all state Umno liaison committees would be asked to identify writers willing to assist the party in this cause.

However, she declined to explain how these writers would carry out their duties nor did she name the websites that had purportedly spread the allegations.

Earlier, in her speech when opening the Youth, Wanita and Puteri meetings, Azalina said certain websites appeared to be stepping up their attacks against the country’s leaders.

“We need to counter these blatant lies. If we remain quiet, our worry is that some of our members and civil servants will be influenced by all these nonsense,” she added.

Azalina said she was aware that many party members liked visiting certain websites and could end up believing what was posted there.

On the other hand, she said, there was a tendency among opposition party members not to believe any negative report about their leaders.

“We want Umno members to support and defend their leaders. If they are sitting in a coffeeshop and hear others talking badly about the party leaders they should counter those lies immediately,” Azalina added.

In a related development, she said the opposition had resorted to moving their members and supporters to seats they were confident of winning in the coming polls.

People will not talk badly about their leaders if there's nothing to be talked about. And if these "writers" are recruited to counter what us bloggers were writing about the current political condition in Malaysia, then why not just reveal the identities of these so-called "writers"? I'm very sure that the bloggers who dared to criticize our politicians (note: politicians, not leaders. UMNO/BN does not have enough people to be called "leaders". That includes you, Azalina.) didn't hide their identities. I don't. Of course I'm not that stupid to leave my IC number as well.

The more I look at it, the more it seems that our current government is getting desperate. As in trying too hard on the unnecessary things. Exaggerating on the "Malaysia Boleh!" slogan in an embarrassing manner. Now, I would like to pose some questions to the members of the public, and the Government supporters as well:

1) In what way sending astronauts to the space will benefit Malaysian people as a whole? Wouldn't the money spent on training and sending them on board the Russian shuttle (which means we have to pay extra. It's not a free ride, right?), gives more benefit to the country and our people if it was spent for education and research purposes? Since we are facing the global warming crisis, we should take the initiative to start a research on alternative fuels or hydro-based engine. Imagine how much money and reputation would the country gain if the research is a success.

2) Not long ago the UMNO Youth rallied some "Mat Rempits" and send them on a sky-diving expedition to one of the Poles (forgive me, I'm not interested to read about useless things). Why not train them to become professional racers? Sure, they are not interested NOW. Invite a professional racer to give a talk, or bring them to a race, and let them see what's happening behind the scenes. Get them fired up. Let's say we managed to get 100 Mat Rempits to convert to professional racers, and 3% managed to become world-class racers, that would make the country and their parents proud more than sending them on a sky-diving expedition.

Well, that's enough of bashing UMNO. Let's hope that these stupidities are not forever.