Jed Yoong pressured?

I know this young lady, Jed Yoong. She is a cheery, humorous, casual and an open minded person. She is an editor with “Rocket” (English version), Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) mouthpiece. She also blogs under the pseudonym, Freelunch2020, www.2020freelunch.blogspot.com. Her boss is Tony Pua, www.tonypua.blogspot.com, the Oxford biz-wiz recently cashed out his dot com listed company and assumed the position of Economic Adviser to the DAP Secretary General. Tony is also the Executive Editor of the “Rocket”.

We have met several times and now we are friends. Sometimes we talked about politics, other times we talked about a lot of other things. We respected each other’s turf. She is so open, she even once told me “If you were a neutral person, I would have asked you to write/translate for “Rocket”, Malay section”. Of course simply I can’t. “Rocket” is a party bulletin.

For almost two weeks, we did not see her around. She was very busy with the by-election campaign in Machap. She was so busy that her car was stolen. Anyway, she popped by NPC last Friday night and we caught up on missing stories. We talked about politics and shared each other’s aspirations. There are some common grounds.

On the way home, she expressed her thoughts on the Education Policy and Chinese Schools system. She vehemently felt that there should be only one school system with a uniformed syllabus and medium of instruction. Obviously, her thoughts were off tangent to her party’s policy.

The next day (Saturday, 14 April), I noticed she put her thoughts (which she shared in my car), into her blog. I thought that was bold. Then again, I thought she was a new breed of DAPSY who are not too comfortable with the Chinese chauvinistic policies and direction the DAP is going.

Suddenly, something went amiss. This was recorded in her blog, today:

“Dear all,

This will be my last post.
It has been a good run. And thanks for all the support.
All the bestest and c u guys around in cyberspace.
I will miss my blog and all the arguments n views.
But it will continue to exist in cyberspace. Capturing a time in Malaysia as the most exciting general election is about to begin.

Take care.

Regards,
Freelunch 2020 a.k.a. Jed Yoong”

 

I was flabbergasted. Why is Jed quitting the Bloggosphere? I looked further and found her Saturday’s posting about her thoughts on the Chinese schools have gone and instead there is this short notice:

 

“MY ANTI-CHINESE SCHOOLS VIEWS

Hi all. I would like to clarify that my stand on abolishing all government-funded schools with Chinese as the medium of instruction is strictly my own and does not represent the views of DAP. I support national schools with English as the medium of instruction, Malay taught as a compulsory language and an optional third or even fourth languages to be taught. This does not represent the views of DAP.”

I was still unable to speak to Jed about this, yet. I am assuming that some DAP hardliners stumbled upon her writings and must have caused some uneasiness, somewhere. I am also assuming that Jed Yoong was pressured to make these drastic actions and decisions.

But why? Isn’t there separation and distinction between Jed Yoong, her blog and DAP? So Jed Yoong is unable to express her own personal thoughts which are against party’s policies and struggle? What ever happened to her human rights and freedom to express?

That is the very principle that All Blogs stood for. Jed Yoong had her thoughts set on a liberal approach on the education system which could foster the national integration agenda and narrow the cultural and racial gap between races.

I was happy as a member-for-life UMNO man, I saw a middle path on something which I could agree upon, with a DAP woman. The same concept which could positively attribute progress for nation building, as Bangsa Malaysia.

Now, its short-lived. Obviously her writings attracted adverse opinion from her party hardliners.

If Jed Yoong was to be penalized by this posting, then I am sorry for her executioner! No one should take Jed Yoong’s thoughts away from her. Not now, not ever!

 

 

An update on Jed Yoong.

She was mugged by four men on two motor cycles near her home in Taman Megah, Kuala Lumpur earlier tonight (circa 10pm, 22 April 2007). He sling bag was grabbed. She lost a camera, her wallet which contained her MyKad, driver’s license and credit and bank cards and other personal item.

She screamed at the top of her lungs but no one heard her. She is lucky that she was not hurt. However, I must imagine she was traumatised by the frightful experience.

Poor Jed!