Tun Dr. Mahathir’s Facebook group under constant attack?
Efforts have been to undermine the acceptance and popularity of Statesman and former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad amongst Malaysians, especially the affluent, more educated and professional but liberally-bent younger generation.
Recently, a high popular social-networking online community bulletin board Facebook, which initially started in 2004, was caught on by the IT savvy and more affluent professionals in Malaysia. It saw a rapid expansion, membership and utility and many networked amongst their friends and associates, which automatically expound their web of networking at an exponential rate and proportions.
One of the politician page created by Malaysian is dedicated to Statesman and former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. It instantly became very popular that in a very short period, 10,042 people joined this group and messages and photos were posted and updated, almost daily.
This particular Facebook group has been ranked 15th most popular politicians, amongst the politician page. The No. 1 is Barak Obama and Tun Dr. Mahathir’s Facebook group is actually ahead compared to Presidents George W. Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy.
However, this popularity did not go unnoticed and naturally, gained the comfort of everyone. On 11 April 2008, the group was cancelled and surprised many. It was reinstated in the same day. Again, this morning at 4.00am, it was re-cancelled, despite its popularity, amongst Malaysians. At 9.00am, efforts were made to start the Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Facebook group, for the third time. As of press time, it already garnered 2,199 members.
Who and why this Facebook group has been cancelled and delisted is still a mystery. One of the members cited that “Tun Dr. Mahathir has been referred as a “Tyrant” to the moderators, who then agreed to cancel the Facebook group, twice”. This is actually consistent with efforts in the mainstream media and Malaysian politics to gravely undermine the strong popularity and increasing influence of the 83 year old former UMNO President and Barisan Nasional Chairman, amidst the growing dissatisfaction and unhappiness of the current political scene under PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In the recently concluded 12th General Elections, the results showed the more younger, affluent and professional voters came out and clearly send out a strong message on how the country is being poorly managed.
The ’RM 13 million question’ is, will efforts to undermine exchange of thoughts and communications, thus constant alienation, especially the more affluent, professional and younger generation IT savvy Malaysians be the right solution to address the ever growing dispopularity of the Leadership and Government?
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Dear all,
The action cancelling the fan page is stupid and foolish. This action contains element of oppression and injustice. An act that cannot be forgiven..
“words are mightier then blade”
keep doing it if you think you can.. we will not give up.
gambit to earn some sympathies….
sorry lah Mamak, we are less stupid and gullible now.
Mahathir Mohammad - Malaysia’s Father of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste of Public Funds!
Whatevr can be said and whoever says whatever is in their mind, we cannot deny that Dr.M was a great Prome Minister. What he has done for Malaysia,in the context of comparison to all the other Prime Ministers who had served this Nation, he stands out.
I used to travel a lot worldwide and people in other nations have always had great admiration for him. I have met him a few times. He is always humble an unassuming. He once said,” Malaysia is so tough to run. Everybody wants everything. Where do we get so much and how do we get so much to keep everybody happy.”
He is not God. He has his moments of weaknesses. We cannot say he has not done his best when he was the man of the moment. Pah Lah is not even half an inch of him.
Like a prophet, he is not popular in his own country but he is pretty respected still in Asean and many Asian countries.
Thank you.
Edwin
How to get hooked up to his facebook?
Royal Mongrel @ No Hole Barred
http://rajamongrel.blogspot.com/
woot? stop attaching that ooll man. Aiyahh..respect kat org tua lah.
http://unusualppl.wordpress.com more on this story
Mahathir is a nut case.
Mahathir, The Father of Corruption!
Edwin, of course Mahathir has to be nice lah.
Conman , nice or not?
After conning you of your money, has to be nice to you, rigtht?
Just ask yourself, why Mahathir is the only ex-Pm accused of corruption?
Being the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, a post he held for 22 years, makes him Malaysia ’s
longest-serving Prime Minister and one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia .
During his term in office, he was credited for engineering Malaysia ’s rapid modernisation and promoting non-individualistic Asian values.
He is considered as one of the worlds most influential leaders and he spearheaded the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War.
http://www.ramadhanfoundation.com/
Dear Big Dog
I may not be a fan of the Tun, but respect has to be given where respect is due.
And to think that even Facebook, a big online frenzy now, would cancel a fan group, merely based on some parties’ claims that he is a “tyrant”, is beyond comprehension.
If freedom of expression cannot be practiced within the vacinity of an online networking website, then we are probably walking straight into a deep pit of darkness.
Michelle
The true sequence of events ….
PLS NOTE THAT GEORGE BUSH’s page is still on facebook … howzat!?
=====
on April 11th the admins got this message from FB:
“Hello,
You created a Page that has violated our Terms of Use, and this Page has been removed. Facebook Pages are special profiles used solely for commercial, political, or charitable purposes. Among other things, Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual or group, or that are set up by an unauthorized individual. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit the Terms applicable to Facebook Pages at http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php.
The Facebook Team”
The Admins then sent this immediate query to FB:
—–Original Message to Facebook—–
From: ***
To: info@facebook.com
Subject: ADVERTISE: Political Page Taken Down
User id: 6135****
Description of problem: Tun Dr. Mahathir fan page with 9300+ fans brought down without warning. There was no violation of facebook terms as alleged. irrelevant and offensive postings by members have been continuously removed. there were no personal attacks on any individuals. Tun dr. Mahathir is a politician fighting for a change. This is ordinary politics and not politics of hate as alleged. Factions not alligned to Tun Dr. Mahathir have continually tried to paint him in a bad light, including falsely reporting to facebook that his fan page is abusive, which is NOT true. In any case, the abusive content if any most likely have been posted by members and the admin has not had a chance to remove them. That abusive member should be removed and not the whole page erased!. We appeal to facebook to please please re-instate that page which is the most popular political page on facebook from Malaysia and in fact from Asia. Please consider this appeal!
—–End Original Message to Facebook—–
Immediately after, admins issued this letter to facebook:
Dear facebook,
This accusation which is obviously based on a report, is untrue and unfair.
While we appreciate that Facebook wishes to keep the peace within its sphere, I wish to point out that the abusive compalints have likely come from those against Tun Dr.Mahathir, Malaysia’s much loved former Prime Minister who served for 22 years. The fact that his page is ranked the 15th most popular political page on facebook and THE highest ranking political page from Asia is testimony of his extraordinary popularity.
There were no abusive content on the page and most postings were related to the current political situation in Malaysia. Postings also included newspaper articles on those events and statements by leaders. If there was abusive content, it came from over-zealous fans. Such postings have continually been erased and the page cleaned up, except for brief gaps between clean-up sessions by the admins. Even then, the one that should be punished is the user posting such abusive content, and NOT the page in it’s entirety.
We appeal to the goodwill and sense of fairplay of facebook to re-instate the page.
End.
The admins then received this reply on April 12th:
Hi ,
Thanks for your email. You created a Page that has violated our Terms of Use, and this Page has been removed. Facebook Pages may only be set up for the purpose of promoting a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands and celebrities), and only by an authorized representative of the entity or individual that is the subject of the Facebook Page. By creating a Facebook Page, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so by the person or entity that is the subject of the Facebook Page. Among other violations, Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual or group or that promote or glorify violence, intolerance, racism or discrimination. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit the Terms Applicable to Facebook Pages at http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php.
If you would like to create a space for fans of a certain topic or figure to share their thoughts and opinions, we suggest you create a Facebook Group. To get started, please click on ‘Groups’ in left side column of any Facebook page and then on the ‘Create Group’ button found at the top of the page. Let us know if you have any further questions.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Everette
Customer Operations
Facebook
End.
A new social networking site for Tun Mahathir has just been created so those who like Tun Mahathir’s leadership and etc may join. There will be no deletion of any kind.
The link is http://www.welovetunmahathir.com
Tun Mahathir, whatever u do, i definately will support u.Whatever bad things people said about u, i do believed that u are not that. To me u are a true leader, where we Malaysians will never find in this world. Keep it up and do take care of your health. without u, Tun, who in this world will critisize the government??? YES MEN, MANY.