Enter Android in the smartphone operating system titans

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In the clash of the smartphone operating system titans, we take a look at what Google has brought to the table.

BRINGING IT: A Google Android figurine sits on a welcome desk at the new Google office in Toronto. – Reuters

FANCY having a Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, or Jellybean?

While the list above seems like a mouth-watering spread of sinful desserts, it can refer to something else in the technological world today.

For the uninitiated, those are also the names of the different update versions of the Android smartphone operating system (OS).

Before we touch on the topic of Android, let’s first start with smartphones and how they have become an integral part of our lives in this day and age.

It wasn’t too long ago when the sheer mention of the word ‘smartphone’ brought to mind an image of a busy businessman holding a personal digital assistant (PDA) phone to check and send work e-mail messages on the fly.

Aside from businessmen and those with deep pockets, it was uncommon to see an average consumer owning a smartphone. Among my peers during my time as a student, anyone who owned a smartphone was deemed to be a rich spoilt brat.

Fast forward to today, the advancements of technology has made it so much easier to own a smartphone.

What is a smartphone? By Oxford dictionary’s definition, a smartphone is a mobile phone that is able to perform many of the functions of a computer, typically having a relatively large screen and an operating system capable of running general-purpose applications.

The early smartphones came into existence in the 1990s, although the early incarnations of smartphones were basically mobile phones incorporating PDA (personal digital assistant) features, and not necessarily with large screens.

Throughout the years, there have been various operating systems supporting the vast multitude of smartphones that have reached the hands of consumers. Among the operating systems that we have come to know and love are Symbian, Palm OS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android and iOS.

As the title suggests, this column will be all about Google’s Android operating system.

Meteoric rise

The first ever smartphone sold running on the Android operating system was the HTC Dream, which was released in 2008.

Since then, Android has come a long way, climbing up the ranks and capturing the biggest share of the pie in the smartphone operating system market. Aside from smartphones, the operating system is also widely used on tablet computers.

With a whole plethora of Android devices being unleashed into the market, the operating system from Google overtook long-time leaders Symbian at the end of 2010 to be the world’s most widely used smartphone operating system, according to online sources.

It is growing at an estimated 1.5 million activations per day. This means that everyday, 1.5 million Android devices are powered on by consumers for the first time. Android leads the smartphone OS world, with a market share of 75% during the third quarter of 2012.

Being a product of Google, Android smartphones come readily available with a staple of Google applications (apps), such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google+ and Google Chrome browser.

Interestingly, every update version of the operating system is named after a form of dessert, and in alphabetical order. The first system version was named Donut (1.6), followed by Eclair (2.0 – 2.1), Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), Honeycomb (3.1 – 3.2), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), and Jellybean (4.1 – 4.2).

Unlike the other main operating systems in the smartphone market, Google has made its Linux-based OS open source. This means that the software can be freely distributed and modified by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and developers.

This move has successfully attracted a large community of app developers, as can be proven by the whopping 800,000 apps available for download on the Google Play store as of January.

In October 2012, the Google Play store celebrated a milestone of 25 billion app downloads.

Tailor made

Android has become a favourite choice for manufacturers as it is easy to adopt and implement, rather than having to develop a whole new operating system from scratch. We can find this operating system from Google being adopted by a diverse range of manufacturers, ranging from big brand names such as Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG to smaller, upstart Chinese companies.

However, not every Android smartphone provides the same experience. Different hardware manufacturers have different “skins” or add-ons, above the base Android software, to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Samsung’s Touchwiz user interface and HTC’s Sense user interface are examples of the types of “flavoured” Android offerings by other manufacturers.

Google also collaborates with different hardware manufacturers to release their flagship Android smartphones under the Google Nexus line. The Nexus phones provide the original “vanilla” Android experience for users and are the first to receive the latest Android version updates.

Because of this diversity, we can find Android smartphones for every segment of the market. Aside from the pricier high-end smartphones, there is also a wide selection of mid- to low-end Android smartphones which are more affordable, hence making it easier for more consumers to own a smartphone.

Android has been so popular that we are seeing it in more and more electronic products and not just smartphones or tablets. There are even manufacturers who are starting to incorporate Android into their microwave ovens!

Among the advantages of the Android operating system are its ability to multitask, the huge amount of options for devices, the notification bar, homescreen widgets, and the connectivity to the Google brand. The advantages and disadvantages of the operating system will be delved into in future editions of this weekly column which will appear on TechCentral.my.

This weekly column will be a medium to share about everything Android. Expect to read about news on the operating system updates, app reviews or the new devices running on Google’s operating system. Stay tuned!

(Donovan is a full-time auditor and big-time gadget lover who discovered the wonders of the Android world after a chance encounter with Samsung’s Galaxy S back in October 2010.)
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Chinese smartphone innovators shrug off Android dominance.

Danger of the single story

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SOMETIMES (most of the time) it’s probably wiser to resist commenting on Facebook posts.

In the last week or two there have been posts, written by two Facebook friends, about women who admit to regretting having children. You can imagine the responses, including to my comments saying that I can relate to such feelings. It’s just not the done thing to admit that parenthood may not be the smartest choice you’ve made.

We go on about how it’s OK to make mistakes, but heaven forbid that the mistakes should be baby-shaped. I may be wrong but it also feels like that it’s especially shocking if a woman says that she’s doesn’t like being or doesn’t want to be a mother.

Why, she might as well be admitting to infanticide.

Why am I bringing this up in a column about books for children and teens? It’s because I think books play a part in shaping the way society views girls and the women they grow up to be. For girls, it’s hard to avoid the traditional stereotypes of women as mothers and wives.

Look, even kick-ass Katniss in The Hunger Games Trilogy ends up with a partner and a child. And most of my favourite fictional female characters become wives, or at very least, fall in love by the final page of their stories.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with falling in love, marrying and having children, but I am saying that authors should portray alternative routes to a happy and fulfilled life. I’m trying hard to think of fictional heroines who skip happily into the sunset, alone and joyful, but right now I can only think of Tove Jansson’s Little My, Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, and two nannies: Mary Poppins, the titular character from P.L. Travers’ books, and Nurse Matilda from the trilogy by Christianna Brand.

All four are decidedly unconventional females, but My and Pippi are just children, while Mary and Matilda, although unmarried and childless, are still given the traditionally female role of care-giver.

Even my beloved harum scarum Jo March (from Little Women) becomes totally domesticated, marrying an older man (in Good Wives), running a school and playing mother to a whole brood of children (in Little Men and Jo’s Boys) and committing the unforgivable sin of keeping an ex-student and her niece, Bess, apart because she feels the working-class lad is not a suitable match for the prissy young lady.

There is Nan, a young girl in Little Men, who remains unmarried and goes to medical school, but characters like her are rare and don’t get much space on the page.

New fiction continues to be full of female characters who spend a great deal of time wondering when their prince will come. Codename Verity is a recent exception, but the girls in that book seemed more interested in one another than in men. It’s as if lesbians are the only women who might safely avoid being married with children.

In fact, as I’ve mentioned earlier, young women who don’t desire motherhood and marriage are often viewed as freaks. It’s unlikely the authors of young adult and children’s fiction think this way, but they are, by and large, products of a world still very much fixed in its ideas of gender and gender roles. Also, romance (and sex) sells.

The problem is, of course, what Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie calls the “danger of the single story”: if just one version of something – a people, a culture, a religion, etc – is portrayed then it soon becomes the only version that is believed and accepted and taken for granted as the truth. The “danger of the single story” is that it creates and reinforces stereotypes.

So, in terms of describing what girls want, it just supports the already firm belief that we are naturally maternal creatures who crave the love of a good man (or any man, really) and the cosy feeling of a child at our breast … or simply being asked to the prom and being kissed by the time we’re 16.

I’ve just thought of a female character who resists the conventions of marriage and motherhood to go to university: Mattie Gorkey from Jennifer Donelly’s A Gathering Light is more interested in reading than dating. For Mattie, words are the key to a new life and to freedom. I wish there were more female characters like Mattie.

Also, more female characters who have more interesting things to think about than romance; female characters who grow up and don’t get married and are happy; female characters who choose to be childless and never regret it. These women exist, we know they do, they just need to appear more in books, that’s all.

Tots to Teens
By DAPHNE LEE
Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, book reviewer and teacher. She runs a Facebook group, called The Places You Will Go, for lovers of all kinds of literature. Write to her at star2@thestar.com.my.

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Facebook paparazzi

Facebook paparazzi

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People should exercise a little consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others. 

 I RECENTLY saw some extremely unflattering photos of a friend on Facebook.

One photo shows her at a party with a drink in one hand and a cocktail sausage on a stick in the other. Her mouth is half open as she guides the sausage towards it, and her eyes have a wild, glazed look about them. The caption reads, “Come to Mama!” In another photo, she’s drinking her wine with one eye closed and the other rolling upwards, as she hovers around the half empty platter of sausages. In yet another photo, she’s sitting on a sofa with her blouse unflatteringly bunched up over her stomach, giving the impression that she’s just about to give birth – possibly to a giant sausage.

If you didn’t know this woman, you’d probably mistake her for a humongous wine-glugging sausage scoffer.

Damage

In reality, she’s a moderate drinker of average weight who only ate one sausage that night. But the damage has already been done. The Facebook friends of the woman who posted the photos, many of whom probably don’t know my friend all that well, will have already formed an opinion of my friend just by looking at those photos.

Like who cares what strangers might think about us? Some of you might be saying just about now. And you do have a point, to a certain extent. But what if you’re going for a job interview and the person responsible for hiring you doesn’t know you but remembers seeing you in a Facebook photo stuffing your face and looking as if you like to lubricate yourself way too much? And what if the job you’re after entails operating heavy, dangerous machinery; or dispensing potent medication; or anything to do with air traffic control? Jobs that require a clear head at all times.

All I can say is that you’re screwed. You might as well burn your interview clothes, delete the carefully worded résumé and drown your sorrows in a bottle of chardonnay.

In the same way that celebrities are wary of the paparazzi, who take great pleasure in snapping them falling out of bars and nightclubs in the wee hours of the morning in a dishevelled state, or going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread without any make-up, regular, everyday people now need to be extra careful when someone whips out a camera or an iPhone at a social function.

I have nothing against my photo being taken and subsequently being posted on Facebook, but I wish that people would exercise some consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others.

We all know Facebook is full of narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed photographers. We see evidence of their activities in newsfeeds every day. For example, I’ve seen photos of a certain young woman (who shall remain nameless) buying a pair of shoes, photos of her feet in the new shoes, photos of her wearing a dress with her new shoes, photos of her dancing at a party with her new shoes, and photos of her delicately eating sausages and consuming alcohol with her new shoes.

What she doesn’t show you are the photos of her wincing in her bunion-forming shoes after two minutes dancing, photos of her in her new shoes throwing up in the toilet bowl, and photos of her with just one new shoe on, passed out on her bedroom floor …

Such people are usually very careful when it comes to selecting photos that show them in a good light, but when it comes to others, they don’t always accord them the same respect.

Offending photo

Whenever I want to upload a photo that includes other people onto Facebook, I ask myself if those people would be happy seeing themselves as they are depicted. And if the answer is no, I simply delete it. I know it’s easy to remove your tag from a Facebook photo, but the photo still remains online for all to see.

Of course, you could write to your Facebook friend and ask him or her to remove an offending photo. But that would make you sound a bit like a narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed twat. And makes you a possible future target for such photographers, who might claim that they’re only having a bit of harmless fun. And besides, where’s your sense of humour?

It would be enough to make you choke on your sausage.

BUT THEN AGAIN
By MARY SCHNEIDER

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Apple CEO apologizes over China warranties

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American technology giant, Apple, has issued a public letter of apology to Chinese consumers over the company’s warranty policies in China. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook signed the statement, saying the company is sorry for any “concerns or misunderstandings” that have been caused.

In the letter, Cook said that over the past two weeks, Apple has received feedback concerning its warranty policies in China and the company has “reflected” on this.

He said APPLE takes the feedback seriously and is seeking to allay concerns that the company was being arrogant by not responding to them. He said this was due to lack of communication on Apple’s part and that it was sorry for any inconvenience caused to consumers.

In the statement, Apple said the company is making four major adjustments to improve its after-sales services for Chinese consumers, including improving its warranty for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, enhancing supervision over and training for authorized service providers.

APPLE’s apology comes after the China Consumer’s Association asked Apple to “sincerely apologize” to Chinese consumers and “thoroughly correct its problems,” after taking little action to address criticism, started by China Central Television , which exposed Apple’s after-sales services failings in China in a special TV program.

The CCA demanded that Apple inform consumers if refurbished parts are used when repairing broken devices, and that repair costs should be calculated accordingly.

South Korea, Australia and Italy have filed similar claims against Apple, citing cases where refurbished products had been used to repair damaged iPhones, higher prices had been charged and its failure to publish warranty information in those countries.

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• Apple CEO Apologizes to Chinese Consumers, Revamps Service (voatibetanenglish.com)
• Apple CEO apologises for warranty policies in China (news.in.msn.com)
• Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologizes To China Over Warranty Polices (latinospost.com)
• Chinese media approves of Tim Cook’s apology about the recent warranty-related issues (phonearena.com)

Information innovator

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Information technology (IT) is all about innovation. Vish Iyer can’t agree more.

Mobility, social media and big data are all hot-button topics. Cloud computing frees up people from the desk, so an IT system can be managed even on the road. “For a bank, it could be payment via Internet banking or mobile phone,” says the high-flying corporate executive, dapper in a light purple shirt.

Vish Iyer: ‘There is no advantage in having 20 or 30 years of experience unless you are …very merit-driven and work-driven’.

“For an insurance company, it could mean enabling an agent to get quotations and conduct transactions on his or her mobile.” For an airline, pilots no longer carry huge bags with heavy operating manuals. “We put that on an iPad,” he adds.

Few would believe the president for Asia Pacific at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has neither training in IT nor a background in engineering. He learns by doing.

Born and raised in Kolkata around the time when India’s first computer arrived, Iyer graduated from St Xavier’s College, one of the city’s best-known educational institutions with a major in taxation and economics.

Now the head of the largest service provider in the Asia-Pacific region based in Singapore, he manages 10,000 employees in 13 countries including Australia, Japan, China and South Korea.

The 45-year-old Indian company, whose clients include Microsoft and ING Group, is the provider of IT services and business solutions, with a turnover exceeding $12 billion and market capitalization of $45 billion on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

It is part of the Tata group, India’s largest conglomerate in seven sectors including communications, engineering and energy, with a revenue of more than $100 billion in the fiscal year 2011-12.

As a certified accountant, Iyer moved on from the financial field to other areas including human resources, marketing, strategy, mergers and acquisition. “I have been a chief financial officer many times,” he tells China Daily Asia Weekly at the TCS Hong Kong office.

But that didn’t stop him from venturing into new fields after three and a half decades. Midway through his career, he moved into a new-born industry in India.

His rationale is: “What matters is how you put your basic training to use and how you quickly learn from the surroundings. You can do anything as long as you have a will to do it, and you are determined to work hard enough.”

He spent a decade at IBM, where he was director of corporate development. IT has since become his longest stint.

He has witnessed the birth of the industry along with the ups and downs. “The IT industry is very fascinating. Every two to three years are completely different. In that sense, everybody got to continuously learn,” he says.

In the IT world, experience doesn’t necessarily give you an edge over the younger generation. Two-thirds of the company’s workforce has about three years of experience and the average age of a TCS employee is just 28.

“There is no advantage (in) having 20 or 30 years of experience unless you are … very merit-driven and work-driven,” Iyer says.

“This is the industry across the world (where) everything looks the same. There is no different standard in the US or Japan. Once you are inside IT, it is the same. It talks the same language and (has the same) quality level.”

The capability to locate young talent matters for the industry. To Iyer, the Chinese mainland not only has a staggering domestic market but also vast trained manpower resources.

TCS is among the first Indian companies to enter the Chinese mainland as the first wholly-owned foreign enterprise. The IT consultancy commenced its operations in Shanghai in 2002, then established a development center in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province in October of the same year. Its banking products are used by Bank of China in more than 40 provinces.

Iyer sees the potential to substantially increase China’s TCS workforce from its current number of 3,000 people, as the company’s sales growth in China outpaces that in the Americas. TCS now has relations with 20 colleges in China.

“Our business is all about people,” he says. “At the end of the day, we need to find out where are these talents available for serving our customers. China is very important from that point of view — as a pool of talent. It’s equally important for the size of the economy, too.”

“We are very bullish about China,” he said in a previous interview. “Its full potential has not yet been harnessed … We’re looking to leverage its position as an innovation center and a hub for the Northeast Asia region.”

TCS has started to provide a ground-breaking cloud-based service that enables smaller banks and credit unions to establish their own Internet, mobile and ATM facilities by paying a monthly fee. “A village bank need not have an IT department, but the same technology that empowers a (central bank) is now available to small and medium enterprises.”

The TCS pioneer project has found a home in the world’s second largest economy. iCity or the Intelligent City, utilizes smart technologies and collective intelligence to improve a city’s livability and sustainability.

These cities will be built on cloud infrastructure that makes them easy to run. Every citizen will own a personalized information page for health records and blood pressure measurements and even get health alerts and doctors’ advice.

Imagine buildings that glean energy from the sun and rain, reducing energy consumption, and embedded software in cars and traffic poles that automatically monitor local traffic. At the same time, healthcare and consumer services are dispensed to citizens at home, saving time, cost and valuable resources.

An iCity project in southern China’s port city of Guangzhou is slated for a soft launch later this year. More blueprints are on majors’ drawing boards in first- and second-tier Chinese cities, including Tianjin, Ningbo and Chengdu.

“The Indian IT industry over the last 20 years has done exceedingly well,” Iyer says. “Works of best quality are from this industry. There (has been) a lot of proud achievements — so it’s an exciting place to be in.”

But when asked about the most exciting moment in his life, the president’s answer has surprisingly nothing to do with his career. “The day when my daughter was born, and when I was holding her in my hands,” he says, with a gentle smile.

“Lots of people talk about work-life balance. I think each person has to find that balance himself … Family influence is a strong support for the profession I pursue, so there are no conflicts or contradiction.”

Looking back, Iyer has been with his two children — his 23-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son — through every important step of their life. “I (accompany) them through every exam, drop them off and pick them up after classes, and consult their teachers for college admissions. As long as you enjoy it, you’ll find time for doing it,” he adds.

Technology has been the savior for this family man with a hectic business schedule with long hours of frequent travel.

“I am on the road 50 or 60 percent of the time. Each month, I am outside my hometown for 20 days,” he says. “My children have grown up with me spending a lot of time at work. But this is a world of Facebook, email and Skype. That’s what we do now,” he says.

What makes his day? Iyer answers professionally without a second of hesitation: “To satisfy a customer in a meeting.”

Then comes the personal bit: “Followed by a relaxing dinner with my wife.”

By jennifer@chinadailyhk.com 

Vish Iyer
President of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia Pacific

Career Milestones:
2010: Becomes president of TCS Asia Pacific
2008: Serves as CFO of global business operations at TCS
2006: Takes up post as head of corporate strategy at TCS
1996: Becomes director of corporate development at IBM Global Services
1991: Joins Tata Elxsi as executive vice-president

QUICK TAKES:
Hobbies:
Playing golf. The question is not how well you play but whether you enjoy the time. Whatever I do, I enjoy. It’s a great opportunity to meet people.
Business philosophy:
I always believe in … simple communication with the customer and the employee. There is no point promising things that you cannot deliver. Whatever you promise, you deliver. Whatever you don’t deliver, you don’t promise.
If you were to do one thing differently in life?
I can’t think of one thing. I do things that I enjoy doing.
How to kill time on the road:
I spend a lot of time watching movies on the plane. My favorite stars are Jackie Chan and Amitabh Bachchan, who hosted India’s version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Born: December 8 in a Year of the Snake

Bloggers doing their bit to champion a good cause

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BLOGGER Dr Angelo Nino M. Santos brought his eight-year-old son to visit three children’s homes so that the little boy would appreciate what he had in his life.

“My son Antonio Gabriel was so excited to come.

“He packed his old toys and clothes to be donated to the children here,” he said while at Ramakrishna Orphanage in Scotland Road, Penang.

The visit was in conjunction with the ‘Responsible Blogging 2013: Time To Give Back’ programme.

A total of 40 bloggers visited Rama-krishna Orphanage, Children’s Pro- tection Society and Shan Children’s Home to give away food and other items.

The programme was organised by Crowdpot Sdn Bhd, a social media marketing company.

Crowdpot director Leslie Loh said they planned to help educate bloggers about safe blogging and to achieve one million ‘responsible actions’.

“For example, if each blogger who posted about this event in his or her blog receives about 100 comments, we consider that we have generated responsible action,” he explained.

Dr Angelo, 36, a lecturer at the Allianze University College of Medical Sciences, said it was the first time he was taking part in such a programme.

He said he started blogging in 2007 and his blog mainly focuses on the 3Fs — family, food and fun.

Also present was Penang Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environ­ment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh.

Loh said Crowdpot was also giving away prizes for those who helped to blog about the homes.

“The prizes include three iPad Minis sponsored by Crowdpot and six Ninetology Black Pearl 2 dual-core Android smartphones sponsored by Ninetology Malaysia,” he said.

The contest is until March 23.

For details, visit http://www.responsibleblogging.my. – The Star

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Is there ethics in politics?

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DR Mohd Farid Mohd Shahran of Ikim in “When the world of politics is devoid of ethics” (The Star Jan 22 – See the attachment) believes there is still room for ethics in politics.

In the real world, especially in developing countries, the ethics of Plato and al-Farabi are only good for an utopian society.

While man is not born power crazy, those who enter politics are goaded by power to resort to unethical means.

Morality is hard to preserve and practise in politics.

English philosopher Francis Bacon said: “It is hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.”

Unethical behaviour seems to be the order of the day as the general election looms near.

Almost everyday we read of mudslinging on both sides of the fence. Everything under the sun is being politicised as the stakes are very high.

French philosopher Voltaire remarked: “The pleasure of governing must certainly be exquisite if we may judge from the vast numbers who are eager to be concerned with it.”

Had Voltaire been alive today, he would qualify his statement by saying, “It is not so much the pleasure of governing, but the power that comes with it, making the vast numbers who are eager to be concerned with it.”

As Dr Farid said: “Politics, in its true meaning, is praiseworthy”. But the “realpolitik” meaning is different. Mao Zedong once said: “Power comes from the barrel of the gun”.

Jonathan Swift said: “Politics as the word is understood, is nothing but corruption.”

Despite the negative connotation of politics in its general form, politics as a profession can have high ethical values if the very system in which politics arise have strong values as seen in most developed countries.

Singapore is a shining example where the ruling party has great difficulty finding candidates to stand for elections as the people do not see it as a way to become rich overnight.

Singaporean politicians are known to observe and practice the highest ethical principles as espoused by Plato.

The observance of ethical political principles in Malaysia still has a long way to go as noted by Dr Farid where “small issues can potentially be magnified into a big scandal.”

“The various issues raised by political parties range from major ones such as fair economic distribution and political justice, to the most trivial or personal matters such as the way leaders and their family members dress”.

So far, general elections in Malaysia, unlike in some developing countries, have not resulted in the use of heavy weapons to gun down people.

And when the election results are announced, people accept it in good faith and continue with their daily chores while waiting for the next general election. Meanwhile, they hope the party that won will honour its manifesto.

One of America’s founding father’s Thomas Jefferson said: “I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.” Thomas Jefferson was a man of high ethical values.

Do we have men like Jefferson in Malaysian politics?

Certainly there are many men and they should be given the task of providing true leadership along the political principles of Plato and al-Farabi.

By HASSAN TALIB

 

When the world of politics is devoid of ethics

Much too often, personalities are the biggest casualties as they are ruthlessly tarnished. All the dirt and grime is dug out and paraded for the nation to see despite their many prior good contributions.

WITH the general election around the corner, the heat of the Malaysian political climate is gradually increasing.

The number of political gatherings, ceramah and demonstrations by political parties multiply by the day and continue to increase.

The various issues raised by political parties range from major ones such as fair economic distribution and political justice, to the most trivial or personal matters such as the way leaders and their family members dress.

It looks as if Malaysians have become a very conscious lot concerned over everything overnight. Small issues can potentially be magnified into a big scandal.

Not only is the intensity palpable within ceramah and gatherings, a similar tone is also evident in cyberspace where heated debates and exchange of views have overwhelmed the social media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

While such a phenomenon is regarded as normal, the negative culture attached to it is best eschewed.

To render support for one’s own party, some leaders and fanatical followers would resort to unethical means such as making false claims and unfounded allegations that include character assassination.

In response to such accusations, the opposing parties will stage similar counter attacks. As a result, emotions simply overrule reason causing the situation to get out of hand.

Understandably, the principle that guides extreme political groups is that politics is a war in which all kinds of weapons must be deployed to exterminate the enemies.

In engaging power politics, the prince, says Machiavelli, must be “adaptable and know how to do wrong when he must”.

Naturally, such an approach will have a more divisive impact on society.

People become more divided and emotions override everything else, particularly level-headedness.

Much too often, personalities are the biggest casualties as they are ruthlessly tarnished. All the dirt and grime is dug out and paraded for the nation to see despite their many prior good contributions.

Thus, questions remain: Is this the way politics serve its purpose in administering human life? Must society undergo this unhealthy process to elect a leader? Must we necessarily be divisive before arriving at political maturity when the amount of damage done is irreparable?

The answer lies in how the meaning of politics should be properly understood.

More importantly is the understanding of the role of ethics in political activities.

Politics, in its true meaning, is praiseworthy.

Philosophers and political thinkers as early as Plato, through his idea of the “Philosopher King”, had proposed a political system where wisdom and virtues must be the bases of governing states.

Although his idea is also criticised as utopian, the principle that Plato tried to put forward is very important, that is, a true political system must be guided by knowledge and virtue reflected primarily in the character of the leaders and politicians.

In other words, ethics, according to Plato, must be the basis of politics.

Just as men must live virtuous and good lives, a state must also be built on strong ethical ground. If the state is unfavourable, says Plato, the individual citizens would find themselves unable to lead a good life as it should be lived.

This organic relationship between ethics and politics from Plato stemmed from his idea that a state must be a microcosmic reflection of man. Since a state is run by humans who need to be furnished with good ethical virtues for him to be good, a good state must also be refined with virtuous characteristics.

Echoing Plato is al-Farabi, a celebrated thinker from the Muslim tradition whose work, The Opinions of Inhabitants of the Virtuous City, underlines that a state should be properly ruled by virtuous leaders and followed by virtuous people.

“The excellent city resembles the perfect and healthy body where all of whose limbs co-operate to make the life of the animal perfect and to preserve it in this state.”

Among the qualities needed by a ruler, according to al-Farabi, are intelligence, good memory, keenness of mind, love of knowledge, moderation in matters of food, drink and sex, love of truthfulness, magnanimity, frugality, love of justice, firmness and courage.

Arguably for some, real politics can never take ethics as its principle.

Such a view is justified if only man is naturally born with the attribute of being power crazed.

However, this has not been so since man was created by God in the best of mould as affirmed in the Quran: “Verily we have created the human being in the best of form.”

Furthermore, mankind can take pride in some of its leaders and rulers with good qualities and virtuous characteristics decorating its history. In Islam, for example, Prophet Muhammad and the four-guided caliphs continue to be revered as leaders par excellence for all Muslims. Another outstanding and exemplary leader at a later period was Umar Abd Aziz whose short rule, nevertheless, left a tremendous impact.

So rigid was Umar’s standard of ethics that he was said to have even refused to use up the candle in his office to light the room when discussing personal matters.

In sum, while we all can agree and understand Einstein when he said, “Politics is more difficult than physics”, we hope that, just as physics has contributed immensely to benefit the life of the human kind, politics would be able to do likewise.

BY DR MOHD FARID MOHD SHAHRAN, SENIOR FELLOW CENTRE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 
IKIM VIEWS – The Star Jan 22, 2012

Related post:
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On Ethics and Politics :
 Is man not capable of love if he embraced the morality of self-interest? Only the man who loves himself and who knows his values is capable of loving others, albeit not indiscriminately.

People as a product!

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In digital space, users are increasingly being shaped as commodities by various sites and services.

LAST week, social photo-sharing application Instagram caused an uproar when it announced changes to its terms and conditions.

The changes were related to its advertising policy, and were interpreted by many people as the company reserving the right to share user information and pictures with advertisers (or to be used in advertising) without permission.

Instagram has since reversed that policy and apologised for the “confusing” language, stating: “Legal documents are easy to misinterpret.” (You can read its response at http://bit.ly/U79Nld.)

This seems to have pacified some users, but many are still fuming, while others have opted to try different photo-sharing apps as an alternative.

There are two primary issues with this. One is a privacy issue, in that the company would even consider sharing user information and pictures with its parent company Facebook and other third-party organisations (including advertisers).

The other is copyright; in the same response, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote: “Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed.”

Users had every right to be upset. These are serious issues with severe repercussions, and it is becoming more and more common that online sites and applications are usurping the rights and control of their users. Facebook’s constant changing of privacy settings is legendary. The deeper we embed ourselves within such social network sites, the more we seem to get walled in.

As the days wear on, we find it increasingly harder to escape – most of our connections are in our social network of choice, our memories are stored within our profiles, and we are relying on it to be our source of information.

In many cases, we have come to depend on it for almost all of our interactions – we no longer need to remember people’s birthdays, we can send messages to each other conveniently without the need to store addresses, and we can broadcast our lives to all our friends at the click of a mouse.

Whether or not the reliance on such technology is a good thing is a different debate, but the fact is that the services these sites provide – it doesn’t matter if we never needed them before – are extremely useful.

However, many users don’t realise that this is still a service. Such technology has become so embedded in our lives that many of us have taken it for granted.

The fact that it is also primarily operated on the Internet has contributed to this sense of entitlement. Why buy newspapers when you get the news online for free? How many of us still send text messages via SMS now that there is iMessage, Blackberry Messenger and WhatsApp? With Skype and Viber, who needs to make traditional phone calls?

In some cases, it is easy to see how the companies behind them are making money. Newspapers now provide news for free (some have paywalls) with the hope of driving more traffic to their sites, which are plastered with advertising.

Apple and RIM, the maker of the Blackberry, promote their messaging systems to encourage people to buy their devices. Skype has a premium service that users can pay for as well as cheaper computer-to-phone rates which helps supplement its income. In that sense, the products these companies offer are obvious.

Social network sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter also have a product: You and me.
What they essentially do is no different from the media outlets – they sell their user base to advertisers. Unlike the print and broadcast media, however, these sites tend to have more information on their users which can be sorted or mined to help advertisers reach their target market.

Each update we post on these sites contains more information about our lives and what interests us – whether it’s in the words we use, the places we check in from or the photos we upload. And they have a lot of information. Citing European policy law, a student from the University of Vienna made a request to Facebook to hand over all the information it had on him. And Facebook provided it – all 1,200 pages of it.

The point here isn’t about how scary it is that a company has so much information on each of us – this too is a different debate.

The concern is that as technology advances, we are increasingly being shaped to be a product, and this is an awareness we have to carry with us constantly. It is pertinent to note that this is not a new phenomenon – the whole basis of the advertising industry is based on consumers being the product.

This is why newspapers are able to subsidise publishing costs to sell their products at a relatively low price (or in some cases, offer it for free) and why we get to watch television for “free”. Or pay very little.

We need this awareness because it will help us make decisions about how we navigate our digital lives. It will also help us reclaim some of the control – and our rights.

Instagram may have reversed that new policy for now, but there’s no saying it won’t come back in another form. Facebook has gotten away for many years with changes that its users do not like because few people are willing to walk away from it.

This is not to suggest that what these companies are doing is right. But the adage that nothing is free rings true in this situation. There are alternatives but each comes with a price.

The alternatives to these sites – some of which are on open-source platforms – may not be as polished and lack the critical mass to be as effective as the big social sites. Then there are the commercial entities which charge you (Flickr, for example, is capitalising on a sudden exodus from Instagram to its platform, offering its paying customers an additional three months of service).

It is only by carrying this awareness with us always that we can truly make the right decision – whether to stick with these companies, or stick it to them.

ReWired By Niki Cheong

Niki has just completed his MA Digital Culture and Society at King’s College London. Connect with him at http://blog.nikicheong.com or on Twitter via @nikicheong. Suggest topics and issues on digital culture, or pose questions, via email or on Twitter using the #Star2reWired hashtag. 

Funding a foreign agenda

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IN the midst of all the talk about integrity and democracy in Malaysia, a practice which is of tremendous significance to both has not received the attention it deserves. This is the funding of political parties.

Political parties are not keen on detailed scrutiny of their funding since it does not serve their interests.

Politically inclined NGOs have also not championed this cause partly because many of them are aligned to either the Government or the opposition.

And yet this is one area where there is an imperative need for greater accountability, transparency and honesty.

In this regard, the Malaysian parliament took an important step forward in April 2012 by accepting the proposal from a parliamentary select committee to allocate funds to political parties based on the quantum of seats secured by a party in the general election.

If political parties draw their funds from an independent public institution directly responsible to parliament and the state assemblies, the scope for electoral corruption may be reduced.

Wealthy individuals and corporations may not be in a position to influence elections and politics.

However, public funding of party and electoral politics need not preclude private financing of political party activities provided it is governed by strict rules of accountability and disclosure.

To ensure accountability, it may be necessary to register political parties under a separate law.

At the moment, they are governed by the Societies Act which covers a whole spectrum of civil society entities.

A law that is specific to political parties will also help to define their roles and responsibilities – including how they are funded – in a more transparent manner.

This has become even more urgent today because the forces that shape the role of a political party and its electoral performance are no longer confined to the domestic arena.

There are actors beyond our shores who have no qualms about sticking their noses into our politics.

Sometimes their local clients invite them to interfere in our affairs.

I had a taste of this in 1999 when I was deputy president of an opposition party, Parti Keadilan Nasional, now Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

A few weeks before the 1999 general election an emissary of the currency speculator, George Soros, came to see me in my office in Petaling Jaya about an alleged request from the de facto leader of Keadilan for funding for the party in the elections.

Apparently, the de facto leader’s trusted aide had got in touch with media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, on his boss’ behalf, about financial assistance for the party.

Murdoch in turn had passed on the request to his friend, Soros, who had sent the emissary on his behalf.

I told the emissary that Keadilan will not accept funds from foreign sources and there was no question of Soros or anyone else funding the party’s election campaign.

That evening I informed the party president about what had transpired at my meeting with Soros’s emissary and requested her to find out from the de facto leader, her husband (who was then in prison), whether there was any truth in what the emissary had conveyed to me.

According to the party president, the de facto leader had denied any knowledge of a request to Murdoch for funding and Soros’ involvement. I believed him and let the matter rest.

However, since 1999 a lot of evidence has emerged of funds from Soros’ outfits being channelled to organisations affiliated to, and associated with, the de facto leader and Keadilan.

A former Keadilan Youth leader has even sworn in the National Mosque that the party has received foreign funds.

In July 2011, a leader of Bersih, the coalition for clean and fair elections, admitted that her organisation had received money from Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which is funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

There is no need to emphasise here that Soros and the NED have been hyperactive in numerous countries in almost every continent, in the pretext of promoting human rights and democracy when their real goal is the furtherance of the US foreign policy agenda.

The NED for instance established in 1983 which operates in more than 90 countries has been rightly described by William Blum, a former US State Department official and author of Rogue State and Killing Hope as a “Trojan Horse.”

He observes that the NED does “overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.”

The NED “meddles in the internal affairs of foreign countries by supplying funds, technical know-how, training, educational materials, computers, fax machines, copiers, automobiles and so on, to selected political groups, civic organisations, labour unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, other media, etc.”

In the last 10 years or so the NED has carried out many of these activities in collaboration with the type of groups mentioned by Blum here in Malaysia.

Why is the NED which is funded entirely by the US government playing this game in Malaysia when the Malaysian Government, especially in the last few years, has gone out of its way to foster closer ties with the US?

In spite of the increasingly warm relations, there are elements in our foreign policy which do not blend with US interests.

On the question of Israel and the struggle of the Palestinian people, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak continues to adhere to the principled policy of his predecessors.

He is not prepared to express concern for Israel’s “security,” unlike the leader of the Opposition who knows that “security” is the code-word that the Israeli elite and their supporters in the US and the West look for in assessing a leader’s attitude to Israel.

Neither has Najib shown any inclination to endorse the US agenda of containing China which in the context of East Asia is undoubtedly the US’ central preoccupation.

As the US projects itself as the pivot of the Asia-Pacific and, in the process, attempts to curb Chinese influence in the region, it wants to be absolutely certain that it has allies and not just friends in Asean.

And who can be a better ally than someone who not only sits on panels funded by the NED and Soros outfits but has also, over the years, developed strong ties with powerful personalities and lobbies at the very core of the ‘deep state’ in the US – the deep state that actually determines the direction of US foreign policy, regardless of who lives in the White House?

These are some of the fundamental issues that Malaysians should try to understand as they attempt to make sense of the Malaysian political landscape on the eve of the 13th general election.

For in the ultimate analysis what is at stake is our dignity as an independent and sovereign nation.
Protecting that dignity is part of the mission of Yayasan 1Malaysia.

DR CHANDRA MUZAFFAR Chairman, Board of Trustees
Yayasan 1Malaysia

Related posts/Articles:
Foreign funding for political purposes in Malaysia 22 Sep 2012
Soros link kept under wraps
Malaysiakini admits to receiving foreign funds

China’s prodigy whiz kid wants to quit school and a quiet life

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Shaoyi: Is more comfortable expressing his ideas online.

Feng Shaoyi, a 10-year-old junior high school student, has become an online sensation for his micro blog posts about re-inventing education in the Internet era.

FENG Shaoyi has been hounded by the media after his recent online post about his intention to quit school went viral on Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. It has attracted more than 7,000 comments and was forwarded more than 18,000 times.

The junior high school student has attracted so much attention because he’s too young to drop out. And his harsh yet insightful criticisms of the education system surprised many, especially considering he hasn’t reached his teens.

While many children his age aspire to become scientists like Einstein, Shaoyi argues that people with such “lofty ideals” are destructive to the planet. For example, Einstein’s theory of relativity led to the atomic bomb.

“My dream is to live with the girl I love. It doesn’t matter if I have to cut firewood and pick up rags for a living,” Shaoyi writes.

He claims that he wants to pursue his ideals right away instead of wasting time on “meaningless” homework and exams.

“What is the use of studying? Is it getting high marks and ranks to compete with my buddies for the limited places in top high schools?” the precocious boy writes.

Immediately after his remarks were posted, the media began telephoning Shaoyi’s father day and night. They also converged at the boy’s school in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, to pull him out of an ongoing class for interviews.

“I’m tired of interviews. It’s unscrupulous of some media to defame me,” Shaoyi tells China Daily.

He is referring to a report that quoted him as saying his actions are publicity stunts and that he enjoys seeing so many comments and an increasing number of followers.

“I didn’t say that,” Shaoyi says, grimacing while staring at the floor.

“I said it’s good that my posts have prompted people to reflect on the current school system. I wanted to attract the public’s attention to the contents of my postings, not toward me.”

Shaoyi turned up for the interview with China Daily dressed in colourful clothes, carrying a backpack and wearing a cap bearing the autographs of two of his idols from the aerobatics team of the Zhuhai Air Show.

On his micro blog, he’s outspoken, aggressive and sounds like an adult. For example, he slammed an official’s idea to invest millions to cultivate sorghum to attract tourists to Gaomi, Shandong province – the hometown of Mo Yan, Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner.

But in person, his chubby cheeks and childish voice give away his age. In contrast to his posts, his demeanour is sombre and pensive.

His answers to many questions are: “I don’t know how to answer the question”, or, “I don’t want to talk about it”.

As he puts it: “I’m more comfortable expressing my ideas online in forums and weibo, and while chatting with my friends on QQ (an instant messaging service popular in China). I’m inspired only when I sit in front of the computer.”

The boy didn’t tell his father in person about his intention to drop out of school but, instead, added his father’s micro blog account in his message to catch his attention.

Shaoyi has impressed many readers with his knowledge. In addition to musing about Einstein and Mo Yan, he also left incisive comments on current affairs, including China’s crisis of confidence in charity and the popularity of dating and job-hunting reality TV shows in the country that reflect the difficulties Chinese face in relationships and employment.

His online postings reveal he’s a military enthusiast who’s well-versed in the different generations of China’s carrier-borne fighter planes. Many were also surprised to read the 10-year-old’s analysis of the differences between Obama and Romney.

“I’ve acquired all the extra knowledge from the Internet. Schoolteachers didn’t teach us that. They’re busy feeding us what’s in the textbooks,” Shaoyi says.

“Teachers think we kids know little about things like the US presidential election. But, in fact, many of my friends and I learned about it online.”

The inquisitive student usually turns to the Internet, rather than to his teachers, for answers to questions that pop up when he reads textbooks.

He once embarrassed his Chinese teacher by asking why some dinosaurs had feathers.

“The teacher didn’t know the answer. I searched for it on the Internet on my own, afterward,” Shaoyi recalls.

“The Web satisfies my curiosity better than school.”

Du Fang, Shaoyi’s favourite Chinese teacher during his primary school years, admits teachers are increasingly pressured to know more than their core subjects because students are exposed to a wide range of online information.

“If I fail to answer a question raised by my student, I will tell him or her that I’m not almighty,” Du says.

“As a teacher, I am here to guide them to distinguish between good and bad, and true from false, so they can make good use of online information.”

Shaoyi’s father, Feng Yingang, agrees the Internet can’t replace scholastic education.

“My son still needs guidance to sift through information on the Internet and build his knowledge base. He is like a kung fu lover, who learns all kinds of martial arts moves but lacks the internal strength to master them,” Feng says.

“It would be great if the schoolteachers can guide my son.”

Shaoyi also admits that he has difficulties digesting the glut of online information.

“I will enjoy school’s lessons better if the teachers can discuss hot issues related to the subject and tell us what materials we can refer to better understand these issues,” the boy says.

“But teachers just regurgitate textbooks’ texts.”

Shaoyi says some textbooks are outdated. For example, he owned his first cell phone at three and is able to download pictures with smartphones. But his computer science textbook covers basics like search engine use.

He also complains about junior high’s heavy study load.

During his primary school days, classes were over at 4.30pm, and he had time for his hobbies. But in junior high, he leaves home at 6am and classes end at 6pm. He goes home and does homework until 10pm.

“School life seems to be all about classes, homework, exams and rankings. Students who score well in exams are called good students, while those who don’t ask teachers questions during the 10-minute break between classes are labelled bad students,” Shaoyi says, crossing his arms and scowling.

Between mumbles, he reveals his aspiration is to become head of state so he can make everyone happy.

He says he doesn’t talk about his dream because everyone seems more concerned about how important it is to get into a top high school, then a top university and, finally, find a good job.

He doesn’t believe this is the ideal route.

Shaoyi writes on Sina Weibo: “Almost everyone in China will say there’s something wrong with you if you tell them your life ambition is to become president, but people in the US would encourage you.”

Whiz kid wants a quiet life

Feng Shaoyi and his father, Feng Yingang, in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

Feng Shaoyi completed his primary school education within three years, rather than the typical six.

The 10-year-old even had time during those three years to act in TV dramas.

The boy claims that in primary school, he was able to finish reading a textbook in five hours and only needed the same amount of time to memorize a whole chapter, which took his teachers a whole week to teach.

His wish is to be homeschooled and only go to school for exams. Feng says he can ask his dad or surf the “powerful” Internet for answers if he has questions.

His father, Feng Yingang, who works as the sales director of a Shanghai-headquartered chemical company, believes it’s unrealistic for him to find the time to tutor his son at home.

“My son wrote the online application asking to quit school to relieve stress, and to seek my attention and comfort. He didn’t even know what quitting school really meant until I talked to him,” the father says.

“He didn’t mean he wanted to drop out. He just wanted a break.”

Feng’s father believes his son is still adapting to junior high. The boy feels stress about failing his first English examination, he says.

“I can understand why junior high teachers focus so much on grades and rankings,” the dad says.

“It’s because students need to score high marks to get into high school, which isn’t guaranteed by the compulsory nine-year education policy.”

He never submitted the leave application that he had completed for his son.

The boy says he still plans to study hard and end up in a good high school and university. “I was just asking for more freedom and a more relaxed studying environment,” he says.

“I posted the message online because I believe school education could be improved if more people demand change after reading it.”

But the public spotlight’s sudden glare has proven too much for the boy.

He says he wants to “study and live a quiet life”, and pay no heed to the comments about him – be they praises or criticisms.

“He may end up more stressed out if he really leaves school to study at home: All eyes will be on him, monitoring his performance,” says Feng Yingang, who has requested that the teachers at his son’s junior high school turn down media requests.

Du Fang, Feng Shaoyi’s primary school teacher, was also cautious when talking about the boy.

“(He’s) sometimes clever, sometimes mature and sometimes childish,” she says.

She made these comments while in Beijing for training. “He’s special to me,” she says.

“To protect him, I can’t say more until I return to Zhuhai and talk to him about his thoughts. After all, he’s just a kid.”

By Xu Jingxi http://www.chinadailyapac.com
xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn