Global Connections

On the morning of Sunday, 24 April, I had the great pleasure of attending the 1st Malaysian - ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference (1MARBC) organised by Blog House Malaysia, at the InterContinental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur along with many ASEAN social media enthusiasts and Malaysian dignitaries.

The morning began at 0830, yes a little early for a Sunday. First up, I attended one of the tracks on “The fine line between what is allowed and what is not” in the blogosphere, moderated by Anirudh Bhati, Datuk Shafee Abdullah, Irwan Abdul Rahman – Datu Zaini Hassan (Deputy Chief Editor of Utusan Malaysia). The room seemed to advocate for “responsible blogging”. In her blog, NINITALK says, “bloggers themselves must fundamentally demonstrate civic responsibility by choosing their words and expressions with care.” The reality is, however, that blogs do not adhere to the same standards or practices as traditional media. Most do not have the same degree of literary training. It is also worth noting that bloggers and microbloggers tend to be more emotive and issues based.

The climax of the morning was undoubtedly the arrival of YAB Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the newly appointed Patron of Blog House Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir. They were introduced by the President of Blog House Malaysia, En. Syed Akbar Ali, a dignified host. Most notably it was good to hear the Prime Minister say (and I paraphrase): "What is important for us is for you to put forward your (bloggers) views, even your constructive criticism and together we can build a better Malaysia and future for us". In my personal view, it is clear that blogs will play a role in elections in Malaysia in the coming years. It is also clear that corporate and government bodies and organisations need to monitor blogs to ensure that they are in a position to “make sense of the media” and can thereafter engage in conversations with relevant influencers.

Like NINITALK, I agree it was good to make some new friends, greet old friends and chat with citizen journalists.

Those on Twitter used the hashtag #ASEANBloggers, tweets can be found here.

Image (blogosphere) courtesy of DaveBleasdale on Flickr under CC Attributions Licensing.
Image (1MARBC) courtesy of NINITALK.