I finally made it to the venue, BPPT Jl. Thamrin at about 11.20am where the event was held. Of course I was late after my mobile phone alarm rang earlier in the morning and I guess the snoozing bit was better.
Getting in was easy enough after finding Mbak Pasha with whom Unspun left my invitation ticket. I must admit that I can feel a sense of camaraderie among the bloggers as I walked by. With my eagle eyes scanning the auditorium, it was easy enough for me to spot Unspun. I moved over next to him seated behind YB Jeff Ooi and the other 4 invited foreign bloggers.
My first encounter with YB Jeff Ooi was indeed a pleasant one. Being Penangites, we clicked immediately. We chatted a bit despite Jeff being busy with his LG hand-phone text messaging.
In the course of our conversation, I managed to give him my 2 rupiah worth of opinion about the development projects that falls in the heritage zone of Penang. I opined that it is imperative that the heritage status must be protected at all cost and I am sure all Penangites like me will support the PR government to protect it. “The inflow of development funds will be good for the island but not at the expense of the status, do not be penny wise and pound foolish” I said.
The key difference between Indonesia and Malaysia about blogging is that the Indonesian government fully engaged and encouraged bloggers where not 1 but 3 Ministers were there to address them. This goes to show how far and matured the Indonesian have come in the democratic process and freedom of “responsible” speech in just 10 years after the new order regime. While in Malaysia, we still have Ministers who are the exact opposite and still in the slumber mode (…just like me this morning perhaps… ☺)
For this, Indonesia 1, Malaysia 0
Anyway, I did not stay very long and disappeared by about 2ish.
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