Happy 4th Anniversary, Online Portal Malaysia Today

Malaysia Today ( http://www.malaysia-today.net/ ) was incepted 4 years ago. I wasn't there exactly at the same time it appeared but precisely around 13th August 2004.

I recall it was right after the 2004 election, which saw the massive landslide victory of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's coalition party . It is the biggest win ever in history by Barisan Nasional.

At that time, Malaysia Today was attached to blogger.com . However, around 2005 it had to move into its own domain due to overwhelming traffic and user commentaries.

Malaysia Today even made it into top 10 most visited news site in Malaysia, putting it on par with The Star ( a mainstream media with an online version). The main factor of the success of Malaysia Today lies in the airing of public opinions in the form of comments on articles, letters and blogs.

Other than that, the online portal indirectly inspired and spurred its commenters to set up blogs. With more voice, comes more democracy.

Perhaps, in the past, Malaysia Today was seen as a simple site that brings no effect to governance. The 12th General Election proved otherwise although it should not be dismissed that other factors play a part.

Malaysia Today merely highlights issues.that mainstream media may not publish due to vague reasons. Malaysia has a law called Printing, Publications and Presses Act (PPPA) . In it, a clause subjects all related media to make an annual renewal of their licenses.

Today, on the 4th Anniversary, its founder is faced with much difficulties, facing lawsuits from "left, right and centre". Numerous hacker attacks have tried to bring it down. Perhaps, Malaysia Today is not as not influential as many had previously thought.

Public opinion shall persist from this 4th Anniversary onwards. Memetically, Malaysia Today had propelled the silent majority to evolve from being silent to speaking up. Malaysians are yet to be wholesomely enlightened but the numbers are growing.

With that, this blog would like to thank and congratulate the Malaysia Today team;

First and foremost, Raja Petra Kamarudin for giving us this spendid site, ....

its editors, for constantly extracting news, letters and bringing up the site when its down, ....

its common article contributors, namely Azly Rahman, Bakri Musa, Mohd Sayuti Omar, Hishammuddin Rais, your writings are complimentary ....

and all Malaysia Today readers, commenters, bloggers, e-mail forwarders, word-by-mouth communicators which constitute the concerned citizens of Malaysia.

Malaysia Today is here to stay... !