Newest Millionaire In KL :)
Art Harun
I launched this blog on 11th December 2008. The first ever post was A Streetcar Named Abdullah.
Twenty-six months, 461 followers and 221 posts later, on 21st February 201, this blog registered it’s 1 millionth hit. It is nothing compared to hits recorded by some other famous blogs, such as Rocky Bru’s or Niamah. But I am nonetheless very pleased.
I started blogging at Navel Gazing upon the invitation of a dear friend, Daef. NG was a blog with no particular theme. It was a place for Daef, myself and another friend to dump our creative – and non-creative – thoughts in written form.
Soon, I began to take a detour towards socio-political stuffs. My first serious post was The Tun Salleh Saga – an open reply to Dr Mahathir, which was picked up by Haris Ibrahim’s The People’s Parliament and Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today.
I then began toying with the idea of launching a blog of my own. The theme would be socio-political, although I was never going to restrict or constrain myself with only socio-political issues.
I had waned to make this blog a bit different from other socio-political blogs. My main plan was to write with responsibility and a great amount of civility. I had intended to intelectualise the issues which I delve in and write articles with deeper analysis of the issues at hand. I had also wanted my posts to be devoid of emotions.
In my mind, my articles must be accessible, in the sense that the readers must not find them too pedantic or too deep so as to invite tears of boredom after the 2nd paragraph. It was with this in mind that I had infused my articles with some humour and sarcasms.
The objective is to create a platform for a discourse. To me, civil engagement and discourse is a mark of a vibrant society whose members are aware of their surrounding, their rights, their wants, weaknesses and strengths.
I had never set out to be some kind of a hero or something. I am just an ordinary guy one would meet on the street. Being an ordinary human being, I do make mistakes.
What I have is just my opinions and thoughts on some matters or issues which are close to my heart. What I do is I voice those opinions and thoughts. One may agree or disagree with me. That is normal. The comments made against my position and opinion in The Interlok Quagmire are prime example that I may not be right all the time. Nevertheless, I make no apology for whatever stand or position which I take on any issue. Of course, I am not beyond being criticised or even persuaded to change my stand.
However, what I resent is the inability of some of us to engage in a civil and proper manner. There are people who skip the issues at hand and start making personal attacks. That, to me, is a mark of a shallow mind, a mind with little or no ability to articulate its thoughts and express its opposition against another’s position on whatever issue. I normally disregard or ignore such people no matter how vociferous they try to be.
Over the years, I had touched on many issues. Some are important and some others are just reflective of my restless mind. One particular article was so well received that it not only surprised me but also puzzled me. That was 1Malaysia Dalam Kenangan. That article was just a depiction of my early formative years in my kampung. The warm response which I got from that article made me happy and sad at the same time, as it was obvious from the hundreds of comments that Malaysians generally are peace loving people who yearn for integrity, equality and most of all, acceptance.
Throughout my blogging days, I had tried to cover as wide a topic as possible. Being so, I had veered between the hyper hilarious in Dear Mr Todt; Dear Ambassador Todt and A Tale of Two Tuns and super serious in The Wolf and the Silence of the Lamb; The Bastardisation of the Social Contract Part 1 and 2.
When I started, I was thinking that even if 5 or 10 people read my stuffs, I would consider that an achievement. I am more than glad that this blog has had 1 million hits. Even if 10% of that hits result in the actual reading of my articles, that would mean my articles here have been read at least 100000 times.
