Pasted herein was on of the "blogs" posted at Malaysia Transition weblog.UMNO's leaders have indeed unconsciously sparked many Malaysian readers into realisation and insight that "The Economist" isn't a secondary and trifling publication.Its coverage is more comprehensive and analytical than what I used to think..eg:well,it is just another inadequate mag...merely for economists (judging from its name)...how wrong,untrue and incorrect my perception was :(
Monday, April 28, 2003

Government leaders continue to whack the Economist, vowing to take action against the British magazine over a series of articles critical of the leadership of Dr. M. The government has discussed "effective" action against the Economist to serve as a warning for others writing such "baseless" articles, Pak Lah says.


National news agency Bernama reported that politicians and university students in Kedah burnt copies of the magazine to mark their protest.


My comment: Who says our politicians and students are not sophisticated? This action should be ample proof that not only do we have First World infrastructure, we also have First World mentality... NOT!


Meanwhile, the Economist articles are now being read by people who would not have even noticed them in the first place. Here's what veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has to say about that: "If the objective is to draw the maximum publicity and attention of Malaysians to the Economist survey, the London weekly could not have found better publicists than the UMNO leaders. Why are the UMNO leaders doing the London weekly such a special favour?"


My comment: If the folks at Malaysiakini have got UMNO Youth to thank for reviving interest in their website, the folks at the Economist must thank UMNO for igniting interest in their magazine.


Mind taking a few minutes off reading the actual online version of the feature? The Changing of the Guard