http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Columnis...h-Lim-Sian-See/

The Star

One Man's Meat
October 31, 2015
A conversation with Lim Sian See

by philip golingai

The anonymous Facebook political commentator says his aim is to make the public sift the truth from the propaganda.

I MET for the first time an object of curiosity among political aficionados on Facebook. An anonymous Facebooker named Lim Sian See has been attracting a following with his wry comments on Opposition politicians.

On Wednesday, I had a lunch meeting with the Facebooker in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

Later, I had a question-and-answer session with him/her on WhatsApp.

Q: Is your name really Lim Sian See?

A: No, it is not. It’s a pseudonym - much like Chedet, Mark Twain or Lewis Carrol.

Q: Why do you remain anonymous?

A: I am not a politician or in any political party or NGO, and I do not harbour any future ambition to do so. I see no need for me to publicly claim any recognition.

Q: Does the public know who you are? Do those you target know who you are?

A: Dozens of people know but not the public in general.

In fact, the majority of my Facebook friends and followers are aware that this is not my real name. One person even commented that he doesn’t even care if I am actually a living table as long as what I write is true and backed by evidence and facts.

The authorities know who I am for sure. In fact, Special Branch officers have visited me twice to ascertain my identity. Therefore, I am very careful to make sure whatever I post is not defamatory or untrue.

I do believe that those I “target” know who I am but for reasons known only to them, do not want to “expose’ me – perhaps to avoid giving me free publicity.

Q: Why did you start posting political commentaries on Facebook?

A: Right after the 2013 general election, I was inspired by the lies about the 40,000 Bangladeshi phantom voters and (tallying centre) blackouts. Many of my professional friends and successful businessmen – people I consider smart and educated – were totally sucked in by these lies.

I have also posted a RM50,000 reward for information on where these so-called blackouts happened. To this day, the reward remains unclaimed.

Much of the information received by many supposedly smart Malaysians has been controlled and manipulated by social media and so-called “independent news portals”.

To give you an example of how “independent” they are, exactly one year ago, Api Api assemblyman and PKR deputy Sabah state chairman Christina Liew was found by the High Court to have acted unlawfully by inducing 819 poor landowners in that state to breach a land deal with a state-owned firm. The court ordered her to pay RM557mil in damages.

This was easily the single biggest instance of court-awarded damages ever in Malaysia but none of the “independent” press mentioned a word of it. Neither did any of the Pakatan leaders. The way I see it, Barisan Nasional has been doing a poor job in social media while there are many pro-Pakatan/anti-BN social media users – you can call it my little contribution to strike the balance.

Q: You told me that you didn’t know who Lim Guan Eng was before GE13. How is that possible?

A: In 2012, I had no interest in politics at all and was just focusing on my career. I had heard of Lim Kit Siang but did not know who Lim Guan Eng was, even though he was the Penang Chief Minister. I even thought Gerakan was the northern branch of MCA.

I do not find this unusual. In fact, if you ask many people who the Mentri Besar of Negri Sembilan or Kelantan is, they wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Q: How did you turn from someone who did not know who Guan Eng was to a political animal?

A: I wouldn’t call myself a “political animal” – probably a political enthusiast. I just spend lots of time reading the news, Googling and talking to people to catch up. It’s not that hard, really.

Q: You like to use the word “zombie” in your postings. Define Zombie.

A: Zombies are those inspired by the lies about the 40,000 phantom voters and the blackouts. They are like the zombies that you see in Hong Kong movies.

They are unthinking, and when the Tao master rings the bell, the zombies would hop and follow. These zombies are devoid of independent thought and just swallow everything their political masters and “independent” news portals say.

Q: How does one become a zombie?

A: By not reading both sides of the story before making a judgement.

The worst zombies are those who read the headlines from the independent press without bothering to read the article and immediately come away with a conclusion. These zombies are the easiest ones to fool.

Q: Can Barisan supporters also be zombies?

A: They can if they do not think logically and just lap up propaganda.

Q: Do you think your postings will translate to votes for Barisan?

A: That is not my primary objective. My primary objective is to help sift the propaganda and lies from the truth.

Q: Why are Lim Guan Eng, Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli your favourite targets?

A: I do post more about these three. But mainly because they make the most public statements.

Q: How come you can’t spell Rafizi’s name?

A: You have to be careful with the PKR types, as they are quite touchy. Their party leader (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim is famous for his “You ulang, I saman” (If you repeat, I will sue).

Q: How do you see the political atmosphere in Malaysia?

A: I am deeply concerned. I share the view of Singapore’s senior ambassador Bilahari Kausikan who said this to Tony Pua recently.

“I am not against idealism but even idealism, if it is to take a political form, must be grounded in reality. If an individual dies for his or her ideals, we can call the person a martyr or a fool and in any case, since only one individual is involved, it may not matter too much. But if an erstwhile political leader deceives himself and his followers into chasing an impossible dream and so leads them into disaster that can only be called irresponsible.”

That gives you an idea why he and I believe Malaysia is treading on dangerous ground – based on a hope that is not realistic – while our opposition politicians reap the benefits of position, power and fame.

The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.

I have googled with search words - Christina Liew Samudera with site specific filters

MalaysiaKini did not report.

The Malaysian Insider did not report

Free Malaysia Today reported
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...n-rm-560m-suit/

And more
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...es-into-appeal/
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...-cheat-charges/
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...sabah-assembly/

The Star reported
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014...nd-deal-breach/

And more
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014...l-in-bssb-case/

The New Straits Times reported
http://dev.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/pkr-rep...over-land-deals

The Star report had this interesting paragraph -
The Star report was dated 30 October 2014.

Lim Lian See would like to infer from this one case of it not being reported in some of the alternative media that the alternative media as a whole, is not neutral.

But he/she is already off as one of the alternative media did report.

Would Lim Lian See also infer that the lack of a report in the NST of the appeal as also a lack of neutrality? Would he/she extrapolate from that to the lack of neutrality of the mainstream media as a whole?

The Rakyat Post also reported on the appeal
http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2014/10/...ally-motivated/

I followed the article's title only.

seijiseimura84 datang lagi.

He specifically used the word "independent".

Why are you even posting this?

It is just his opinion. This is also your opinion.

I don't know who is right or wrong.

Don't know why you need to go dissing him as too simple minded to understand.

Maybe you feel superior to him or something.

Only showed that you are arrogant, that's all.

I think that is a lot of crock.

They are on the same team, that's all.

Anything goes these days.

Lies, propaganda, half truths, fear, bogeyman, etc. etc. Everything including the kitchen sink.

1. No
2. No
3.?
4. Not me.
5. Could be just refuse to vote.
6. The Star is not twisted. It has quite even coverage but at times it portrays the government in quite a favourable light. MalaysiaKini is quite neutral but they report more on problems that BN prefers to be not reported at all. It is more towards the opposition that BN. The Malaysian Insider has gotten it wrong a couple of times.

Not everyone is like that.

But I don't know what is the big deal about being called a BN supporter or a PR supporter in here. So what if one is a BN supporter? Is it something to be ashamed of? Vice versa for a PR supporter.

Blackouts, I wasn't there. But there were some first hand eyewitness accounts of it happening. I don't know if it happened or not. But it quite hard to cheat during the counting. There are so many other better ways to give one side an advantage in an election.

This post has been edited by joe_mamak: Oct 31 2015, 04:15 PM

What if their darker evil side is still way better than the BN "nice" side.

If you want to talk about internal issues, I can see far bigger issues in another party. They have removed a senior leader. They are now contemplating suspending others. A few divisional branches have openly called for their top leader to step down. Someone was sacked when she sued. Even the royalty has applied a bit of pressure to a quick solution to a crisis.

Maybe you should be more concerned with that other party.

Err......WSJ reported what they had. They don't have more. Furthermore, they are a global financial newspaper, they cover so many countries and so many topics related to finance, investment, stocks, business.

And Malaysia is just one country. You really expected them to have more reports? Have a reporter assigned to chase up on more leads about 1MDB? Is it even possible as a lot of information is not accessible to anyone? Even in Malaysia, the investigations seem to have gotten nowhere. You expect a US newspaper to do more?

I didn't say The Star twisted the news. I actually said it is not twisted.

I am familiar with the Singapore newspapers, having read them for years.

Not my friends, but there were so called first hand witnesses. But I don't know whether it is true or not. I have already said that. You want me to dismiss it entirely? I also don't know enough to do that as well.

Why do you single out Tony Pua? Such allegations are hard to prove. Also, I doubt he knows enough to dismiss the allegations either. Just like above.

Besides, the Election Committee claimed that no one reported any blackouts. You want Tony Pua to echo the EC and say "hey, no blackouts occurred according to the EC."?

Maybe you should think a bit about this.

I don't think our currency was affected by allegations of election fraud. If anything, the outcome of the last GE, where BN won again might have brought some confidence to the economy and the Ringgit.

Think about that too, will ya? Think about what is really affecting our currency.

Oh, now I am a zombie is it? You started it by saying -

"settle their internal issue, before going for the bigger pie."

which is similar to -

"F OFF SETTLE PR ISSUE FIRST BEFORE THEY EVEN AIM FOR PUTRAJAYA"

I am just telling you to also be concerned with the other party. Since you have shown so much concern about PR/PH.

Unless your concern is only for PR/PH.

Why is that so? BN, the party that is in power and would continue to be in power for a while, who is the one that is more likely to affect your life (maybe not yours since you are in SG) but those of us here, is not worthy of your concern at all?

I wonder about your sense of importance here.

This post has been edited by joe_mamak: Oct 31 2015, 05:18 PM

Interesting that you see it as Tony Pua chickening out.

Arul imposed a condition. Why should Tony Pua agree to that condition? And when he doesn't agree, it is viewed as chickening out?

Lets say you challenge me to a debate. I say sure, but you must debate in the nude. You don't agree. Are you chickening out?

Also, lets not forget that Tony Pua wanted a talk show. But Arul said debate.

As for the rest of your post, I won't bother to address it as your premise is already off.

You can. Just that you were arrogant.

Oh, please. You went way beyond just having a different opinion as mine.

Go look back on your post.

Eh..I thought I already cleared that up.

Tony Pua did not chicken out. Arul attached a condition, i.e. Tony Pua resign from PAC. Tony Pua did not agree (it was not a reasonable condition anyway). That is not chickening out.

Same analogy as you debating in the nude.

I believe it was talk show.

See -

http://english.astroawani.com/business-new...-tony-pua-78553



Astro Awani neutral enough for you?

Analogy lah.

You won't debate in the nude. I won't call you chicken lah.

Tony Pua already said PAC is far more important than a talk show. Getting to the bottom of 1MDB is far more important than a talk show. Arul can just show up and talk and talk and talk but we still might not be any closer to getting to the bottom of the truth about 1MDB.

OK, you keep insisting that Tony offered to debate. I already provided Astro Awani's report. Can you provide something to substantiate your claim?

Else, there is no shifting of the goal post lah.

And if you keep insisting that there is without anything to substantiate it, that would really be a scumbag attitude which you detest so much. Well, at least you appear to detest so much.

So, you AGREE it is now a TALK SHOW and NOT A DEBATE?

Lets go back a bit further to how all this started.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/317595

Excerpt -

Tony made the challenge after Arul's live interview with Bernama TV.

That one already like talk show. So, Tony Pua offered his services to be the one being the interviewer.

Arul was fine being interviewed on Bernama TV.

Lets see how well he would do with Tony Pua as the interviewer.

Sounds like a decent challenge to me.

Fair too as Arul had an easy time with Bernama TV.

Arul can challenge. I never said Arul cannot challenge. Go look through my posts.

You called Tony Pua chicken, I disagreed with that, that is all.

Still insisting it is a debate ah? Takpelah, if that is your attitude.

I already provided two articles that say it is a talk show and not a debate. Even Arul used the words talk show initially.

Soal-siasat ke, interbiu ke. Takpelah. As long as we get closer to the truth about 1MDB, that would be good.