RECORD 415 - THANK YOU MALAYSIAKINI

: THAT'S THE WHOPPING NUMBER of visits we at PET+BLOGSPOT had yesterday alone for a single day!

And we have no one else other than Malaysiakini to thank for this phenomenon.

The Internet newspaper had listed Our Blog under its "Malaysiakini in blogs" section, opening the gateway for a stream of curious visitors to our cyberspace site.

Most of them visited us for the politics stories we've been featuring since what has become a historic general elections event for human rights campaigners and NGOs.

As a result, 415 people had themselves exposed to the main topics that we cover on Our Blog which is animal-assisted therapy, the disabled and the elderly. [See pie-chart].

One email penned by Malayamuda was quite critical of Prime Minister Datuk Seri AbdullahBadawi's decision to make Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil at yesterday's Cabinet lineup announcement as a special adviser on women and community issues.

What is [the purpose of Dato' Dr] Ng Yen Yen's position then [now that] Shahrizat is special adviser? He asked.

Frankly, I'm rather confused myself.

To be honest, the former Minister for Family and Community Development was not exactly a big hit with the disabled community -- although she was the official who was supposed to look into our concerns.

The good part about Shahrizat is that she never was haughty in front of disabled people.

Rather she was always humble -- and often approachable -- compared to some of her past predecessors who seem to care more for protocol than for the people they are meant to serve.

However, many disabled activists are disappointed with her over a form of disability act bill she helped pass in Parliament recently.

Many say that the bill is really a toothless tiger meant to only look good in paper but totally useless when action needed to be taken to protect the rights of disabled Malaysians.

Shahrizat was Petpositive's first choice as our VVIP for our charity and fund-raising dinner last July. The Minister eventually couldn't make it - leaving MP for Petaling Jaya Selatan [and Deputy Minister for Tourism] Dato' Donald Lim Siang Chai to save the day as our Event Patron.

As it turned out at the last minute, Donald himself could not make it for our dinner. However, he graciously sent Dato' Wong Sai Hou to launch Our Society on his behalf.

As for Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, our latest Minister for Family, Women and Community Development, I have yet to meet her.

It will certainly be something I will be doing as President of PETPOSITIVE over the next few months.

Together with members of our new opposition government in Selangor.

aNt
PET+BLOGSPOT