The Star and its SCREWED poll!

The nation's LEADING English newspaper company, The Star Publications, has once again shown its true colors. Don't ask me what their colors are but going by their tendencies lately it appears far from white.  


The LEADING news organisation controlled by the Malaysian Chinese Association had run an Online poll on the proposed illegal street demonstration by an NGO calling themselves Bersih.


The questions for the "very necessary and timely' poll on Monday by the LEADING newspaper controlled by the Malaysian Chinese Association is as stated in the box above, BUT one wonders why The Star - the LEADING newspaper or rather those who run the organisation appear to be deaf and dumb ? 


I think the Star's Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai and his bosses owe the authorities an explanation because :-


1. The Royal Malaysian Police have stated in no uncertain terms that they WILL NOT issue a permit for the proposed July 9 Bersih demonstrations in downtown Kuala Lumpur due to concerns over security and public order. 


2. The Home Minister had also made similar statements and re-emphasised the fact that the proposed demonstration was illegal and urged the organisers to call off the politically-motivated demonstrations. 


3. Hundreds of police reports have been lodged against the proposed demonstration by Bersih and hundreds of NGOs opposed to Bersih have vouched take it to the streets on the same day if the Bersih demonstration was allowed by the authorities.


4. Every journalist / editor worth his salt know that Bersih is not an independent NGO but merely the tool of a desperate Opposition politician. ( Wong Chun Wai should step down if he doesn't know this fact) 


So, why then would a LEADING newspaper like The Star, which is run by experienced LEADING journalist like Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai be so irresponsible and not give a damn to the concerns of the Royal Malaysian Police and the Home Minister himself ? 


After all the necessary damage was done via the SCREWED poll, the LEADING newspaper removed the online poll and issued a 'statement' late this evening.

Published: Tuesday June 21, 2011 MYT 7:39:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday June 21, 2011 MYT 7:57:43 PM

Manipulation suspected in Bersih poll

PETALING JAYA: On Monday evening, The Star Online put up a poll on the proposed Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9.

The poll asked respondents for their opinion: should it be cancelled, or should it be allowed to go on.

In less than a day, it drew more than a million responses which caused the team to suspect that the results were being manipulated. The Star Online polls attract an average of only about 50,000 responses over several days.

Furthermore, the total number of unique visitors to The Star Online is about 400,000 per day, lending further credence to our suspicion that there was manipulation afoot.

This could be done in several ways, for example through scripted routines or "bots" that come in to a site to perform the same task over multiple repetitions. Indeed, an initial examination of our site logs showed about one million submissions to the poll page from just one IP address.

Therefore, acting upon the belief that the poll results were tainted, we made the decision to take it offline just before noon Tuesday.

We regret that our effort to give the public a voice has been tainted by this act. - TheStar

So, is the nation's LEADING English newspaper and its LEADING chief trying to LEAD its readers in a new direction ? 


p/s I just hope this time around the Home Minister doesn't stop with just another WARNING!