SUHAKAM

Do you know what SUHAKAM is? Have you ever heard about it?? SUHAKAM is the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia which the abbreviation is Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia Malaysia. SUHAKAM was established by Parliament under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999, Act 597. The functions of SUHAKAM are:

1) to promote awareness of and provide education relating to human rights;
2) to advise and assist Government in formulating legislation and procedures and recommend the necessary measures to be taken;
3) to recommend to the Government with regard to subscription or accession of treaties and other international instruments in the field of human rights;
4) to inquire into complaints regarding infringements of human rights.

After telling all of you of what SUHAKAM does, here it comes the SUHAKAM's powers. The powers of SUHAKAM are:

1) to undertake research by conducting programs, seminars and workshops and to disseminate and distribute the results of such research;
2) to advise the Government and/ or relevant authorities of complaints against them and to recommend appropriate measures to be taken;
3) to study and verify any infringement of human rights;
4) to visit places of detention in accordance with procedures as prescribed by laws relating to the places of detention and to make necessary recommendations;
5) to issue public statements on human rights as and when necessary;
6) to undertake appropriate activities as are necessary.

What do you think? Know more about SUHAKAM now? Please do leave your comments here.

References:

SUHAKAM official website, History, [Online], Retrieved 5 March 2009.
URL: http://www.suhakam.org.my/en/about_history.asp

SUHAKAM official website, Functions and Powers, [Online], Retrieved 5 March 2009.
URL: http://www.suhakam.org.my/en/about_functions.asp

Poll results (Week 7)

Do you think historical events should be censored?

75 % of the respondents agreed that historical events should be censored because as a citizen we need to know the history as our knowledge.

12.5% of the respondents agreed that historical events should not be censored because as a student we need to do past references regarding past history for our studies.

12.5% of the respondent agreed that historical events should censor because some bad events in history can be influential to the younger generation.

From the poll analysis, this can be concluded that majority supported that the historical events should be revealed and not censored for knowledge purposes. As citizens, we have the right to know the past history of our country. It is pathetic if we actually got to know our heritage and history from people of another country. The young generation needs to know the 13 May, 1969 incident so that they would understand and appreciate multi racial unity and national security.

Of course, historical events should not be censored as students need to research from the past history for their studies. For example, researcher needs to know the exact happenings and what have driven human to react in that situation. This is actually a study on human behavior. For instance, till today Japanese never educate their young generation about their propaganda and violence towards the people while conquering the world. This create curiousity among the teenagers in not knowing their roots and history.

Many disagreed that revealing the bad events of historical events can influence the young generation negatively. The era has changed that people these days are open-minded to the things they see. The problem or trials that occured in history can be an important or meaningful lesson to be learnt in future. History helps us to not repeat our mistakes again. It is the time to make changes and improve for the better. After all, nobody want to repeat our past mistakes if it is negatively.

It is actually the perspective that we look in. Glancing into the positive perspective, take history as the opportunity to learn to improve to be better. It is the moment that we can change our past mistakes and presson for the future.

Please leave your comments.
Happy holiday! Cheers =)

Rating Service << Internet >> Content Selection

The Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSACi) is the rating service for the internet. After the year of 1999, it is folded into Internet Council Rating Association (ICRA). This system is basically implemented for the use of parents to monitor their children’s activity online while practicing free speech online.

Wonder how does this rating works?

The ratings are a list of codes each with a letter and digit. Each letter initiates the type and the digit shows the ranking of how explicit the content is:

Letter = (l)anguage, (n)udity, (s)ex, (v)iolence
Digit = 4 (most), 1 (least), 0 (implying no content)

Example A,
1. Vulgar language – l4
2. Frontal nudity – n3

3. Passionate kissing – s1
4. Destruction of objects – v2

Table 1 - Level of explicit rating:

URL:http://256.com/gray/docs/pics/rsac.html

This is where PICS comes in work. PICS is a voluntary self rating specification recommended by W3C which is a Platform for Internet Content Selections which is a protocol that enables rating systems to be read and understood by browsers, web masters and search engines. It is the HTML code of rating systems. Example of the HTML tag for Example A would be:

URL:http://256.com/gray/docs/pics/rsac.html

Basically content rating for the internet is very helpful to aware the users' mainly parents to identify if that particular content is suitable for their children.

Well I hope I have given a short brief and inclusive of examples on how rating system and content selection are implemented. What do you think about this post, do feel free to share your thoughts with us. Have a great blast. =)

References:

Recreational Software Advisory Council official website
[Online], Retrieved 3rd March 2009.

URL:http://www.rsac.org/

Stephen Balkam, Content Rating for the Internet and Recreational Software, Recreational Software Advisory Council [Online], Retrieved 3rd March 2009.

URL:http://web.archive.org/web/19970414061624/www.rsac.org/talk/balkam1.html