Having been away from the blogosphere for one whole week (without blogging longest since february this year), I came back to see how Sisuahlai had been banned from innit for 2 months. I managed to catch Shadowfox posting on this before I managed to pen my opinion on the whole affair. His basically as usual summarise everything you need to know. It is so good that there is nothing much I need to add except a few examples and the issue of sacking the person who handles Nuffnang PR department.

It is funny how this Robb Chew handled the entire affair. I remembered once I commented how Nuffnang staffs are really bad with PR, and Timmy did ask me for the “offending” comments. But being a person who never bookmarks things that I read, I couldn’t find the link. But I guess this Robb Chew has given me a good chance at making my point clear that Nuffnang does sucks in PR. Again, allow me to categorically state that I am in no way against Nuffnang, be it personal or professionally. In fact, I think very positively of Timothy, though not so much of his partner, as I feel Timmy is a great marketing guy (though I think Shadowfox might not agree with me on that).

To put it in a better perspective, let me say, if i criticise how Malaysia is run, am I less patriotic? In fact if anything, I am more patriotic than those that has chosen to be quiet. So in some ways, Sisuahlai had been more proactive in hoping that Nuffnang could better their management or at least provide a response to clear the air. This Robb guy who probably still sports pimples in his face, told sisuahlai to fuck off from Nuffnang. This is like if I criticise Malaysia and then Badawi comes up to me and say, “Mate, please fuck off from Malaysia”.

This post is not to support that Sisuahlai has been doing the right thing but rather he had been doing nothing wrong. The legal world can be a cut throat world as I have many dealings with lawyers on almost a daily basis. Shoot me some of the biggest law firms in Malaysia, I have dealt with their partners before. But coming up with a threat of defamation, omigod and unless Malaysia is still in their Lingam runned kangaroo courts (think Vincent Tan’s case against MGG Pillay), do you know how hard it is to prove defamation? My first instances of looking at that picture, damm i think i didn’t even get to see the picture before sisuahlai removed it, but did see it at Shadowfox’s blog was I couldn’t even get the message IF there was a message. I think most commenters noted that there was no subliminal or even conscious message within those pictures.

To show yet another prove, for those who had done some studies with laws on defamation (which I did in university) there was this case study of two bright students from London that went around protesting in McDonalds in UK. I cannot remember what the issue was, but there was a blatant defamation as the two people did defame McDonalds. But instead of pleading guilty, they went on to claim trial. McDonalds with their heavy duty Queen counsels that costs millions of pounds per week (I wonder how many quarter pounders they have to sell to recover costs), decided to rattle this two students into submission (bullying tactics which major corporations use). When news of this hilarious court case got into the street, people began rallying behind the two poor students and decided to help them (it is like RPK asking for RM1 for bail even though he can afford it many million times over it). Right from the start, everyone knows McDonalds will win. But at what expense? McDonald afterall is a publically listed company and owes a fiduciary duty to stakeholders. But yet it could because of some overzealous director with a pea sized brain decided to sue the ass out of the two students. In the end? McDonald’s did win but during the time of the trial, they had so many bad publicity that would make Robb Chew looked like a bloody saint.

Occasionally we see big corporates trying to bully small fries into submission. This is the traditional old thinking PR. Robb Chew in essence (and maybe either he or his close buddies) have been leaving anonymous comments on many blogs protecting Nuffnang from his mistakes. This is yet another show of bad PR. Perhaps Robb Chew has been over confident that he has the support of “juveniles bloggers” (as termed by Shadowfox) that he knew that they will come out and protect Nuffnang at the slightest negative publicity, that he dared to write the email that he did write. If only he went back and took a look at what he has written and reflect upon them.

How to do good PR? Hmmm.. I will not elaborate here but will write something on it in one of my blogs next time. So? Sack Robb Chew and Free Sisuahlai!