Jeff Ooi

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Yang Berhormat Jelutong Jeff Ooi Chuan Aun

Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Jelutong
Incumbent
Assumed office March 2008
Preceded by	Lee Kah Choon
Majority	16,246

Nationality	Malaysian
Political party	DAP - Pakatan Rakyat
Occupation	Member of Parliament
Website	Screenshots

Ooi Chuan Aun^[1] (Chinese: 黄泉安; pinyin: Huáng Quán'ān) (born c. 1956^[2]), better known as Jeff Ooi, is a Malaysian IT consultant by profession, blogger, photographer and politician.

Hailing from a small town in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, he was brought up among rural teenagers, especially the Malay. This gave him a good understanding of the politics of pluralism in the country as well as familiarity with Malay music and poetry, which sometimes help to add colour to his blog writing.

1 Internet activity
2 Entry into politics
3 Election results
4 Lawsuit
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 External links

[edit] Internet activity

Jeff Ooi writes a popular blog known as "Screenshots..." which he started on January 2, 2003. It covers current issues relating to Malaysia, mainly on politics. From time to time, it also touches on international news and photography.

Jeff Ooi's blog has been dubbed "Malaysia's Most Influential Blog" by Malaysiakini, a popular local online news publication. Between March 6 and March 10, 2006, Ooi claimed that the total data downloaded by visitors to his blog was 50.58 gigabytes. ^[3] In 2005, Screenshots won the Asia category of the Freedom Blogs Awards given by Reporters Without Borders.^[4] He's also a pioneer in Malaysian's blogosphere.

Jeff Ooi also administrates a photography forum called Lensa Malaysia, which receives 200,000 page views per month. He is also the founder and administrator of USJ and Subang Jaya's own community forum usj.com.my, and was hired by CNET Asia as a tech blogger alongside other CNET Asia bloggers. He named his CNET Asia blog Lemak Lemang, a reference to coconut-flavored sticky rice stuffed in a bamboo container traditionally prepared by Malays.

[edit] Entry into politics

In 2006, it was reported by The Star, a local English language daily, that Ooi was among several local bloggers being wooed by the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) to run for public office. Ooi, who was at the time a member of Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People's Movement), a major party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition government, stated that "it's too premature at this point" for him to consider entering active politics.^[5] In 2007, it was reported by The Star that he is set to join the DAP and contest in the general election.^[6] He finally joined DAP on July 31 2007.^[7] Ooi contested as a DAP candidate in Malaysia's 2008 general election for a seat in Jelutong, Penang.^[8]^[9], which he won by a majority margin of 16246 votes.[1].

[edit] Election results

Year	Parliamentary seat	Votes	Majority	Total voters	Opponent	Turnout
2008	P50 Jelutong	30493	won by 16246	46406	Thor Teong Gee (BN - Gerakan) Badrul Zaman bin P.S. Md Zakariah (Independent)	75.85%

[edit] Lawsuit

On January 11, 2007, Ooi, alongside Ahirudin Attan, were sued by the New Straits Times Press.^[10] The Malaysian court ordered Ooi to remove more than 10 postings on his blog that the NSTP claimed were libellous by January 17. Ooi is prohibited from republishing those postings in his blog or on the internet until the disposal of the defamation suit filed by New Straits Times Press (NSTP). The lawsuits are the first of their kind in Malaysia.^[11] Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has defended legal action launched against him, saying the Internet was not exempt from defamation laws.^[12] This lawsuit has spawned the Bloggers United campaign to defend bloggers and the freedom of expression, and Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin have chosen to defend in court. The situation resulted in the coverage of Malaysian blogging on various newspapers. A fund has also been set up to protect bloggers and support their activities, entrusting the fund to Marina Mahathir and friends.