Missing In Action – that’s what happened to a Star poll on the Bersih gathering after it showed 99 per cent of respondents said the event should be allowed to go ahead.
Wahai, ‘People’s Paper’, apa sudah jadi? Mana poll itu pergi? Maybe time to change the tagline of the paper to ‘Our Master’s Paper’?
Missing: The Star’s poll showing 99% support for Bersih
Harakahdaily PETALING JAYA, Jun 21: A poll on the July 9 Bersih rally by The Star‘s online edition has disappeared after registering more than one million responses.
MISSING … The results of the poll as at 9.30 am today
Earlier, Harakahdaily reported that the poll result showed that 99% of respondents were in support of the rally called by electoral reform group Bersih in Kuala Lumpur next month.
However, at press time (5.25pm), not only the question has been reverted to an earlier poll about Ron95 petrol purchase by foreign-registered cars, its result was also missing from its archives. Earlier, the result page for the poll showed a page with the message “Record not found”.
The question on the poll reads: “What is your view on the proposed Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9?”, to which 99 percent of the respondents chose the answer “It should be allowed to go on”, as opposed to the remaining option, “It should be cancelled”.
The number of respondents is possibly the highest recorded by any online poll conducted by the online edition of The Star, which boasts of the highest number of visitors among other mainstream dailies with internet presence.
The poll comes as the Election Commission made an appeal to Bersih to cancel its rally, saying it would be prepared to hear its demands, an offer snubbed by Bersih chairperson Ambiga Srenevasan who said the time for negotiation had long been over.
Earlier, some eighty organisations joined hands over the weekend to renew their support for the rally and urged the police to protect their right to peaceful assembly from threats made by a number of right-wing politicians.
The Star has responded by giving its reason for pulling the poll:
The Star has clarified that its online poll on the Bersih 2.0 rally was removed after the results were suspected to have been subject to manipulation.
In a statement on its website today, the poll was activated last night and garnered more than a million responses in less than 24 hours, arousing suspicion.
“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,” read the statement.
The daily explained that the online poll could have been manipulate through various methods including “scripted routines or ‘bots'” that will repeat tasks on the website.
“Indeed, an initial examination of our site logs showed up to 60,000 visits 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 today.
“We regret that our effort to give the public a voice has been tainted by this act,” read the statement.
Based on a Google Cache snapshot of the poll results at 6.11am this morning, there were about half a million respondents, with 97 percent supporting the Bersih rally.
The number rose to 1.3 million by mid-day, with 99 percent of respondents supporting the rally.
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the star lost credibility among msians a long time ago. the ppl know that the star propagandas 4 amno-bn n mca. the star is no star among the rakyat. many of us call it ” the star, the people’s toilet paper’.
Polls can be manipulated. An independent poll ought to disclose the methodology and the population from which they obtain their data. More important is how the questions are formulated and whether or not they are leading.
It is the reason political parties commission polls. It is to show how their truths are more truthful than the truths of others.
It is ridiculous to link Berish 2.0 with hackers.
That’s why Rais yatim is ridiculuos to rival any maharaja lawak!
U tahu lah !… Govt ada 4 MULUT… Dia cakap KOTOR BOLEH…
Malaysian CAKAP BERSIH… Masuk Dalam…. Best kita DIAM… Daim… daim.. .
Yes, I have to say that the STAR Poll on 20th June, Monday was suspicious as the number shot up continuous at one stage. However on Tuesday 21st June, someone in a blog signaled that there is another Poll from STAR in the Malay section and the result were such on 7h24 as at 22/6/11: Batalkan Perhimpunan Bersih2.0 kerana ia mengancam keselamatn negara Setuju 1.8 % Tidak 98.2% But now when I checked the website again, this Poll in the Malay section has been removed too. http://mstar.com.my/tinjauan/ Now, is STAR going to say that this Malay version Poll is also… Read more »
Oh come Star, don’t give us that crap. You have lost credibility among the masses. You are MCA owned so you kow-tow to Chua and allies. Editor Wong Chun Wai should resign in protest. Return you Dato Seri-ship. If not, … quit your hypocritical columns and beat it.
MCA CHUA KOW TOW to UMNO…. U Wong Chun Wai KOW TOW to MCA CHUA… and all those MCA minister KOW TOW… Just a small (fry) Like Perkasa Top Guy MCA Chua also have to KOW TOW… For GOD Sake… Close Shop MCA… U guys in MCA is no more relevant in the BN govt.
Fair enough that if there was enough solid evidence of the voting had been “rigged” then the polls should be removed. (Though as some have already pointed out, the polls mechanism should have been designed more carefully – for example, to at least configured to screen out multiple votes from the same IP.) I cannot help but ponder whether the polls would still be there if the rigging had been by certain partied such that it was 99% against BERSIH 2.0 being held? After all, there has been quite anumber of anecdotal accounts of rent-a-crowd tactics bewing used by some… Read more »
Dato Seri Wong Choon Wai be truly On The Beat (not beat the bushes) to reveal the true sentiments of the people on the streets, PLS no more factual manipulation !!!!
Don`t expect Wong to be factual. How did he get his Datuk Seri. Should know him well enough from Mahathir period.
U baru tahu ka ?… Memang BETUL… Dulu pun sudah KOW TOW PM … TU… Kalau Tak . Licence TARIK BALIK… Boleh Penchen.. Tak boleh lagi jadi EDITOR Star…
Hello Wong, as a Christian, pray pray to God Almighty asking if this Bersih Poll is rigged or not. I firmly believe without asking God yet that this Bersih Poll is true and ‘clean’ expression of the fed up Rakyat.
Now you can pray pray for Barang Naik all night long.
He (seems) more interested in counting his royalty from On the Beat book.
When Star circulation drops to below the readership numbers of Anil’s, Wong CW can apply for the post of “Shoe-Polisher” at Sri Tanjong.
I am waiting to have my adidas football boots polished by him.
“The Star has clarified that its online poll on the Bersih 2.0 rally was removed after the results were suspected to have been subject to manipulation.” It was manipulation because the powers behind the Star dont like the result….
Anil,
It is very obvious the poll has been rigged. Do not keep silent and let people continue think that Bersih rally is supported by a million. You know that is not true. Please do the rightful thing.
I have included the Star’s response in full. What else to say?
I think people are smart enough to discern for themselves.
MIC lost its power of speech
MCA missing in action
UMNO lost its jingle bells!!
Mad … Perkasa chief ruin supreme….
Yeh ! MCA lost the polical direction….. bringing along the Chinese community to the Amazon Jungle. Just look at those Top notch of the MCA Minister… Talking Rubbish all this while. Since independant , What has MCA contribute to the Malaysian Chinese ????… Same answer, they will tell U Mike .. Wow ! we MCA has TAR college… Same Idiot answer… Go on TIDUR mca
Would they say it is manipulated if the polls favoured bn? Haha
Good morning, Anil….You should make a similar Poll in your Blog…
Cheers. God Bless
agree…all caring Malaysian websites shld put up similar poll for people to continue to express themselves
What a pity the hack Editors of the Star cannot also go poof and disappear like their poll..! What a lovely day that would be for Malaysia. As for their allegation that their poll was manipulated, well, all we can say is that siapa makan cili, dia rasa pedas!
Manipulated or not, the truth speaks louder than 1Malaysia slogan.
This is Public PKI for Barang Naik bitter information.
BTW, what is (that) Minister going to say about this?
Want to measure some more or just bury its head?
Hi everyone, Even if we give the Star online poll unprecendented margin error of 10%, a margin which is highly unlikely, I’m certain that UMNO Baru and BN are now (panicking)! The response and results of the public to an MCA controlled online poll clearly shows an unequivocal stand that Malaysians are really, really fed-up with the abused use by BN of federal agencies like the EC, the Police, the MACC and the judiciary, the unabated and continued politics of race and religion by UMNOputras and their cronies, gutter politics of sex and more sex, corruption and cronyism, etc.!! This… Read more »
NO WORRIED MY FREN…. UMNO and BN CRONIES very soon will be disappearing in the THIN AIR HANGUS..
Excerpt from the Star’s latest:
We regret that our effort to give the public a voice has been tainted by this act.
I say: don’t cry for me, argentina, the truth is I hardly read you.
Same can be said for the top notches of MCA…MIA!!
Perhaps, they are hiding… they share the same objective, their preference for “Kotor Election”.
Star is no longer shinning after the poll they called have a 99% Malaysians support for Bersih.
I have bought my air thicket to return I shall be there!…because I believe, if no guts, there will be no glory. Time for change……
Agreed………. MCA NO GUTS …
I cannot believe 1 million people still reads junk.
They didn’t come to that poll to read the junk but to express their feelings!
I do think that it was rigged. As by 10.30am the ‘poll” exceeded 1 million votes.
How many readers they have in a day or in a short span of 3 hours? However it is not the first time that an opinion poll hosted by TheStar being (allegedly) rigged.
But if the same poll appear on prime time tv news where voters participate via SMS. I guess the authorities will go berserk and bang their heads.
It just to show that the Malaysians are bored stiff with everything that is going on around them – the Anwar Liwat court case which appears to have no end, the sex video of Anwar which is enjoyed by most Malaysians but (apparently) not taken seriously… etc. etc
So the Bersih2 show will be looked forward to by most Malaysians….
We must support Bersih2 and demonstrate to the world that we Malaysians can unite and organise a peaceful and civil rally when the time has come for us to do. Too bad that the international press is going to have a field day, capturing unique flavour of Malaysian civil disobedience, and putting the BN government to shame.
The contituition stated cleary FREEDOM OF SPEECH FREEDOM OF PROTEST. Why the home ministry and the PDRM ABUSE the power and start arresting and PUT U under ISA. This is unbecoming of a SATU MALAYSIA. ? Where is DEMOCRACY ? What about the GUY IBRAHIM ALI ? He should be arrested under the ISA. Speaking and treatening … others. His racial remarks should be condam. Why the Home Ministry the PDRM did not take action ? Where is MCA< MIC president comment ? Hopeless polical party in the goverment. All YES MAN !
Wearing YELLOW T….. Beware U fellows on the Jalan Jalan… U will be treated with free lunch in the p….o…l…i…ss. lock up. Mana ??? FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION….
People’s Paper? MCA’s paper LAH
Oh dear I miss this, otherwise there will be another vote for the Bersih 2.0 from me!!
The people should boycott the Star for treating those who participated in the Star poll for granted-it is an insult to readers of the star..why hide the truth of the poll?disgraceful and a stupid action for paper that boast of the highest record of readership.boycotte the star people
The Truth Bites Below The Belt!
So painful it is to hide the grimace, Barang Naik can now easily blame a stray dog!
Don`t worry, Star circulation is going down, thats why now they have to resort to special offer.
They probably had a hundred responses which agreed to the rally and since this number is embarrassingly low, a few more noughts were added to make it unbelievable, thereby killing two birds with one stone.
I highly doubt it is the work of ‘scripted routines or bots’ as online polls work on the basis of recording clicks-per-IP, not clicks-per-minute, thus your IP is rendered redundant once you click on the poll. Try it. Once you click it, can you click on it again? I might be wrong here, but it could be hugely stupid of a news agency like the Star to use the click-per minute system when there is no revenue involved
Why beat it (to leave hurriedly), Star?
If only MJ is around, Just Beat It!