Who We Are

Many people wrote to ask who the Pahlawans are and what is this Visit Malaysia Cyber Campaign (VMCC) all about. As such we think that it is time for us to put some thoughts together.

This is a self-organizing group and we did not start with a clearly-defined agenda or a concrete philosophy. People just got together because the situation demands that the nation focuses its energy on constructive activities.

The Group just evolves, so are our projects. To us this is still a work-in-progress, an open architecture that takes on worthy causes, and may never have a final destination. However, in our hearts, we just want to be useful citizens, playing our part to safeguard our prosperity and improve our lots.

Causes we support include:
The Gift of Life: Donate Organ Campaign
Creating a New Beginning for Children Abused or Abandoned

Let us now attempt to capture the spirit and philosophy of the original people who made up the Pahlawans and also the profile of those we wish will join us.

Pahlawan means warrior in our national language. A Warrior is loyal to his duty and pays his allegiance to the country. That is our spirit -- as citizens of Malaysia, as beneficiary of the land that nurtures us, we think that each of us has a duty to shape and make our society better, after all our society is us. If we don't care about the state of our society, we don't care about ourselves.

The citizenry is a dynamic force, the character of the people determines the kind of physical environment we live in, the competitiveness of our economy, how participatory is our political process and how vibrant and responsible is our civil society.

We are grateful to our grandparents and parents for working hard to achieve nationhood and gave us all an education. We are also grateful to the many opportunities in our land that enabled us to become entrepreneurs, building our nests and careers. For all that we received from our parents and society, we know that we have a responsibility to make our society better for our children. Because our parents have made it better for us, we now must get to work to make it better for our future generations.

Thus Pahlawans get together to DO THE RIGHT THING, for the community and therefore, for himself or herself.

We worry about Malaysians' confused priorities and the obsession people have on short-term gains. People have become narrow focused and extremely calculative in trading effort for tangible material gains. We also worry about how the cohesiveness of our community has been eroded by over-addiction to materialism and vested interest, sidelining morals and virtues which once-upon-a-time formed the wealth of our heritage.

Pahlawans want to bring these back, to show that morals, virtues are not old-fashioned, they are indeed the most important goals that should grab our priority. We seek to give voice to these values, and seek to promote them, through our projects.

By the way, the Pahlawans are hip and progressive people. We are not a bunch of tradition-preservation conservatives. We interact primarily on the internet, the philosophy is egalitarian. Everyone has an equal voice, there is no organization, no chairman, no nothing. We don't stand on ceremony, we are not afraid to point out inconsistencies and we would persist on our conviction eventhough our message may not be politically correct.

Anyone who share our philosophy are welcome to play an active role, anyone wanting a break can take a retreat with our thanks. Everyone who joins this group believes and wants to do something, and is a leader in his/her own right.

All Pahlawans are volunteers. We support all worthy causes, any policy and anyone who place the well-being and interest of Malaysians and Malaysia above all. They do what they do because IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. They know that recognition is in their hearts and their conviction, not some remote decoration. They delight in ideas and alternative viewpoints put forward by other Pahlawans.

To date, what you see on our website and the many linkages we have formed with the government and other goodwill groups have been accomplished purely by voluntary efforts.

We appreciate all the warm and encouraging feedback we receive in our guestbook. These are affirmations people took the trouble to put down, these gestures show that there are many people out there wanting to reach out to us and cheer us on.

However your encouraging words would mean more to us, and to our spirit only if you become an active Pahlawan Champion. You can either do so by becoming a Pahlawan Link Partner, actively bring traffic to this website, and help to get more people to focus and contribute to the email campaign, or simply become a Pahlwan Champion, by forming your own network and advance this cause.

So don't ask us what can you do for VMCC :) We know you will come with a wealth of experience, ideas and goodwill. You can do a lot by being creative and think out your own initiative.

For now, Pahlawan only has one goal: SENDING 50 MILLION EMAILS WORLDWIDE to promote "Think Holiday, Think Malaysia!". Help the campaign in your own special way to achieve this goal.

If you share these convictions, become a Pahlawan right this minute. Use the resources of the Pahlawan network to make Malaysia a better place for everyone. Like us, you will find this experience most enriching and fulfilling.

Yours truly

On behalf of Pahlawan

Foong Wai Fong, Partner Megatrends Asia	Jack Soo, CEO K Yip Associates
George Lee,CEO GeoVision Productions	Daniel Tan, Business Dev. Manager Digital Concept Sdn Bhd
Gerard Lim, CEO BRG Interactive Digital Media Sdn Bhd	Peter Tseng, Managing Director Robomatics (M) Sdn Bhd
Pat Lu, President & CEO RAYMA Management Consultants (M) SB	Su Chin Hock, Managing Director Perfect Food (M) Berhad

(in alphabetical order)

Read PAHLAWAN THOUGHT COLLECTION here