http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1070

"A ballot on whether to publish the draft standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats, as an International Standard by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) has not achieved the required number of votes for approval.

This is by no means over however,

"The objective of the meeting will be to review and seek consensus on possible modifications to the document in light of the comments received along with the votes. If the proposed modifications are such that national bodies then wish to withdraw their negative votes, and the above acceptance criteria are then met, the standard may proceed to publication."

It remains to be seen wither the comments and issues raised will be resolved in order for the negative votes to be changed, or whether some more dodgy actions are applied to make the countries that voted No to change their vote in February, even though the issues may not be resolved by then.

Even Singapore (where meritocracy is supposedly practiced), that recommendations by qualified technical committee can be ignored due to politics. It seems that Malaysia abstained for this round, but I don't hold much hope against the fact that Malaysia would have likely had political meddling by Microsoft also.

Update: It looks like there was meddling in the Malaysian vote. So a technical standards committee that votes 10-0 no with comments, becomes an abstain?

Update: International Herald Tribute quotes an unidentified source for Malaysia,

"A member of an advisory panel that voted on the standards issue in Malaysia, who declined to be identified, said Microsoft's lobbying in the country was unprecedented and reached into high levels of government.

Although Malaysia's Industry Standards Committee on Information Technology decided to vote against Microsoft's proposed standard, the Malaysian government overruled the panel and abstained in the end"

Using Microsoft products is akin to saying corrupt practices is ok. If you're against corruption and I know many of you in Malaysia are, you do have a choice as a computer user. Choose a vendor that does not condone corrupt practices. The choice against corruption can even be free.