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Why I’m Returning Home to Malaysia

By Idzwan Husaini
8 June, 2011 | LoyarBurok

While The Malaysian Insider asks readers to reveal why people choose to leave or stay in the country, Idzwan Husaini, a medical undergraduate shares why he is coming back to stay in the country. Hopefully in the near future.

I have been studying in the United Kingdom for almost three years now and I have enjoyed the enormous sense of freedom, liberty and equality that is widespread in this country.

Freedom of expression is celebrated here. Rather than oppressing the movement or suppressing the voice of the minority, they are given a chance to prove to the majority their abilities and worth. I was surprised to see an entire family of grandparents, parents and little children joining the throng of people watching the parade during the London Gay Pride summer last year. Rather than teaching their kids to hate people who have, and are proud of their differing sexualities, the parents chose to expose their children to a completely different lifestyle so they can later choose what is best for them in the future. Freedom of expression is allowed to take place in all forms and shapes. I do not remember ever hearing any agencies involved in banning books, films, songs or even cartoons for that matter! Continue reading “Why I’m Returning Home to Malaysia”

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Civil disobedience, race barriers and the Bersih rally

By Keruah Usit
Jun 8, 11 | MalaysiaKini

COMMENT A writer friend of mine in Kuala Lumpur is a firm supporter of the upcoming Walk for Democracy rally on July 9, despite having been arrested during a candlelight vigil against the Internal Security Act (ISA) last August.

Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, announced on its website that “Bersih 2.0 has been actively advocating electoral reform but our demands have fallen on deaf ears.

The time has come for those mandated to administer the nation to ‘listen to the voices of the rakyat’. There is a clamour worldwide for greater democratisation of societies and we would invite those in power to heed those voices”.

This Bersih rally is a sequel to the first in 2007, involving some 40,000 Malaysians, with a cameo involving riot police, copious tear gas and water cannon. The first rally captured the voters’ imagination and contributed to the startling general election results the following year. Continue reading “Civil disobedience, race barriers and the Bersih rally”

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Najib: Good governance easier said than done

June 08, 201 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak told Muslim leaders today that achieving good governance was “easier said than done.”

The prime minister told the seventh World Islamic Economic Forum in his speech that this was due to political influence, inequality, strong family ties, greed, inadequate regulations and poor enforcement.

“Even the fear of God at times can do little to ensure… integrity,” he said in Ankara, Kazakhstan.

However, the Barisan Nasional (BN) chief said that his administration was committed to pursuing good governance to make Malaysia more competitive. Continue reading “Najib: Good governance easier said than done”

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Because the nasi lemak rocks

By C. Choong
June 08, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

Negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darahku,
Rakyat hidup, bersatu dan maju,
Rahmat Bahagia, Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita, selamat bertakhta.
Rahmat Bahagia, Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita, selamat bertakhta.

It’s been almost 14 years since I’ve sung the national anthem. Fourteen. Guess that’s what happens when you’re shipped off to an international school system. All I remember about it though is the fact that half the school would get the lyrics wrong (kurnia……SANNNNNNN), and the other half would get it correct because we just spent the last music class being corrected about it. One half would try to outdo the other in emphasising the fact it was KAN… so the poor song was obviously butchered in the process of all this. Continue reading “Because the nasi lemak rocks”

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Malaysia bored by drawn-out sex trial of opposition leader

By Julia Yeow
Jun 8, 2011 | M&C News

Kuala Lumpur – The sex trial of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has become a bore-fest for a worn-out audience, despite having all the makings of a highly charged scandal, full of sordid details of illicit dalliances, accusations of lies and conspiracies.

When Anwar, 63, was initially charged with sodomizing his 25-year-old male aide in 2008, local and international media were clamouring to get the details as an eager public soaked in what one paper called the scandal of the decade.

What heightened the interest was that it wasn’t the first time fingers were being pointed at Anwar, a married father of six and grandfather to two.

In 1998, Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister and subsequently found guilty of sodomizing his former driver and using his position to cover it up. Even if consensual this sexual act is illegal in Malaysia.

He was jailed, but released six years later after a higher court overturned his convictions. Continue reading “Malaysia bored by drawn-out sex trial of opposition leader”

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‘Hometowns’ battle to claim their celebrities

By Hu Yongqi and Hu Yinan
2011-06-07 | China Daily

Cashing in by claiming a star as one of their own can boost tourism revenue and give regions bragging rights, report Hu Yongqi and Hu Yinan in Beijing.

As Li Na ended her campaign in France to become Asia’s first Grand Slam singles winner, another battle commenced at home.

Li Yanping, the new champion’s mother, was on a trip to her uncle’s native county of Xinhua in Hunan province on Saturday when the final began in Paris.

When she arrived, reporters, tennis fans and local officials were waiting.

National television repeatedly showed scenes of cheering crowds around Li Yanping with red banners proclaiming, “Come on, sister Na, a good daughter of Xinhua”.

A daughter of Xinhua? There’s certainly a family connection, but Li Na was born and raised in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. People there felt that their thunder had been stolen. Continue reading “‘Hometowns’ battle to claim their celebrities”

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BN on last legs of power, says Kit Siang

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
June 08, 201 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Lim Kit Siang claims Barisan Nasional (BN) is on the verge of electoral defeat, and that proof of this was an Umno minister’s acceptance of the possibility that the country’s next prime minister could come from Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The DAP parliamentary leader said this in reference to minister in the prime minister’s department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s recent claim that Hadi was aiming to replace Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as PR’s prime minister-designate.

In his analysis of the just-concluded PAS polls, the Umno supreme council member had said a glaring trend had emerged in the usually conservative Islamist party — a newfound lust for power. Continue reading “BN on last legs of power, says Kit Siang”

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Mahu wujudkan negara berkebajikan? Langkah mayat ‘politik perkauman’ dulu

By Amaluddin Zhafir

Roketkini.com
8 June 2011

8 JUN – Entah apa yang dimaksudkan bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia bila beliau menulis bahawa pertandingan jarang menghasilkan keputusan “menang-menang,” dengan semua yang bertanding berjaya.

Apa yang jelas, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dalam blognya merujuk kepada muktamar PAS lepas yang mana menurut pandangannya, ada yang menang dan ada yang kalah.

Kenyataannya itu ada asasnya. Tetapi melihat kepada tuduhannya yang mengatakan Pengerusi DAP Karpal Singh berjaya menggugurkan matlamat PAS untuk menubuhkan negara Islam, nampaknya kenyataan tersebut agak dangkal yang datang daripada seorang tokoh besar. Continue reading “Mahu wujudkan negara berkebajikan? Langkah mayat ‘politik perkauman’ dulu”

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Female journalists break silence on sexual violence

By Kanya D’Almeida
Jun 8, 11 | MalaysiaKini

On Feb 11, while the world was celebrating former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s fall from power, CBS television correspondent Lara Logan was being “mercilessly assaulted” by a group of well over 200 men in a dark corner of Tahrir Square.

“For an extended period of time they raped me with their hands,” Logan, who was ripped away from her bodyguard by a mob and beaten before being attacked, said last month in an interview with the New York Times.

A public statement co-drafted by Logan and CBS chairperson Jeff Fager meant that she “didn’t have to carry the burden alone, like my dirty little secret, something I had to be ashamed of,” Logan said in one of her few interviews on the attack, two months ago.

Though Logan is not the first – and is unlikely to be the last – journalist to be subjected to such brutality, her story exposed the silence around such crimes, which happen far more frequently than the media world has acknowledged or that women themselves are willing to admit. Continue reading “Female journalists break silence on sexual violence”

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Purpose, meaning, choice

By Jerome Martin
June 08, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 8 — Nobody should feel obliged to stay or leave, wherever one might be.

Be it your birthplace, country of residence or somewhere you’re just passing through, no one should be compelled to be someplace s/he’d rather not be.

Which is why this entire business of our government begging Malaysians around the world to return disturbs me. You can ask someone to loan you 50 bucks as a favour. You can’t ask them to uproot, change their life plans and come home just to render some kind of “national service.” Continue reading “Purpose, meaning, choice”

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Knowledge not fear in religion

By Dina Zaman
June 08, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 8 — A reader asked me in an email what my thoughts were on the “… religious management in the country…” and what I would do about the disarray.

I was quite stumped by the question. While I read in dismay about what was happening to our country, I had to admit, I didn’t have the answers.

Malaysia is obsessed with titles and credentials, and I was a highly improbable person to answer such a question. Perhaps, I replied to the reader, this was something best left to politicians, activists and religious authorities.

He wrote back, “… but if you could, what would you do?”

It is obvious to most thinking Malaysians that there is a serious disconnect between the real lives of Malaysians and the perceived notions of our lives by (self) appointed leaders of our faiths and authority. And that there are gaps among ourselves, within our own communities, and when combined, these only aggravate the situation. Continue reading “Knowledge not fear in religion”

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‘Someone had to say it’

By Aneesa Alphonsus
June 8, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Twenty years ago, a book like Someone Had to Say It by Tunku Abdul Aziz would have been ‘launched’ very quietly or not all since his strong opinions about the ruling party were written without any apologies.

It would have been deemed seditious and defamatory. A book like this would be heard only in the grapevine . Purchasing such an elusive book would only be possible via various non-governmental organisations or from some other related gathering.

Today, you can walk into any good bookstore, and find it standing upright on the shelves. The times they have changed indeed, Tunku Abdul Aziz writes about what many other Malaysians are thinking but lack the avenue and perhaps writing skill in order to express it.

He describes Some Had To Say It as a book which, “… cover a wide range of topics; social, economic, political and ethical issues that I felt to be in need of ventilating in a responsible, open and direct manner. Continue reading “‘Someone had to say it’”

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Nazri’s claim that Hadi is gunning for PM’s job latest example of scent enveloping UMNO and BN leaderships on the last legs of power until 13GE

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri’s claim that the PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is gunning for the Prime Minister’s job strikes discerning Malaysians as the latest example of the debilitating loss of confidence enveloping Umno and BN leaderships that they are on the last legs of power until the 13th General Election.

Until the 308 political tsunami of the 2008 General Election, the very thought that the Prime Minister would not come from Umno would be a completely unthinkable notion.

Now a senior Minister of the Najib Cabinet is seriously canvassing the scenario of UMNO and BN losing federal power in Putrajaya and, for the first time in the nation’s history since Merdeka in 1955, a Prime Minister not from Umno after the next 13th general election.

Nazri of course had his ulterior political motive and agenda in making his allegation that Hadi is gunning for the PM’s job, but the overwhelming public impression from Nazri’s claim is not about its veracity (and Hadi has already rebutted him) but the shocking fact that more and more Umno and BN leaders are coming to accept the possibility that the next Prime Minister after the next general elections will not be Najib or come from UMNO.
Continue reading “Nazri’s claim that Hadi is gunning for PM’s job latest example of scent enveloping UMNO and BN leaderships on the last legs of power until 13GE”

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Politics ruin religion and religion ruins politics

By Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
June 07, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 7 — The turmoil in the Middle East started off with the uprising in Tunisia to get rid of their corrupt leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The man, his family and cronies enriched themselves at the expense of the Tunisian people. They built palaces for themselves and cornered businesses to themselves. In the meantime the emerging youths found that with their professional degrees that they possessed, they were left unemployed.

They had to peddle wares, hawking them from makeshift sheds. Even this was forbidden and their trade was smashed by the authorities. One disappointed, dejected and helpless youth committed suicide by torching himself. The ember of revolt was thus lighted.

Tunisia has been a secular state since it achieved its independence and became a republic in 1957. The revolution that took place was not religious in character. It was secular and supported by all citizens irrespective of their religious denominations. Continue reading “Politics ruin religion and religion ruins politics”

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PAS’ welfare state goal is debatable

By Terence Netto
Jun 8, 11 | MalaysiaKini

COMMENT The comments that emanated from Umno on the outcome of the PAS elections last weekend yet again demonstrated that when it comes to a discussion of ideas, their commentary is bereft.

Its crappy tone hit a nadir when Dr Mahathir Mohamad speculated that the person most elated with the results of the PAS elections would be DAP chairperson Karpal Singh.

Trust Mahathir to squeeze the soft underbelly of DAP-PAS relations by dredging up a remark made by Karpal in the prelude to the 1999 general elections – that Malaysia could only become a Islamic state over his dead body – to remind voters of how far PAS had now come in abandoning its Islamic state goal to appease the secularists in DAP.

In a long career politicians are allowed a rash comment or two, provided the person apologises as Karpal did. Continue reading “PAS’ welfare state goal is debatable”