Saya telah berpeluang menonton filem The Lives of Others pada Disember 11 baru-baru ini sempena Hari Hak Asasi Manusia yang diraikan secara rasmi pada sehari sebelum itu. Filem ini merupakan filem terakhir setelah lima filem sebelumnya yang ditayangkan kepada orang ramai semenjak 5 Disember 2011. Selepas setiap tayangan filem, terdapat ahli-ahli panel yang memberikan pandangan … Read more
The new civil service remuneration scheme recently announced by the government provides civil servants pay rises of between 7% and 13%. Coming just before the elections expected soon, it is clearly intended to influence the outcome of the elections. Umno leaders see members of the civil service not only as their ‘fixed deposit’ but also as … Read more
Since my retirement from active business, I have been more and more concerned about our increasing financial profligacy and irresponsibility. Every day new details emerge about how spendthrift we are as individuals, as households and as a nation. At the national level, the Auditor-General’s recent report pointed out that Malaysia’s national debt rose 12.3 percent to … Read more
The restlessness for change triggered by the Arab Spring, and subsequently spread to Singapore and Thailand (as shown in their recent elections), has made the recently concluded Umno General Assembly a focus of much attention. Observers were looking for clues to answer the critical question against the backdrop of an imminent election: Will Umno – … Read more
The UMNO General Assembly has come and gone. Most political observers had expected it to be the usual rah-rah event aimed at rallying UMNO members ahead of the coming elections and in support of the leadership of Najib Razak, the party president. They were right. The public were subject to yet another spectacle of sound … Read more