Category: Commentary

The statement by the Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein that the presence of more illegal workers compared to the legal ones is a cause of concern and could undermine national unity reveals either an ignoramus or an idiot. Did he expect many less illegals given the super-efficiency of his Ministry and the other government agencies sharing… Continue reading Resisting any witch-hunt aimed at blaming the illegals

  What is most telling about the Royal Commission report on Teoh Beng Hock is its total neglect of the two major structural factors accounting for the tragedy – the Umno and MACC agenda convergence, and the racist character of the civil service. These ingredients together created a scenario where it is difficult to escape… Continue reading TBH inquisition reveals racist underpinnings

Introduction by CPI On June 30, 2010 the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered the government and police to pay RM1.4 million to Suzana Mohamad Aris, whose husband, Mohamad Anuar Sharip, allegedly was beaten to death while in police custody in 1999. – Human rights report, US State Dept Suzana was represented by P. Uthayakumar who… Continue reading Understanding Hindraf’s ‘Indian this, Indian that’ rationale

The Home Ministry had cited the more than 3,000 police reports lodged mainly by Umno operatives, Perkasa followers as well as their proxies against Bersih 2.0 as the basis for the authorities taking action against the July 9 rally organizers. However, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) is now turning the tables and asking the public to… Continue reading PSM ‘Super Saturday’ of police reports for EO6

What started off as a noble and modest rally in defence of fair and free elections has now been transformed into a larger movement for good governance and the defence of democratic freedoms and basic political rights. It is a transformation not brought about by a scheming group of political actors coming from the opposition… Continue reading Best on Bersih

  To Pak Sako: I refer to the article ‘Debunking the Bersih 2.0 Critics’ in the Centre for Policy Initiatives website (July 4, 2011). Kindly note that I am pro-Bersih; meaning I am for the constant and consistent cleaning up of the electoral process and system. Just because I do not subscribe to the manner… Continue reading Bersih dialogue: Accuse ‘bigotry’ when arguments fall short

I am honoured to be asked to deliver the keynote speech at Bloggers Universe Malaysia 2011. I attended the first one – BUM 2007 and have spoken at one or two other BUM events. I was asked to arrange for Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to speak at the BUM event last year. Some of… Continue reading Legislating Freedom of Information Act in parliament 

  CPI Introduction In final comments in the open letter addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, on his handling of the Interlok textbook issue, blogger Iraiputirran noted: “Under your Umno NEP system, many of the professors and PhDs that you produce can hardly write an article for a journal let… Continue reading Interlok: Your God in capital letter, my god in lower case

  Introduction by CPI Many Malaysians are not aware of NIAT and Hartal MSM, among two NGOs that have been in the forefront of civil society opposition to the use of Interlok as a compulsory Bahasa Melayu SPM text. Through a combination of hard research and public consciousness-raising actions, these two civil society organizations have shown… Continue reading Interlok: Indians 1 Chinese 0

  To say that Interlok is only offensive to the Indian community, and then again only because of the word ‘pariah’, is to ignore the bigger issues at hand. The real focus should be on how racist BTN doctrines are being subtly implanted in the minds of our nation’s youths. This can be readily seen… Continue reading Interlok: Say ‘No’ to indoctrinating our youth