Category: Contributors

Recently our Prime Minister had announced an allocation of RM180 million to uplift the economic standing of the Indian community. It was indeed a major announcement and a big step forward on the part of the government to help the Indian community. However in practice whether this allocation will help Indians in the long run… Continue reading Fatal flaw in the RM180 million allocation to Indians

The pre-Independence period It is most telling that fairly recently, two books written by two renowned scholars Syed Husin Ali and Anthony Milner on Malay society and history and bearing even the same title, namely The Malays, should begin their scholarly pursuit with the same query, namely “Who are the Malays”. 1 Both works find it challenging to define exactly who… Continue reading When did awareness of being Melayu begin?

Barisan Nasional may wish to keep on denying this but we can’t escape the fact that it is the BN’s divisive politics that has made our society into one so racially charged. In the Umno-led coalition government of 13 race-based parties, ‘Malay nationalism’ and dominance is touted as the only alternative to national unity. But… Continue reading How Pakatan Rakyat can move the country towards non-racial politics

I thank Datuk R. Chander, the former Chief Statistician of Malaysia, on his article titled ‘The Numbers Game: Stateless Indians in Malaysia’. This article was written in response to my article titled ‘450,000 stateless Indians in Malaysia, fact or fiction?’ Though I do agree with Datuk Chander that this issue concerns numbers but to the… Continue reading Stateless Indians: The eye cannot see what the mind refuses to know

The Human Rights Party in a 2010 meeting with the National Registration Department had informed the officers that HRP estimated stateless Indians to number 450,000 nationwide. The problem of exclusion is one universally acknowledged to be the source of various social ills in any given society. This reduced Indian participation in Malaysian democracy that arose… Continue reading Hindraf’s record in fighting for the stateless and disenfranchised

The Barisan Nasional government has announced a minimum wage policy. Mahathir Mohamad, a former prime minister, confessed in The Malay Mail his aversion towards minimum wages and shorter work hours. He argues: 1. Malaysians have “far too many holidays”, implying we work short hours 2. And that’s why productivity is low, because “when we work… Continue reading Why minimum wages and shorter working hours can be beneficial

  Malaysia practises a type of democracy where polls are won by candidates obtaining the most votes. However the winning candidate does not necessarily need to receive an absolute majority of all the votes cast. Barisan Nasional is one of the world’s longest ruling political parties and its elected rule is now entering the sixth… Continue reading Electoral roll needs to be scrutinized

  “If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves.” – Robert Pirsig, Zen and the… Continue reading It’s not about BN or PR — it’s about changing the system

Every Malaysian should know that Australia has a land mass 58 times bigger than peninsular Malaysia. But the Australian government and people have not permitted rare earth processing to take place on Australian soil. With a population that is vigilant and a government that answers to the people, Australia dares not permit a rare earth plant… Continue reading Lynas issue: Not learning from bitter experience

Today it is generally taken for granted that there are good things that people are entitled to have and bad things that they can expect or hope to avoid. A wide, and ever-widening, range of such entitlements and immunities are supposed to belong to everyone, everywhere and at all times, purely as a consequence of… Continue reading 450,000 stateless Indians in Malaysia, fact or fiction?