Category: Media Monitor

Mahathir backs moves to punish minorities and reward pro-government voters, companies Last week, the Malaysian government announced its allocation of public university seats for the upcoming academic year. Only 19 percent of Chinese students got places, along with 4 percent of Indians despite the fact that the two together make up about 30 percent of… Continue reading Post-election payback time in Malaysia

Malaysia’s 13th general election, scheduled for May 5, is shaping up to be the tightest race in the country’s near 60-year history. Behind the divisive rhetoric between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR), neither camp has formulated a viable, long-term solution to one of the country’s most deep-seated problems: fiscal… Continue reading Fiscal risks to Malaysia’s polls

CPI Introduction We are reproducing a commentary on the role of Singapore as a haven for illicit financial flows, including from Malaysia, by Singapore-born Tan Wah Piow who is currently practising law in London. Tan fled Singapore in 1976 after being jailed for eight months for ‘rioting’ while he was a student leader campaigning for democracy… Continue reading Sin City – “the jurisdiction of choice by people like us”

With a possible, some say probable, watershed and regime change for Malaysia’s increasingly competitive political system in the pipeline, it is useful to look into the election system and its mechanisms. The media, fascinated with personality clashes, campaign highlights and the outcome of elections, don’t look too often into details of the electoral law. And… Continue reading Is Malaysia’s electoral system ready for GE13

 KUANTAN, Malaysia—In the Internet era, even a 64-year-old retired math teacher can become a threat to a large company. That, at least, is the experience of Lynas Corp.  For over a year, the Australian rare-earths mining company has come under fire from Tan Bun Teet and his band of tech-savvy campaigners on Malaysia’s South China… Continue reading Mining firm, ex-teacher battle over rare earths

CPI Introduction One of our readers sent this lament from an anonymous source of the way in which the racial factor works in this country and has been exploited by those that wield power. Although it may be read as an alarmist, biased and exaggerated analysis of how racial and religious dynamics are pushing the… Continue reading Efforts by the state to make the minorities halal

  CPI introduction As our country struggles to understand the Islamic system and as the religious rhetoric gets more shrill and strident, all of us – Muslims and non-Muslims – would do well to reflect on the lessons that can be gleaned from one man’s epic odyssey and his attempt to reclaim his life from… Continue reading How the Ayatollah’s fatwa changed the life of Salman Rushdie

Deepak Jaikishan names well connected lawyer in murder cover-up Perhaps the most crucial – and quoted – document seeking to tie Najib Tun Razak, the current prime minister of Malaysia, to a murdered Mongolian beauty named Altantuya Shaariibuu was a sworn declaration filed on July 1, 2008 by a Kuala Lumpur-based private detective named Perumal… Continue reading Malaysian carpet dealer names a new figure in scandal

CPI forewordThe Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) application for a reinstatement of the injunction against Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) operations will be heard in the federal Appeal Court tomorrow (Dec 19). SMSL filed for a judicial review on a court decision to lift the injunction on the LAMP temporary operating licence earlier obtained by… Continue reading The Toxic Waste That’s Not In Our Back Yard