Following the hike in fuel prices, interest rates and, more recently, electricity rates, there has been growing concern about the return of the inflation spectre. They crimp consumer confidence, while businesses attempt to balance their books by passing the burden of higher costs to the consumers. Download
Maintaining a low and stable inflation rate has become one of the challenges in the macroeconomic management of most countries. Among others, Malaysia has a very unique experience in terms of inflation. The economy has experienced episodes of high (1973-1973, 1980-1981) and low (1985-1987) regimes of inflation, and was able to contain low and stable … Read more
Freedom on the marchReflecting on the lawBy Shad Saleem Faruqi, The Star Wednesday May 14, 2008 The Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 has had a stifling effect on the growth of the media and on the creativity of media practitioners. Now there is an increasing number of voices calling for change. THE Printing Presses and … Read more
The need to choose an optimal strategy at this juncture in history has exigencies that are more pressing now than they have been before. We do not have to choose one strategy to the exclusion of others, but one strategy would tend to have a dominating flavour. The cost of a wrong choice (or the … Read more
The 2007 Budget was drafted against the background of an increasingly uncertain macro-economic environment. Acknowledgingthat, the government has revised its 2006 estimates for real GDP growth down a tad to 5.8% from 6.0% previously. Publication: MIERScan, 11 September 2006. Download
Razaleigh bent on unseating Abdullah By S JAYASANKARAN, Business Times 13 May 2008 He’ll contest presidency in December party polls; says Umno must look beyond its own race for peace, stability WHEN Malaysia’s second premier Abdul Razak Hussein died in 1976, his successor, Hussein Onn, looked for a deputy from among the three elected vice-presidents … Read more
National Service call to parentsBy Prof. Dr Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad RasdiMay 13, 2008 I have been calling for a public inquiry on all the National Service deaths since six letters ago. Yet nothing has come out from our unconcerned Lee Lam Thye or Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil, the director-general of National Service, Ministry of Defence. … Read more
The Civil Society Initiative for Parliamentary Reform (CSI-Parliament) stresses that a loyal opposition is a legitimate and necessary part of any system of democracy, including our constitutional monarchy. We strongly criticise the threatened use of the Sedition Act 1948 and the leveling of accusations of treason against anyone who has a critical view of our … Read more
Sedition and the first ‘Royal ISA detainee’ NO HOLDS BARREDRaja Petra KamarudinSunday, 11 May 2008 In honour of Umno’s 62nd Anniversary today, allow me to educate you a bit on some of our forgotten history and the unsung heroes of the fight for Malaya’s independence from Britain. Ironically, the Sedition Act was a British instrument … Read more
ContradictheoryBy Dzof Azmi, The StarSunday May 11, 2008 A FEW years ago, when I was at a conference in Langkawi, my co-workers and I were bored of the formal dinners that acted as the stodgy end to every working day. One night, we hopped into a car and drove around the island, and somewhere near … Read more