Sedition Act 1948, an old law with too many flaws By Mindful Mariner, Saturday, 10 May 2008 Sedition Act 1948, ISA 1960, OSA 1972 (Act 88) A Fettered Press, & No Freedom of Speech The Sedition Act 1948, The Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) and the Official Secrets Act 1972 (Act 88) (OSA) all of … Read more
The Cheek of NUJ! Where is Ahmad Shabery Cheek? Saturday, May 10, 2008ROCKY earlier reported this: I’m always a supporter of the National Union of Journalists, so when its president Norela asked me last week to become a panelist at its World Press Freedom Day forum at the NST this morning, I said yes. The … Read more
Malaysia’s Islamic court makes landmark ruling to let Muslim convert return to Buddhism The Associated Press Thursday, May 8, 2008 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: A Malaysian Islamic court allowed a Muslim convert Thursday to return to her original faith of Buddhism, setting a precedent that could ease religious minorities’ worries about their legal rights. Lawyers said … Read more
For Pete’s sake, let’s pray posted by joshua on May 8th, 2008 Photo credits: Mob1900from mob1900.blogspot.com Lord Denning in his book entitled ‘Freedom under the Law’ expressed the value which the law places on freedom of speech in the following manner: ‘We hold that no man has any right to dictate to another what religion … Read more
CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN It is with great concern that we, representing several Civil Society Action Groups, note that Raja Petra Kamarudin, Editor of news portal and blog, “Malaysia Today???, has been charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions court with sedition in connection with an article he wrote and posted … Read more
A brief quality assessment exercise conducted among officers of Malaysia’s Public Works Department (PWD) on outsourced quantity surveying services affirmed the view that the consultants’ performance was generally unsatisfactory. The performance dimensions cover from preliminary estimates and cost plans to final accounts. The result of this purely academic exercise generated sufficient interest among top decision-makers … Read more
Two Different Policy Responses to the Asian Financial Crisis During the1990s, Asian businesses in developing nations acquired short-term funds in global markets. Much of this dollar denominated debt was unhedged. Over time, the quality of the investments made with these funds deteriorated. For example, short-term borrowing was used to acquire assets with a long-term payoff, … Read more
The importance of oil and gas to the modern Malaysian economy seems readily obvious. The twin towers that stand majestically in Kuala Lumpur are a towering testimony. Oil can be a curse, not a blessing, if this precious resource is mismanaged, as shown by the experience of some countries. In the case of Malaysia, one … Read more
Among all the factors that influence the rapidity and substance of economic growth, it is now clear that state institutional capacities (and related bureaucratic competence) for economic governance are among the more decisive (Evans and Rauch 1999, Rauch and Evans 2000). Among the countries that have sustained an impressive record of economic growth in recent … Read more
This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to economic development. Taking the history of Malaysian industrialization as its empirical case, the paper assesses the unintended consequences of redistribution policy, on the one hand, and migration policy, on the other, for the limited upgrading of the country’s electronics industry. … Read more