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 … Read more
Friends have asked me what prompted the extraordinary hatchet job that Dr Chandra Muzaffar attempted on the Bersih 3.0 movement and its leaders in his recent article misleadingly titled ‘Bersih and the Quest for Human Rights’ published in various media. What was in the article that could be of academic or scholarly value to warrant … Read more
Rencana tentang Skim Persaraan Swasta (PRS) memang patut dibaca oleh lebih ramai rakyat Malaysia yang perlu bersedia untuk masa hadapan mereka. Sejumlah besar pekerja ada mempunyai simpanan di dalam Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) tetapi dengan peningkatan kos sara hidup, jumlah yang terkumpul tidak mencukupi dan perlu ditambah sama ada dengan caruman yang lebih tinggi … Read more
Perth may be the most isolated capital city in the world but the Malaysians living there are certainly not isolated from what is happening in their country, Malaysia. Last Saturday more than 500 of them showed they were concerned for clean and fair elections in Malaysia and turned up for the global Bersih 3.0 … Read more
The Bersih 3.0 rally at Dataran Merdeka has thankfully passed without any major outbreaks of violence but there are recorded scenes which show how it could have so easily gone the other way. A report by Aljazeera showed bloodied demonstrators and the unwarranted use of teargas and water cannons on sections of the crowd. According … Read more
Malaysian media civil society organisations condemned the arrest of two journalists and police violence towards others who were covering the sit-down protest for free and fair elections in Kuala Lumpur on 28 April 2012. Their joint media statement quoted media reports, video feeds, Facebook postings and tweets by the said journalists or their colleagues indicating … Read more
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 … Read more
We the undersigned wish to express our profound disappointment at the numerous obstacles that have been put in place by government agencies, especially the Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), to prevent the planned peaceful gathering of Bersih 3.0 on 28 April 2012. We recognise that these agencies are either … Read more
With the general election imminent, one key question remains yet unanswered: Will the Barisan Nasional respect the outcome of the polls and ensure a peaceful transition of power? This is the sixty four thousand dollar sensitive question – unasked in our repressed mass media, largely unexplored by political analysts, never-to-be-publicly wondered but lurking in the … Read more
By CPI We are reproducing excerpts from two recent articles in The Guardian exposing attempts by the departing British government to cover up embarrassing state crimes carried out during the final years of its empire, including in colonial Malaya. The newspaper reports concern the discovery of sequestered records that have put the British colonial … Read more