The UMNO General Assembly has come and gone. Most political observers had expected it to be the usual rah-rah event aimed at rallying UMNO members ahead of the coming elections and in support of the leadership of Najib Razak, the party president. They were right. The public were subject to yet another spectacle of sound … Read more
CPI introduction Below is the executive summary made by P. Waytha Moorthy, the founder of Hindraf and leader of the Human Rights Foundation Malaysia. Also uploaded is the paper presented before the US House Committee on foreign affairs and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. According to its brief, “Human Rights Foundation Malaysia is an … Read more
The repeal of archaic laws that have not been used cannot disguise the enacting of a law like the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 which will be debated today on its second reading in Parliament. And spin and political rhetoric are not substitutes for sincere actions in the public interest. Those who talk of transformation must … Read more
The Plan of Action for Malaysia (PoAM) Coalition urges the Government to immediately withdraw the Peaceful Assembly Bill, which is unconstitutional and more repressive than the existing Police Act. PoAM urges the public to join the protests organised by Kempen Kebebasan Berhimpun (KKB), the Bar Council and other civil society groups as well as overseas … Read more
Introduction by CPI Earlier on Friday we reproduced an article by Norani Abu Bakar that was first published in the New Mandala website and discussing the freedom of faith for Malaysian Malays. Norani was responding to a previous article by Joshua Woo which appeared on Nov 10. Joshua’s full-length article can be read at the … Read more
To most of the country’s independent political observers, it is very clear now. With the unveiling of the new proposed law restricting our right to peaceful assembly and protest, the Malaysian public has been taken for a ride on the promise of political liberalization and reform made by the Prime Minister on the eve of Malaysia Day … Read more
The road to democracy let alone the “world’s best democracy” is a road far less travelled when it is peppered with potholes of corruption and the authorities are selective who they prosecute. The unfailing flow of public corruption scandals involving government politicians has reached a crisis. The government cannot afford to brush them aside in … Read more
Will there come a day in Malaysia when all Malays can proudly proclaim that he chose of his own free will to be a believer of Islam instead of just being born Muslim because the Constitution says so, and kept forever a Muslim because of our strict laws? Introduction by CPI The article below appeared … Read more
By Barisan Nasional standard, the National Feedlot Center project scandal is no big deal, as it involves no more than RM300 million of public fund, but the intensive debate over it has allowed us to gauge the country’s current state of governance, and more importantly, whether there has been a paradigm shift among BN leadership … Read more
Perhaps more than anyone else Wang Gungwu has highlighted the complex dilemmas facing Overseas Chinese living abroad and their interaction with China. In a world dominated by Western science, Western thought and Western scholarship, Wang Gungwu has succeeded in being recognized internationally, as one of the world’s leading historians on China and Southeast Asia. Wang … Read more