http://www.malaysiakini.com/news?ennews and views that matterenMon, 22 Mar 2010 23:35:01 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/feeds/columns.xmlhttp://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/127159'Why can't all Americans have the same access to healthcare to those enjoyed by members of Congress?' is a popular question on the ObamaCare debate.At the time of writing I am following the debate...Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:56:04 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/127159http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126977Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism in Singapore recently shot to fame for all the wrong reasons, as he was reportedly called by the island state's Internal Security Department to explain his...Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:03:59 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126977http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126885A story that was narrated to me by a friend recently has some cogent lessons for us on our journey towards 1Malaysia: Two friends from KL decided to escape the current heatwave and take a tour to a...Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:45:39 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126885http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126794There is something in common between the May 13, 1963 racial riots and the March 8, 2008 general election. In both these tension-filled incidents, the BN coalition in its arrogance, refused to accept...Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:47:52 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126794http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126763As if Barisan Nasional hadn't done the nation enough damage by corrupting and co-opting civil institutions like the police, judiciary and press, now it has apparently decided to involve the Agong in...Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:08:43 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126763http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126670The prime minister singlehandedly espouses and seeks to execute the 1Malaysia agenda: People First, Performance Now. But I say, in retort: it is still 1Malaysia with 2Coalitions and 3Peoples...Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:19:53 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126670http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126650In January, a plantation in Zimbabwe owned by Malaysian company Matanuska was seized by a retired general. After harvesting and selling off the crop, General Chimonyo then claimed ownership of the...Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:12:28 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126650http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126416Browsing through a major bookstore in Kuala Lumpur some years ago, I chanced upon a book with a catchy title: World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global...Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:04:52 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126416http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126248The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and...Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:13:02 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126248http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126236In my annual trips home, as the plane descends into KLIA, seeing those tree-lined highways, undulating hills, sprawling green and suburbia laid out like a checkers board, I sometimes ask myself why...Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:56:20 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126236http://www.malaysiakini.comThu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0730http://www.malaysiakini.comhttp://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126129In the wake of the 2008 general election, Barisan Nasional looked to be well and truly on the back foot, having been deprived of its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in 40 years...Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:22:47 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126129http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126055Did the attorney-general (AG)and the Al-Islam magazine (a publication with Umno links) act in concert, in a cynically timed, party-political propaganda move against the backdrop of the looming Sarawak...Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:16:30 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126055http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126033As a continuation to my earlier column about truths that we ignore last week, allow me to focus on the how we cannot ignore the truths related to the use of the 'Allah' word in Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak...Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:06:54 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/126033http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125998Umno's counter-offensive to the March 8 general election outcome has been to claim that the minorities - having tasted power unprecedented hitherto - are challenging Malay institutions and eroding...Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:38:04 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125998http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125983 Man has no nature, what he has is history - Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism...Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:42:17 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125983http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125748 When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. - PJ O'Rourke What a difference two years can make. To appreciate the ramifications...Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:17:25 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125748http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125726When I read Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's recent call for the media to work for a united Malaysia it only proved yet again that politicians are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. As a media woman...Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:47:54 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125726http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125540A long-time fan of Formula 1 and thus, happy to watch races wherever they're staged or whatever teams happen to be competing, I'm mystified by Malaysia's involvement in such a spectacularly expensive...Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:07:58 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125540http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125443Ignorance and truth are important words in any language or culture. One talks about knowledge or actually its lack, and the other sits positioned within the perennial human knowledge of truth. When...Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:51:22 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125443http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125364Will a hundred Perkasa-type NGOs solve the Malay dilemma? Or is it a moot question? Rather, what is the Malay dilemma, if there is any?It must be a difficult time for the common and insignificant...Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:09:16 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125364http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125360P Gunasegaram's recent article in The Star daily, 'Persuasion, not compulsion', sparked outrage in some sanctimonious Malaysians. My criticism is that he did not go far enough but he couldn't, as...Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:13:40 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125360http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125237Li Jun Jie, a Chinese national, made headlines in Malaysia last December after she was erroneously detained for eight days. The Malaysian police later conceded 'mistake', and the victim accepted the...Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:06:53 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125237http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125133Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria (below) has reminded Malaysians that the prescribed hudud punishment for premarital sex is 100 lashes. Yet another ustaz, Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, seeks to impose...Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:45:19 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125133http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125112Money and politics made headline news during the recent Chinese New Year holidays. A political secretary to a senior minister resigned and no reasons were given. Another headline drew attention to a...Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:55:45 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125112http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125029As an Australian and a critic of the Umno/BN regime, I was both delighted and disturbed by last week's protest by Pemuda Umno Malaysia and others against interference in Malaysia's business by 50 of...Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:24 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/125029http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124907In my last column, I defined what I called uniformed incompetence or what can be called 'idiocracy,' or a bureaucracy of idiots! These are public officials who do not know the laws and proper rules of...Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:06:37 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124907http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124861I have been following with interest, yet again, with the development of a new Malay-centric interest group called Perkasa. Is its creation a necessity in an age where in the emerging force of change...Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:34:05 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124861http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124858The decline in the moral values of our society is laid bare with the increased reports of dumped babies and abandoned old people. The case of a newborn baby, burned and deposited in a waste disposal...Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:10:29 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124858http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124656With the revelation by Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein Onn of three Muslim women having been caned for having illicit sex, the country is again under severe international scrutiny. Granted, it would...Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:46:57 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124656http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124582If Dr Mahathir Mohamad lives to greet 2020, he may see not only his son Mokhzani listed among the country's richest individuals but also many more brothers, daughters, and kith and kin of his Umno...Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:00:23 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124582http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124557A new year, a new beginning. Or so it should be, except many Malays prefer to cling on to their old world, where nothing changes and where they are the only victors. They are duped into the...Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:26:50 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124557http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124492Much as I welcomed the formal protest by 50 Australian members of parliament against the Umno/BN government's latest trial of Anwar Ibrahim, I wish they had been a lot more outspoken.Not that they...Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:38:46 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124492http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124482When I first saw 'The Wizard of Oz', it made a writer out of me. Salman RushdieMalaysians consume a varied diet of films, from thrillers, comedies, classics, history and science fiction to romance...Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:13:37 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124482http://www.malaysiakini.comThu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0730http://www.malaysiakini.comhttp://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124290Utusan Malaysia is pro-government and anti-Anwar. That's the line we've been reading so far in news reports and letters on the Anwar-Saiful trial. I suppose that makes most online news-sites pro-Anwar...Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:46:16 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124290http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124282Spring Festival, popularly known as Chinese New Year in Malaysia, is the most important event in the Chinese lunar calendar. In China, 'chun yun', which literally means spring transportation , is a...Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:51:58 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124282http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124200It is said that children learn by observing their elders. So, in the event the child exhibits flaws in character, who should be held responsible - the parents, school or the government?To pass the...Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:31:03 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124200http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124092I must confess I've always felt somewhat half-hearted about celebrating St Valentine's Day. Nothing against love or romance, you understand. It's just that the whole thing seems a tad suspect. Like...Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:11:34 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124092http://www.malaysiakini.comThu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0730http://www.malaysiakini.comhttp://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124016LOL. For a very long time, I did not know what this SMS-speak acronym meant. So, I asked my daughter for a translation, and she replied: 'LOL Dad is for Laughing Out Loud! I could not help but also...Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:52:20 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/124016http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123920When Kartika (below) opened her can of beer for a refreshing brew that 'reaches the parts other beers cannot reach', little did she realise the truth of that slogan, and opened a can of worms instead...Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:09:28 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123920http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123916 Man proposes, god disposes Thomas a Kempis, 'Of The Imitation of Christ'While America awaits The Super Bowl, Malaysia awaits The Super Trial II this week to listen to the arguments concerning the...Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:52:25 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123916http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123782Contrary to what Nasir Safar, now a former special assistant to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, said at a 1Malaysia forum in Malacca the other day, the Indians did not first come to the Malay...Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:57:31 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123782http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123766Politics and pleasure make a potent cocktail that can desecrate a nation and all things we hold sacred. The history and story of cocoa is a good example.We binge on processed and packaged chocolates...Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:26:24 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123766http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123686Annual surveys of public perception of ethical professions by Roy Morgan Research in Australia consistently show that Australian journalists are as least trusted as used-car sellers and insurance...Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:24:48 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123686http://www.malaysiakini.comThu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0730http://www.malaysiakini.comhttp://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123553At the risk of repeating some of the sentiments I expressed back when Anwar Ibrahim was charged with Sodomy II, his latest trial is just one more in an unending series of Umno/BN sodomies on the...Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:39:53 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123553http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123472The Ministry of Education last week highlighted the top 20 schools in the nation as part and parcel of their educational excellence programme under the NKRA agenda. That is a very good starting point...Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:39:21 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123472http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123402I am incandescent with rage at the remarks of Perak BN senior exco member Hamidah Osman for suggesting that females cannot become menteri besars. She is leading us back into the Middle Ages. The oft...Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:25:33 +0800http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/123402