Archive - 17 August 2002

Stop dragging your feet on the English-language switch, DAP chief Lim Kit Siang tells Chinese BN parties. He finds it unbelievable that no decision was made even after three meetings. Lim also says Chinese Malaysians oppose the move as they are not convinced of its educational soundness.

It's now the official party stand. Gerakan becomes the first Chinese BN party to declare that the controversial language switch will not benefit future generations of Malaysian students and calls for other means to improve English proficiency among students.

After being cleared of a sedition charge, Keadilan Youth leader Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor now feels he has a case against the Malay daily which published his purported 'seditious' remarks. He has given instruction to his lawyers to file for defamation against the newspaper.

The fearsome haze of 1997-98 is now back to choke the people of Sabah and Sarawak. When the haze gets this bad, everything has to be put on hold for health and security reasons. Like the previous encounter, the two East Malaysian states have to start counting their economic losses.

Changing times and channels of information have raised new issues for the media industry. One is whether party organs should be bound by the same professional ethics. Here's what some editors have to say on the proposed media council.

Permusuhan politik di antara Umno dan PAS dua parti politik utama orang Melayu semakin merunding. Semuanya kerana mahu mendapatkan sokongan orang Melayu. Bunga-bunga ke arah ketegangan yang lebih serius sudah dapat dilihat dalam beberapa pilihanraya kecil seperti di Lunas, Kedah, Indera Kayangan di Perlis dan yang terbaru di Anak Bukit dan Pendang di Kedah.

Off he goes to jail for exposing 'state' secrets, but Keadilan leader Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor (pic) has definitely freed a bunch of worms canned by the authorities. Drawing a parallel to Spycatcher , SALBIAH AHMAD argues that the reason for secrecy here has been overtaken by events and it is now a public interest matter.