Sim Kwang Yang

Despite the various efforts over the last century to curb and shackle this community spirit for various political reasons, the Chinese press has shown resilience as if it has a life of its own.

Obviously, the police procedure, as well as the corporate culture of the entire police department, is horrendously out of sync with the changing times.

If you are not beastly to your fellow men, how can you survive and get ahead? So if you cannot fight them, you might as well join the kiasu pack.

The rising tide of suicide cases is a tell-tale sign that all is not well in Malaysia. The causes cannot merely be analysed in mere medical terms. There must be deep-seated social factors at work.

It does seem such a waste to die in a burst of flame, crushed into an unrecognisable pulp, extricated from the hideously twisted wreck of a motor vehicle by firemen using chainsaws.

In all the societies that I can think of, nothing is seen as more detrimental to the virtue of a woman than her prostituting herself.

Beneath the glamour of the bright lights and the tourist belt of Kuala Lumpur, there is an underworld populated by the underclass and the shadier realm of Malaysian life.

The fact is that facts about corruption are everywhere, except that they are either opaque or hidden. That is why corruption is the most open of secrets.

Having been disciplined for so long in the various educational institutions, our young graduates would have lost their capacity for anger and rage.

The latest episode in this political soap opera smacks of the kind of intrigue that must have been the daily fare in the palace courtesan politics in days long gone.

What attracts clients to the loan sharks is indeed the speed and ease with which the loans are given. But it is best never to get entangled with them in any way, lest we lose our pound of flesh.

Mesmerised and hypnotised by the coupling effect of the carrot and the stick, most editors and reporters just play along according to the rules of the game.

Money and power are carnivorous; they tend to consume the soul of those who acquire them in large measures. The more the rich and powerful have them, the more they need a bigger fix of face.

The newspapers provide the canvas upon which the political, social and cultural narratives of Malaysian Chineseness are painted and celebrated.

When elections are about personalities, the campaign will inevitably degenerate into a mud-slinging match. The Gerakan presidential contest today is an example.

For your average urban middle-class Malaysians, they have to slog away at a salaried job, trying to pay bills on time and pinching pennies where they can just to survive from month to month.

Air is the first necessity for human life, ahead of food and water. Surely, I am entitled to decent air, as my most fundamental human right!

As with the weather, human affairs in Malaysia also go through seasonal cycles. In Kuala Lumpur at least, August is the season for that annual orgy of patriotism.

It is indicative of the lack of meritocracy in Malaysia generally, that in any political election, the best man seldom wins.

For PAS to even dream of going for federal power is laudable. The proper role of an opposition party in any self-respecting democracy is that of a government-in-waiting.

The core issue here is not merely the personal fortune of Terence Gomez. It is about the role of the university and its relation to the society at large, especially its uneasy relation to political power.

In a few days' time, on June 1, the Dayak communities in Sarawak will be celebrating their Gawai Dayak. This story is dedicated to them.

The greater tragedy lies in the fact that critical minds can only see the poor performance of the MPs without seeing how our entire political process needs an overhaul.

What we hope to see in malaysiakini is healthy debate, unlike the debates that go on in the Parliament, or in the oppressed official press.