Posted in Liberty, Politics & government, Society on August 29th, 2010 2 Comments »
Opinions abound and they are bound to hit some sensitive nerve. When it hits, there goes another police report. There goes another demand for an ISA arrest. The right-wing group Perkasa has been at it for some time now, calling for the arrest of various individuals for challenging what the group considers as Malay rights. [...]
Posted in Politics & government on June 20th, 2010 No Comments »
There is mutual frustration between those in government and those who identify themselves as ordinary citizens in Malaysia. The frustration originates from the incapability of both to understand the other side’s challenges. This makes the gears of a huge machine — the government — stuck. It needs to work again. The period immediately after the [...]
Posted in Politics & government on April 25th, 2010 No Comments »
There will be a big parliamentary by-election today in Hulu Selangor. By-elections have always been big in Malaysia but the fact that Pakatan Rakyat is fielding a giant makes this edition important by its own right. Zaid Ibrahim is not an obscure name. Important or not, I do not feel the excitement of by-elections anymore. [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on March 29th, 2010 1 Comment »
Malaysia requires multiple reforms. Development in recent years proves that moving away from the status quo is incredibly hard, however. This is due to opposition mounted by beneficiaries of the current system, as well as beneficiaries of circumstances. As the Najib administration puts in effort to address criticism directed against the flawed affirmative action, it [...]
Posted in Politics & government, Society on January 17th, 2010 No Comments »
How many times have we heard the statement that if so and so did not exist, certain problems would go away? Specifically, one side would blame UMNO and Barisan Nasional for racial and religious problems in Malaysia, while the other would blame PKR and its allies for the instability in the country. The truth is [...]
Posted in Economics on July 5th, 2009 No Comments »
Liberalization is on the move. Yet, the move hardly deserves to be called a liberalization effort. Notwithstanding how truly free the local economy is, the federal government led by Barisan Nasional is finally addressing the shortcomings of affirmative action as practiced in the country. The past few weeks have seen the kind of market liberalization [...]
Posted in Liberty, Politics & government on May 16th, 2009 3 Comments »
The ugly episode in Perak raises several issues revolving around the idea of separation of powers. One of the least discussed powers separation matters is closely related to the concept of federalism. The fiasco clearly highlights that the state civil service is practically dependent on the federal civil service. This dependency is abhorrent to the [...]
Posted in Politics & government on April 30th, 2009 1 Comment »
The concept duality is helpful in understanding context a particular issue is set in. Without the idea of cold, how does one define the idea of hot? Without evil, how does one appreciate good? Without tyranny, how does one taste the sweet nectar of liberty? While such monochromic perception has its advantage in rationalizing the [...]
Posted in Liberty, Society on April 21st, 2009 5 Comments »
Why do some people refuse to pay income tax? Perhaps the word ‘some’ understates the gravity of the matter. The Ministry of Finance just recently shared that out of approximately two million Malaysians within taxable income bracket, only just over about half of them paid their due last year. This has prompted the Internal Revenue [...]
Posted in Politics & government on April 18th, 2009 No Comments »
When Najib Razak said by-elections are distracting attention from things that matters like the economy, he might risk contradiction if he had said Barisan Nasional would participate in the Penanti by-election, made possible by the resignation of former Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Mohamad Fairus Khairuddin. By indicating that BN may forfeit the by-election, Najib [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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