Posted in Liberty, Politics & government on July 16th, 2011 5 Comments »
I do not believe in specific individuals or organizations. I believe in institutions to make everybody honest, so-to-speak. I truly believe for governance in Malaysia to improve, political competition must flourish at the federal level. The first step is to have Barisan Nasional served some time in the opposition. While the blood reference is excessive, the spirit [...]
Posted in Politics & government on June 16th, 2011 1 Comment »
If one had opined that PAS was more of a centrist than UMNO 10 years ago, nobody would have believed it. It would have been an outrageous opinion. Yet today, it is no longer so foreign a prospect. The recently concluded PAS internal election is the latest evidence of the party’s march to the centre. [...]
Posted in Politics & government on February 2nd, 2011 4 Comments »
There is speculation that there will be a general election in the near future. Political parties across the board are shifting gears, as if they needed to after all the by-elections. I had a conversation with a friend several months back about the general election. Being away from Malaysia, I caught up with him, among [...]
Posted in Politics & government, Society on December 15th, 2010 No Comments »
As long as there are those who believe in supernatural explanations to rationalize the completely natural world and as long as there are public choices that require collective decisions, religion will be relevant in our society. The relevance of religion, however, is not a ticket to be used with impunity in the public arena. In [...]
Posted in Politics & government on August 26th, 2009 No Comments »
A contest between PAS and UMNO within conservative Malay settings is more likely than not a race to the bottom. It inevitably degenerates into a deplorable inquiry regarding which between the two political parties is more Islamic than the other. While doing so, PAS effectively resorts to exclusive politics that is clearly inconsistent to its assertion [...]
Posted in Politics & government on June 25th, 2009 2 Comments »
The proposal to form a so-called unity government between PAS and UMNO finally finds its rightful place — in a dustbin. Nothing guarantees any PAS member from rummaging through the trash to rejuvenate the idea however. If the dream still lingers, I am here to offer a dire possibility. If PAS-UMNO unity comes true, PAS [...]
Posted in Economics, Liberty, Politics & government on June 2nd, 2009 3 Comments »
Why? KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – An influential opposition leader running for a key post in Malaysia’s Islamist party has “guaranteed” a commitment to a free market economy and protecting the rights of the country’s multi-racial communities. Husam Musa, vice-president of the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), the country’s second largest party in mass membership, is [...]
Posted in Politics & government on May 11th, 2009 2 Comments »
Twitter has it that Nizar has won the court case! CONFIRMED! NIZAR IS STILL MB! IT IS ELECTION TIME! In time when Nizar is the third most popular tag in Twitter… …this is how PM Najib Tun Razak’s tweets look like: Thanks to Lulu for the idea.
Posted in Politics & government on April 7th, 2009 1 Comment »
In the aftermath of March 8 2008, TV3 kept repeating general election results from Sabah and Sarawak, seemingly in denial that something big happened in the Peninsula. They preferred to transmit limited happy news amid a torrent of bad news. The same trend is being repeated again today. In Buletin Utama produced by TV3, possibly [...]
Posted in Liberty, Politics & government on March 23rd, 2009 1 Comment »
Will there be change in Barisan Nasional? With Samy Vellu still manning the steering wheel of MIC,[1] it is not hard to present a case which BN would continue doing business as usual despite requirement for change along with internal almost Darwinian political rhetoric of change. But with Najib Razak expected to assume the post [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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