Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
dearest friends,
happy deepavali, first and foremost :D
my deepest apologies for the extended absence! finally, as my hits just past 1,000, i’ve gotten enough of my act together to launch the new home for this blog :)
i’ve had a truly wonderful time here. my first blogging adventure has been deeply gratifying, and a tremendously rich learning [...]
Dearest friends,
Firstly, a real big thank you to whoever you are for reading this. An even bigger thank you if you’ve been coming to this site for a while :)
By way of background, I started this blog to see what would come out if I started writing about things I cared about. You’ve helped me [...]
Much has been said today, maybe I’ll only add this (hopefully not duplicating anyone).
Looked at one way, Merdeka can be thought to be a rather colonial-centric celebration, much the academic discipline of post-colonialism.
Granted, born over 20 years after the fact, I am in quite a position to take for granted the freedoms that came with [...]
hi all :) hope you’re enjoying this big day for malaysia..
may be a big (oklah, medium) day for this blog.. i will probably try to spend a bunch of time working on technical issues, so may be ‘down’ for a while. kindly bear with..
i will be sure to provide you with an update soon, as [...]
Pak Lah has a heard before call for unity.
Also, I heard twice today on the radio Pak Lah’s comments on ‘Sejenak Bersama Pak Lah’ (which I must say has a lovely jingle). Sadly, it went on and on about how precarious our situation was, and how we must never talk about ethnicity, religion, etc [...]
Three policemen have been suspended indefinitely for the video recorded beatings at the Putra Heights police station.
This move is a welcome sign that the police are serious about cleaning up their force. I hope they see that these efforts can exist side by side with, rather than in lieu of the IPCMC.
Also, if this [...]
Some quick notes on parliament.
The PM and DPM order a hush-hush on the Customs-Parliamentarians spat. I appreciate them trying to bring order to this out of control feud, but asking people to shut up (altogether too common a practice these days), doesn’t seem all that convincing a way to menangani the situation?
Chief instigator, Jasin [...]
Today’s big news is of course the RM10b to be spent on the LRT. I confess to not currently being in the best position to analyze and comment on projects like these, but I do hope it really improves public transport and weans us off our dependence on cars and petrol.
Worth highlighting: theSun carries [...]
In today’s NST:
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysians should learn about both good and bad events in the country’s past to understand the proper context of why the events happened, and why certain decisions were made.
I couldn’t agree more DS. I’m not sure we would agree as to the reasons behind [...]
You never know what to expect, browsing theSun website :P :)
New Petaling Jaya mayor Mohamad Roslan Sakiman chaired his first full-board meeting today (Aug 30, 2006) with a pledge to look into the city’s on-going billboard controversy.
Upon directing the legal and public relations departments to probe into the matter, Mohamad Roslan said he would also [...]
Umno Youth leader Datuk Seri Hishammuddin’s latest feelings are expressed in the Star’s article: Ex-PM a delegate at assembly ‘against Malay culture’
Sadly, there was no elaboration anywhere on what this rather ambiguous statement meant, or which aspect of Malay culture DS Hishammuddin was referring to. We can only assume that he had actually thought out [...]
Gerakan President Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik comes out stronger than usual today. Bernama headlines: “Do Not Blame Dr Koh If Penang Malays Are Backward, Says Dr Lim”
From the Star:
“But of course there are areas in Penang which are not developed. Part of the reason is that there are many Malays who don’t want [...]
Just wanted to point to something I had missed earlier – an article about how the Home Affairs and Women, Family and Community Development Ministries appear to be taking the human smuggling problem in our country more seriously.
It’s a real problem, and in my last job, I came across a lot of stories about [...]
I’ve waited for a while to write on this in the hopes that a copy of the video would be made online, but still no signs.
Some of the most troubling bits come from Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Mohd Johari Baharom. Quotes from a NST article:
Meanwhile, in Putrajaya, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Mohd [...]
This comes late, but I attended the event on the Emergency (Public Order and Preventive of Crime) Ordinance 1969 (EO) organized by the Bar Council last Saturday.
Some basic points: this ordinance is similar to its famous cousin the ISA in that it basically allows for indefinite detention without trial :(
A huge difference is [...]
While Pak Lah gallantly sounds the clarion call against corruption in OIC countries, his own backyard suffers terrible blows.
theSun carries on on its own noble campaign against the corruptions of Selangor and the former MPPJ today. Their website (which has a host of debilitating inconsistencies with its print version) only carries the short front [...]
The ever growing Customs-Jasin/parliament spat seems to have found its way to the front pages of the two leading English dailies today, both of them running headlines somewhat sympathetic to the Customs side.
The NST lead:
BARISAN Nasional backbenchers at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday delivered a stern message to potential critics: That they had little [...]
malaysiakini breaks the news:
Nearly 60 percent (79 of 136) of Umno branches in Kedah’s Kubang Pasu division have nominated former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to contest to be a delegate for this November’s Umno annual general assembly.
This comes fresh after our friends at the NST carries a story – kononnya also ‘representing’ Kubang Pasu [...]
Zainon Ahmad certainly has some good things to say in his column today. For starters, he argues that attempts to build a truly Malaysian nation have been “haphazard, halfhearted and uncoordinated” (but stops short of pinpointing the dominance of ethnocentric political parties as the root cause of this).
The question also arises:
All our leaders [...]
Going back to island mentalities indeed.
Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon feels himself in the hot seat. Still in the midst of this rotation business, he happens to make the comment:
“We do not question the fact that Umno leaders fight for the rights of Malays, as the MIC leaders highlight the plight [...]
Syed Nazri writes on some of my favorite topics today – the police, Mat Rempits and Myanmar.
He first of all points to an old problem: police salaries. RM 260 mil to be pumped in, and the base salaries for new constables being recruited? RM 690 – RM 1,647.11.
Perhaps that big lump of cash [...]
Article in theSun highlighting newspeople who talk on doing away with the need for press licenses, a particularly onerous part of the Printing Press and Publications Act; theSun’s been pretty consistent advocates for freedom of the press (except where they get pretty touchy on some stuff), so good on them.
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Gerakan president Datuk Seri Dr [...]
Backbenchers Club (BBC) acting chairman YB Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar slams Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsuddin Osman for wanting to ask the Attorney General a question :|
TS had said that he wanted to consult with the AG to clarify what an MP’s immunity really meant; the context of course is [...]
Former United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Datuk Param Cumaraswamy has some interesting comments on the call for an inquiry into the 1988 judicial crisis. He says that only a royal commission would be feasible, but:
“Even then could such a commission be able to compel the high dignitaries involved [...]
I’m glad the NST has given some attention to the matter.
In one article, debates abound as to who the real Mat Rempit is, with some quarters denouncing the others as degenerate impostors :P and trying to present themselves as the clean Mat Rempit – drug free, law abiding, hailing back to the 80’s, etc. [...]
Wah, marahnye DS Nazri. NST puts in bigggg letters:
“I don’t give a damn. The Kubang Pasu Umno Youth members who made the call to have me sacked from Umno and Cabinet are confused, stupid, ignorant and have no guts.
Sigh, a bit kasar right? But we can’t be surprised, coming from this man.
DPM DS [...]
TDM says he’s now a pariah and is being prevented from talking to his “old friends.” Dear me. The NST probably had a ball just printing ‘Dr. M’ and ‘pariah’ in the same headline.
While the decision on whether to let TDM attend the Umno General Assembly as a normal delegate is due to [...]
Well, I’m sure by now you’ve read about MCA’s resoooounding support for Umno and the small-medium enterprises (SME) loans matter (which seems a little too easily won to be really significant? But we’ll see).
Not much to add there, except highlight some differences in coverage. Our MCA paper headlines “Ong: PM has affirmed healthy Umno-MCA [...]
There’s a whole lot of news out there about how Khairy was summarily bashed at the MCA general assembly, BN Youth Chief DS Hishammuddin’s anger towards MCA Youth, and ‘best’ of all, Khairy’s open defiance.
I don’t think any number of ‘it was misunderstood!’ protests will convinces us that Khairy was not originally trying [...]
malaysiakini’s coverage alone of the MCA general assembly could keep me busy for days :P Full comments in due time I hope. For now, a quick flash on the PM’s remaks from our ever active online newspaper:
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reaffirmed his position that the clauses regarding religion in the Federal Constitution will not [...]
