THE next general election will be Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s first election as head of the Barisan Nasional (BN). Najib will also be leading the BN into its first general election after its worst election performance in March 2008. The Nut Graph asks political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat on how well Najib [...]

TAN Sri Rafidah Aziz, 68, has been a towering figure in Malaysian politics for the past three decades. Born in Selama, Perak, in 1943, she became at age 30 Member of Parliament for Kuala Kangsar, and remains the incumbent. In 1987, she was appointed international trade and industry minister. Her political career has not been [...]

POST-Bersih 2.0 rally, what has Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak been saying to defend the government’s actions of repressing dissent? It would seem that since the 9 July 2011 rally and after arresting more than 1,900 people, including detaining without trial six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members, Najib’s responses have been disingenuous, narrow-minded, and [...]

WHEN Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi declared that the new media was negatively spinning issues about the government, perhaps he was referring to examples such as this YouTube video by nasilemak2020. I’m certain the Umno vice-president, who is also defence minister, also had other examples in mind when he called on Umno cybertroopers to [...]

*Corrected on 31 May 2011, 10.30am: This was earlier published as “partly free”. THE Barisan Nasional (BN) government is hardly an exemplary proponent of press freedom. Its wide ownership and control of much of the Malaysian press probably contributed to Malaysia’s “not free”* rating in a recent survey by Freedom House, a global press watchdog. [...]

PERKASA president Datuk Ibrahim Ali‘s call for a “crusade” against Christians who challenge Islam’s position was disturbing, to say the least.  As was the unsubstantiated front-page Utusan Malaysia report that Christian leaders had pledged to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia. What should be the right response to such hurtful and false speech? Should [...]