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 [...]

ALL eyes are now on the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) to see whether a general election will be called following the Sarawak elections. But although BN retained its two-thirds majority in Sarawak, it suffered a decline in the popular vote. Meanwhile, political rivals DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) increased their seats from six and [...]

(Updated 2:45pm, 1 May 2011) TWO things alarmed me about the arrest of Adrian Yeo, who is Selangor exco Elizabeth Wong’s aide, in Miri on 16 April 2011 after the Sarawak elections. One was the number of police officers who publicly assaulted him before he was taken away. The other was how none of the [...]