Malaysia? BACK when he was deputy prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged that Malaysia would become “a role model to the Islamic world”. He said this in the middle of the 2009 Kuala Terengganu by-election, which Najib’s Barisan Nasional (BN) eventually lost to Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Najib’s pledge was poetic, since a “role model” [...]

IT is a cardinal rule in the game of musical chairs that once someone has occupied a seat, no one else can validly sit in it. The Federal Court however, appears to think otherwise in declaring the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir the rightful Perak Menteri Besar. This is despite the [...]

Is using the Sedition Act and Internal Security Act the best approach to Nasir Safar’s alleged remarks? DATUK Nasir Safar‘s alleged racist remarks have sparked calls by Barisan Nasional component parties for Nasir to be charged with sedition and even detained without trial under the Internal Security Act. Buckling under such pressure, Home Minister Datuk [...]

Book on Muslim women no longer banned THE High Court has been demonstrating their ability to be independent over the past few weeks in striking down several decisions by government institutions. On 22 Dec 2009, the High Court censured the police for wrongfully arresting participants of the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor II (Apcet [...]

DATUK Karam Chand Vohrah, better known as KC Vohrah, almost didn’t study law. “I was supposed to have been a medical student,” the respected former Court of Appeal judge says. “I won an award to study medicine in India but when I arrived there, I was rejected because I had problems with one eye. They [...]

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (file pic) DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim has failed in his bid, at the Court of Appeal, to obtain evidence from the public prosecutor about his alleged act of sodomy with a young former aide. Layperson reactions have naturally been cynical, dismissing the judgment as political in nature. Indeed, the Court of [...]