I REFER to the incident in Parliament on 14 Dec 2009 whereby a substantial number of Members of Parliament (MPs) failed to turn up for an important debate and the voting of the 2010 Budget. As a result, the budget was passed by a thin majority of 66-63. However, the pertinent issue is not the [...]

PERLIS-born Nam Ron has been called “one of the freshest voices declaiming in contemporary Malaysian theatre”. The talented playwright won Best Original Malay Script at the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards for his Perlis gangster history, matderihkolaperlih, in 2004. He has since been multiply-nominated for his plays Lembu (2005), Laut Lebih Indah Dari Bulan and WIP [...]

ALOR STAR, 2 Sept 2009: Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak today gave his assurance that Article 52 of the state constitution would not be used to suspend Kota Siputeh assemblyperson Datuk Abu Hassan of the Barisan Nasional (BN).          “Using Article 52 would only complicate things further. From the very beginning, we [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 2 July 2009: While other Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders today glossed over Kedah DAP’s pullout of the state government, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had a different view. Lim, who is also Penang Chief Minister, said the situation in Kedah was “desperate” enough that the party’s top leadership would be meeting to decide [...]

ALOR STAR, 1 July 2009: After the conflict between the DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in Penang, the Pakatan Rakyat government may be facing yet another challenge in Kedah. Kedah DAP chairperson Thomas Su Keong Siong has threatened that the party no longer found it necessary to be in the Pakatan Rakyat government in [...]

PETALING JAYA, 26 June 2009: Penang and two other Pakatan Rakyat-led states – Kedah and Kelantan – were among six states that received the lowest allocations from the government’s stimulus package. Citing data available from the government’s Treasury website, DAP’s Jalan Tembikai branch deputy chairperson Steven Sim said, for example, that Penang was only receiving [...]