FORMER prime ministers Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, when he was still deputy premier, have all proclaimed Malaysia to be an Islamic state. Despite that, most Umno parliamentarians have avoided answering the question, “Do you think Malaysia should be a secular or an [...]

THE Nut Graph started posting six questions to 222 Members of Parliament (MP) in January 2010 for its MP Watch: Eye on Parliament project. The project — a likely first of its kind in Malaysia — aims to record MPs’ positions on key issues of democracy as well as provide MPs a platform for voters [...]

I’M upset that the Malaysian football team is not playing in the Fifa World Cup in South Africa. In fact, Malaysia has never made it to the Fifa World Cup. Ever. Doesn’t the rest of the world realise that they cannot expect the Malaysian team to compete on an even playing field? Don’t they realise that they need to [...]

IN envisioning federal power, one of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s trickiest points is where to place the DAP (read, a Chinese Malaysian) in the executive line up. As prime minister? God forbid, not in this Malay-Muslim majority country. As deputy prime minister? But what about PAS?

“Because the Rajas so easily handed over Singapore, Penang and Pangkor to the colonialists and then the Malay states, the People (“rakyat”) could no longer accept a system that only gives power to the Rajas and the People are not given any role in the country’s politics.” FORMER Umno president and Prime Minister Tun Dr [...]

IT was somewhat of a joke when the Malaysian government finally released the political biography, Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times, for sale here. Barry Wain (pic courtesy of Barry Wain) In the five months since November 2008 when 800 copies were shipped from Hong Kong to Port Klang and placed on hold, Malaysians [...]