Open-ended vs. close-ended democracy?

IT is perhaps destiny that Maria Chin Abdullah ended up being one of the steering committee members for Bersih 2.0, the civil society movement calling for free and fair elections in Malaysia. One of her earliest memories is of independent Malaya’s first general election in 1959 when she was just three. Maria remembers being with [...]

Protestors outside the Gombak Timur Syariah Court (pic courtesy of Women’s Aid Organisation) “(Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin) is a lawmaker and he is breaking the law, but the way the issue is highlighted makes it seem like there’s nothing wrong.” “(He) should step down and should not represent Malaysians (in Parliament) any more. That would [...]

Updated 6.30pm on 7 June 2009 Documentation of PAS’s resolution on Sisters in Islam SHAH ALAM, 7 June 2009: Sisters in Islam (SIS) should be investigated and declared “haram” if it is found to be anti-Islam, the 55th PAS muktamar declared today. The Islamist political party also said SIS members should undergo religious rehabilitation should [...]

THE Coalition for Good Governance (CGG) condemns the arrests of Wong Chin Huat, Mohamad Sabu, three activists who attempted to deliver a cake to the Prime Minister’s office to commemorate Altantuya Shaariibuu’s 31st birthday, and this morning’s arbitrary arrests of over 50 citizens in Perak. These arrests have to end now as they are undemocratic [...]

(Family silhouette by jayofboy / sxc.hu) ON the surface, the cabinet’s decision to stop unilateral conversions to Islam by one parent is a welcome resolution. But questions remain as to whether it can be effectively implemented. One issue is whether a cabinet opinion is enforceable in a court of law when there are no legal [...]