Are vernacular schools standing in the way of national unity? (© Sigurd Decroos / sxc.hu) AGAIN, the issue of abolishing vernacular schools in favour of a single stream system has been raised. As before, the argument is that this will inculcate national unity. Single stream advocates say the only way the different races can learn [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 30 June 2009: Most Malaysian youths keep up to date with the news, but almost half say they mistrust the sources they get it from, according to the Merdeka Center‘s 2008 National Youth Survey. Ibrahim Suffian “There is skepticism over the news they are getting in the mainstream media as well as the [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 28 May 2009: Chin Peng, the former secretary-general of the outlawed Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), is not a Malaysian citizen but a British national, according to historian Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim. Khoo said Chin Peng, whose real name is Ong Boon Hua, was born in 1923 in Sitiawan [...]

The National Art Gallery (public domain / wikipedia.org) IN the last decade or so, the National Art Gallery (NAG) — or Balai, as it is informally known — has accumulated a dismal reputation. In Malaysian art circles, the institution has been accused of shirking its duties as a national culture custodian, being remote from both [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Dec 2008: Jerlun member of parliament Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has suggested an education system built on nationalistic spirit to unite the people and prevent racial polarisation in the country. He said with this system, all schools would be under one system only, i.e. the Malaysian or National Education System but using Bahasa [...]