KUALA LUMPUR, 13 June 2011: The Malay peninsula was colonised exactly 500 years ago this year, and its significance in our history should be marked in some way by universities and scholars, lawyer Tommy Thomas said. “We should be having public seminars and academic conferences to remember and discuss this aspect of our history on [...]

PETALING JAYA, 7 June 2010: The New York Times (NYT) has retracted its statement that an advertisement in its paper, congratulating Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor for an award, was placed by the Malaysian government. NYT director of public relations Abbe Serphos said in an e-mail sent out on 1 June, “In our internal systems the [...]

Investigating frontpage stories after the Sibu by-election… (© clarita | morguefile.com) (Corrected at 5.55pm, 18 May 2010) THE day after Sibu fell to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in a closely-watched and fought by-election, what kind of frontpage stories greeted Malaysians in the press? With some newspapers relegating the news of the week to a second [...]

Colin Nicholas PETALING JAYA, 4 May 2010: The Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (JHEOA) has been involved in the Islamisation of Orang Asli for decades, said Centre for Orang Asli Concerns coordinator Dr Colin Nicholas. “One of JHEOA‘s main objective is to convert Orang Asli to Islam. They don’t say it openly but their budget [...]

PETALING JAYA, 30 April 2010: The police have denied the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) a copy of its written guidelines on the use of firearms despite requests following a shooting that happened last year. “The police have told us that there are written guidelines. However, it is a very confidential document,” Suhakam commissioner Datuk [...]

DATUK Seri Najib Razak has marked his one year in office. Since becoming prime minister, much has taken place under his administration, from the propagation of 1Malaysia to economic measures such as the New Economic Model. His one year as premier has also been marred by the rising tide of racial and religious tensions. What [...]