WALKING around Bangsar one balmy night six years ago, I bumped into filmmaker Amir Muhammad and film academic Khoo Gaik Cheng sitting with a rather foppish Mat Salleh man. It took less than an hour of my being introduced before all of us banded together to bully the hapless Australian Mat Salleh to prove that [...]

THIS year will mark the eighth, and final, Boh Cameronian Arts Awards, an annual event highlighting and acknowledging the achievements of Malaysian artists and performing groups. The Cammies, as the awards are fondly called, honour arts practitioners for achievements within the categories of dance, music, theatre and musical theatre. The awards have to close because [...]

KAM Raslan grew up and lived in the United Kingdom for some 20 years before returning to Malaysia. “I think I could say I was an economic migrant,” the one-time filmmaker and director says. “I was just starting out in film, and it was very hard to get in. Things [in Kuala Lumpur], on the [...]

“(Umno’s reform) means getting rid of the power and control mindset…It means empowering the rakyat and not feeling scared that this empowerment will come back and haunt you because if you govern well, the rakyat will not punish you.” Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth chief aspirant and Rembau Member of Parliament. He talked about the need [...]