DATUK Mukhriz Mahathir was recently reported to have offered to release the confidential agreements between Tenaga Nasional Bhd and independent power producers (IPPs) to Parliament, but not to the public. This offer was immediately denounced by the DAP Member of Parliament (MP) Tony Pua as being “complete and utter bunkum”. Pua said even MPs cannot [...]

(Updated 2:45pm, 1 May 2011) TWO things alarmed me about the arrest of Adrian Yeo, who is Selangor exco Elizabeth Wong’s aide, in Miri on 16 April 2011 after the Sarawak elections. One was the number of police officers who publicly assaulted him before he was taken away. The other was how none of the [...]

THE federal government has prevailed yet again in keeping secrets from the Malaysian public. On 25 Feb 2011, the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision compelling the disclosure of an audit report and a 2004 water concession agreement. How are the audit report and the agreement significant? And why did the Court of [...]

WHY is the government charging someone for writing a satirical piece? On 2 Sep 2010, Irwan Abdul Rahman, a Malay Mail executive editor was charged over a blog posting entitled “TNB to sue WWF over earth hour.” Irwan’s posting on his website Nose4news was below a huge banner with the words “The truth is out [...]

(Pic by Kriss Szkurlatowski / sxc.hu) TWO weeks ago, I could not help feeling that there was little difference between the Catholic Church and the Barisan Nasional (BN)-led federal government. Both these powerful institutions have one thing in common — both have cultivated a long-standing culture of secrets. With the church, the damage has been [...]

“We hope the Bukit Antarabangsa residents will know the truth now that the full report has been released.” Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim announcing that the Public Works Department (JKR)’s investigation report on the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide would be declassified by the Selangor government. The report was released to the Ampang Jaya Municipal [...]