THE next general election will be Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s first election as head of the Barisan Nasional (BN). Najib will also be leading the BN into its first general election after its worst election performance in March 2008. The Nut Graph asks political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat on how well Najib [...]

LAWYER-turned-politician Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim, 60, knows that politics can be a dirty game. He joined Umno and won the Kota Baru parliamentary seat in the 2004 general election. The party did not field him for the 2008 elections, however. After winning with a severely reduced majority, the ruling coalition under Prime Minister Tun Abdullah [...]

IF we were to believe everything the politicians are saying about hudud, we would come to three conclusions. One, that implementing the punishments prescribed under hudud is divine law that no Muslim can question, and hence is inevitable. Two, that hudud cannot be implemented in Malaysia because of the Federal Constitution and our multi-cultural composition. [...]

(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 [...]

YET again, in the tussle over “Allah” and Malay-language Bibles, the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government shows how unclear it is about what it means to respect the religious rights of non-Muslims.

PKR deputy president candidate Mustaffa Kamil Ayub announced on 9 Nov 2010 that he would give 48 hours for the party leadership to postpone or call off the PKR elections or face “firm action”. Almost two weeks later, he’s still in the race and affirming his loyalty to the party leadership. Whatever happened to Mustaffa’s ultimatum?