Strange (and dishonest) BN math THERE is a ubiquitous campaign billboard in Port Dickson now. It says, “For 63 years, Barisan Nasional (BN) has protected you. Don’t destroy the country’s security.” The arithmetic is baffling. The BN was officially registered as a coalition in July 1974. As at October 2009, this would make the BN [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 30 June 2009: Amendments to three laws concerning matters of religious conversion will not be tabled in the current Parliamentary sitting, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today. “I was confident in April (that they would be tabled), but I have been proven wrong,” the de facto law minister told a press conference in [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 4 May 2009: A Melanau woman was given the green light by the High Court here today to challenge the Home Ministry’s decision to confiscate eight compact discs (CDs) of Christian religious teachings containing the word “Allah”. Justice Datuk Alizatul Khair Osman granted leave to Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, 27, to initiate the [...]

WHEN the National Fatwa Council issued two successive fatwas in late 2008 banning tomboys and yoga, outcry from the Malaysian public was palpable. Tomboys sneered, youth collectives protested, and Muslim yoga practitioners posed in defence. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the National Fatwa Council, and even Inspector General of [...]