SO it would seem Malaysians can look forward to having yet another piece of legislation in their lives in the brand new year of 2012. This time around, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government has promised it will introduce a Race Relations Bill, to be tabled in Parliament in March. The Race Relations Bill, according to [...]

ON 4 Nov 2011, Penang became the second state in Malaysia, after Selangor, to enact a Freedom of Information (FOI) law. Neither the Penang nor Selangor FOI laws are perfect and both Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-led state governments have already been criticised for not doing better. That’s no different from the public criticisms against the Barisan [...]

IF there is one word that best explains and describes the virulent reaction towards Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, that word, for me, would be fear. That’s right. Fear. In fact, it would seem from the continuing attacks against the Bersih 2.0 chairperson that this fear is such that she should be detained without trial under the [...]

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. [...]

HOW does one insult Islam in Malaysia? And how does one insult Muslims in Malaysia? Over the past few years and increasingly over the past months, the state, politicians and pressure groups like Perkasa have demonstrated just how to do either one or both. For the most part, these incidents are an insult to Muslims [...]

WHY were the three 8TV Ramadan ads so offensive? “I don’t get it,” more than one person said on the social network they were on. “Chill guys,” 8TV executive director and Media Prima chief executive officer of Alt Media Ahmad Izham Omar told critics on Twitter. “Don’t overthink the ads. It’s written, produced and directed [...]