THE Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ)’s recent ruling disallowing businesses that serve alcohol from hiring Muslims has raised many questions. Is it a law? A guideline? Just advice? Has it been rescinded? Who enacted the law that the ruling is based on? Why wasn’t it enforced before? And why the furore now?

DATUK Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz is being hailed as a hero in some quarters for his “Malaysian first, Malay second” remarks in an open letter responding to Utusan Malaysia’s Awang Selamat. The minister in the prime minister’s department also said that “being civil to the opposition is the right thing to do in a democracy” as they are also elected by the people. But has Nazri always been civil to the opposition?

KARPAL Singh. Lim Guan Eng. Raja Petra Kamaruddin. Wong Chin Huat. These individuals have all been arrested or charged under Malaysia’s draconian Sedition Act. The Act was passed in 1948, at the height of the British colonial government’s struggle against the communists. But more than 60 years later, the wide-ranging and subjective law is still being used, whenever it’s convenient, to silence political opponents.

HOW reliable is the recent claim by Perak mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria that a political party was drafting a new constitution threatening the special position of Malay Malaysians? In 2006, he had also spread unfounded allegations that Muslims had been converted and were to be baptised.

THE most logical and obvious solution to addressing pregnancies out of wedlock – sex education – still seems to escape our decision-makers and politicians, whose suggestions have not just become increasingly ridiculous but also highly punitive.

ARE support letters by elected representatives and councillors necessary to maintain good public relations, or are they a political liability that are open to misuse and abuse?