A SHOW-CAUSE letter sent to whistleblower Dr Selva Vathany Kanapathi Pillai, who has been highlighting mismanagement at the Orang Asli hospital in Gombak, cites rule 19 of the Peraturan-Peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993. It states, amongst other things, that a civil servant cannot make any public statement or provide factual information about the [...]

THE Coalition of Good Governance (CGG) congratulates the Selangor government for maintaining the 25% civil society quota in the appointment of local councillors. However, we are concerned that there may be a repeat of last year’s incident where many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and professional councillors were left off the list. They were only confirmed much [...]

AYM logo (source: Facebook.com) WHERE lies the future of traditional media outlets in the face of blogs and other new media sources? This is not a new discussion, but my thoughts on the subject became more solidified over the past week. At the Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM) 2009 summit in Mexico City which I [...]

“Give me a chance. I will reform and I will make changes.” Then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, speaking at a press conference at the Umno general assembly in April 2009, days before he was made prime minister. He said he was aware that some parties expected him to act in an authoritarian [...]

Shhhhh… (© Paul Brunskill / sxc.hu) “YOU cannot quote me…I’ve discussed with my superior, we’ve decided that the progress is slow, so we don’t think it’s a good time to publicise it now, why don’t you write on other issues?” That was the response from an officer from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community [...]

IN response to Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Najib Razak‘s 6 April 2009 speech on encouraging a national dialogue through the media, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) asks for a more concrete set of commitments in realising the PM’s vision. Najib Razak (Pic courtesy of theSun)To foster a transparent “national discourse” that leads to [...]