SUDAH banyak yang diperkata, diperdebat dan didemokan tentang Seksualiti Merdeka. Banyak juga yang menuduh bukan-bukan. Pesta seks bebas lah, mengajar orang supaya jadi gay lah, dan macam-macam tuduhan yang kreatif. Sayangnya, ramai orang termasuk wartawan, lebih suka menuduh dan mensensasikan isu dari cuba memahami dan memberi maklumat berguna pada orang ramai. Seperti biasa, ramai yang […]
Three things I like about the Peaceful Assembly Bill
Reductio ad Absurdum by Chan Kheng Hoe
MUCH has been said about how undemocratic the Peaceful Assembly Bill is. I beg to differ. On the contrary, three very good aspects of the Peaceful Assembly Bill have been missed by commentators. Here they are: More religious The Bill promotes a religious society. We all know how important religion is to ensure that we […]
Lisa Surihani: Proud of Malaysia
By Koh Lay Chin
SINCE winning the Best New Actress award at the Malaysian Film Festival in 2007, 25-year-old actress and television personality Lisa Surihani has been in constant demand in the local film industry. She won Best Actress at the 23rd Malaysian Film Festival Award in 2010, and also racked up the Popular Film Actress Award in the Anugerah […]
Who’s afraid of Ambiga Sreenevasan?
Shape of a Pocket by Jacqueline Ann Surin
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 […]
Untangling PPSMI
Guest Column by Hwa Yue-Yi
DURING the first weekend of November 2011, the PPSMI (the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English) policy trended on Twitter. This evidence of PPSMI’s importance to large numbers of tech-savvy Malaysians came shortly after Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s back-to-back statements on the policy. Muhyiddin first reiterated that PPSMI would […]
Is sustainable development possible?
Ampersand by KW Mak
WHEN residents talk about development in an urban environment, the discussion primarily focuses on ensuing traffic problems for the existing neighbourhood. Developers would, in turn, talk about how they are bringing in much needed economic activity into the area to justify the project. Any discussion without a base framework to start from would invariably lead […]
Hudud and freedom of religion
Reductio ad Absurdum by Chan Kheng Hoe
MUCH has been said about hudud law. I take my hat off to Muslims who have come out openly to oppose its implementation. It must take a lot of courage to stand against conventional wisdom and religious teachings, and these people must be applauded. However, that does not make me anti-hudud. On the contrary, I […]
Maria Chin Abdullah: It’s not about race anymore
By Jacqueline Ann Surin
IT is perhaps destiny that Maria Chin Abdullah ended up being one of the steering committee members for Bersih 2.0, the civil society movement calling for free and fair elections in Malaysia. One of her earliest memories is of independent Malaya’s first general election in 1959 when she was just three. Maria remembers being with […]
Nasihat tentang filem hantu
Secubit Garam oleh Shanon Shah
SEBAGAI peminat pementasan teater The Woman in Black, berdasarkan novel oleh Susan Hill, saya pun tergedik-gediklah mencari maklumat terkini tentang adaptasi filem yang dibintangi Daniel Radcliffe. Entah bagaimana, terpesong pula dan terus khusyuk membaca nasihat terbaru daripada kolumnis pujaan ramai, Kak Nora. Ikuti pendapatnya tentang fenomena filem hantu. Assalamualaikum Kak Nora, Wassup, kak? I’m not […]
Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: De-politicising hudud
By Deborah Loh
HUDUD. One is either for or against its implementation in Malaysia – or so the prevailing political discourse goes. But what are we missing in between? Have proponents of hudud adequately justified their position, and how they would apply the Islamic penal code in today’s society? Can those who oppose it ever imagine a human […]
