ONE of my investigations as a Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) councillor has been into the mystery of how the council could allow a 24-storey building to go up when the project only had a planning permission for 22 storeys. I usually begin any investigation by requesting information through official means. Since councillors don’t always […]
Bila rogol dikatakan halal
Asam Pedas oleh Norhayati Kaprawi
“SEKUMPULAN WANITA BERSKIRT MINI BERHIMPUN DI JAKARTA”, “PAKAI SKIRT BANTAH GABENOR” Bila baca tajuk berita sedemikian, imej apa yang terus terbayang di fikiran pembaca? Mungkinkah: “Whoo, perempuan seksi!” Atau: “Teruk betul wanita yang berdemo itu kerana pakai mini skirt.” Mungkin: “Inilah bila wanita kebaratan sangat…!” Tetapi, berapa ramai agaknya yang merasa mahu tahu isu apakah […]
Amber Chia: 1Malaysia won’t happen in a day
By Gan Pei Ling
WHEN she was 18, Amber Chia flew to Kuala Lumpur from Tawau, Sabah with only RM300 in her pocket to fulfil her dream of becoming a model despite her parents’ vehement opposition. Chia stumbled around for some time before she found the right modelling agency. In 2004, she got her big break when she was […]
Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Deeper lessons from Mat Sabu and the communists
By Ding Jo-Ann
THERE has been much politicking over PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu (Mat Sabu)’s remarks on the Bukit Kepong incident in 1950. In a speech on 21 Aug 2011, Mat Sabu had questioned the portrayal of Mohammad Indera in Malaysian history as a terrorist. Mat Sabu said that Indera, who led an attack on a police […]
Lessons in social media from Bersih 2.0
By Tricia Yeoh
IN the days before and after the Bersih 2.0 rally for electoral reform, Malaysian social networks were buzzing like never before. Internet chatter was centred around the biggest campaign in town: the street march in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on 9 July 2011. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, users had a platform to […]
Premesh Chandran: We lack a common future
By Jacqueline Ann Surin
PREMESH Chandran laughs when asked if he ever imagined Malaysiakini would become what it is today: the award-winning and leading online media in Malaysia that reaches over 300,000 readers per day in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil. “It grew to be something much bigger than what we expected it to be,” the news portal’s […]
Puasa dari makan nasi, wang dan orang
Asam Pedas oleh Norhayati KaprawiUNTUK pertama kalinya saya menyambut Ramadan di Indonesia, negara yang mempunyai rakyat beragama Islam yang teramai di dunia. Lebih kurang 90% dari penduduknya yang seramai 270 juta orang ini beragama Islam. Namun, Indonesia tidak ada undang-undang menghukum orang yang makan dan minum di khalayak ramai semasa bulan puasa. Malah, kegiatan harian diteruskan seperti biasa. Konsert […]
The Nut Graph’s Merdeka Awards 2011
By The Nut Graph team
2011 is going by in a flash, and yet it has felt long and intense. The political temperature has been kept on the high side, first with the Sarawak elections, then the Bersih 2.0 rally, endless speculation about the next general election, and most recently, inter-religious tensions involving allegations against Christians. Malaysians certainly have had […]
Eddin Khoo: Preserving the nation’s soul
By Jacqueline Ann Surin
IF Malaysia is a nation of converging ancestries and cultures, then Eddin Khoo Bu-Eng should be one of its poster boys. The former Sunday Star journalist, who set up cultural centre Pusaka nearly 10 years ago, is the eldest of three sons born of a Baba Chinese father and a mother of Sri Lankan Tamil […]
Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Beyond the Jais raid
By Ding Jo-Ann
MORAL policing of Muslims is unfortunately hardly new in Malaysia. But on 3 Aug 2011, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) went a step further by entering the Petaling Jaya-based Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), purportedly to investigate a complaint. Christian leaders and secular bodies such as the Bar Council and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) […]
