WHAT exactly is the fight between Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the state development officer Nik Ali Mat Yunos all about? Is it about public accountability or just a schoolyard fight between big boys?
Deconstructing Merdeka ads
By Gan Pei Ling
BANGI, 28 July 2010: The idealised images of Malaysian unity portrayed in Petronas‘s Merdeka ads is constructed, rather than a reflection of reality, a media and communications researcher said. Andrew Loo, who completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne on nationalism and ethnicity in the Malaysian media, said these ads always portrayed characters of […]
Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Rating Selangor
By Ding Jo-Ann
THE Selangor government has come under a lot of fire of late. From the attacks on illegal sand-mining activities in Selangor and the questioning of two Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) assemblypersons to Umno’s Save Selangor campaign, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government must surely have its hands full. Still, the PR-led Selangor government has also demonstrated […]
Fear of the cross
By Deborah Loh
IS one vertical line against a horizontal one enough to make Muslims lose their faith? The latest warning to Muslims not to wear football jerseys with a cross isn’t the first time such fears are raised by some Muslims.
“Remove the politicians from education”
By Deborah Loh
VARIOUS concerns about Malaysia’s education system emerged from the The Nut Graph‘s latest forum, Found in Conversation: Creativity and Innovation in Education. But they all centred on a key and not unfamiliar complaint: that education is too politicised. Whether concerns were about the curriculum, the lack of critical thinking, obsession with scoring As, lack of […]
Revolutionising Malaysian education
By Ding Jo-Ann
THE Nut Graph held its second Found in Conversation event titled Creativity and Innovation in Education on 25 July 2010 in Kuala Lumpur. Panelists comprised educator and dancer-choreographer Datin Marion D’Cruz, 3R executive producer and social commentator Datin Marina Mahathir, and Learning Beyond Schooling founder KV Soon, who is a proponent of homeschooling. About 40 […]
Is Selangor’s FOI bill good enough?
By The Nut Graph team
IF Selangor’s Freedom of Information (FOI) bill is made law, how useful will it be in helping the public gain access to information held by the government? The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government tabled the bill for its first and second reading on 14 July 2010, and a select committee will now be collating feedback and […]
A councillor’s life
Ampersand by KW MakMBPJ councillor KW Mak would like to someday return – via legal means – to an income bracket that allows him to pay taxes, as the benefit of having free parking in Petaling Jaya as a councillor is really overrated.
Hisham’s doublespeak
By Gan Pei Ling
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussien glibly declares the Barisan Nasional’s commitment towards diversity for all. Is that the truth of the matter?
Foreign spouses and the brain drain
Sideways by Deborah Loh
WORSE than Malaysia’s brain drain problem is the fact that little is coming in to replace what goes out. Losing skilled local talent to other countries is not unique to Malaysia, as statistics show. After all, the world was built on migration. But what is unique, and not in a good way, is that we […]
