IT is easy to focus on the recent cases of Internal Security Act (ISA) detentions because the three who were taken in — Malaysia Today blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, and DAP Member of Parliament (MP) for Seputeh Teresa Kok — are public personalities with varying levels of exposure. […]
Columns
Race relations: Acting and reacting
By Tricia YeohDATUK Ahmad Ismail is now a familiar name: his remarks about the Chinese in Malaysia resulted in his three-year suspension from Umno politics. The arrest and subsequent release within 24 hours of Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for accurately reporting Ahmad’s statement also sparked a nationwide outcry. […]
An inconvenient truth
By Wong Chin Huat“We need to make ourselves relevant,” says Umno’s Muhyiddin on 23 Sept (Source: Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry) MINISTER of International Trade and Industry Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin says Umno needs to reform or it, and by extension the Barisan Nasional (BN), may perish by 2013. He is spot on, but what kind of reforms […]
Body | Language
By Sumit MandalLoh Kok Man’s Repot (Mind+Mine) (Pic by Loh Kok Man) MALAYSIA is invoked in a scenic collage of cultures when Tourism Malaysia’s five damsels are paraded as a representation of the country’s ethnic diversity to outsiders. When we regard this spectacle with highbrow disdain, we lose an appreciation of the wonderfully uncomplicated and alluring character […]
Down with spam!
By N Shashi Kala(© Agne Kveselyte / sxc.hu) IF you are, like me, fairly addicted to Oprah, you’d realise that all her shows tend to revolve around the same few themes: improving self-esteem, empowering yourself, and cutting out clutter. There are those who need help in all three areas. Me, I’ve been thinking a lot about clutter of […]
Remembering the Chithambaram
By Rahel JosephIN J Anu’s recent exhibition, Unconditional Love, one of his paintings, Remembering the Chithambaram, depicts his young daughter running across a beach. In the foreground a ship, the SS Chithambaram, rides the crest of a wave, a distant memory of the vessel that first brought her forebears to Malaysia. I love this painting. The image […]
A third force in Malaysian politics?
By Sim Kwang YangTHE departure of the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in recent days could have impregnated our body politic with far-reaching consequences, even if top BN leaders have brushed the incident aside as something they long expected to happen. With only two Members of Parliament (MP) and four state assemblypersons, the […]
Raya and roadkill
By Hafidz BaharomCorrected on 29 Sept 2008 at 2pm The wheels on the bus go round and round… hopefully not into a ditch (© Rodolfo Clix / sxc.hu) ON 13 Aug 2007, Malaysians were greeted with the horror of a bus accident that cost the lives of 22 people. As reported in the International Herald Tribune: “’The […]
Hip-hop versi Islam
Oleh Shanon ShahThe Platform Magazine diterbitkan di United Kingdom TERUS-terang saya mengaku, saya memang takut dengan muzik hip-hop. Sebab bagi saya, hip-hop itu sinonim dengan pakaian longgar, air muka bengis dan senikata rap yang agak ganas. Jadi, memang terlalu out of character bila saya membeli majalah The Platform Magazine June-July 2008, tapi saya amat tertarik dengan labelnya, […]
For peat’s sake
By KW MakA JUST and fair system is what the people want, and the words “transparency” and “accountability” have been hurled at a government that seemingly does not listen. But cases of injustice and the government seemingly allowing the perpetrators to get away with murder (figuratively speaking, of course) aren’t always as clear cut as they seem. […]
