IN March 2010, indigenous peoples from Long Teran Kanan, Baram in Sarawak were overjoyed when they won a 13-year legal battle against IOI Pelita Plantation. The Miri High Court recognised the Kayan and Kenyah communities’ native customary rights over the disputed land. However, their joy was short-lived. IOI Pelita Plantation filed an appeal against the […]
Features
Living responsibly: What can you give up for the planet?
By Deborah Loh
ONE problem with the environmental movement is the caricaturing of messages. Save the planet. Save the rainforests. Stop global warming. Green the earth. Recycle, reuse, reduce. Live organic. As useful as these slogans are in environmental education and in persuasion, it’s doubtful how successful they have been in affecting real change. There may even be […]
Student activism: The struggle continues
By Gan Pei Ling
(Corrected at 6:15pm, 4 Sept 2010) THE student movement in Malaysia was once vibrant, independent and autonomous. “Mahasiswa jurubicara rakyat” was the students’ motto in the 1960s. However, the government enacted the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) in 1971 to restrict students’ freedom and their rising influence. Thereafter, the student movement suffered a decline. […]
Learning to fly in show biz
By Ding Jo-Ann
MALAYSIA needs to stop building walls and start learning to innovate if show business is to grow and develop in the country. This and other show biz topics were discussed during The Nut Graph‘s Found in Conversation: Creativity and Innovation in Show Biz forum on 8 Aug 2010 in Kuala Lumpur. When asked about enhancing […]
Let’s talk about sex, please
By Gan Pei Ling
TO its credit, the government is trying to introduce sex education in schools. From mid-2009 till end of 2011, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and the Education Ministry are implementing a pilot project targeting 16- and 17-year-olds in five schools. “The ministry hopes to use the outcome from the project to advocate for […]
“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 […]
Solar vs nuclear: Giving solar a chance
By Deborah Loh
WHEN the government announced plans for a 1,000MW nuclear plant, solar power is often dismissed as too costly to implement on a large scale. However, developments in the photovoltaic (PV) industry suggest that with planning, it’s not necessarily prohibitive. For certain, solar power alone cannot displace fossil fuels as an energy source. But it is […]
Private healthcare: Too expensive?
By Ding Jo-Ann
Why is the government attempting to curb private healthcare costs when there is supposed to be a readily available and more affordable public healthcare system? Shouldn’t the government focus on improving the public healthcare system, making it an automatic price check on private healthcare? After all, why would someone pay RM30,000 for a heart bypass if they could get quality care for minimal cost at a public hospital?
Redrawing boundaries for electoral success
By Deborah Loh
SNAP poll next year? Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s popularity rankings are higher than ever before. Some have suggested that the Barisan Nasional (BN) might want the next general election, due only in 2013, called earlier to coincide with the Sarawak state elections which must be held by June 2011. But there is one […]
Malaysia’s economic outlook: Will we make it?
By Ding Jo-Ann
MALAYSIA’s once rosy economic outlook isn’t looking as rose petal-fresh as it used to anymore. In 1992, Malaysia transitioned from a lower-middle to upper-middle income country, surpassing most of our regional neighbours. Rich in natural resources and attractive to global investors due to relatively low production costs, Malaysia prospered in the early 1990s. But other […]
