WALKING around Bangsar one balmy night six years ago, I bumped into filmmaker Amir Muhammad and film academic Khoo Gaik Cheng sitting with a rather foppish Mat Salleh man. It took less than an hour of my being introduced before all of us banded together to bully the hapless Australian Mat Salleh to prove that […]
Current Issues
Who pays our political parties?
By Ding Jo-Ann
EVER wondered where political parties get their money? And what they use it for? While skeptics may think that political parties just use their money for handouts and bribes, in fact, they also legitimately need money to carry out proper functions. For example, political parties need to maintain their party machinery, conduct voter education and […]
Averting Selangor’s water crisis
By Deborah Loh
POPULATION growth and development certainly drives higher water consumption. In Selangor, when a water crisis will happen appears to depend on who you ask. But it appears that there is more political rhetoric behind answering the question and not enough science.
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 […]
Guan Eng vs Nik Ali: A chronology
By Ding Jo-Ann
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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?
