OMBAK Ombak ARTStudio presents KO-TAI Penang (Penang’s Song Stage), a 40-minute musical drama that traces Penang’s journey from Merdeka and the founding of George Town to today. It features the stories of multiethnic Penang residents, some of whom have been displaced as a result of development and the repeal of the Rent Control Act. Based […]
Multimedia
Patriotism lessons
By Lainie YeohLainie Yeoh is grateful she didn’t have to attend the BTN programme.
Citizen-led actions at COP15
By Gan Pei Ling
ANYONE who thought that the current United Nations (UN) climate negotiations in Copenhagen were just about people in suits talking gibberish (UN speak) would be surprised by the colourful actions at Bella Center. The centre is where the 15th UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) is being held until 18 Dec 2009. Environmental activists, youths, indigenous […]
Hope and homelessness
Compiled by Nick Choo
MARGINALISED to the edges of society, the homeless and urban poor have virtually no rights. The longstanding problems of poverty and homelessness in Malaysia will be highlighted in Homelessness, a photo exhibition presented by Amnesty International (AI) Malaysia. Above are selections from the exhibition. Homelessness is part of Write Up 4 Rights, a two-day letter-writing […]
The business of online subscription
By The Fairly Current Show
FORMED in November 1999, online news portal Malaysiakini celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, having published 117,000 stories and 2,000 videos and counting. In the process, it paved the way for independent media initiatives in a landscape where the traditional media operate under the thumbs of the government and political parties. The Fairly Current Show […]
Peace treaty with CPM commemorated without M’sia
By Deborah Loh
DESPITE being a signatory to the 1989 tripartite Haadyai Peace Agreement, no official representative from Malaysia attended the 20th anniversary commemorative ceremony held on 30 Nov 2009 in Haadyai, Thailand. The two other signatories to the accords, the Thai government and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), were respectively represented by Thai Deputy Interior Minister […]
Remembering Pudu Jail (Updated 1 Dec 2009)
Compiled by Nick Choo
Updated 4:55pm, 1 Dec 2009 IN 2002 and 2003, artist and photographer K Azril Ismail spent time exploring the abandoned Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur, taking pictures of the cells and areas around the prison. He documented the scratching, messages, writings and drawings on the walls of the prison cells. These, he says, gave outsiders […]
Karaoke: Stories behind the songs
Compiled by Nick Choo
Updated 3:35pm, 25 Nov 2009 MALAYSIAN filmmaker Chris Chong Chan Fui‘s critically acclaimed feature Karaoke will debut in Malaysia when it screens for a limited one-week run at GSC Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur from 26 Nov to 2 Dec 2009. The winner of the first Maverick award at the 10th annual Calgary International Film […]
Celebrating children’s rights
Compiled by Ding Jo-Ann
ALTHOUGH Malaysia’s education indicators such as literacy rates and school enrolment ratios are comparable to industrialised countries, there are still pockets of children who do not have proper access to education. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) says the children at greatest risk in Malaysia are non-Malaysian children born in Malaysia. These include refugee children […]
Conference of the Birds in flight
Compiled by Nick Choo
AS part of the programme to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Five Arts Centre presents Conference of the Birds, a contemporary opera directed by Chee Sek Thim. This workshop production is an interpretation of a poem written in Persian by 12th-century poet Farid ud-Din Attar, describing the journey of a group of birds in search of […]
