(© Konrad Mostert/sxc.hu) THERE are two issues around the appointment of Low Siew Moi as general manager of the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS). The first, as raised by laywer-cum-blogger Haris Ibrahim, is whether this state agency should act like an ethnic institution that serves only Malays or bumiputera. The second is, if indeed PKNS’s […]
Search Results for: Uncommon Sense
Who you calling chicken?
By Wong Chin Huat(© Dmitriy Shironosov/Dreamstime) SOMETIMES you need to change for the sake of changing. It’s all about signalling to others: “I am willing to take extreme measures, so you’d better do something.” Even loan sharks know this. At some point, they stop calling the defaulter and simply show up to pour red paint on his or […]
The third force in Malaysian politics
By Wong Chin HuatTHE “third force” seems to be a phrase that is capturing the imagination of political parties and civil society. Instead of joining the Barisan Nasional (BN) or the Pakatan Rakyat, why can’t a party find its own niche and survive? Why can’t it struggle independently and choose to cooperate with the two larger players on […]
Let’s have fresh elections
By Wong Chin HuatStalemate ((C) Magda Moiola / Dreamstime.com) ALL eyes are on Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s announcement after Hari Raya, but no one would be surprised if he declines nomination for the president’s post in the Umno party election. But if that happens, he would be a lame-duck prime minister in the fullest form for the […]
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 […]
Fried fish and fallacies
By Azmyl YunorContrary to what Malaysians have been taught, cuisine can raise political consciousness (© Nimalan Tharmalingam / sxc.hu)THE best fried fish I’ve ever had was in a longhouse in Sebauh, an hour’s drive from downtown Bintulu on a tyre-munching gravel road (save for the last 10-minute stretch that was tarred during an election) that caused us […]
Changing the government
By Wong Chin Huat(© Timur Druzhynin / 123rf) SO, it did not happen on 16 Sept. But that does not alter the conclusion: regime change is only a question of when and how, and not whether it will happen. After the ISA arrests of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, journalist Tan Hoon Cheng and parliamentarian Teresa Kok — the […]
