Shhhhh… (© Paul Brunskill / sxc.hu) “YOU cannot quote me…I’ve discussed with my superior, we’ve decided that the progress is slow, so we don’t think it’s a good time to publicise it now, why don’t you write on other issues?” That was the response from an officer from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community […]
equality
What about women?
By Women's Candidacy InitiativeTHE Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI) notes with concern the manner in which the Kuala Terengganu by-elections were run by both the Barisan National (BN) and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) candidates. There was so much focus on race, hudud laws, and distributive justice vis-a-vis the state of Terengganu and the Federation of Malaysia. Voter on polling […]
PKR’s politics
By Elizabeth Looi and Ng Boon HooiHarapan Baru (A New Dawn) is the theme for this year’s PKR congress THE results of the 8 March 2008 general election suggested that voters are not completely besotted with race-based politics. Since then, there has been encouraging talk about multi-racial politics and policies which respect all Malaysians as equal citizens. One of the proponents […]
Sexism in politics
By Marina MahathirIN October, I had posted on my blog my thoughts on Datuk Chamil Wariya’s despicable short story based on a character very similar to DAP Member of Parliament (MP) for Seputeh, Teresa Kok. I had wondered aloud whether there was a sexist element to recent incidents involving opposition MPs. Most of my commenters opined that […]
Fatwa on tomboys is regressive
By Sisters in IslamFatwa protestors outside KLCC (photos by Lainie Yeoh) DOES Malaysia have serious morality and social problems? Definitely. To name a few: corruption, money politics, draconian laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA), abuse of power, violation of citizen’s rights, environmental problems, failure to reduce the high crime rate, rampant snatch theft, domestic violence, and failure […]
Malaysia isn’t Medina
By Aloysious MoweIN recent weeks, I have come across two articles devoted to the issue of interfaith relations in Malaysia proposing the Charter of Medina as a model for governance. One writer described the charter given by the Prophet Muhammad to the people of Medina as a “brilliant constitution“, because “every member of that Islamic nation was […]
Apologise or be damned
By Jacqueline Ann SurinAT the rate things are going, a Malay leader could soon be cast out by his own party for defending equality, fairness and rule of law for all Malaysians. It is sadly expected in Malaysia that non-Malays who point out problems inherent in the notion of ketuanan Melayu will be publicly attacked by certain Malay […]
Pitfalls in regulating race relations
By Deborah LohWill the proposed Race Relations Act outlaw discrimination? (Source: jpnin.gov.my) IS the proposed Race Relations Act doomed to fail even before it has been drafted? Human rights advocates, lawyers and academics who recently attended a roundtable on the proposed act seem to think so. The act, which was proposed by the government in September 2008, […]
Sexual wrongs and rights
By Alina RastamOF the plethora of absurd and disturbing events that have marred the political landscape this year, one of the most significant must surely be the charge of sodomy levelled against politician Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim — again. In a surreal replay of the events of 1998, when then-prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad accused him […]
