NEW year, new you? Not if you’re national identity in Malaysia, it would seem. We ended last year with disputes over Article 153 provisions for bumiputera special privileges and began this one with discussions of a Race Relations Bill, hurtfully racialised statements, ethnocentric election strategising and accusations of religious subversion. Said Zahari’s 1969 poem comes […]
farish noor
Can bleeding women lead?
By Farish Noor“The more women gain equality, the more men run to football”— Feminist slogan painted in the streets of London, 1997. A SELF-PROCLAIMED religious ideologue once wrote about why women could not and should not be allowed to have the same roles and jobs as men. I shan’t get into the details of the book (I’ve […]
Sordid game of politics
By Farish NoorSILLY season seems to still be around in Malaysia. First we were forced to witness the spectacle of the bust-up that never was among MCA leaders. And last week, we were treated to a display of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leaders posturing. First these leaders got on their respective soap-boxes to spout, only to step […]
The Nut Graph‘s Malaysia Day Awards
By The Nut Graph teamNO, The Nut Graph did not forget that 16 Sept is Malaysia’s real birthday, and that in 2009, Malaysia turns 46, not 52. Discussions on 16 Sept seem less passionate and visible this year, unlike last year when the date was also the subject of a much-hyped takeover of the federal government by the Pakatan […]
Power, politicians and brutality
By Dr Farish A NoorFOR a region that prides itself for its so-called Asian values, we in Southeast Asia don’t seem to practise what we preach. We talk about how the region’s peoples are peace-loving, but we forget — and we continue to erase and forget — the historical fact that Southeast Asia has been one of the world’s […]
Who’s afraid of sodomy?
By Farish NoorMASS hypocrisy season comes and goes in Malaysia with the regularity of the monsoon or the haze. While we entertain the polite fiction of being a semi-civilised nation with a few shopping malls, we conveniently forget that ours is a political culture mired in the mores and norms of hypocrisy. The public display of normative […]
My ideal politician
By Dr Farish A NoorTHE historian’s lament is that he or she is often witness to mistakes of the past, and yet is unable to prevent them from recurring. In the end, the historian is cursed with the Cassandra complex and accused of being a tiresome doomsayer. At the risk of being black-balled from dinner parties, I would like […]
Why class matters
By Farish NoorA class successfully avoided (©Tiffany Szerpicki / sxc.hu) AS a teacher, I can tell you that students can and will find any excuse under the sky in order to escape classes, and to not study. What is odd for me is that in Malaysia, there are also politicians, political activists, ideologues and public commentators who […]
The hybrid-Malay Malaysian dilemma
By Shanon ShahDR Farish Noor is a prolific academic. The founder of The Other Malaysia project writes on the politics of Malaysia, Indonesia, Islamism, and old Malay hikayats with gusto and insight. He has been published everywhere. Well, nearly. It makes one wonder what he does to de-stress. “I repair old batik, I knit and I stitch,” […]
Election lethargy in Indonesia
By Farish A NoorSession of the Indonesian People’s Representative Council (public domain, source: wikipedia.org) WHILE Malaysians are excited by the prospect of three simultaneous by-elections on 7 April 2009, Indonesians next door are showing distinctive signs of electoral fatigue. A news report featured on Indonesia’s Trans7 TV channel summed up the prevailing mood when it reported on a […]
