Are the problems exaggerated? PARTI Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leaders maintain that all is generally well in the party, and that recent skirmishes are but “normal” for a party that has grown rapidly. It might be a hard message to sell to a sceptical public impatient to see Pakatan Rakyat (PR) deliver. For one, PR, which […]
politics
The financial disadvantage of being councillor
I AM a politician in the public’s eyes. Along with that recognition is the belief that I am flushed with cash, simply because my position allows me access to multitudes of government projects. Being supposedly cash rich, I am also expected to donate handsomely to needy people. To finance these handsome donations, I am expected […]
Perak’s tarnished state
SAME circus, different act. The dramatic highlight of the Perak legislative assembly sitting on 7 May 2009 was the violent removal of Speaker V Sivakumar by police officers. The highlight of Wednesday’s 28 Oct sitting was the simultaneous running of two separate assemblies under the same roof. Was anything achieved? Sure, Barisan Nasional (BN) passed […]
Politics and imagination
IOANNIS Gatsiounis is a freelance journalist from New York who has lived in Kuala Lumpur for the last six years. He has written about Malaysia and the region for publications such as Forbes, Newsweek, the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal Asia. Stretching his writer’s muscle, Gatsiounis recently wrote 10 short fictional stories […]
PKR’s growing pains?
Is PKR having teething problems? (pacifier © yenhoon / sxc.hu) THE Bagan Pinang by-election on 11 Oct 2009 initially looked like it was going to be a three-cornered fight. Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s former Teluk Kemang branch leader Shahruddin Abdul Hamid tried to submit his nomination on 3 Oct 2009, but it was rejected by […]
The government’s deceit
APPARENTLY, President Barack Obama has done it again. Heaped praises on Malaysia as a role model Muslim nation that is progressive and moderate. The first time it was reported in Malaysia that the highly-popular US chief executive gave the thumbs up for our tiny Southeast Asian nation was on 27 June 2009 when both Obama […]
The age of stupid?
IT was Earth Overshoot Day on 25 Sept 2009. The day human demand for natural resources and waste production exceeded the ecosystem’s regenerative capacity for the year. From this date till the end of the year, we would be meeting our ecological demand on a deficit, by using up resource stocks and building up greenhouse […]
Wooing the Indian Malaysian vote
Hindraf vigil on 27 Sept 2008 ON 25 Nov 2007, the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) burst into public consciousness through a mammoth street rally. Few doubt that Hindraf was pivotal in swinging Indian Malaysian votes away from the Barisan Nasional (BN) three months later in the March 2008 general election. On 2 July 2009, […]
Civil servants and the art of silence
INCREDULOUS. That’s how a journalist feels when a senior civil servant responds to a request for information with a flat refusal to answer. Following the commentary on the need for a Freedom of Information Act, it is timely to relate another story about failed attempts to get answers on matters of public interest from the […]
My ideal politician
THE 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 […]
