Screenshot of Geli’s Facebook accountTHERE’s a new movement in town and it seems all set to change the political landscape. Gerakan Anti-Liwat is barely a couple of weeks old. But with a Malay acronym like Geli, it’s hard not to be tickled by this latest of citizen initiatives to keep society’s morals on the straight […]
Shape of a Pocket
Rewriting Muhyiddin’s script
By Jacqueline Ann SurinI SOMETIMES wonder whether government leaders and politicians review what they have said in the media. Over the past few months, it seems that several leaders would benefit from paying attention to how their words are actually more applicable to themselves. The Nut Graph tried to demonstrate this through a series of comics that captured […]
Beyond Apcet II
By Jacqueline Ann SurinFOURTEEN years ago, I was arrested. I was among more than 100 local and foreign participants who were detained because we were involved in the Asia Pacific Conference for East Timor II (Apcet II) that was held in Kuala Lumpur in November 1996. Mind you, there was nothing illegal about Apcet II. Many would even […]
Where are Malaysia’s leaders?
By Jacqueline Ann SurinGermans standing on top of the Berlin Wall in 1989; it would be torn down in the following days (Wiki commons) “WHAT I wonder is, where are our leaders? It seems as if there is nobody Malaysians can look up to for leadership,” the woman in the audience said. I was moderating a panel discussion […]
The government’s deceit
Shape of a Pocket by Jacqueline Ann SurinAPPARENTLY, 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 […]
What possessed the protesters?
By Jacqueline Ann Surin(Source: openclipart.org) WHAT possessed them? That’s the question I’d like to ask the protesters who desecrated a cow head on 28 Aug 2009 after Friday prayers to object the building of a Hindu temple in Section 23, Shah Alam. We know that it’s not Islam that teaches intolerance of and disrespect toward other religious beliefs, […]
Controlling the media
By Jacqueline Ann Surin(TV pic by Frecuencia; remote control pic by Lusi; source: sxc.hu) JUST before Datuk Seri Najib Razak became Malaysia’s sixth prime minister on 3 April 2009, I was asked by a Malaysiakini reporter whether I thought there would be further media restrictions under his administration. Some sectors of society imagined, rightly or wrongly, that Najib […]
Swept away by Najib
By Jacqueline Ann SurinIT’S easy to be swept away in the hyped-up euphoria surrounding Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 100 days in office. The Star, for example, celebrated Najib’s 11 gifts to the rakyat, announced on 11 July 2009, with a blown-up picture of Najib occupying more than half its front page in its 12 July publication. Other traditional […]
“Nothing serious” about Perak?
By Jacqueline Ann SurinACCORDING to the Bar Council’s Little Red Book about the police and citizen’s rights, a person is under arrest under the following circumstances: the police says “yes” to the question (asked politely if possible), “Am I under arrest?”, or does not allow you to leave or wants to take you to a police station, or […]
Where’s the BN’s commitment?
By Jacqueline Ann Surin(Source: un.org) THERE was some cheer for me on World Press Freedom Day this year. It was provided by a press release from the Selangor government. To commemorate the annual celebration on 3 May, Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim spelt out clearly what his government was doing to promote press freedom. In early […]
