Where has the Left gone in Malaysian politics?

Such is the demise of the Left in the past 50 years since Independence that it has hardly had any influence in the Malaysian political sphere. Through harassment, intimidation and censorship, the establishment has successfully made the words ‘Left’, ’socialist’ and ’social democracy’ taboo words in polite Malaysian society.

Ironically, the Malaysian public has in the process has also been made to believe that racism and ethnic chauvinism was ‘fine’, or at least to be left unchallenged and ‘tolerated’. (more…)

The reaction of the rakyat to the fuel price hike has been interesting, to say the least.

I’d never have thought we would react in such a positive manner; in fact I’m quite impressed that, minor demonstrations and votes of no confidence aside, there has been no larger fallout- at least on the surface.

I personally feel that the hike wasn’t a necessity; but more of an educational requirement, like an elective subject you take for your SPM, University or what have you.

Now what do I mean when I say it is not a necessity? (more…)

Tilted World is a combined effort of a loose coalition of writers, including regular theCICAK contributor Ana A.

By IZHAM ISMAIL

I can’t help being spiteful towards Singapore.

It definitely seems like Malaysians and Singaporeans just can’t get along. Like oil and water, cats and dogs, or however you put it, the relationship is hostile despite living side by side geographically.

By logic, they should be the best of friends. But unquestionably, both sides have done a great job undermining each other: I’ve heard of Singaporeans saying Malaysians are lazy, underachieving people, while Malaysians would be in high spirits to label their neighbour kiasu.

But whatever it is, Singaporeans play better football than Malaysians do (more…)

I rejoiced as much as the next Malaysian when the incumbent governing party lumpuh over the March 8 elections.

But here I must make a stand. I think Pak Lah allowing for the drastic reduction of petrol subsidies is one of the best things he has done since becoming Prime Minister. Clearly it is not a popular move, and clearly it won’t bring outwardly beneficial consequences to the rakyat. And so much so sudden. But analysts say that is wise - so that you only face the anger once, rather than staggered anger over a few months. Now, if the government can survive this volatile position it has brought itself into, it will have much more leeway and space in terms of using that surplus money generated from the new subsidy scheme.

What are the next decisions? To me that will be the imperative questions. It’s what Pak Lah does next (more…)

Finally it’s official! The three winners of the KOMAS FreedomFilmFest (FFF) 2008 human rights film proposal making competition were announced last Friday! The declaration was made together with the launching of KOMAS-produced human rights video ‘Mari Kita Beraktivism’, a series of short films featuring ordinary Malaysians and their experiences with human rights’.

(more…)

By JASON LIM

Calling all the bigfoots, monkeys and also the truly berhormats (honourable). I’d like you to bring something up in parliament. Without much ado, a rag-tag outfit of Malaysian artistes pulled off yet another controversy.

Looks like they’ve hit the internet again. Looks like they’ve mixed up our national language amidst other languages again. Looks like they’ve aped the west again. Looks like they’ve gone ahead and done something totally independent of government support or intervention. How dare they? It wasn’t even done in conjunction with the 50th Merdeka celebrations!

I mean, I thought we’d already seen the terrible things artistes would achieve with the internet and political musical content (re: Namewee’s Negarakuku). Now we have something that flies right in the face of all that. Such cheek!

Goodness. What’s this new thing about ending racial discrimination and even more shocking (more…)

Make as many PAP jokes as you like, it cannot be denied that the Democratic Action Party is one of the most ideologically driven and grassroots orientated political parties in Malaysia today. It has fought long and hard in the opposition benches, and only the most hard-hearted could begrudge the DAP of its recent successes.

But because it has spent so much (if not all) of its history in the political wilderness, many have wondered if the party can govern effectively and even if it can, whether it can maintain the “killer instinct” that (more…)

Living in Australia now, I am at present inundated by the full extent of the Australian Press’ backing of Tibetan independence from China.

But my personal opinion on this runs contrary to this nation’s media. I’m not sure what the majority of Malaysians’ stands are on this, but I get the feeling most are pro-China, mainly due to the fact that Malaysians under Dr. Mahathir has been indoctrinated with the concept of non-interference in a nation’s internal matters.

Anyway, I think that Tibet is part of China. It was a region that was (more…)

I was asked recently to write an article about homosexuality in Islam.

At first I started by trying to look up verses from the Quran, Bible and even those from the Torah on the subject. Why include the Bible and Torah you may ask? The reason primarily being that Islam regards Christians and Jews as “People of the Book” that is that god had given them the Bible and the Torah before the Quran and that there are all from the words of the one god.

In the process of doing so, I found a common thread from the holy books of all three faiths - the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God had basically turned the city upside down because they engaged in anal sex.

But as I continued to ponder on how I should tackle this subject, I found myself not asking about how homosexuality is regarded in Islam, Christianity and Judaism but rather whether the three religions were still relevant today.

At the crux of my shift in thought was that homosexuality is (more…)

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The general elections of 8 March 2008 has dramatically and permanently changed the face of Malaysia’s political landscape. Our nation is irrevocably moving towards a two-party system, so all the eyes will be on the existing parties; on how they negotiate the new realities as well as challenges.

This will be the first of a series of personal analyses on the standings and possible directions of the major political parties in Malaysia, starting with Gerakan. I do not claim that my assertions are gospel truth or infallible, but what I have written here and in the future are the honest observations of a relative layperson on the Malaysian political system, which has gotten so much more interesting as of late.

The Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (or just ‘Gerakan’) has been rocked by party stalwart Lee Kah Choon’s decision to quit the party in order to accept several positions in the new Pakatan Rakyat Government of Penang state.

The news is the latest in a series of blows towards the (more…)

What do you think of Mahathir’s comments? Please post comments below.

Most people should know by now that the government is now recanting its initial plan to further reduce fuel subsidies in our country.

Even the marginally intelligent observer would recognize this move as a method of appeasing an irked electorate and to rebuild the establishment’s image as a generous and benevolent government.

Yet, I’m truly disappointed with this announcement.

This one moment gifted to the government to come good on its promise of transparent government and accountability, they sell down the river to distribute as an economic handout.

Once again, they misconstrue the demands of the citizens (more…)

I spent last weekend with some friends in San Francisco. We took three energetic dogs to two different parks, watched cute girls pass us by as we ate lunch at Tartine’s – fabulous bakery on Guerrero and 18th. I had just met one of the girls in our group that day. She and my other friends apparently haven’t seen each other in a while.

In one of our conversations as we were playing chase with the dogs, she mentioned nonchalantly that she believes that all religions are a hoax and that she no longer believes in god. She punctuated her statement by adding she had bacon for breakfast the morning before.

To give you more of a context, the new friend is an ex-Muslim. I stopped petting my friend’s fluffy Chow as I contemplated the news she just broke.

She had asked me if I was a practicing Muslim (more…)

In a lot of ways, the recent election in Malaysia has affected me on a far greater personal level than I could have ever imagined. Yes, as much as I felt the jubilation alongside my fellow Malaysians that we are finally seeing the silver lining for true democracy from the results, I also felt something else that while giving me reason to be optimistic, also complicates the decisions I have to make in the future.

I left Malaysia to pursue my graduate studies for a large part to find a better future outside of it. After going back to Malaysia last year, a proud holder of a BSc in life sciences from one of the world’s most renowned universities, I was quickly humbled by the fact that in Malaysia that meant very little.

I was part of the cadre of students who had hoped to pursue a career in the biological sciences after knowing about our government’s plans to develop the bio-science industry with the proposal of the Biovalley back in 2003. Much to the chagrin of my peers and I, the initial Biovalley development collapsed (more…)

KOMAS Freedom Film Fest (FFF08) is once again looking for daring human rights stories to be made into film. This year’s theme, “Democratic Space – Making Room for Human Rights” is to highlight the deteriorating state of democratic rights in Malaysia.

What is democracy and where is the democratic space in Malaysia?

The three winners will be given RM5,000 and support from KOMAS to make their proposals into films. Winners will also receive (more…)

Photo by Leap Kye
By JEREMY MAHADEVAN

In the first part of this article, we looked at the probabilistic arguments against voting, and concluded that since voting is very unlikely to be in an individual’s interest, (except for those who enjoy the rituals of democracy), then non-voters cannot be criticised for being unwise.

I pinpointed two homilies on voting: one by Keith Leong, which appeared on theCICAK, and another by Huzir Sulaiman, which appeared in The Star.

While these articles tacitly assume that voting is in your interest, their stated arguments tend to involve (more…)

The new Perak government seems to be having trouble trying to be born.

All this stems from a few odd factors. But I feel the main blame should squarely be put on the shoulders of the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition, the Barisan Rakyat (BR).

On the seat count, DAP won 18 seats, PKR 7 and PAS 6 out of the 59-seat state assembly, making BR’s having 31 seats in total. Of the remaining 28, UMNO has 27 and MCA 1. Barisan Nasional thus has 28 seats.

Through this perspective, the menteri besar of this state should come from DAP. However, the Perak constitution states that the menteri besar must be a Malay-Muslim, but this requirement can be waived by the Raja if he so wishes.

What happened then was (more…)

So, we all know what’s happened – as far as the ideals of democracy are concerned, Malaysia has just taken a big step in the best direction. However, because it’s probably too early to provide a considered judgment on that step, this article is not about the results of the recent elections; rather, it concerns the aforementioned democratic ideals.

Election time is often characterised by a frenzied evangelism on the part of democrats, who work themselves into a froth in an attempt to cajole the public to take the horse of state by the reins, so to speak, and ride out in droves to vote. This zeal is understandable; in many parts of the world elections are decided not in the booths but at the door – turnout can often determine victory.

theCICAK itself has played host to one of these harangues, by Keith Leong, while another by Huzir Sulaiman appeared in The Star a few weeks prior to the polls.

While largely sermons rather than arguments, they both hold as an almost tacit assumption (more…)