THE CICAK.com

‘Dare 2 Document’ 2008 - filmmaking competition – deadline extended

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 … Click here for the full article!

Part 2: Does your vote count? Not really…

Editor’s note: Parts one and two of this story were submitted simultaneously. No views were changed in the interim between their posting. Please do not restart discussions already ongoing in the comments section of part one.

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 … Click here for the full article!

The Perak government’s difficult birth: Internal jostling over who should be menteri besar

By CHAN SHIJUN

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 … Click here for the full article!

Part 1: Does your vote count? Not really…

Photo by Yat Fai Ooi
By JEREMY MAHADEVAN

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 … Click here for the full article!

The New York Times: Ethnic protests in Malaysia after election losses

The story by Thomas Fuller, which was dated in Penang, was published today.

PENANG, Malaysia - Chanting “Long Live the Malays!” several hundred members of Malaysia’s largest ethnic group gathered Friday on this largely Chinese island, defying a police ban on protests and raising communal tensions in the aftermath of sharp electoral losses by the country’s governing party.

Rapid moves by newly elected state governments to abolish some of the long-held privileges of ethnic Malays have challenged the core of Malaysia’s ethnic-based political system and inflamed the sensibilities of Malays, who until the March 8 elections thoroughly dominated politics through the country’s largest party, the United Malays National Organization, known by its initials, U.M.N.O.

Read the full story here.

Barisan Nasional losing two-thirds majority, why we didn’t foresee this happening

Photo by Wizan
By SHANNON TEOH

When I look in hindsight, all the signs were there. Yet none of us wanted to believe it. And even if any of us did, we didn’t think it could be this good.

For most of us, the idea of denying BN two-thirds majority was one conceived in hope rather than expectation. We had the pragmatism to realise that just because many in our own circle wanted to do away with BN’s landslide majority, it didn’t mean that the entire nation did, because it’s a very different Malaysia out there, no matter where in or out of Malaysia you are right now.

That same logic will always hold true. But this does not preclude the logic that if you put several other factors together, then there would be a strong enough groundswell to push back the underperforming, C+ on its report card, “Must do better” teacher’s comment, government of the past four years.

Not everyone in Malaysia was privy to … Click here for the full article!

The Malaysian general election is over, expect to see…

Photo by Tim Parkinson
By JOSHUA FOONG

It was havoc in theSun’s newsroom on Saturday. And I have a huge pie of thoughts to chew on. But for now I’ll take just a few bites, a few nibbles.

Look at our political landscape. There’s been a sea change, a tsunami if you may. A tidal wave bigger than the one in 1969.

But there’s no face off, no battle-royale. It’s not the end all but rather just the beginning.

It is neither a defeat nor victory for Barisan Nasional, even though the results was a huge - and “huge” is an understatement - upset, having lost two-thirds majority in the 222-member parliament. The same goes for the opposition. They may have swept Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kedah by surprise, but … Click here for the full article!

Borrowing Barack Obama’s line for Malaysia: Change we can believe in

By NGAI JIN TIK

Although I am about two years shy from exercising the right to vote, I was glued to the coverage of the elections on TV until the wee hours of morning. 5 am to be exact. Surprisingly, not even the live football matches could steer my attention away from witnessing an unprecedented political tsunami that took Malaysia by storm on a day I billed as “Super Saturday.”

Unlike other advanced countries where parties breathe down each other’s necks, the political climate here had always been dormant. With the exception of … Click here for the full article!

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