Category Archives: General Politics

What the Debate says about the Chinese

Political debates are common these days, well.. with the exception of the Prime Minister Najib who has yet to agree to one with Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim. In any case, this was the “Chinese debate” – which said a lot, … Continue reading

Posted in Ethno-Religious Politics | Leave a comment

Malaysians! Know your governments

It’s important to know what the MP, ADUN, and local councillor roles and responsibilities are, or you end up getting them all confused. This is the problem when we don’t really know the structures, much less what our reps are … Continue reading

Posted in General Politics, Public Administration | 2 Comments

Movement of Moderates: Global or Malaysian?

Our government tends to take a hypocritical approach to being moderate, taking one stance outside the country, and another one inside it. A version of this was published in theSun on the 27th of January 2012. M ovement of Moderates: … Continue reading

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The state of non-Muslims in Penang and Selangor

Religion will be an ever-present issue in our country. Here we look at non-Muslim policies of the Selangor and Penang governments, first published in the Penang Monthly in January 2012. The state of non-Muslims in Penang and Selangor The criterion … Continue reading

Posted in Ethno-Religious Politics, Religion, Selangor | Leave a comment

Politics vs Policies: How do People Really Vote?

People don’t vote on policies, or do they? This was my piece in January 2012 in Selangor Times. Politics vs Policies: How do people really vote?   How do people evaluate their leaders in government, through their satisfaction with policies, … Continue reading

Posted in Elections, General Politics | Leave a comment

Game-Changers at the Year’s Start

At the beginning of 2012, this was the series of incidents taking place, including the sacking of Hasan Ali, the “We are all Adam Adli” and others. A version of this was published in theSun on the 13th January 2012. … Continue reading

Posted in General Politics, Reflections | Leave a comment

Managing Plural Societies

In this article, I look at just how a consociational a democracy our country is, based on reflections of a dialogue session that I participated in at the Centre for Dialogue in Melbourne. A version of this was published in … Continue reading

Posted in Ethno-Religious Politics, Outside Malaysia, Religion | Leave a comment

Malaysian Lessons from Bolivia

Having worked on a documentary last year, I truly appreciate the worth of the visual medium now. Documentaries add great value to the study of politics as well, as the “Our Brand is Crisis” documentary shows. This was first published … Continue reading

Posted in General Politics, Outside Malaysia | Leave a comment

How Far the Economic Reform?

Recently there has been an interesting Teraju clip being circulated on Facebook. I mentioned Teraju in my article here, comparing it against what Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak initially wanted to do with the New Economic Model (NEM) but … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Ethno-Religious Politics | Leave a comment

Bridging the Gap

Is Malaysia getting more or less polarised? A version of this was published in theSun on 10th August 2011. Bridging the Gap In Thomas Friedman’s 2005 book “The World is Flat”, he predicted that with the advent of technology, the … Continue reading

Posted in Ethno-Religious Politics, Reflections, Religion | Leave a comment