Well, well, well…. Now it appears as if the proverbial chickens have come home to roost. Following the less-than-welcomed but to-be-expected reaction from some Indian politicians and political parties in neighbouring India in the wake of the recent demonstration in Kuala Lumpur organised by the Malaysian Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), it would appear as [...]
Let there be no mistake about it: We live in a globalised world. But then again, what’s new about that? Only someone totally ignorant of the history of greater Asia would be surprised to learn that our neatly-compartmentalised nation-states are, after all, bound together by a common shared history that overlaps across so many levels [...]
This week marked a landmark of sorts in the history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), that was formed in 1967, as part of a broader attempt to keep the Southeast Asian region tactically ‘neutral on the side of the West’ during the Cold War. As most political observers know by now, ASEAN [...]
He’s trying to make me go to rehab;
I said no, no, no.
I ain’t got the time
And if my daddy thinks I’m fine…
He’s trying to make me go to rehab;
I said no, no,no.
- Amy Winehouse, ‘Rehab’ (2007)
So now its ‘political rehabilitation’, is it? As a corrective measure for kids who go to demonstrations and who have [...]
A FICTION WRITER WRITES IN SUPPORT OF JOURNALISTS
Dear Prime Minister Abdullah,
26 September 2007 saw two thousand lawyers “Walk for Justice” to defend the good name and protest the sliding standards of their profession. “When lawyers march,” said Ambiga Sreenevasan, President of the Bar Council, “something must be wrong.”
Last Saturday (10 November 2007), 40,000 people from [...]
That elections should be free, fair and transparent is perhaps one of the most basic requirements of any working democracy, and to demand that elections should be free, fair and transparent is perhaps one of the most fundamental rights of any society. When citizens demand such things it can and should be seen as an [...]
The dangerous thing about sectarian politics is how it becomes normalised so easily and quickly. Taking a leaf from the book of Speer and Goebels, the old Fascist maxim proves itself true time and again: Once the public is made to realise that they are impotent and unable to affect change, the ruling elite can [...]
