(Corrected at 1:30pm, 19 Jan 2010) DO you remember where you were at midnight 10 years ago when we ushered in the new millennium? Remember the Y2K virus scare? Or the millennium party on the Subang Airport runway? Remember when then Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad was still prime minister of Malaysia? Can […]
Search Results for: uncommon sense
Perak must not fail
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected 1.40pm, 7 Feb 2009 Signboard maker in Ipoh (© Alex Moi / flickr) A FAILED state is a state losing its ability to govern and exercise authority. Text-book examples include Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Iraq and Afghanistan, countries that we would never compare Malaysia to. The Fund for Peace, a US think tank, listed 12 […]
BN will not win from Perak defections
By Wong Chin HuatEVENTS are moving so fast in Perak that by the time this column is published, the Barisan Nasional (BN) may be in control of the state legislative assembly if there are enough defections to its side from Pakatan Rakyat. Even though the two Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives who were tipped to cross over to the […]
The KT boomerang
By Wong Chin HuatPERHAPS the most puzzling question in the recent Kuala Terengganu by-election is this: why did enthusiastic Chinese attendance at Pakatan Rakyat rallies not translate into votes? I personally saw Chinese Malaysians cheering, laughing, and clapping for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim every four minutes throughout his 40-minute “da ren, xiao ren” (great mind, little mind) speech […]
Keeping the BN afloat
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected on 14 Jan 2009, 3.30pm I ARGUED previously that the Kuala Terengganu by-election is a battle in which Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has little to gain and much to lose. A real turning point would happen only if Umno can seriously bring down PAS’s support to below 45% among Malay Malaysians […]
Ahmad Ismail, my brother
By Wong Chin HuatAhmad Ismail (source: Oriental Daily), against a map of Malaya (public domain. Source: wikipedia.org) IMAGINE this. It’s 2013. The Pakatan Rakyat is in government and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is Malaysia’s 7th prime minister. In Kedah, Datuk Ahmad Ismail passionately repeats his 2008 message that Chinese and Indian Malaysians are squatters, and that Malay Malaysians […]
Why Malaysia needs the ISA
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected on 10 Dec 2008 at 10.00am Police negotiating with protester wearing “Mansuhkan ISA” headband outside Masjid Negara, 13 Sept 2008 (pic by Lainie Yeoh) NO, your eyes do not fool you. Nor have I been visited by Special Branch officers and “turned over”. I was at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre car park Sunday […]
8 March &mdash just a fluke?
By Wong Chin HuatNine months have passed since Malaysia’s sea-changing March elections (pic by Lainie Yeoh) MONDAY, 8 Dec 2008, will mark nine months after the supposedly sea-changing 8 March elections. This author, however, is getting increasingly confused in his interactions with opposition leaders and supporters. This is the confusion: was the general election an indicator of the […]
The battle for national symbols
By Wong Chin HuatFlags (© G Schouten de Jel / sxc.hu) UNTIL the mid-1990s, the Union Jack was a symbol of the Conservative Party in Britain. Not that the UK was founded by the Tories. It was just that their opponents, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, were more internationalist, anti-imperialist, and some even republican in orientation. […]
The Malaysian Obama
By Wong Chin Huat(Obama image public domain; Abdullah image © Wan Leonard) COMMENTING on Barack Obama’s presidential victory, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi assured Malaysians that anyone can become prime minister of the country. But one wonders if anyone actually believes him. Just two time-zone-adjusted days before Obama’s election, the New Straits Times‘s Syed Nadzri reminded […]
