MyConstitution campaign logo (© MyConstitution / Facebook)PERAK. Party-hopping. Frogs. Who by now doesn’t know about the Perak constitutional crisis. Awareness has also been stirred about the right to freedom of association and the rights of voters to choose based on a candidate’s party. Federal-state relations are receiving prominence now that the opposition controls at least […]
Search Results for: Holding Court
The confident Malay
By Deborah LohCorrected on 17 Nov 2009 at 11.30am DESPITE stepping down in 2008 as executive director of Sisters in Islam (SIS) which she co-founded and led for two decades, Zainah Anwar has not retired from her commitment to women’s rights and justice. Currently project director of Musawah, a global movement for equality and justice for Muslim […]
Repeal Section 498, groups say
Corrected on 9 Nov 2009 at 6.45pm Corrected on 23 Nov 2009 at 12.10pm PETALING JAYA, 9 Nov 2009: (Corrected) Four women’s groups want the government to abolish Section 498 of the Penal Code, which criminalises the “enticing” of married women for “illicit intercourse”. Women’s Aid Organisation president Meera Samanther said the law was flawed […]
Cultivating a theatre of Malaysian stories
By Nick ChooPLAYWRIGHT and performer Leow Puay Tin has been involved in the theatre scene for more than 20 years. Working alongside the late, renowned Malaysian director Krishen Jit, she devised Tikam-Tikam: And Her Grandmother Said in 1983, and later wrote acclaimed plays, Three Children (1984), Ang Tau Mui (1993) and Family (1995). A common thread running […]
Should governments fear diversity and dissent?
By Shanon ShahBrian McKinnon Class Brothers 2008 Acrylic and foam on canvas 152 x 91cm (Artwork courtesy the artist and Indigenart — Mossenson GalleriesImage © the artist, courtesy Indigenart — Mossenson Galleries) THERE is a visual artwork by an Aboriginal Australian artist, Brian McKinnon, called Class Brothers. It is a striking political poster art, and has a […]
Perak’s tarnished state
By Deborah LohSAME circus, different act. The dramatic highlight of the Perak legislative assembly sitting on 7 May 2009 was the violent removal of Speaker V Sivakumar by police officers. The highlight of Wednesday’s 28 Oct sitting was the simultaneous running of two separate assemblies under the same roof. Was anything achieved? Sure, Barisan Nasional (BN) passed […]
Getting our act together
By Shanon ShahTENGKU Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, 36, is the group director of investment group K & N Kenanga Holdings Bhd. He was previously the chief executive officer of Tune Money, described as Malaysia’s first online “budget” finance house. In October 2008, he quit abruptly from Tune Money. But Zafrul was surprisingly candid and reflective about this […]
Democratic rights still far off
By Ding Jo-Ann“POST-8 March, [the election results] left civil society exhilarated and giddy knowing that change is possible,” says Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Ivy Josiah. “It has strengthened Malaysians as a whole to speak up, organise and demand reform.” Candlelight vigils have become part of the fabric of city life Indeed, since the last general election, Malaysians have been upping their […]
Historical threesomes
By Nick ChooPatrick Teoh as US President Franklin D Roosevelt during the script reading of The Yalta ConferenceLAST Tuesday, on 19 Oct 2009, I attended a script reading of The Yalta Conference at the Instant Café House of Arts and Ideas (Chai). It was Japanese playwright Hirata Oriza‘s fictitious account of the wartime meeting held in February […]
Sivakumar gets leave to challenge EC
KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Oct 2009: Embattled Perak Speaker V Sivakumar and six others were given the nod by the High Court here today to challenge the decision of the Election Commission (EC) in not holding by-elections in three state seats in Perak. Sivakumar, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) assemblypersons Chen Fook Chye, Tai Sing Ng and A […]