KJ

My distinct first memory of getting to know Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – or Pak Lah – was when he was director-general of the Youth Department under the Youth and Culture Ministry, in the early 1970s. We met as PTD Officers while we were both members of the Royal Lake Club. He was always friendly and […]

Today, many motorcyclists beat the red light without consideration for law and order. One could of course consider this to be entrepreneurial (risk-based) riding; but then it must be made legal and public policy for all motorcyclists. They must then be told it is acceptable for them to take such risks and if all other […]

In January 2010, I wrote a column with an almost similar title. But then it was allegorical writing, and I would have thought that most of proponents of this \”claim of intellectual and patent rights for the God-word ‘Allah\’\” would have understood the nuances of why we should not do it. Obviously, I am not […]

I also have a dream. Martin Luther King Jr had the original dream for the US of A from 50 years ago, which we all remembered recently together with CNN; it was the same year we also became Malaysia. As we move into the second half century, after 50 years of nationhood; my dream is […]

I could not believe my eyes that I was reading a news item in The Malay Mail that quoted the inspector-general of police or IGP (yes, the most senior police officer of our law enforcement authority) saying that there is nothing in the law which states that they are not authorised to interview school children without the […]

I was touched and moved by Marina Mahathir’s excellent treatise on the value of human dignity in her most recent column in The Star . Hers related to our school system. That motivated me to share my own experience and that of my two sons in our school system. My experience of abuse First my own experience […]

What does it mean that we are citizens of a modern socio-political nation state? How does one seek and secure such a citizenship? What is the real history of such citizenship qualification process, and in real terms, how they were awarded to whom and under what criteria and conditions? Are these not the real questions […]

There is a simplistic worldview which assumes that the world is either white or black. Therefore, within such a worldview there is no grey area within any such continuum from white to black. Consequently the now famous George W Bush argument, “one is either with me or against me”; the very argument used to start […]

Within the first month of his appointment as auditor-general, a few of us made an appointment, as citizens, and decided to meet up in his new office. All three of us were ex-government servants and we were tired of seeing the serious leakages and obvious failures in the administration of financial resources of the rakyat. […]

I had the greatest learning experience through my doctoral programme at the George Washington University’s (GWU) Faculty of Business and Government from 1987-1993. I was on formal study leave but without a Civil Services Department (JPA) scholarship because the Training Division of JPA lacked foresight and instituted the ‘1986 Budget cuts’ upon in-service scholarships with […]