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American democratic form of politics often introduces concepts, ideas, and ideals that the popular world may not be familiar with, and especially in non-mature democracies. With president Ronald Reagan they developed ‘the selling of the president’. ‘The Selling of the President’ 1968 is a non-fiction book written by American author Joe McGinniss and published by […]

I am a Malaysian citizen with two forms of citizenship certificates. Therefore, I am no ‘pendatang’ and no second class citizen, by any definition. I have all the human rights and courtesies agreed to and approved by the UN Declaration of Human Rights. That right is not just universal but also supreme in Malaysia as […]

In my last column, I argued that Hadi’s hadd bill is problematic because of maliciousness and the deceptive way it was tabled/not tabled yet. Even Marina Mahathir’s column on the subject was rejected by The Star. The federal government’s executive authority, namely the cabinet of ministers, allowed the tabling the Hadd Bill without due process and […]

In my last two columns I argued that only human beings can be held responsible and accountable for elective action choices we make because the options available to us usually define true, honest, and sincere human intentions. Animals cannot do so. Unfortunately though, most of our behaviour theories extracted from classical behaviourism imputes motives without […]

In 1997, the secretariat for the National IT Council, which is all but dead today, hosted a Virtual Commonwealth Teleconference. It included three nations and seven speakers. The keynote speakers were Dr Mahathir Mohamad; the late Othman Yeop Abdullah, then-CEO of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDeC); Tengku Azzman Shariffadeen, the CEO of Malaysia’s national […]

Anwar Ibrahim made famous the concept of a Masyarakat Madani for Malaysia. Translated, it meant a humane and civilised society. At the National IT Council (NITC), when it was still alive and active, we called it a values-based knowledge society, as opposed to any Arabic version of that meaning. We then argued that to achieve […]

I remember, in 1992, some of us made an official fence-mending trip to Australia after Dr Mahathir Mohamad earned the ‘recalcitrant’ label. Our then-international trade and industry minister led the trip. In Perth and Canberra, one of the questions asked by the journalists of the minister was, “Are you a fundamentalist?” Minister Rafidah Aziz was […]

Are cabinet ministers confused about light and darkness? Do they really believe that darkness has the same force of truth as light? The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament is among the few standing committees of the Parliament; which is the highest body of/for good governance in Malaysia. Therefore, what is it that the minister […]

The root word for theology, ‘theos’, stands for some ‘other’ which/who is different from humans and is believed to have powers, character and personality that is beyond human comprehension. The second half word ‘logos’ relates to the study of the subject matter of ‘theos.’ Usually, any attempt by humans to define or describe this ‘other,’ […]

Our Federal Constitution defines a Malay as one who practices Islam and observes Malay culture. This column seeks to express my views as a curious observer and a keenly interested party of the above. The column question is addressed to all my Moderate Middle Malay friends and allies. See the earlier column wherein I define who they […]