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Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. After the war, when he was finally captured, and brought to trial in Israel, it was finally established that “blindly following orders to commit wrong-doing” is against the human conscience and violates human dignity. For those interested […]

Am I being a racist? Or, simply a realist? Yes, my question is a real and honest one. When we were in the Royal Military College (RMC), only two of the eight Senior Under Officers (or SUOs) in 1968 were Chinese. Why? We were three Malays, two Chinese, and three Indians. Why not? If we […]

I read with sadness the passing of another Malaysian icon. The last one was the late Karpal Singh. This is the passing of the spiritual adviser of PAS, one called Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat. The first one left us suddenly. Tok Guru Nik Aziz left us in an expected and yet sudden way, […]

Is it as easy as ABC for Malaysians? Do Malaysians know their ABC for doing this? Or, is it an integral a, b, c in our culture for most Malaysians? Or, is it so embedded in our culture and system that when it was called BCA (or Bersih, Cekap, Amanah) for Malaysians, even the salesman […]

It is said, “What’s in a name; that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?” I am not a true Shakespearean and therefore I will claim the popular heritage of this idea and ideal. This same rose however is on the cover of the first book that I am […]

This column is beginning of a pet hypothesis I have always held but now consider it time to put into a written form. In the past I have only used this framework to speak using my power point of the same. I will begin to put these thoughts in writing through a series of partial […]

Last week I asked this question of all my readers. What I observed in response was that almost none of the readers who commented sought to answer the question I asked, but really chose the column and the response facility of the Malaysiakini platform to make some of their own arguments, one way or other. The most […]

Faith matters are beyond reason, but such matters are not unreasonable or non-reasonable. The historic Catholic Church made the original mistake of “declaring by faith ‘that the earth is the centre of the universe’.” Thereby and thereafter two scientists, Galileo and Copernicus, used their instruments of science to establish and prove that the sun and […]

This series is still thinking about and asking the question, are we 1Bangsa of Malaysians? Two weeks ago, our friends of Taman Aman decided to invite MP Tony Pua to a Dialogue Bersama Rakyat. This was part and parcel of our local governance engagement strategy in asking for increased responsibility and improved accountability by all […]

I believe personal health is great wealth. My father lived to be almost 97; just short one month. He lived well and died well. Therefore, I have taken the view that good health is more valuable than great wealth; so that I, too, get to try and finish well like him. Nonetheless, now that we […]