Opinion

From our columnists

Brian Yap

The coarsening of Malaysian culture

DEC 4 — People often like to talk about culture, specifically Malaysian culture, as if it is something written in...

Change takes persistence – and time

NOV 27 – Thirteen years is too long a wait for justice to be done, but Malaysian time is a...

A strong middle class is key to a united country

NOV 20 — While everyone from the taxi driver to the corporate CEO often talks about race and religion, Malaysians...

Need for cohesive information policy

NOV 13 - Despite what you might have heard, the Internet is a biased source of information. It tends to...

Ini bukan satu review

DEC 4 — Sabtu lalu saya sempat tonton Muallaf, filem terbaru Yasmin Ahmad, di sebuah pawagam di negara jiran kita,...

Cabaran yang belum tersahut

By Fahmi Fadzil Nov 19 – Tiga senario mutakhir yang bagi saya mencerminkan perjalanan auh yang masih harus kita tempuhi...

Harapan Kita

NOV 12 - Mac 8. November 4. 2008 ternyata sungguh bermakna untuk kita. Dari sudut makronya, dua pentas besar politik...

Questioning the Emergency

OCT 29 - The last two weeks have been quite crazy. I was involved, along with about 30 other people,...

You can’t say that!

NOV 27 – In the bad old days when I conducted seminars, I used this opening line: “Don’t believe what...

Bomoh economics

NOV 17 — Economics is such a funny subject. According to economics theory, there is a "hidden hand" in the...

10 or 20 sen?

NOV 13 — Heard of Newton's Law? Basically it says that whatever goes up must come down sooner or later....

Protect your health

NOV 4 — Most of us in decent jobs never think twice about healthcare. Many of the middle class have...

Facing the red-wave US tide

DEC 2 – The US stock market crashed again and is barely over the 8,000 barrier mark.Yesterday, the Dow fell almost 690 points, representing almost an 8% drop.This was on...

The Eastern seduction

NOV 24 — The global financial crisis, which is hitting hard the economies of the United States and Europe, is changing the paradigm of international relations. The outcome of the...

The race for polarisation

By Muaz Omar Nov 19 - Recent developments, both local and international have heightened the debate on the role of race in politics. The election of Barack Obama as the...

Lost souls of Tenggulun

NOV 11 — The execution of the three Bali bombers — Amrozi, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra — shortly after midnight on Nov 9 was received with much sorrow among...

What does RM10 get you today?

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 - Surprisingly it did not really begin when petrol price rose to a whopping RM2.70 from RM1.92. For me, this whole inflation thing hit home...

We are seeing an unprecedented number of children or relatives of politicians taking part in the elections. Some of these Generation Next politicians are contesting their fathers' seats while others...

Churches, religious groups, the arts family, a liberalising PM, all elements of the perfect storm?

It’s a funny thing, hindsight. Many people look back at the week that was and say, “Yeah, the signs were all there. The massive turnouts at the Opposition ceramahs… and...

Looking forward to red-hot action on TV and in the flesh

NOV 30 — For those who love high-quality and high-profile football, take note that this weekend’s action in England really...

Old Lady gets a taste of The Special One

NOV 22 — I have never hated being so right like I was last week when Arsenal proved my words...

Inconsistency will lead to Gunners’ and Devils’ undoing

NOV 15 — You would have read that Arsenal are back in the race for the English Premiership title following...

More misery for Gunners

NOV 8 — It’s amazing how much can change in a few weeks. As I complete this article we are...

A national buffoonery

AUG 20 — "All great world-historic facts and personages appear twice. The first time as tragedy, the second time as...

The morality of defection

AUG 12 — Crossing over is too neutral. Let’s call it defection. I have forgotten the exact date of Dr...

The secret makan ghettos of Singapore

NOV 29 - If you are one of the fortunate souls who often trot across the Causeway straight into the arms of local old buddies, friends and family on this...

I seafood I eat …

NOV 8 — I am a city slicker and rogue adventurer wannabe. I'll Get Jeeves and Google for any information I need and have been to rugged places like a...

Measuring food in Malaysia and Singapore with a metric ruler

OCT 25 — I have to concede this: Malaysia's street "tai chow" culture is in a league of its own; not many can hold a candle to them (save for...

DAP's Personality Disorder

NOV 19 - From being Umno lackeys and yes-men to condoning abuses of power and corruption, we already know the...

We need leadership

NOV 14 — Anybody can claim to be a leader. A racial bigot. An adulterer. A corrupter. A sexist. A...

Abdullah may yet have the last laugh

OCT 10 — Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration may not have much to show off. No big legacy, except...

Jeremiah Mahadevan

JBJ's was the good fight

OCT 8 — One of my most vivid memories of the late former Singaporean opposition leader Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam dates back to 1986. I was waiting in a car, with...

Be wary of the powerful

SEPT 8 — A couple of weeks ago, I fulfilled a dream I’ve nurtured for over a decade, and saw Rage Against the Machine in concert. It's common for children...

So who’s the bad guy here?

AUG 19 — A piece on Russia’s recent confrontation with Georgia might seem like a strange way to kick off a column in The Malaysian Insider, but this conflict has...

Why can't we think of ourselves as Malaysians first?

NOV 23 — I receive a lot of comments and emails about the things I write. Some are just complimentary, some point out things I've overlooked, and some completely disagree...

Permission to speak, sir?

NOV 14 — The Malaysian authorities have done it again. A year ago, they took it upon themselves to violently disperse Malaysians calling for free and fair elections; earlier this...

Managing change, not just talking about it

NOV 7 — The United States now knows who its 44th President will be: Barack Hussein Obama. More than enough has been written about Obama, even from the Malaysian standpoint;...

Talkin’ ‘bout my generation

OCT 31 — In Parliament not too long ago, some MPs expressed outrage that road signages in Penang now feature multiple languages; the controversy over language, the royalty, and other...

Noisy war of words

AUG 15 — Inside a restaurant amid the leafy suburb of Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, the former president of the MCA, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, frequently meets old...

Race for MCA’s top post heats up

AUG 11 — The gloves are off in the race to become the next president of the MCA. And it is slowly turning into a contest between the presumptive frontrunner...

Few care for differences in court atmosphere

AUG 7 — Amid the refrains of here we go again and the collective moan of the public at the prospect of another sodomy trial involving Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,...

Racial politics remains top issue

AUG 4 — Amid the usually staid setting of a studio at Radio Television Malaysia, the country's state-owned organisation considered by critics for many years to be propaganda machinery for...

Najib the prince

OCT 30 — While premier-in-waiting Datuk Seri Najib Razak is a household name, few know what he stands for and what to expect of his premiership. "The prince", in its...

Najib misses the point, Malaysia misses the boat

OCT 23 — The much-awaited official response from the new Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the global meltdown was nothing but a letdown. Najib’s response was grossly inadequate,...

Beyond Tun Razak

OCT 13 — Of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s litany of failures, one of the least recognised yet important ones is that through his “back to the kampung...

Insights from past transitions

OCT 3 — 1981 was indeed a long time ago but the power transition then, between Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn and his deputy Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, perhaps offers...

When is the right time to sack the manager

By Shebby Singh OCT 26 - So Tottenham have finally sacked Juande Ramos. Very harsh, you say! It might sound pretty grim but then again sackings can be lucrative in...

Spurs’ ‘missing’ footballers

By Shebby Singh OCT 11 — This is the story of some footballers who came to White Hart Lane to allegedly play football for Tottenham Hotspur but somehow it seems...

Liku-Liku politik Najib

OCT 31 — Walaupun berhadapan dengan pelbagai kecaman hebat, dihujani tuduhan dan kutukan, Datuk Seri Najib Razak sentiasa kelihatan tenang. Dalam usianya yang baru mencecah 55 tahun, pengalaman politiknya sudah...

A sad Deepavali

OCT 27 — It is a sad Deepavali for members and supporters of the Hindu Rights Action Force. Their organisation has just been outlawed and their leaders are still detained...

Jika Umno sanggup berubah…

OKT 21 — Apabila Umno membentuk Perikatan bersama MCA dan MIC lebih setengah abad lalu, ia adalah pakatan parti-parti berasaskan kaum. Tidak adil jika piawaian masa kini digunakan untuk mencemuh...

Kontrak sosial senjata ampuh Umno

OKT 17 — Tidak ada sesiapa yang perlu mempertikaikan kontrak sosial antara kaum yang telah mewujudkan Malaysia merdeka lebih 50 tahun lalu. Ia adalah tolak ansur yang telah diterima ramai...