The Malaysian Insider

NOV 3 – An optimist may take the view that politics is unifying. A realist will understand that politics is divisive. It is possible that this realisation is the reason why the Sultan of Selangor expressed his concern about the use of mosques for political purposes.

For better or for worse, political activities in mosques are inevitable, if there is respect for freedom.

Divisiveness is a symptom of difference in opinion and freedom of conscience. Any effort to eliminate such divide, in most cases, involves abolition of freedom. It is for this reason that I do not share his concern. Rather, I am more concerned with the roles of mosques in Malaysian society.

OCT 27 — As the libertarian I am, I can only sigh reading the 2010 federal budget speech delivered by the Finance Minister.

I begin from a point deep in the realm of skepticism. I never actually believed any government in Malaysia — now or in the near future, neither Barisan Nasional (BN) nor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) — would largely retreat from the marketplace to leave the market to its own device in most cases. There are simply too many political considerations that go against the notion of free market here in Malaysia.

Firstly, businesses are politically-connected to make the government pro-business. In fact, the government itself is involved in businesses through its oligopolies to crowd out private initiatives.

OCT 12 — I am unsure if I am recalling this accurately but in the back of my mind, amid cobwebs of vague memories, I somehow remember reading an Asimov short story in a stuffy old library at the Malay College in Kuala Kangsar. You will forgive me if it is not even Asimov’s writing. It may well be the work of some other science fiction author. What I do have vivid recollection is the plot of the story, however. From that story, I hope it may cause others to refrain from committing hasty generalisations.

OCT 5 — It is easy to dismiss the triviality, for instance, of choosing a pair of high heels out of hundreds as excesses of modern life defined by free market. How does one sympathise with a dilemma of a purchaser who faces a petty option between consuming Coke and Pepsi?

Such inconsequential puzzles seem so shallow for it to be objects of attention at times when there are larger and more pressing issues that the society, or even the world, faces. So shallow and so trivial it seems that to defend it seems only so wrong. Yet, these trivialities continue to receive attention of great many people.

OCT 2 — The very silly spat between Malaysia and Indonesia is a huge disappointment for regionalists who dream of repeating the European experiment of closer integration in Southeast Asia. It may be silly but it has dire negative ramifications to regionalism in the region. Even if one is not a regionalist but simply a citizen of either country who wishes for his or her own country to take its rightful place in the world, it is in his or her interest to see the relationship between both countries bloom. It must flourish for both countries are dependent on each other.