Malaysiaku, Negaraku

  Izinkan saya mengemukakan satu persoalan yang sukar saya jawab kepada seorang warga emas berusia 74 tahun yang permohonan kewarganegaraannya telah ditolak oleh Kementerian Dalam Negeri. Untuk tujuan perbincangan ini, kita namakan beliau Encik Tan. Walaupun Encik Tan dilahirkan di Singapura pada tahun 1952, iaitu sebelum kemerdekaan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu dan sebelum pembentukan Malaysia, beliau telah menetap di negara ini sejak berusia tiga tahun. Dalam erti kata yang sebenar, seluruh kehidupan beliau, identiti sosialnya, keluarganya, perniagaannya dan sumbangannya adalah berakar di Malaysia. Saya tidak faham bagaimana permohonan beliau di bawah Perkara 19(1) itu gagal diterima walaupun beliau selama ini telah melalui proses naturalisasi.  Seorang abang beliau juga pernah menghadapi masalah yang sama iaitu tidak mempunyai kewarganegaraan, namun telah berputus asa untuk meneruskan perjuangan mendapatkan status tersebut walaupun saya cuba menggalakkan beliau terus merayu. Ha...

  Before assigning blame, we should first be honest about the historical record. The Pakatan Harapan manifesto (Buku Harapan) was launched on 8 March 2018, when Anwar Ibrahim was still incarcerated. He only received a royal pardon and returned to active politics on 16 May 2018, after GE14 had already been won.  Certainly, one can argue that as the current chairman and leading figure of Pakatan Harapan, Anwar should ultimately bear responsibility for the coalition's successes and failures. Leadership carries accountability. I have no quarrel with that. However, there is a significant difference between holding a leader accountable for the performance of his government and attributing personal authorship to promises that were conceived, drafted, and launched while he was still behind bars. To conflate the two is to blur the distinction between responsibility and authorship. It is like what I pointed out before this about Jalan Palestine , which was launched by Muhyiddin Yasin as...

It looks like even the afternoon will not be spared of rain which will further dampen voters turnout in Johor At 11:58 AM on a state election polling day, a message popped up on my phone from an unknown person from Sarawak: “Until 11:00 AM, only 26.43% have turned out to vote. That is dangerously low.” Though he isn't a voter in this election, his anxiety was palpable. He couldn't understand why the electorate seemed so entirely disconnected. But as an observer who has watched Malaysian politics evolve for decades, I wasn’t surprised at all. I have grown cold, too. The fire that drove us in 2013—when everyday citizens stood guard at polling stations, ready to protect ballot boxes with their own lives—has flickered out. Since I first cast my vote in 1990, I have never seen apathy run this deep. Politicians are misreading this silence as peace. It isn't peace; it is disillusionment: The Illusion of Invincibility in Selangor The Illusion of Invincibility in Selangor Let’s ...

The _Machiavellian Corrupting Contemptible destroyer of a dynamic progressive harmonious Malaysia_, *Dr Mahathir* - _very well analysed indeed by_ *Dr Betty Teh* _of Alor Setar, Kedah_ (a KLumpur *Specialist Doctor Consultant*) ..... 🙃😤🤢🤮😡👎🏿 ..... _(ChaiHB)_ ..... 👇 #  *"THE DISEASE MAHATHIR LEFT Behind"* _(By Betty Teh)_ At a hundred, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad still insists on speaking as though Malaysia owes him a hearing. She does not. The nation he once led has spent two decades cleaning up the debris of his legacy, and the least he could offer now is silence dignified, if not contrite. Yes, his 22 year rule is often called Malaysia’s golden era. *But the glitter masked corrosion. Beneath the skyscrapers and slogans, Mahathir planted the idea that political power could be sustained through patronage that corruption was not deviance but method.* From that seed grew an entire *culture of entitlement, where loyalty could be bought and moral authority sold.* What b...

  Petang semalam, saya menerima gambar di atas yang sangat menyentuh hati. Lebih-lebih lagi apabila melihat ibu dan anak ini akhirnya dipertemukan semula—sebuah momen penuh kasih yang sukar digambarkan dengan kata-kata. Ibunya hidup dalam kegelisahan apabila anaknya menghilangkan diri selama beberapa bulan tanpa sebarang khabar. Tiada berita, tiada hubungan—hanya kerisauan yang berpanjangan. Namun, selepas tentera Myanmar menyerbu sebuah pusat penipuan di Tachileik, sinar harapan akhirnya muncul. Seramai 37 rakyat Malaysia telah diselamatkan dalam operasi tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, sepanjang tempoh sebulan, Kedutaan Malaysia di Yangon hanya berjaya mengenal pasti tidak lebih daripada 17 orang yang benar-benar warganegara Malaysia. Yang lain masih menunggu keluarga dan sanak saudara mereka menghubungi pejabat kementerian luar negeri untuk memberi butir-butir yang dapat disahkan sahih.  Harizz Amirul Ahmad Fazir Selama dua bulan sejak saya dimaklumkan mengenai seorang anak mu...

  Watch this short but very meaningful movie and tell me if this is comparable to what you have experienced all these years, when dealing with companies whose staff are not customer-centric or civil servants who behave more like Little Napoleons than truly serving the government of the day.