Malaysiaku, Negaraku

  Recent news reports highlight the humane treatment extended to students from southern Thailand—where school facilities are often not on par with those available to Malaysian children—by Malaysia’s Minister of Home Affairs, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. His approach reflects a commendable degree of compassion and empathy in the exercise of public office. Law is law, but at the very least, Saifuddin has demonstrated the compassionate face of law enforcement. These children pose no threat to national security; they cross the border for a simple and legitimate purpose—to attend school. Recognising this, Saifuddin went beyond a symbolic visit undertaken for publicity. He instructed the Director-General of Immigration to facilitate the students’ access to education through proper and lawful channels.  Saifuddin's example reflects well about the Islam that he believes in. He shows me how a government minister can live up to his Islamic values and still enforcing the laws. I believe i...

Adibah, the doyen of Malaysian journalism  When I received an invitation to attend Adibah Amin’s Tribute Night at The Majestic Hotel, I decided to go, even though I must admit that I did not regularly read her As I Was Passing column. That was likely because I was still quite young at the time, but her name—especially her pen name Sri Delima—certainly rang a bell. In fact, several months earlier, I had the opportunity to visit her in hospital when she was unwell. It is often said that true friendship reveals itself when you visit someone who is bedridden and unable to offer anything in return. I brought my two children along, hoping to introduce them to this doyen of Malaysian journalism and letters, and to help them understand the significance of her contributions to the nation’s intellectual and cultural life. The tribute night itself was a warm celebration shared among friends and Adibah’s former colleagues from the New Straits Times and The Star, many of whom I have also known...

    When Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, dropped what many saw as a political bombshell in Parliament recently, I initially did not give it much thought. After all, it is well within his prerogative to articulate Singapore’s foreign‑policy position. Yet this immediately raises several important questions: Is this merely his personal stance? Is it fully shared by the Prime Minister Lawrence Wong? Does it reflect the consensus of Parliament—and, by extension, the Singaporean public? My reflection on his April 7 speech has little to do with a particular interest in tracking Singapore’s domestic political developments. Rather, it stems from a broader concern that certain questions of principle are worth examining, regardless of national boundaries. When he asserted  that Singapore upholds the principle that the Strait of Hormuz belongs to the international maritime community  rather than Iran, several issues arise.  Q. Is he correct in...

Apabila Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengumumkan penyelarasan gaji penjawat awam, saya menyokong langkah tersebut, walaupun saya memahami sentimen sebahagian masyarakat yang berpendapat bahawa penjawat awam tidak sepatutnya diberikan kenaikan gaji. Pandangan saya ini terbentuk hasil pengalaman peribadi hampir 30 tahun yang lalu, ketika saya menyertai sebuah syarikat dari Amerika Syarikat, Union Carbide, yang membekalkan emulsi polimer kepada pengeluar cat antarabangsa seperti ICI, Jotun dan Nippon. Sebelum itu, syarikat berkenaan berada di bawah pengurusan seorang ketua eksekutif yang kurang mengambil berat tentang kebajikan pekerja. Apabila saya menyertai syarikat tersebut sebagai pengurus makmal, gaji saya hanyalah sekitar RM2,700 sebulan. Namun, selepas penyelarasan gaji dibuat oleh pengurusan baharu, gaji saya meningkat kepada sekitar RM4,500, satu jumlah yang boleh dianggap agak tinggi pada pertengahan tahun 1990-an. Ini bukan kenaikan tapi penyelerasan gaji mengikut g...

  Albert Tei, the "businessman," caught in a major drama which turned him into an anti-Anwar trooper, is what I prefer to call a "broker" as I do not know what kind of business he is involved except to broker for licenses on behalf of his clients.  Like me, he has a wide network of contacts, especially with the Sabahan politicians, with whom he could meet and talk to. The only differences between us are that he is lobbying for big projects in the form of licenses on behalf of his clients while I contact people within my network to help solve some problems on the ground, and in his cases, people are willing to pay money for these licenses, or in short bribes, while I do a lot of the work on either pro bono or by just earning an honest income for work done. For example, through my network of contacts, I may be writing the autobigoraphy as a ghost writer for a client but because I empathise with her, I also try to get the help of people I know who can help her solve he...