Shadow Policy Committee

By Dr Chen Man Hin Wan Azizah policy speech at the recent PKR congress was a breath of fresh air into politics in the country. She did not introduce some policy of the nature of 1 Malaysia. What she gave was a dream of building a united and progressive Malaysia with a policy designed to change the political landscape. Wan Azizah has a dream for Malaysia where all Malaysians whether Malays, Chinese, Indians or Kadazanas are considered as masters and equals in their own country. Her dream is to spread the concept of KETUANAN RAKYAT which means that all Malaysians have the same status and equal opportunities in all the fields of human endeavour. This is a bold step by Wan Azizah, and just as Martin Luther King had a dream which unleashed a new era for the blacks of America, so will Azizah’s dream open up a new world for Malaysia to be as progressive, compeitive and a high income economy as the tigers of Asia like Singapore, Hong Kong, S Korea and Taiwan. Wan Azizah does not believe in ket...

In the spirit of peace and tranquility, I wish a very happy Wesak day to all Buddhists in Malaysia. On this auspices day, we are reminded of the teachings of Lord Buddha who among other things has preached enlightenment and tolerance. The struggle for understanding and tolerance, especially religious and racial tolerance, among Malaysians may not be an easy task but it is also not impossible. What we need is a very strong political will from those who are in the position of power, as well as the support from the people. When Minister in the Prime Minister's Department formed the Inter-Fatih Committee, it was abandoned due to opposition from extremist groups such as Perkasa and those within UMNO. Will Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak allow its establishment to demonstrate his commitment to 1Malaysia is not just an empty slogan. An interfaith dialogue, whether in a form or a council or a certain body, is never meant to undermine or to surpass any faith or religion. It is...

By Viktor Wong In the prime minister’s speech at the recently concluded Gerakan national delegates conference which he officiated, Datuk Najib Razak told the Gerakan delegates and the people that racist comments from one or two Umno leaders should be ignored, Umno is not a racist party and don’t listen to one or two leaders’ talk. Does Najib think that by ignoring these “one or two racist Umno leaders” would be enough? Or why does he think that by ignoring these racist would be effective to curb them out of political influence? And are there really only “one or two” racist Umno leaders as he claimed? Since from the beginning of Umno’s inception till today, we had seen more than just “one or two” racist Umno leader wielding and yielding racist and supremacist jargons as well as threatened the lives of other communities. So, we want to correct Najib’s error, it is actually between “one to two thousand”. And we hope he does acknowledge his error. By just ignoring these racist Umno leaders...

By Viktor Wong Since Datuk Najib Razak took over as prime minister, he introduced the 1Malaysia concept which is to be undertaken by his administration. But does he realize that, if he is serious about racial integration, it must be first by revamping the entire educational system? Has Najib ever looked into this first prior to his commencement of 1Malaysia? Almost all of us agreed that in order to foster greater racial integration today, it must be start from school with its educational system first. However, today we still hear reasons given by non-Malay parents for not wanting to send their children to national schools. Their core concern is the overly emphasizing of Islam in national schools and due to this the national schools has been increasingly dominated by Malay students which by now had turned these national schools into “Malay schools” or “Islamic schools” instead of its origin position as national schools. In the past and present, the federal government and its education m...