Stateless in Sabah
4 min read
Any tourist walking along Kota Kinabalu’s famed waterfront will, sooner or later, encounter a tout waving a booklet for island tours and boat trips. He wi...
Taking education outside the school
6 min read
According to the World Bank, in 2010, 14% of our GDP per capita consisted of public spending on primary education. Singapore on the other hand recorded 11.2%...
URGENTLY NEEDED: Reform of Malaysia’s regime police
6 min read
Nine years have passed since the release of the landmark 2005 Dzaiddin Royal Commission Report and its 125 recommendations for police reforms, including the f...
No nuclear power please, we are Malaysians
8 min read
At a recent event organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI), a speech by Datuk Mah Siew Keong, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Depa...
Garbage City of Cairo
6 min read
“Garbage City” in the Mokattam hills outside Cairo is not on the tourist map. A cramped slum of rubbish-strewn streets and low rise buildings, it is...
An afternoon at the Malaysian Tamil barbershop
8 min read
Schedule interviews with Malaysian MPs?No, we obviously can't bother them on a Sunday.Plan for the English camp we're organising for secondary school students...
Local government in Malaysia: Types, functions, organisation, members and budget
4 min read
Figure 1: Types of local government in MalaysiaSource: Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 2014.The local government or local authority, or &ldq...
Who says you can’t make videos in Penang?
4 min read
Entering the premises of local production house RisingOneMedia, I half-expected high-tech cameras lying scattered on the floor and an important creative discuss...
A festival that is small, and therefore big
4 min read
As a holiday destination, Pangkor Island isn’t as well-known as Malaysia’s other islands in the north and east. And as a heritage and cultural site,...
Christine Das: Stroking animals to life
6 min read
They say that, like the proverbial spinning wheel, nobody can reinvent art. I believe it’s true because, today, very few works of art manage to surprise m...
Kyogen : An awesome tradition seeking a future
6 min read
At a time when traditional performances – be they wayang kulit, Hokkien puppet theatre or bharatanatyam – cling to the fringes of our society as TVs...
A personal experience at GTF
5 min read
No politics this time. Let me talk instead about my experience participating in this year’s George Town Festival (GTF) as an actor in the play 2 Houses, w...