States Of Reform - Penang Monthly (Page 2)

What the Selangor State Secretary issue teaches us

6 min read

IN 1993 the Federal Constitution of Malaysia was amended with the aim of removing legal immunity of the royalty. Articles 32, 38, 42, 63, 72 and 181 were...

Taking bigger than baby steps to transform the economy

6 min read

PENANG CHIEF MINISTER Lim Guan Eng recently demanded that the Prime Minister Department’s Performance and Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) gives a...

The Many Sides of Good City Living

7 min read

ONE OUT OF TWO people in the world already lives in a city today. In 40 years, seven out of 10 will be doing that. Rapid urbanisation around the world has put t...

Selangor Passes Two Key Reform Bills

5 min read

POLICY REFORMS CAN be a drawn-out and laborious process, but once in a blue moon you get a sudden windfall – and this makes it all worth the wait. In th...

Reversing The Brain Drain Requires A Paradigm Shift

5 min read

WHEN THE WORLD BANK LAUNCHED its Malaysian Economic Monitor’s “Brain Drain” issue, I received a hurried call from a friend. His contact, the c...

Local Democracy Alive and Kicking in Pakatan States

5 min read

IN A PEM column last year, I wrote extensively about local government elections and the laws and policies governing them in Malaysia. At that point, both the st...

Keep Solid Waste Local

6 min read

ON A MALAYSIAN online directory listing, Alam Flora Sdn Bhd’s description of itself reads: “We’ve been entrusted by the Government to manage t...

Making Housing Affordable In Urban States

7 min read

MALAYSIANS LOVE to talk about property. Most opening conversations of late sound something like, “Property prices are so high these days! I am just w...

Malaysia The Welfare State?

6 min read

EVER SINCE THE Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) muktamar in June, which had as its theme the “welfare state” policy concept, there has been a scram...

What’s in the budget for state governments?

5 min read

Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak tabled the 2012 Budget amidst great fanfare, announcing a slew of benefits for almost every possible layer of society. One comm...

What Do The State Budgets of Penang and Selangor Tell Us?

5 min read

WE ARE LIVING in times beset by talk of financial difficulties all over the world.The Eurozone crisis continues to unfold with the economies of Spain, Greece...

The State of Non-Muslims in Penang and Selangor.

5 min read

The season for cheer last December was slightly dampened by several events in the months leading up to Christmas. Christmas carollers were thrown into confu...