The nation is at a serious crossroads. We want to become world class but are often satisfied with being ‘kampung class.\’ What do I mean? I chanced upon an advertisement in the NST wherein Telekom Malaysia (TM) advertised the following message: \”Datuk Lee Chong Wei, runner-up of the 2011 Yonex BWF World Badminton championships: You will always …
Ahmad Talib is a mainstream media personality having served as the former managing editor of the NST. I first met him when I gave a lecture at the Ministry of Information about the National IT Agenda. Ahmad Talib wrote a recent column where he talked about a conversation he had with Proton CEO Syed Zainal …
When time, space, and political maturity combine within lunar time and modern calculations of solar time, at a selected period within man’s chronological time, that opportunity may overlap with kairos time, or what can also be called God’s timing. This modern calendar year of 2011 appears to be one of those opportunistic times within the …
At the UCSI Faculty of Economics and Policy Science, we teach how to analyse policies and make public policy recommendations. Two weekends ago, we had more than 80 young participants in the first Malaysia Public Policy Competition. This initiative belongs to some of the Malaysians scholars (not necessarily PSD scholarship holders) at LSE, Imperial College …
When Malaya gained Independence, I was only seven years old and in Standard One. It was a repeat year for me, as my Dad had emplaced me in the primary one class with my older brother in 1956, but I could not be technically promoted. I was then moved to Ibrahim Primary School where my …
I am not a teacher of the law, but I have been a student of the federal constitution and the subject of good governance since the day I first set foot in the Parliament in 1968. In Form 6, we studied a subject called ‘British Government’ and read ‘Modern Organisations’ by Amitai Etzioni. In …
Najib Abdul Razak told the Malays to stop their dependency on the government, and especially on Umno, to get them easy projects and business perks. They have to learn to become self-reliant. Lim Guan Eng told his Singaporean audience to visit and invest in Penang, even if more incidents of kidnap and blackmail occur in …
Every so often in our lifetime, someone passes who you feel for and begin to miss, although you did not know the person in a personal sense. I first felt that way with President John F Kennedy even though I was only 13 at the time of his death. I felt the same when my …
Oon Yeoh has written in his recent column in The Sun about Steve Jobs (SJ), as I did last week. Knowing that Oon is more ICT-savvy than I will ever be, I take his views and experience about the internetworked world seriously. Therefore, let me quote him and suggest what the public services of Malaysia can learn from the …
Life is sacred. Any life is sacred. Every life is sacred. All life is sacred. Whether the name is Muammar Gaddafi, or the unknown child in China run over by a vehicle, or the given name is Altantuya Shaariibuu; all life is sacred, period! No life can and should be taken away by another human …
