The great tragedy of our time

 Iraq, Militarism, United States  No Responses »
Mar 312007
 

The Beirut-based journalist Robert Fisk once said, “War is the total failure of the human spirit”. I know what he is trying to say. War brings out the worst in human nature. Bloodbaths. Torture. Senseless killing. Indiscriminate bombing. Rape. Then again, I am not sure if it is fair to blame the human spirit as a whole. After all, the decision to proceed with war is often made by a small group of political leaders, often after whipping up patriotic fervour and manipulating their populations into throwing their support for war with the help of a compliant or servile media. Often war is fought to seize control of territory for strategic or economic interests. These wars are planned by the rich, while the victims are largely young soldiers who, for the most part, do not know the real reasons they are waging war. Moreover, in recent times, millions of people [Read more]

A classic PR battle

 Agrobusiness/GM food, Development issues, Workers' rights  No Responses »
Mar 292007
 

You may not have noticed, but a classic PR battle is being waged between the agrichemical industry and anti-paraquat campaigners. Round One went to the anti-paraquat campaigners, when they succeeded in getting the Malaysian government to ban the dangerous pesticide. The industry lobby fought back in Round Two and, using the  immense resources at their disposal, succeeded in getting the ban “temporarily lifted” for “further study”. But the ‘umpire’ was far from neutral. Why did the government cave in to the industry lobby over the interests of pesticide sprayers, many of them women who are exposed to these hazadous substance? Well, that’s the million dollar question. Actually, lots of millions at stake. The use of pesticides ties in with the Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s emphasis on agrobusiness-driven agriculture, which focuses on lucrative cash crops. Such cash crops not only benefit large corporations but they invariably involve the extensive use of [Read more]

Local democracy or local comedy?

 Accountability, Christianity, Democracy  No Responses »
Mar 222007
 

Few of us are aware that our country had a thriving system of elections to local councils in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, we had 373 local authorities – 40 town councils, 37 town boards, 289 local councils and 7 district councils. Out of some 4,200 local councillors (not including those in the Kuala Lumpur municipality), more than 3,000 were elected. George Town, Ipoh and Malacca were the most prominent of these councils and Penang itself had fully elective councils throughout the state, including the mainland. In fact, the first elections in Malaya were held in George Town in 1951 to elect nine councillors. The government later abolished local government elections. The deathblow came with the enactment of the Local Government Act of 1976, which effectively killed off local council elections and replaced them with a system of appointments that rewards ruling coalition politicians and supporters with positions in [Read more]

People in the dark over Asean Charter

 Asean, Corporate agenda, Human rights  1 Response »
Mar 212007
 

Few people are even aware that a major development is taking place in South-East Asia. As usual, we are in the dark. Before long, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will come up with a Charter. In other words, work is in progress towards coming up with a ‘constitution’ for the regional grouping of 10 nations. Strange, they are talking about forming an Asean Community by 2015 and yet most people don’t have a clue what’s going on. Here’s an extract from a piece I wrote for the Malaysian Herald last October: You would think that on a subject of this importance, the people of Southeast Asia would be consulted and a broad range of views solicited. You would think that our newspapers and television and radio programmes would be discussing this week in and week out to discern what exactly should be included in such a Charter. You [Read more]

Watch what’s happening to your EPF money

 Accountability, Malaysian finance/business  2 Responses »
Mar 162007
 

So now the EPF is set to take over RHB. The first question that comes to mind is, isn’t the EPF biting off more than it can chew? What does it know about managing a bank – or even supervising the management of a bank? It already has plenty on its plate just managing its own funds – or rather, the public funds of EPF contributors – and ensuring that Malaysians get a decent rate of return on their pension savings. If the EPF is so confident about managing a bank, perhaps it can tell us how and why it ended up holding a stake in a banking group which is now saddled with RM3.6 billion in debt. That’s not all. I say, watch your EPF money closely. The EPF could also end up financing infrastructure projects under the so-called Private Finance Initiatives, which will finance RM20 billion worth of [Read more]

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