Some good news at long last. Just got a call from The Herald editor, Fr Lawrence Andrew. The Herald has received the approval letter for its new annual publishing permit – without any condition! Nothing mentioned about the use of the word “Allah”; and no order for it to drop its Malay-language section. The approval letter for the new permit was hand-delivered to The Herald’s office today, on a Sunday. Imagine, a government dept working on a Sunday. So that’s great news that good sense has prevailed. Better sense would be to abolish – for good! and for the good of the people – the requirement for publishers to apply for an annual publication permit. Yes, it’s time to scrap the Printing Presses and Publications Act. Hopefully, such good sense will extend to other areas of public life. Good sense is certainly a commodity in short supply around the world [Read more]
Publication permit in doubt: The Herald has provided prominent coverage of recent demonstrations and other human rights issues even as the mainstream media abdicate their responsibility Four years ago, Christian Malaysians were overjoyed when Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi sent Christmas greetings to their various churches and congregations. It was an astute gesture that touched many Christians, and many of them voted in droves for the BN in the 2004 general election. How times have changed. Now, as we observe Christmas 2007, the mood in many churches is decidedly sombre. The Catholic Church has not yet received its new publication permit for its weekly Herald newspaper for the coming year, ostensibly because of its use of the term “Allah” to refer to God in its Malay-language section. As a columnist for The Herald, I am deeply disappointed. The Herald’s use of the term “Allah” is nothing new; it has been using [Read more]
MIC president Samy Vellu was booed and publicly humiliated when he turned up to officiate at the Aattam 100 Vagai 3 (100 types of dance) performance at the Penang International Sports Arena (Pisa) last night. Sources tell me the crowd of 2,000-3,000 shouted obscenities at him including “po-dah” (the rude version of “get lost”) and he didn’t get a chance to complete his speech. One source told me he was surprised to hear that the women in the audience appeared more aggressive in admonishing Samy. Bear in mind, this was a cultural event and not a political forum, so it would have been attended by a diverse crowd of Indian Malaysians – who have now become politically awakened as never before. The event was supposed to be telecast “live” by Astro Vaanavil (Channel 201) and beamed to India, Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Apart from Astro, the media partners supporting [Read more]
