Lessons I learned from a great man
MOHANDAS Karamchand Gandhi. I repeated the name over and over again as I memorised a brief life history of the Indian statesman for my Tawarikh (History) exam in Standard Four at St Marks Primary School in Butterworth, Penang.
Resetting Malaysia for better mental health
ABOUT a month ago I read the sad news of a doctor in Sabah who committed suicide. I also know of an intern from my university who was said to have committed suicide while working as a houseman in a Penang hospital about two years ago.
Are we well equipped to vote in a democracy?
DEMOCRACY, as we understand it in Malaysia, means every eligible citizen can cast one vote for one person or party at the federal level and one vote at the state level. There is supposed to be another vote at the council level but we do not practise that, not since I became eligible to vote decades ago, anyway.
‘Ask not what M’sia can do for you’
This National Day, the writer asks fellow citizens to think of what they can do for the country.
Making enemies of ourselves
SOMETHING ugly is happening to Malaysia. We have a group of citizens who belong to a particular political party declaring other citizens as “enemies of Islam”.
Bridging gaps in understanding with books
Books are ‘downloads’ of human thoughts and aspirations, and can be passed on meaningfully to the next generation.
40 years of trust and patience
MY wife Norhayati Yusof and I tied the knot – or in Islam, pronounced the akad nikah – on July 15, 1984. Yes, yesterday was our 40th anniversary, I am happy to say.
Leading the way to a better Malaysia
ABOUT five years ago, I started talking about the idea of building a parallel Malaysia. Because after 20 years of watching, responding to, writing and reflecting academically on many issues of social mistrust and religious conflict, I got to thinking that Malaysia seems like a terribly ill patient.
Sabah, Sarawak: ‘Unequal partners’?
A new book addressing how people in the two Bornean parts of Malaysia feel about the nation prompts the columnist to re-examine some issues.
The mass education mess we’re in
Where are the innovative thinkers who can look beyond what we want now and dream of how to live in the future?
What are we teaching our university students?
Incidents that should have rung alarm bells about how Malaysian university students think about this country are being ignored.
Why do we let others measure us?
MALAYSIANS often react strongly to news about how the country is doing according to international performance indices in all sorts of areas, from education and press freedom levels to how happy we are.
