Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 24/8/2016  Whenever there are rallies held in Malaysia, organised to seek reforms, just and fairness over important issues affecting our people and the entire nation, the Barisan Nasional government and their leaders are so quick to claim that these rallies whether it is civil society or opposition dominated were some kind of attempt to topple a “democratically elected” government of theirs. The question here is, are rallies here in Malaysia capable of overthrowing the BN government as alleged by many BN leaders, particularly of those from Umno? What specific or concrete evidence do they have to immediately implicate that these kind of rallies were deemed violent and attempted coup similar to those which had taken place in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Tunisia or Egypt? Are these BN leaders losing confidence on their own capabilities and leadership until they have to resort to such idea that someone out there

By WSWS Correspondent Just days after reported second-quarter growth figures pointed to a marked slowdown in the US and Europe, new manufacturing data released yesterday provided further evidence of global economic stagnation. The continued slump in the real economy is in marked contrast to the ongoing and ultimately unsustainable speculative frenzy on international share markets. The IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing for the euro zone in July showed a marked fall from 52.8 in June to 52.0 in July. Germany, with a PMI of 53.8, was the main factor keeping the overall index above 50, the dividing line between growth and contraction. IHS Markit chief economist Chris William commented: “Expansions in output and employment are clearly being driven to a large extent by surging growth in Germany, while growth has almost stalled in both Italy and Spain, and contractions are being seen in France and Greece.” France’s PMI hit 48.6. Italy’s was the lowest in 18