Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

By Viktor Wong We had managed to get some Sabahan's who are currently working in peninsular for an interview on the current situation on their homeland on condition that we should not expose their identities for fear of persecution by the state authorities and the local ruling elites. We agreed that safeguarding their identities will be our utmost priority. When we started interviewing them on the current socio-economic and political situation in Sabah, we were gravely shock to hear the worst of all over what we had actually expected. Composition of ethnics in Sabah As expected, if a general question were to put forward on who is the largest and majority stakeholder in Sabah's ethnicity, everyone of us would certainly to give one straight answer, that is the combination Kadazan Dusun and Muruts. Okay, let us look at the current ethnic composition which we got from various source. The Kadazan Dusun and Muruts current consist of about 21.1%, while the Bajaus are 13.4%, Malays con...

Compiled by Viktor Wong Elections are underway in China. Not for the country's presidency but for "Renmin Daibiao," or the National People's Congress (NPC). Over the next few months, electorates in townships and urban districts all over the country will elect delegates to their both local and provincial levels People's Congress, the lowest and provincial levels of China's multi-tiered parliamentary system. Conducted every five years, this is the only time citizens can directly vote for their legislators. On paper, anyone can seek a seat by collecting signatures of at least 10 constituents. But in China's tightly-controlled political system, all candidates are closely vetted by both Chinese Communist Party (CCP) local and top officials. Elections are carefully choreographed. Still, there are more than 100 people who have bravely coma forward to offer themselves as independent candidates. Among them is Li Chengpeng, who has declared his candidacy on Weibo, C...

By Nour Samaha With the presentation of the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations Security Council happening now, activists, analysts, and academics within the Palestinian diaspora are becoming more vocal on issues that they say need to be addressed immediately. Two issues have been coming to the forefront of the debate; the representation and the right of return of the diaspora, and the legitimacy of the Palestinian officials presenting the bid. Karim Makdissi, an associate professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that "the reputations of Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat are shoddy, and their track records demonstrate the kind of success they are going to bring at this stage." "Erekat resigned from his post earlier this year, and suddenly made a comeback, how was he able to do this? There is almost no accountability to the questions raised in the Palestine Papers, neither of them seem to understand the notio...

By Shannon Teoh Bersih said today the ban on a video promoting the right to vote flies in the face of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s push for greater democracy. The electoral reforms movement called for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to allow the Undilah public service announcement to be aired by local broadcasters as it posed no threat to the public. “It’s sad that a video like that can be seen as threatening. If that is considered sensitive, what kind of democracy and political liberalisation is the prime minister talking about? “It looks like he is doing one thing while his government is doing something else,” steering committee member Subramaniam Pillay told a press conference this morning. The Malaysian Insider reported this morning that the MCMC directed local broadcasters not to use the video because it contains opposition figures and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s speech about Malaysia having problems. “What is wrong with asking people to vote? Even the 1 Ma...