Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

By Koon Yew Yin Last week I received a copy of an email invitation to a joint seminar by two academics, one from University of Malaya and the other from Unversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The title of their talk was “Does race matter in getting an interview? A field experiment of hiring discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia.”. As I have been an employer with over 40 years experience, the seminar topic intrigued me. Unfortunately I was not able to attend. Subsequently, I have been following the internet discussion generated by the seminar. This includes the recent letter from the two researchers requesting an apology from an online news site which reported on the seminar findings. Is Racial Bigotry an Issue in Hiring? According to the letter, the online website had through its headline “Malaysian employers practise racial bigotry, study shows” grossly misrepresented the study. Although the two academics conceded that the article “fairly accurately conveys our main findings and conc...

Oleh Zurairi AR Kebebasan beragama mestilah termasuk untuk menukar agama, kata badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang memperjuangkan wanita Muslim berikutan kenyataan Nurul Izzah Anwar dalam isu ini. Dalam kenyataan medianya, Sisters In Islam (SIS) bertanya bagaimana Muslim menuntut kebebasan, yang mahu menarik lebih ramai orang bukan Islam untuk memasuki agama itu tetapi dalam masa sama tidak membenarkan penganutnya keluar dari agama tersebut. “Kepercayaan berdasarkan paksaan akan jadi hipokrit,” menurut SIS dalam kenyataan medianya. Pengarah program SIS, Suri Kempe menerangkan bahawa NGO tersebut tidak menggalakkan umat Islam untuk murtad, sebaliknya memperjuangkan kebebasan meninggalkan agama bagi mereka yang tidak lagi mempercayainya. “Islam bukanlah agama jalan sehala,” kata Suri. Kenyataan naib presiden PKR, dalam forum berkenaan dengan isu negara Islam di Subang Jaya Sabtu lalu telah menyebabkan beliau diserang oleh pemimpin agama dan pemimpin Umno dengan mengatakan beliau...

By Steve Oh The  Malaysiakini  report on Nurul Izzah Anwar's  statement   that there should be no compulsion in religion even for Malays is a watershed idea for the nation. This poignant truth surpasses even the remarkable observation made by former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the country's "first rate infrastructure and third world mentality." It shows that Malaysian leaders know what's wrong with their country but do they have the moral courage and political capability to right the wrongs? I am sure Nurul Izzah and her political coalition will win many votes if she makes her suggestion a key policy in their political manifesto. It will bring Malaysia in line with contemporary values of human rights because the Malays are still a bonded people, controlled by all sorts of rules and regulations that exempt other Malaysians. This one-nation two-system method of governance is retrograde and reason why despite all the high-sounding political s...

By Simon Sipaun PROHAM is a new human rights NGO formed by former Suhakam and the Police Commission commissioners. It was launched on 21st March, 2011. Incidentally, 21st March every year is the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This RTD will go a long way towards realizing PROHAM’s hope to see that Malaysia will, sooner rather than later become a party to the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1969 (ICERD). This move represents a realistic approach to the issue rather than sweeping it under the carpet and pretend it is not there. 2. I am unable to find one good reason why Malaysia should persistently continue to be not a party to ICERD. Any government which refuses to be a party to ICERD is a government that supports racism and racial discrimination. How else can I interpret such state of affairs? 175 countries are currently party to ICERD including many Islamic countries. Only 15 cou...