Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 6/7/2016 The results of the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections clearly indicated the people’s choice and dissatisfaction. In disarray, Pakatan Harapan has taken the people’s views for granted. Have Pakatan leaders learned from the outcome? Yes, blame BN over some cash inflows and vote buying, but what about themselves? As the two by-elections had given confidence to the once-bitten Umno-led BN coalition, the prospects of a snap general election being called either at the end of this year or in early of 2017 seems to be coming into reality as BN leaders have been doing the ground work and dispatching their goodies since. The major problem here is that the people are very disappointed with the way BN is running this nation because of its corrupt and swindling nature which cause billions of ringgit loss from our nation’s coffers almost every year. Asides, afraid of its unpopularity and increasing criticism a...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 17/11/2015 WH Cheng Until today, we are still hearing many allegations made by politicians especially from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition saying that Malaysia has been practicing the Westminster system in our nation’s parliamentary and governance structures. In many occasions, these BN leaders had also accused the opposition bloc in the parliament over the later’s failure to establish a shadow cabinet, by all means labelling them as non-compliance of the so-called Westminster system when opposition leaders spoke of the same against the BN government. Well, we have some questions here for the BN leaders who loudly claim the Westminster system has been long established herein Malaysia. However, we are uncertain if they are brave enough to face the facts that the Westminster system has never been in existence in our nation’s parliamentary and governance framework. Let us look at the parliamentary system of electoral,...

We are in opinion that any religious issues or discussion should remain a household or private matter and it should not be debated publicly. Asides, any religions also should not be put onto the political stage, put into part of political administration, setting up religious laws, religious courts or whatsoever. Just look at today's situation in Malaysia, how a religion has been deliberately used or being misused by many parties, leaders or individuals in the elite circle to serve their own interests, to serve their own political interests, and to ensure they remain power for a longer period. When a religion is misused, it became extreme, thus its leaders and groups become extremists. This religion which was originally a way of life has deviated from its original teachings, deviated from its original objectives, worst of all, even the religious scholars themselves had deviated from their way of life, misused their positions of power to influence our people, creating their ...

Is social democracy really working well here in Malaysia? Well, it looks like the social democracy has been used of instead. Let us check out on the European analysis here. By Shayn McCallum There are a lot of good ideas being generated among social-democratic thinkers these days and, although this article is going to be critical in many respects, of the current state of social-democracy in Europe, it is absolutely worth acknowledging the excellent work being done by progressive intellectuals on constructing a new European political economy.   The task facing social-democracy (and the European project) is, it must be acknowledged,  massive and, in attempting to move forward, it must also be admitted that there is a certain exhaustion, a sense of the weight of history, that seems to have us all dragging our feet.  Fear of repeating past mistakes, or being perceived to be doing so, is of particular concern for a movement that represents one of the ...

Many of us would be asking, what is the proportional voting system all about? And if we were to go into the online search engine to determine the actual definition on the subject question, you will find aplenty and few kinds of what we would see as proportional voting system. Yes, whatever definition that you would find in the online search engine on this proportional voting system is definitely accurate, the fact that, they are few kinds, but they all carry the same meanings and objectives. The fact that is, this subject is all about providing a more democratic space for our people by creating more representations in the parliament or state legislative assemblies. Asides, the voices of the minorities and smaller political parties would also be represented in these legislative bodies through achievement of certain percentage of votes or support from our people at large. There are two kinds of proportional voting systems herein. The first of the two kinds is the people or voter...

In aftermath of the 13th general elections (GE13), the two main Chinese-based Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, namely MCA and SUPP had sounded their frustration over the rejection by the Chinese community onto their parties' candidacy. MCA has went into the extend of calling on all its leaders not to accept any government positions anymore. For those who are now holding government position were instructed to tender their mass resignations. On the other side, Sarawak's SUPP had voiced their dismay over their poor performance by stating that by voting the Oppositions as representatives, would mean the Chinese community had in fact lost their rights and place to voice their grievances in the government. According to both MCA and SUPP again, there will be no more Chinese representatives in the BN governments and other related bodies as they have been summarily rejected by the people in the last GE13. It has also been reported that MCA has start closing down most of i...

The elections campaigning would stop once the clock struck 12.00 am this midnight. Tomorrow morning, the  13th general elections shall commence nationwide. All voters are urged to come out without fear to vote for whoever in your minds, and should you have made the correct decisions, do not hesitate to put your choice into the ballot boxes. The destiny of this nation of ours is in our hands. We hope, with the choice this time, nation would be able to move forward towards a new dawn. Whatever outcome it may have after 12.00 am tomorrow then, we hope the political parties or coalition who are on the verge of losing or may lost, would gently accept with open minds the decisions made by our people (the electorates) for the sake of the nation. This is a democratic nation and in general elections, there are those who won and so does those who lost. This is indeed a democracy in practice. The winner gets the chance to govern for a period of 5 years while the loser would take this opp...

Many of us are not aware the need and importance of the separation of powers between the party and the government. To the general political understanding of today, the chairman, president or secretary-general of the ruling party shall be automatically be appointed as prime minister or the head of the government. So does the members of the party central committee or executives, they all will automatically gain ministerial positions in the government by virtue of their leadership positions in the party. Very simple and straight forward, isn't so? Well, not many of us would know if the mixture of powers between the party and the government were to continue. Somehow, the government machinery would eventually become the party's organ. It would not happen directly but rather in an indirect manner as the machinery of the government of the day would eventually answers to the ruling party's call. The question here is, does the party own the government and does government belo...

Besides having the need to reform the entire government machinery in order to reflect its professionalism and making it into a service-oriented corporation, the Parliamentary System in this country ought to undergo the reform as well. As we can see, eventhough our country is practicing parliamentary democracy, our nation's parliament does not seem to be functioning as it was supposed to be. Yes, there are loopholes, a lot of loopholes in the current parliamentary system. People has been commenting that Malaysia is adopting a rubber-stamped parliamentary system which is only task to proposed and approve laws. Which means, the political parties who hold the majority number of seats in the parliament shall always be a winner and limited debates are only allowed in order to provide some "democratic avenue" to the Opposition bench to provide their views. This is correct, having an absolute majority and having always got the powers to approve and amend laws or bills does n...

Major shifts in political alliances here may occur after Election 2013, which is still expected to be a toss-up between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Singapore’s  The Straits Times  reported today. The paper noted that much of BN’s hopes to keep federal power now depends heavily on the polls outcome in Sabah and Sarawak, both states still long-considered the ruling party’s stronghold. File photo of people lining up to cast their ballots in the Sarawak state election in 2011. Observers believe the coming general election will be too close to call. “Whatever the outcome on Polling Day, the story will not end here. If the PR wins more seats than the BN in Peninsular Malaysia, it is likely to woo BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak to defect to it,” the English daily reported. “Bad losses for either coalition could worsen inherent faultlines in both and they could fall apart as easily as they were stitched together,” it added. Att...