Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 14/4/2017 Clarification from Putrajaya is urgently required! Is the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) taking precedence over the education sector, to the extent that budgets for public universities and related sectors were slashed. Does Putrajaya now regard education as of lower priority for our younger generation today? Party politics and the politics of survival have apparently become an important task for Putrajaya, particularly the PMD itself. When we complain of low productivity and a bloated civil service of about 1.68 million employees, the leadership in Putrajaya decided to slash the budgets for public universities instead without considering the consequences to the coming generations. A source has been reported as saying that the budget cuts of public universities were some sort of “punishment” because many students and academics had been voicing out against policies and systems of the government. If this is the case, ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 22/09/2016 Recently, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), under the leadership of the newly appointed chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad, has made a string of arrests of high-ranking civil servants ranging from Datuks to Datuks Seri and Tan Sris. Well, whenever MACC is helmed by a new chief, such enthusiasm seems to be bubbling. It begs the question of whether the new broom can sweep as well till the end. Yes, Dzulkifli has adopted the right approach, according to many. But so did all the previous MACC chiefs, who had started well with a spate of arrests and prosecutions of corrupt public figures. But they ended up being frowned upon by many powerful politicians and leaders because MACC was trying its best to go deeper into these corrupt elements, their source and associates. And let us not forget what had happened to MACC last year when it was subjected to actions that demoralised its staff and made a mockery of it...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 21/7/2016 Are you all surprised or shocked when we say a hung parliament will be good for our nation today? Yes, we suppose so. Some politicians will also condemn such an idea as crazy because it would not benefit them, their political parties, or help in their quest for power. They would reason that such a situation would only bring chaos to our nation. Correctly said, because these politicians have been in power for decades and yet they are yet to show any maturity in matters of governing this nation. A hung parliament is a situation where no political party or coalition of political parties from both ruling and opposition blocs obtain any absolute majority in number of seats in the parliament after a general election. The ruling party or coalition may gain just a sufficient number of seats, or it may be called simple or narrow majority, while the opposition party or coalition may have increased its parliamentary ...

by Bill Van Auken One week after the abortive military coup to overthrow Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, there remains no doubt that Washington had a major hand in the bloody events that shook Istanbul and Ankara. Turkish military commanders with the closest ties to the Pentagon have been directly implicated in the attempted overthrow, including the commander of the Incirlik air base, where the US stores its largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in Europe and from which it carries out its bombing campaign against Iraq and Syria. Multiple aircraft supporting the coup flew out of Incirlik under the eyes of the US military. After it became apparent that the coup would fail, the Turkish base commander asked the US for asylum. It emerged Wednesday that a warning of the impending coup had come from Russia, which relayed intercepted radio communications between the coup plotters to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, known as the MIT. The warning was shared with the Turkish ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 26/3/2016 Our nation is now in terrible darkness, both socially and economically. A lot of things happening in Putrajaya have undermined the confidence of the people and the international community. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and its dominant party Umno are becoming like a tumour growing in the heart of our nation. Why? It is all because of the alleged RM2.6 billion scandal of Prime Minister Najib Razak and the RM42 billion debt chalked up by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), where Najib chairs its advisory board. The Najib government has given a new twist to the definition of “donation” based on the RM2.6 billion channelled into Najib’s personal account. Amid this brouhaha and political acrimony, here comes the Citizens’ Declaration initiated by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. On March 4, Mahathir, who is Najib’s chief critic, joined hands with political leaders from both sides of the divide and civil society...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 18/3/2016 The Pakatan Harapan government in Penang was recently embroiled in a controversy over the sacking of two PKR assemblymen from the boards of state government-linked-companies, InvestPenang and Penang Hill Corporation (PHC). The termination of the services of Ong Chin Wen (Bukit Tengah) and Cheah Kah Peng (Kebun Bunga) was announced by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, in retaliation for their decision not to vote against an Umno motion to halt land reclamation projects in Penang. PKR, however, defended its two state assemblymen, saying its elected representatives are allowed to vote according to their conscience and the people’s interests. To add salt to the wound, the DAP-led state government appointed Seremban MP Anthony Loke to the board of PHC to replace Cheah. The state government has reasoned that Loke’s appointment was based on his capacity as the party’s shadow minister for tourism and culture at the federal level whi...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 4/12/2015 WH Cheng When the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was in the midst of investigating the controversial and debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), its efforts and hard work were suddenly halted when the then committee chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed and some other members who are mostly BN parliamentarians were abruptly removed and 'promoted' to positions in the government administration in a reshuffle by the prime minister. During the transition, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia had also disallowed PAC deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw from taking over the inquiry and had the entire committee suspended indefinitely. The suspension of PAC by the Speaker was justified by the explanation that the committee has been rendered ineffective following the departure of Nur Jazlan as chair and almost half of its membership. The truth is, the move by the BN government has made the PAC a lame duck, thus delay...

By Yeong Kam Loong Looking at the recent formation of Left Coalition and the surface of internal issue of Parti Rakyat Malaysia during Permatang Pauh by-election, there's some observation, analysis and strategy that i hope that can be helpful to the Party and Coalition. Analysis: The recent formation of Left Coalition has stirred considerable amount of curiosity from the public who view it as a 'budding' third power in the political landscape and what it can deliver. However, the recent Permatang Pauh by-election has somehow created minor negative perception on PRM from the public. A chinese newspaper commentary (some might have already seen it) had listed 3 important points: 1. The internal conflict between Penang Branch and Central Committee in candidate placement 2. The difference of stance on Hudud between candidate and the party. 3. This event created doubts from the public on PRM's principle as a political party, and eventually the Left Coalition. This is import...

Decentralisation as an alternative Decentralisation is defined as the distribution and delegation of functions and powers from the federal government to state and local governments. In aftermath of the 12th general election in 2008, which saw the Barisan Nasional losing its two-thirds majority in the parliament and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat capturing five state governments, discussion arose about the need for decentralisation following some friction in federal-state relationship which are seen to be jeopardising the states’ administration, roles and development plans. In every kind of governing system, pros and cons are sure to exist. Much depends on on who, how and what kind of party or coalition of parties is elected. Other relevant factors including the ethnic groups or combination of ethnic groups involved; the ideology or combination of ideologies; the attitude of the governing parties and the governing policies at the federal, state or municipal levels. But in the highly c...

By WH Cheng When we starting asking, is it worth supporting the Palestinian course, we are very certain that most of you would be dumb for a moment and later on began asking on the motive of this question. Some of you would definitely retaliate by saying that such initiatives are humanitarian and no one should question nor against it. Some of you might also publicly condemn those who oppose or question the support for Palestine. And even the majority of our Bumiputra youths today are obsessed with the Palestinian course which can be traced back during the era of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who believes Malaysia should express its views on the plight of the Palestinians “without fear or favour”. In fact, our government was very supportive of former Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat and his vision for a Palestinian state. Little known to many of us, despite decades of financial support and other monetary allocations to the Palestinian humanit...

By Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid The grim reality of elusive unity, plagued by ethnocentric and ethno-religious divisions, is underlined by the continual existence of fault lines that anthropologist Shamsul A. B. calls ‘axes of contradictions’ . The stubborn presence of such social cleavages, after half a century of nationhood, raises the issue of the efficacy of integrative policies pursued by successive Barisan Nasional (BN: National Front) governments. Momentarily eclipsed by the modernisation ethos of Mahathir’s Vision 2020 and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari (civilisational Islam), the ‘national unity’ agenda has made a comeback during Najib Razak’s era since 2009 in the form of his ‘One Malaysia’ (1Malaysia) scheme. It has not been smooth sailing for Najib. It is understandably difficult for him to admit that the multiple polarisation of Malaysian society was effected at the hands of none other than his colleagues and former bosses in the ruling United Malays National Organisati...

By Daniel Gordis It would have been hard to imagine that Islamic State’s brutal execution of American freelance photojournalist James Foley would worsen the Israeli public's assessment of the U.S.'s role in the Gaza conflict. But listen to the chatter in cafes and on the checkout line in the market, and it seems that it may have done just that. When the war died down and the cease-fires began, the reservists started to return home. One of them, a student of ours at Shalem College in Jerusalem, had been in the thick of it. When he finally got out for good and came back to campus, I found him in the student lounge, shook his hand and asked, “How are you?” He looked at me for a moment, exhausted, and replied, “Tell me, what happened to America?” The question of “What happened to America?” is very much on the minds of Israelis these days. Taxi drivers, commonly cited barometers of public opinion in these parts, have a simple explanation: “Obama hates Bibi.” It’s not only the driv...

From the Bloombergviews In Iraq, the U.S. is fighting in a de facto alliance with one group on its list of terrorist organizations -- the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK -- against another, Islamic State. This odd situation reveals an emerging truth about the Kurdish group: Its terrorist status is falling out of date. At this point it has to be recognized for the constructive role it can play in Iraq and the wider region. On the front lines in northern Iraq, even before U.S. airstrikes began, the PKK proved itself to be the most effective fighting force against Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Some of its battle units came from Iraq's Qandil mountains, long a base for PKK attacks into Turkey. Still more came from the Democratic Union Party, the group's affiliate organization in Syria, where they have fought Islamic State to a standstill in Kurdish areas. Of course, sharing a common foe with our side doesn't suddenly turn a ter...

From the Bloombergviews (1:15 pm.: Updated second paragraph to include reference to NATO reports of Russian military involvement.) The convoy of about 300 whitewashed Russian military trucks on the Ukrainian border, the first of which entered eastern Ukraine today, is an apt metaphor for this depressing conflict. Russia says they're carrying humanitarian aid. Ukraine says Russia has invaded. It may not be an invasion, but Ukrainian officials have the better of this argument. Many of these trucks are almost empty , and they are traveling without the Red Cross escort Russia agreed to. Now NATO  reports that Russia has brought artillery across the border. Still, Ukrainian officials must be careful in how they respond, because there remains plenty of room for escalation. Their campaign against pro-Russian rebels in their city strongholds has been making gains. But the closer victory comes, the higher the risk that Russian President Vladimir Putin -- cornered by the nationalist fervo...

Even by his usual outlandish statements, Malaysia's home minister has outdone himself yet again, attributing Barisan Nasional's (BN) victory in Teluk Intan to the warning he gave underworld operators. Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s comments suggested that gangsters were running free in the country and had been influencing elections, raising questions on what security agencies under his purview had been doing all along. The home minister said that because of the warning he personally issued during the campaign in the run up to the May 31 by-election, the gangs did not dare intimidate voters to vote the opposition. "They (the gangs) expected a majority, from 12,000, down to 6,000, and down to 2,000. Alhamdulillah we got a 238 majority. "I warned them because I know each of their faces, and what they were doing. "Because of my warning, they did not dare carry out any of their threats and warnings to the voters in Teluk Intan," Zahid (pic) said. However, he di...

Socialism is usually defined into many kinds of ideology unnecessarily by many socialist leaders themselves as well as opponent of socialism. Such has indeed confuse many socialists, potential socialists and those who are interested in deepen their understanding on socialism. Why do we need to interpret socialism into so many kinds of ideological segment, such as Leninism, Marxism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Centre-Left, Social Democrats, Socialist Democratic, First International, Third International, Fourth International or whatsoever ? Some even claim they are more socialist then others and vice-versa. Some claim to be reformed socialist and this confuse our socialist community even more. As the result of all these differences, we could see first the Socialist, Labour and Communist Parties around the world disintegrating one by one like a domino, some of these parties are even split into two or three political parties but their names still remain as socialist or communist, with only d...

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 ...