Beyond the Ballot Box

Jagat, the highly acclaimed 2015 Malaysian film directed by Sun-J Perumal, is a coming-of-age story that captures the struggles of working-class Malaysian Tamils with sincerity and earnest reflection. Today, nearly a decade later, Jagat continues to resonate, both as a work of art and as a reflection of identity, displacement, and resilience. 

The film was re-released earlier this year, and on top of that, the director is also releasing two spiritual sequels to the film in quick succession in November and December, titled Macai and Blues.

In this episode, we speak with Sun-J Perumal about his life, the Malaysian Tamil identity and how his own experiences growing up have shaped his storytelling.

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Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world, not just ethnically and culturally but also politically. It’s a region where Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians; democracies, monarchies, and communist states coexist side by side. 

However, since the formation of ASEAN, there have been questions and narratives about its potential split or how it’s doomed to fail. But just how true is that? What are the important nuances concerning ASEAN that people need to be aware of? 

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Ilango Karuppannan, a retired Malaysian Ambassador with 33 years of frontline diplomatic experience. He’s also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. He runs a YouTube channel called Diplomatify, where he recently posted a video titled 'Is ASEAN Really Breaking Up - or Just Being Framed That Way?'.

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Myanmar’s devastating civil war grinds into its fourth year, following the 2021 military coup that ousted the country’s elected government. What followed was a nationwide civil disobedience movement, along with the rise of armed resistance groups. The revolutionary forces have been battling the junta for control of the country, not just to restore things as they were but to build something new altogether. According to reports, more than 5,000 people have been killed, over 3 million displaced, and the economy has been left in ruins.

Recently, as chair of ASEAN this year, Malaysia undertook a more active role, facilitating a series of stakeholder engagement meetings not only with the Junta but more importantly, with the National Unity Government and other key resistance forces and civil society groups. 

After the series of engagements, the various pro-democracy forces, in a strongly worded statement, rejected the Junta’s “sham elections,” which are to be held in December.

So, where do we go from here? What does this mean for the future of Myanmar?

In this episode, we unpack these questions and more with Lilianne Fan, who's the Head of Secretariat for the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar.

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Last Friday, the Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim unveiled the RM 419.2 billion Budget 2026. This is a slightly smaller budget than last year’s. While it isn’t an austerity budget by any means and does prioritise fiscal discipline, it begs the question: Does Budget 2026 address the needs of regular Malaysians, especially from the perspective of wages, housing, social protections and more? On top of that, does this Budget do enough to push us towards becoming an economically sovereign nation?

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Budi95 is a targeted subsidy scheme by the Malaysian government to give RON95 petrol at a reduced price to eligible Malaysian citizens, while phasing out blanket subsidy models that cover everyone including non-citizens and some businesses. However, this plan appears somewhat contradictory to what has been discussed and announced for months, which is a system where fuel prices would be floated based on the market rates and subsidies would be given out based on income levels. So, does this new plan make sense economically and politically?

In this episode, we speak to Dr Lee Hwok-Aun, Senior Fellow, Malaysia Studies Programme and Regional Economic Studies Programme, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. We discuss how much the government can actually save with this new plan, consumer impact and the political will required to carry out important reforms such as fuel subsidy rationalisation.

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The Gender Budget Group (GBG), a coalition of civil society organisations and academics, has urged the Malaysian government to make bold, transformative investments in gender equality in the 2026 National Budget, highlighting that progress on women’s political representation, economic participation, social protection, and protection from violence remains slow. Their memorandum outlines seven key areas for action including strengthening governance and accountability with gender-responsive budgeting,  boosting women’s labour force participation, reforming social protection systems and more. 

In this episode, we speak to three representatives from the GBG, namely, Dr Ummu Atiyah Ahmad Zakwan, Lead Consultant, Engender, Dr Sulochana Nair, Vice Chancellor of Binary University and Datuk Ong Bee Leng, CEO, Penang Women's Development Corporation (PWDC)

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While domestic violence is still very much prevalent in society today, I think we at the very least live in a climate where committing violence against your spouse is culturally unacceptable (broadly speaking of course) and completely illegal. But this wasn’t always the case.

There was a time, though – not too long ago, in fact – when if a husband were to beat his wife, for example, it would be seen as a private/family matter. Authorities would close an eye or advise the abused spouse to find a way to endure or reconcile. This was the case until the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act of 1994.

So, what changed in the 90s?

In this episode, we're joined by Betty Yeoh, someone who has been at the forefront of women’s rights activism in Malaysia since the 80s. She’s also one of the founding members of the All Women’s Action Society (AWAM). We talk about how ordinary Malaysians came together and pushed the government back in the day, to outlaw domestic violence.

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We’ve seen how many regions around the world still suffer from hunger despite there technically being enough food to feed everyone globally. We also see how food like pork or beef is sometimes weaponised in the culture wars to sow division between communities. 

Dr Elaine Pratley is a peacebuilder who does interfaith and intercultural dialogue.  whose work explores how something as simple as food can be deeply political. Her thesis, Hungry for Peace, examines the ways food practices and food insecurity are tied to questions of power, identity, and belonging. She’s also the founder of Peace Kitchen, an initiative that brings people together over shared meals to spark dialogue and connection. 

In this episode, we chat with Dr Pratley about how food can both heal and divide communities, and why tackling hunger isn’t just about filling stomachs but about challenging the systems of inequality and marginalisation that determine who gets a seat at the proverbial dining table.

Elaine will be speaking at ZafigoX 2025 Women's Festival, taking place on 11–12 October 2025 at Menara KEN TTDI, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, do check out the website zafigo.com

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Earlier this year, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the government will be tabling the Freedom of Information Act in Parliament by the end of this year. This is a highly anticipated piece of legislation that Civil Society Organisations (and even the Pakatan Harapan political coalition) have been pushing for, for a very long time. It is said to be an important game-changer in the fight against corruption and for the democratisation of power. 

In this episode, we speak to Wathshlah Naidu, who’s the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), one of the key organisations pushing for this legislation. A number of CSOs, including CIJ, have also come up with a model RTI Bill, which details what a law of this nature should look like. 

We also speak to Dr Punitha Silivarajoo, Deputy Director General of Policy and Development of the Legal Affairs Division, in the Prime Minister’s Department. She and her team have had in-depth discussions and meetings with CSOs since 2019, concerning this particular Bill. 

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There was a point where progressive forces in the country could organise and mobilise hundreds of thousands of people on a multicultural platform. We are of course talking about movements like BERSIH. But after the historic 2018 general election, when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition was toppled for the first time in the nation’s history, everything changed. Progressive civil society organisations that had spent years as outsiders suddenly found themselves inside the halls of power, with unprecedented access to parliamentarians, ministers, and policymaking processes. 

So, what does that mean? How much of influence did they have? And what does it mean that the streets were left to be filled by conservative forces? 

This is exactly what Ooi Kok Hin explores in his paper published for the R. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, titled Influencing Power: Civil Society, Political Mobilisation and the Pursuit of Reforms. Kok Hin was the former executive director of Bersih and is currently leading the Malaysia office of a UK public body dedicated to making democracy and governance stronger. In this episode, we speak to Ooi Kok Hin.

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