Beyond the Ballot Box

If there’s one thing Malaysians can agree on is that wages in this country have been pretty abysmal. We have a shrinking middle class, 35% of working people in the formal sector earn below RM 2000 and the median wage is only RM 2600 – which means 50% of the country earns less than that.

One policy initiative brought about by the Minister of Economy, Rafizi Ramli is the Progressive Wage Model, which draws inspiration from a similar system in Singapore. The minister recently tabled the policy whitepaper in Parliament and we unpack that with Kevin Zhang of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

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The temporary ceasefire in Gaza has ended. Israel has continued its process of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. In the first 24 hours since the ceasefire ended, Israel killed 700 innocent Palestinians. Israel has killed more than 20 000 people since the 7th of October, including journalists and medical personnel. 1.7 million people have been displaced. Just to keep in mind that the violence did not begin on the 7th of October. Israel has engaged in ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism for more than 70 years.

The question is, where do we go from here? How can peace and justice in Palestine be achieved when they’re going up against not just Israel but Israel with the full backing of the strongest military and economic might in the world, the United States of America?

We speak to Stephen Sizer, Palestinian rights activist, a former priest and the founder and director of Peacemaker Trust, and Saul Takahashi, Professor of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Osaka Jogakuin University.

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What's Politics is a series where we delve into political concepts, ideas, and questions and explore how they impact all of us. 

If you’ve listened to this show over the past couple of years, you definitely would’ve heard us say “the past 4 decades of neoliberalism” numerous times over various topics and questions to try and understand various political-economic problems of today. But what is so significant about the past four decades? What is neoliberalism? How did it change the world? And why is it the reason you can’t afford to buy a house?

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Last weekend, PKR held their annual national party congress. This was the second PKR congress held after Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim became Prime Minister (the last congress took place a couple of weeks after Anwar became the PM). A running theme at the congress was maintaining stability, translating good ideas and empathy into concrete policies and implementing reforms. We unpack some of the key themes we picked up from the congress, with Dr Oh Ei Sun of the Pacific Research Center.

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Apart from small pockets around the world, there is no denying that “The Left” or socialist movements are losing. Big time. The world is becoming increasingly polarised and right-wing, ultra-conservative populists are on the rise. But why is this happening, despite the rising cost of living, stagnating wages, the shrinking middle class, unaffordable housing and existential threats such as the climate crisis – events and phenomena that should be bringing people together?

We speak to Sarah Hathway of the Socialist Alliance, Australia – Sarah is also an elected local councillor in the City of Greater Geelong – and Sivarajan Arumugam, Secretary General, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

On that note, there’s an international conference organised by PSM that’s taking place on the 2nd and 3rd of December at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH). The conference is called RISE RESIST REVOLT: SOCIALISM 2023 and will feature socialist activists, academics, and economists from Malaysia and across the world.

To find out more about the conference or get tickets, visit psm-socialism.webflow.io

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It’s been about a year since Anwar Ibrahim became the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia. Since taking office, the Prime Minister has promised to weed out corruption, improve the lives of the poorest people in the nation and strengthen institutions. So, how have the Prime Minister and his cabinet performed so far, and what should they focus on looking ahead?  In this episode, we discuss institutional reforms and good governance with Syazwan Zainal of the Institute For Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS).

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What's Politics is a series where we delve into political concepts, ideas, and questions and explore how they impact all of us. 

Something we tend to hear a lot in conversations is: “There’s no point getting involved in politics. We have no real power to change anything,” or “It’s a waste of time.” So, on today’s show, we will be discussing why you should get involved in politics and how. After all, politics affects all of us, whether we like it or not, whether we realise it or not.

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Civil Society organisations are once again calling on the government to halt the proposed “regressive” alterations to the nation’s citizenship laws. While they welcome some progressive aspects of the proposed amendments – something they’ve been fighting for, for decades – they’re pushing back against the regressive amendments that would only further worsen the issue of statelessness in this country.

The government has responded saying that they’re going to refer the proposed changes to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the council of rulers. And in response to that, a coalition of NGOs has said that they will submit a memorandum of objection to the YDPA and cabinet.

On the 7th of November, as reported by Malaysiakini, a spokesperson for the coalition Cikgu Siti Rahayu Baharin, Co-Founder, Buku Jalanan Chow Kit said the memorandum will be sent as soon as possible.

We speak to Cikgu Siti Rahayu.

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The basic principle of electoral democracy is one person, one vote. Unfortunately, this simple but profound principle is not adhered to by many countries, including Malaysia. What if I told you that the value of your vote and the value of your friend’s vote from a different constituency could be highly unequal? What if I told you that instead of one person one vote, it’s some people one vote, some people 10, depending on where you live?

To address this issue, Bersih alongside 30 election management bodies and civil society participants from 8 countries have come together in a conference and formulated a joint declaration titled ‘The Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Apportionment and Boundary Delimitation.’

In this episode, we unpack the KL Declaration with Adhy Aman, Senior Programme Manager, International IDEA  and Ooi Kok Hin, Executive Director, Bersih.

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Earlier this year, the government of Malaysia took the highly progressive step to abolish the mandatory death penalty. Just to be clear, Malaysia still retained the death penalty but it’s now completely under the discretion of the judges. In other words, before this, there were several offences in which if you’re found guilty, you will receive the death penalty regardless of the circumstances or what the judge thinks. Whereas now, the judge will have the final say.

But is this enough? After all, in a world plagued by injustice and inequality, the death penalty – in any form – stands as a grotesque symbol of our society's flawed pursuit of justice.

We speak to Shreya Rastogi and Neetika Vishwanath from Project 39A, an organisation based in India focused on criminal justice reform and the abolition of the death penalty. We discuss feminism, Angela Davis and how the death penalty and the criminal justice system at large, criminalise the poor and marginalised.

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