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What are my top stories of the week? Check out my take of last week's top stories and what you should look out this week as we prepare for Umno's AGM over the weekend. 

Malaysia is never shy from one political crisis to another political drama unfolding. It has been a year since the change of administration in 2020 that saw the change of government. Has that event stalled the media reforms in Malaysia?

In this next episode of Sheraton Move, One Year On special series, I speak to Radzi Razak, journalist and spokesperson of Gerakan Media Merdeka (GERAMM), taking a look, a review of one year on of the Perikatan Nasional administration and how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted media landscape in Malaysia. Is the progress stalled and reforms stagnated?

February 23, 2020, the day that altered the direction of Malaysian political landscape from an unseemingly political coup that shattered Pakatan Harapan’s helm at leadership from the historic win in the 2018 General Election. A year after the infamous political coup, some would say a backdoor government by Perikatan Nasional led by Bersatu’s president Muhyiddin Yassin and the faction that broke away from PKR’s leadership led by Azmin Ali. It all happened within a swoop and a year later, where are we today?

In this first episode of the special series, "Sheraton Move, A Year On", I’m speaking to Bridget Welsh, Honorary Research Fellow with the University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Asia Research Institute.

Malaysia’s leading independent news portal Malaysiakini was handed a hefty half a million ringgit fine after they were found to be in contempt of court by the Federal Court on February 19, the penalty was more than double the fine prosecutors had sought. The highest court of the country ruled that Malaysiakini was guilty of contempt over five comments posted by readers on its website last year, saying that it was responsible for the dissemination of remarks deemed to have undermined the “system of justice” in the country. The editor-in-chief and co-founder Steven Gan, was found not guilty of the charges. 

This is the landmark decision by the Malaysian courts, if not, the first to be trialled directly in the Federal Court, contrary to the usual legal proceedings. How will this affect the future media landscape in Malaysia and how will newsrooms operate after this? In this episode, I speak to Premesh Chandran, CEO and co-founder of Malaysiakini to tell us more. 

It all began with the remarks made by the Senate Speaker who is also the Senate President, Tan Sri Rais Yatim, who said that the decision to lower the voting age to 18-years-old starting this July was one made hastily and teenagers are still not ready to commit to the democratic process.

Just recently, deputy youth and sports minister Wan Ahmad Fayhsal who was once a special officer to the minister Syed Saddiq who said that Malaysians are not ready to vote at 18 years old.

I speak to Tharma Pillai, the co-founder of Undi18, a youth-led movement dedicated to democratic reform whom he co-founded with his lifelong partner, Qyira Yusri. Both of them were pivotal in lobbying the then PH government to lower the age of voting to 18.

Collective agreements (CA) is an important agreement between an employer and a union which includes the terms and conditions for employees.

The National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJM) together with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) organised a webinar on Collective Agreements (CA) for Media Workers in Malaysia on January 26, 2021. This event is supported by the European Union and the Embassy of Switzerland in Malaysia.

We are bringing to you experts from the Industrial Relations Department and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress to share their knowledge on CA. Among the topics covered are the Industrial Relations Act pertaining to CA, arbitration, filing of cases, its impact during Covid-19, workers’ rights and other unions CA conditions.

This will be the second part of my conversation and discussion on Children of the Lost Year, as part of my policy analysis and my attempt to understand the current situation of our education policy in the midst of the pandemic.

In this episode, I speak to the Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah to share her views and experiences, particularly in the low-cost housing or flats in her constituency and what we can do to move forward.

We’re back in another lockdown as we usher in a new year in 2021 and despite the good news of the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine, we will still have to brace ourselves with the new wave of infections in Malaysia that broke the 4,000 mark in daily new cases.

Last year, millions of students had to stay home during the early measures of lockdown in the country. Classes only resumed in June but later the schools were ordered to close again in November 2020. Nevertheless, some students and teachers have gotten used with home-based learning via online platforms, but what about students from low-income families who cannot afford to have any devices or internet services at home? What about the students in the remote areas in Malaysia?

This will be the first part of my conversation and discussion on Children of the Lost Year, as part of my policy analysis and my attempt to understand the current situation of our education policy in the midst of the pandemic. In this episode, I speak to the former Education Minister and Simpang Renggam MP, Dr Maszlee Malik to share his views on this matter.

Hundreds of editors and journalists were laid off and rendered unemployed as a result of the challenges faced by the media industry to stay afloat. The Covid-19 pandemic came as a double whammy, forcing several media companies to shut down and downsized to keep themselves afloat.   In this webinar forum, we will be speaking to key experts to understand how existing laws and regulations impact media personnel’s news gathering activities and social media posts during the pandemic.  

Panelists gave an overview of the workplace rights and obligations of media workers to strengthen their knowledge of behavioral principles with existing legal frameworks (both employment and national media laws).

This webinar forum was organised by International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia Pacific and National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJM).

Budget 2021 was finally passed in the Dewan Rakyat, let’s face it. 111 to 108 and one absent. We have 220 MPs, two passed away this year. As we wind down the clock and the curtain falls to close the end of the year, the stage of political dramas draw to a close of the chapter in 2020. It is the year we all want to forget, or rather calling it a disastrous one.  This episode, I’m speaking to Baru Bian, former Works Minister during the Pakatan Harapan administration and also the MP for Selangau in Sarawak. 

He was the former Sarawak PKR Chairman before the change of government in February 2020 and left the party to join Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB). In this episode, I will be discussing with Baru about the current state of politics at the federal level with much uncertainties and turmoil, seeing both sides of the divide are weak as well as the upcoming Sarawak state election which will be due to be held in 2021.