Current Affairs

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has been championing the production and consumption of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil, which currently comprises more than 10 percent of the global palm oil market. However, supply of sustainable palm oil continues to outweigh demand, with a 50% uptake of the 6.4 million tonnes produced as of last year. 

In the following interview, Adam Harrison, Senior Policy Officer for Food & Agriculture at WWF, and Vice-President 1 of the Executive Board of the RSPO, discusses how RSPO is tackling the challenges of encouraging sustainable palm oil in Asia, the debate behind Green Palm certificates and why RSPO is reaching out to smallholders moving forward.

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Recently, the Medical Amendment Bill 2012 was passed in Parliament, which is aimed at strengthening and regulating the medical profession. However, critics are questioning whether the amendments have negative implications for the medical profession and medical education in Malaysia. 

Dr Milton Lum, past president of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Malaysia and former president of the Malaysian Medical Association, gives his take on the pros and cons of the amendments in the following interview. He also highlights the need for the governmental bodies overseeing the accreditation of medical education in Malaysia to be clear cut in their roles and not allow confusion to affect the standard of medical education and the  medical profession in the country.

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Currently in Malaysia, more than 98,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with the UNHCR or United Nations High Commission on Refugees. But when refugees are considered illegal migrants under Malaysia's Immigration Act and denied access to lawful work and officially recognised employment, how will they find ways to make ends meet? 

BFM finds some answers from Alan Vernon, UNHCR representative for Malaysia, on refugees’ right to work in the country. Vernon also talks about how allowing refugees to work legally will benefit the country's economy, why refugees deserve to be given such rights and why they won't abuse it, as well as the continuing challenges of obtaining these rights for them in Malaysia.

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Observers believe that a green movement is sweeping through Malaysia, with more grassroots environmental activism taking place, such as the recent anti-Lynas rally in Gebeng.

With the 13th General Elections likely to take place this year, how will environmental issues influence the ballot box? 

In the following interview, BFM finds out more about the issue from June Rubis, co-founder of the Voters for Sustainability Malaysia, and manager for civil society initiatives and wildlife conservation at local NGO, LEAP Malaysia.

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Malaysia has seen increasingly more civil society movements in recent times, with examples such as BERSIH and Himpunan Hijau. While civil disobedience is widely considered as the cornerstone for democracy, critics argue that the act of civil resistance is unlawful as it goes against the laws of the land.

In the following interview, BFM explores the role of civil disobedience in Malaysia with Khoo Ying Hooi, academic staff member at the Department of International and Strategic Studies in Universiti Malaya.

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Borders Malaysia is challenging the actions of the Federal Territories Religious Department or JAWI, in raiding and searching the premises of two Borders outlets, as well as JAWI’s prosecution of a Borders store manager who was charged in the Syariah Court for distributing by selling Irshad Manji’s banned book, Allah, Liberty and Love.
The book was banned by the Home Ministry following complaints from JAKIM that it contravened Islamic teaching and could harm public security and order.
In the following interview, BFM speaks to Berjaya Books and Borders Malaysia COO Yau Su Peng on why the company is taking legal action on the issue. She also discusses:

- The legal grounds on which Borders is challenging JAWI in court

- Whether the argument that store manager Nik Raina was doing her job, is sufficient to defend her against the Syariah law

- Whether this case will serve as a deterrent for employers to hire Muslim employees in future

- JAWI's reasoning behind not informing bookstores of the book ban earlier

-  How Borders found out about the book ban and what the company did soonafter

-  Minister in Prime Minister's Department's assertion that every religious agency recognised by government has the right to seize written work that can deviate the faith of Muslims

- Borders' call for clearer guidelines on banned books

- Implications of JAWI's actions towards Borders manager Nik Raina, on Malaysians

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This weekend (June 24th), Himpunan Hijau will be organising its 24-hour Occupy Balok-Gebeng rally to protest against the Lynas rare earth processing plant in Kuantan.

This comes after the Parliamentary Select Committee had given the green light for the Lynas plant to obtain a Temporary Operating Licence. 

Find out more about the protest and why Himpunan Hijau continues to organise protests one year on, from the coalition's chairperson Wong Tack, in the following interview.

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Recently, the Legal Profession Bill was passed, in a move to propel Malaysia as an Islamic finance hub. Under the amendments, foreign legal firms are now allowed to set up offices in Malaysia.
In the following interview, Lim Chee Wee, president of Bar Council, discusses the implications of the Bill, potential issues that may arise from it and whether the proposed Law Academy should be bestowed with powers to grant licenses to foreign firms.

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On June 16th 2012, Nobel Laureate and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi formally accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, 21 years after she was first given the award.

Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest by the military junta after her party, the National League for Democracy, won in the 1990 elections.

Released from house arrest in November 2010, Suu Kyi led the party to win 43 seats in Myanmar’s parliament during the April by elections this year.

In her acceptance speech, she talks about her 15 years of house arrest, the plight of her countrymen in Myanmar, and how winning the Nobel Peace Prize made her journey “a less lonely path to follow”. 

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Recently, a number of issues faced by Tamil schools have been highlighted by the media, such as land entitlement and government funding.

In the following interview, Datuk A Yogesvaran, president of the Educational Welfare and Research Foundation, talks about the plight of the Tamil schools, and why he believes the bigger problem is not infrastructure for quality of education.

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