Current Affairs

The Star has suspended two senior editors indefinitely for approving a photograph of Erykah Badu with a tattoo of the word “Allah” on her body, and appointed two Muslim associate editors to guide the newspaper on Muslim sensitivities. This comes after the Home Ministry banned Badu’s concert and issued a show-cause letter to the national daily for the incident.

For Current Affairs, Kathleen Tan talks to Islamic Renaissance Front chairman and director Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa for insights into this issue

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The Home Ministry has issued a show cause letter to The Star for publishing a photograph of Erykah Badu, with a tattoo of the word “Allah” on her body. This comes after the ministry banned her concert, on grounds that it breached public performance guidelines. Was a show cause letter necessary or should sterner action be taken against national daily for its oversight?

For Current Affairs, Kathleen Tan discusses the issue with Masjaliza Hamzah, executive officer at the Centre of Independent Journalism

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Malaysian Working Mothers Forum was started last year to provide an avenue for working mothers to air their views, to discuss problems they face and to seek advice.

In the following interview, Parveen Yassin, executive director of the Malaysian Working Mothers Forum, talks about the forum's plans moving forward, the issues facing working mothers in Malaysia and how work-life balance initatives can empower women at both work and home.

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To empower a woman is to trust her, give her confidence and the ability to generate income for herself and her family, says Nobel laureate and Grameen Bank founder Professor Muhamad Yunus.

Yunus, who is also Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Laureate-in-Residence, was in Kuala Lumpur recently to participate in dialogue sessions and talks organised by the university. 

The pioneer of microcredit says he founded the bank in 1976 to give small loans to poor women in Bangladesh who would not have been able to attain loans otherwise, as they did not have a credit history -- a standard requirement by traditional banks in awarding loans.

It took Yunus and his team of students six years before they managed to convince poor women to take microcredit loans as they could not believe that people would trust them with such large amounts of money.

In the following interview, Yunus shares about the first US$27 loan he gave to a group of women stool-makers in Bangladesh, the problem of the "productivity trap" and why he encourages "the Grameen family" to vote in the local and national elections.

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Malaysian and Thai Prime Ministers Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Yingluck Shinawat have recently pledged to cooperate to resolve the seven year Southern Thai Muslim insurgency, which has left close to 5,000 people dead from daily attacks since 2004.

For Current Affairs, Kathleen Tan talks with Michael Montesano, visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, on why the Thai government has failed to address this long standing conflict and the way forward to resolving it.

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Masjaliza Hamzah, executive officer at the Centre for Independent Journalism talks about:

- why Malaysia's ranking rose in the Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index

- whether this is reflective of the true state of media freedom in the country

- areas where Malaysia has yet to improve in press freedom 

- the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) being one aspect of reform that has yet to be addressed by the government

- whether alternative media enjoys more press freedom than its mainstream counterparts

- the lack of a balanced media landscape in the country and what needs to be done to restore the balance 

- why she disagrees with public boycotts of selective media 

- what the public can do to demand for press freedom in the country

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