Current Affairs

Mumtaz Khan, CEO of Maybank MEACP in Singapore, talks about funding renewable energy projects despite headwinds faced by the industry.

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In our Solar Series part 2, Prof Joachim Luther, CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore talks about the republic's plans to become a leading R&D hub for solar energy in the world. 

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Malaysia has shown a decline in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index score, for the 3rd consecutive year, slipping to 4.3 this year from 4.4 in 2010. This is significantly lower than the government’s benchmark of 4.9.This morning on CA, Josie Fernandez the Sec-Gen of Transparency International-Malaysia speaks to Melisa Idris on why the lack of improvement in Malaysia’s ranking is a cause for concern.

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In the first part of our Solar Series, Professor Martin Green, Executive Research Director of ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence at the University of New South Wales talks about the problems of the feed-in-tariff system and why governments appear to be paying lip service to promoting use of renewable energy. The interview was done during the Singapore International Energy Week 2011.

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The Bar Council is calling for a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to be established to look into the Peaceful Assembly Bill, which was recently tabled for first reading at Parliament this week. According to Lim Chee Wee, president of the Bar Council, the PSC would then be able to garner public feedback and make further recommendations to the Bill, which in his opinion, does not guarantee or facilitate for the freedom of assembly.

"On such important bills such as these, similar to amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and electoral reforms, this is certainly an issue that the government must include the public in the process," he said in a recent interview with BFM.

During the Prime Minister's Malaysia Day speech on September 16th, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had said that the government will review Section 27 of the Police Act by taking into account Article 10 of the Federal Constitution that relates to freedom of assembly. However, critics are pointing out that the Peaceful Assembly Bill is even more repressive and restrictive of civil freedom. 

While the Bar Council was consulted prior the the tabling of the Bill, Lim says that they were not shown a copy of the Bill, save for certain provisions that were read to them. "We were not told there was a prohibition on assembly in motion, or street protests as it is referred to under the Bill. We've specifically informed the Attorney-General to allow for assembly in motion," he says, adding that the Bar Council was surprised at the restrictions and conditions that the police are empowered to impose.

Lim says only two areas of the Bill were consistent with international best practice: assembly by notice instead of assembly by application for permit, as well as the collaborative process that potential demonstrators have with the local authorities, police and affected businesses along the affected routes. "Outside those two aspects, everything else seems far more restrictive. That's something the government must change," he says.

In the following interview, Lim also talks about how the Bill can lead to potential abuse of power by the police, approvals for public assemblies, the Bar Council's proposed amendments to the Bill, and what criteria should be used in determining whether a public assembly in lawful or not. 

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Despite ratifying the United Nation’s 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue of stateless children continues to be rampant in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah, which has a large immigrant population from Mindanao in the Philippines, Indonesia and Afghanistan. 

Dr Nur Anuar Abdul Muthalib, UNICEF Malaysia monitoring and evaluation officer says that Malaysia may have ratified the convention but when it comes to fulfilling the rights, in areas such as registration of children, birth rights and opportunities of education, “it is not 100% (fulfilled)”.

He says that lack of understanding of their rights and fear of deportation are among the main reasons why the problem of stateless children continues to persist. “Even though the government provides the facilities to be registered, some parents are not fully aware of the importance of birth registration,” he says. Geographical barriers further compound the problem, with groups on remote islands not having the means to travel to the mainland to be registered as it is costly to do so.

Fear of deportation exists among the immigrant population as some are illegal without proper documentation, despite being married to a local Sabahan. “The child has a right to be registered, but they’re not [being registered] because there is no marriage certificate… Having proper identification is key to obtaining necessities in life, whether it’s education or opening a bank account in future,” he says.

With a lack of education, stateless children are later exploited because they do not have the knowledge to uphold their rights and lack a proper identity – a “vicious cycle that leads to other problems as they grow up”. Anuar believes it is the government’s responsibility to extend help to the different marginalised groups – the indigenous communities such as the Bajau Laut, and  plantation workers.

In the following interview, Anuar also talks about UNICEF's plans to provide alternative education to stateless children in Sabah, the problem of insufficient data as well as what Malaysia stands to lose if the problem is left unaddressed.

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Malaysia attracted nearly 400,000 medical tourists last year, and aims to increase that number to 1.9 million by 2020. Ana Nichols, Managing Editor of Industry Briefing for the Economist Intelligence Unit and editor of the report "Travelling for Health" discusses how Malaysia can compete in the medical tourism industry. 

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Following on the heels of the announcement that Aung San Suu Kyi will be running for an unprecedented parliamentary seat in the upcoming Myanmar elections, we spoke to Patrick Barta, Bureau Chief for Southeast Asia at the Wall Street Journal. And US President Obama just declared he is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country, the first high-level US visit in over 50 years. 

Patrick Barta had recently returned from Myanmar. In this interview, he described the mood there, the prospects for meaningful reforms, impact of the recent liberalisation on neighbours such as Malaysia, the renewed attention by the United States and how the West seems to want to buffer the growing influence of China in the region.

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In conjunction with Universal Children's Day, Nooreen Preusser, Training & Education director of Protect and Save the Children (P.S. The Children) speaks about sex crimes against children. She discusses children's exposure to pornography on the Internet, the modus operandi of online predators, and why there isn't a registry list of sex offenders in Malaysia.

Noreen also talks about how sexual predators picks and grooms the child before the sexual abuse occurs, and why in most cases it is often someone the parents know and trust.

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Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, President of Angkatan Amanah Merdeka, tells about this newly set up NGO and why there are no immediate plans to convert it to become a political party. He also highlights the issues that concern him the most - corruption and education.

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