Current Affairs

Malaysia scored a  'moderate to low' level in defence budget transparency in Transparency International's recent report, 'The Transparency of National Defence Budgets'. Transparency International programme director of defence and security programme Dr Mark Pyman says that Malaysia, along with 92 other countries, were evaluated based on the volume secret items in the defence budget, the level of scrutiny into those budgets, the extent of internal and external audit coverage of the budget, as well as budget transparency and disclosure. 

He says that while it has become a common practice among defence ministries worldwide to "classify things more than they need to be", there is very little reason why secret items should not be discussed internally. Pyman goes on to give several ways of increasing the transparency of the defence budget and in doing so, the level of public confidence as well. Among the best practices in defence budgets internationally are putting budgets and procurement plans online, electronic bidding, discouraging the use of middlemen, as well as the use of a semi-independent body to do price comparisons to ensure "value for money in defence spending", he says.

In the following interview Pyman also talks about the Scorpene scandal, Malaysia's allocation for the defence budget, practices such as offsets and counter-trade, as well as ex-military personnel holding directorships in defence firms.

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Syria has been recently suspended from the Arab League on criticism of the bloodshed from President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protestors and civilians. According to the United Nations, more than 3,500 people have been killed since mid-March, leading the European Union to impose a seventh round of sanctions on the country. 

Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Middle East and North Africa, says that Syria’s suspension and sanctions are a move in the right direction as it exerts pressure on Assad to implement reforms outlined by the Arab League in early November and to step down. “But what is needed now is more concerted action to cut off sources of funding towards continued oppression,” he says in a recent interview with BFM.

The Human Rights Watch has also called for Syria to be brought to the International Criminal Court for its crimes against humanity. Houry reasons that this is necessary, given Syria’s “history of impunity”. “Those who commit crimes remain in power, and face no accountability. Twenty years later, they revert to using the same methods [of crimes against humanity],” he says.

Houry rejects the notion that ‘pushing too hard” for justice will prevent a transition to a new order.“Experience shows otherwise; it shows that by sacrificing justice for short-term stability, you're actually losing and jeopardising long-term stability in building a just and a fair society for the future,” he says.

In the following interview, Houry also talks about why the Arab League is still not a “paragon of democracy”, why it decided to take action against Syria, the fears of the average Syrian, as well as why it is a “false analogy” to compare Syria to Libya. 

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Felda Global is expected to be listed in 2012 and may be valued at RM5-6 billion but settlers question the deal. Details are still pending from Felda and its bankers.

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The recent ban of the Seksualiti Merdeka festival is a political one, says Pang Khee Teik, co-founder of the festival. "Elections are coming up... I suspect it [the ban] is because of the NGOs involved in our festival, who had  in the past, criticised the government  for lack of adherence to human rights. This is an opportunity for certain quarters to attack NGOs for the role they played," he says, adding that the ban may also be an attempt to distract the public from the recent Auditor-General Report on government spending. 

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community has been and remains an easy target to made use of by the government, he says. "We're like pawns to be sacrificed in this game. What we're doing here [organising the festival] and the controversy that has resulted over the past few days is a clear sign that Malaysia disregards the rights of not just LGBT but all minorities - we're all fair game for them, be it refugees, Orang Asli, LGBT, the State just doesn't care," he said in a recent interview with BFM.

Pang says that the purpose of the festival, which has been organised annually since 2008, was not to change the minds of the public to embrace the values of the LGBT community, but to consolidate the LGBT community, and empower Malaysians to recognise their rights.  "A lot of Malaysians are not aware of their human rights -- that the only qualification they need to have rights, is to be human. We have to recognise our rights first before getting others to recognise it as well," he says.

On November 7, Pang, together with former Bar Council chairman and BERSIH2.0 chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreevanasan, Tenaganita chairman Irene Fernandez and Bersih 2.0 committee member Maria Chin Abdullah were called into questioning by the police about the movement.

Asked whether the decision to invite Ambiga -- who is synonymous with Bersih -- to officiate Seksualiti Merdeka this year was inviting trouble, Pang says the organisers had done so to show that even the LGBT community have a vested stake in the building of the country. 

"We're not telling them [the public] to agree with us. I will stand for your right to believe that I am wrong, and at the same time I have the right to believe that I am not wrong. If we both give our space to each other to believe what we believe and exercise those beliefs responsibly, this country would be a better, much more peaceful place. There is a way for us to out aside our differences and work together in building this countr ," he says. 

In the following interview, Pang also talks about how the police treated him when he recorded his statement, the discrimination that the LGBT community faces as well as how the ban, though unwanted, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

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Rajiv Biswas, Chief Asian Economist for IHS Global Insight, discusses the financial think-tank's predictions for Malaysian and Asian GDP growth for 2012. He also highlights the factors that went into a lower prognosis for growth than the official one given by Budget 2012, what the government is doing right in terms of the Economic Transformation Programme, recent environmental disaster impact and how global market instability is predicted to further affect the economy next year.

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On october 31, in a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that Section 15 of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (which bars students from political participation) is unconstitutional and violates freedom of expression.

So what was student activism like, in the days before the Universities and University Colleges Act was enacted in 1971?

Dr Khong Kim Hoong, the 1968-69 president of the University Malaya Students' Union, shares his experience as a student activist during the height of the movement.

He also talks about how the UUCA has bred political apathy among young Malaysians.

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Section15(5)(a) of the Universities and University Colle­ges Act 1971 (UUCA), which prohibits students from being politically active, has been ruled unconstitutional.

In a landmark 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that the provision was unreasonable and violated the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. The appeal was brought by four Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students, known as the UKM Four, who had faced disciplinary action for being present during the by-election campaign in Hulu Selangor parliamentary on April 24th, 2010.

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The current situation of the floods in Thailand is a reflection of the country's deeply divided political situation, says Patrick Barta,  Southeast Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, who is based in Bangkok.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has come under fire for the government's strategic decision to protect Bangkok as the cultural and economic heart of the country, at the expense of the districts outside of Bangkok. "The irony is that the current government is perceived to the government of the common man, and the previous government - the government of the elites, whereas in fact, Yingluck has protected the elites and not the people in her natural constituency," says Barta in a recent interview. 

There is also the problem of the Bangkok governor and the Prime Minister's offices -- who are from opposing political parties-- not coming to an agreement in how to manage the floods. "Someone will send an order from the national government but it won't be executed by the city government. This is a reminder that in Thailand, when one person is in control, that person isn't always in control," he says. 

In the following interview, Barta shares his eyewitness account of the Thai floods, how the floods are affecting public confidence in Yingluck, as well as the economic impact of the floods, compared with Japan's Fukushima disaster in March this year.

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The abolition of the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, or PPMSI, is premature, as nine years is too short a time to assess the accountability of a project, says Aisha Ahmad, president of the Montessori Association of Malaysia and member of Parents Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE). 

"How do you measure, gauge and confirm accountability in a project which hasn't been allowed to finish? These children who have been studying [Science and Mathematics in English] for 8 to 9 years, are now being told to flip to another language," she said in an interview with BFM recently.

Earlier this morning, PAGE had submitted a letter of appeal to the Prime Minister, asking for PPSMI to remain as an option for children of government schools nationwide. It has been two years since PAGE first began campaigning against the abolition of the policy in 2009. PPSMI was first introduced in primary and secondary schools by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2003.

Since 2009, PAGE has sent seven memorandums to the government, to no avail.

Aisha says that learning Science and Mathematics in English would allow children a better chance of employability and more exposure in future. 

Asked about how rural children will be affected by PPSMI, she said "no child is unteachable", as all one needs is a good environment to immerse in the language. She says parents of rural schoolchildren have indicated that they want their children to continue learning the two subjects in English, and that suddenly reverting to Mathematics and Science being taught in Malay would be "unfair" for children and teachers "who have already gained momentum in thinking and learning in English".

One suggestion was to give students the option to learn Science and Mathematics in either English or Malay, which benefited not only children but gave teachers the satisfaction of teaching in both languages as well.

"What if they want to learn it in English -- what about those children? You're compelling a situation on them... To compel children to learn in a certain way just for the sake of a policy will do more damage to the child," she adds.

In the following interview with BFM, Aisha also talks about how PAGE will respond should the government spurn its communication efforts, how children have been affected by the flip-flopping of the PPSMI policy, as well as whether teachers should undergo more language training before being certified as teachers.

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After being fatally shot on October 21st, Libyan deposed despot Muammar Ghaddafi has finally been buried in an undisclosed location. Jeremy Keenan, professor of social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, discusses what it will take to rebuild Libya.

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