Current Affairs

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has promised to introduce minimum wage by year-end, with the setting up of the National Wages Consultative Council. Shamsuddin Bardan, CEO of the Malaysian Employers Federation discusses the issues surrounding minimum wage and gives his views on the policy.

- MEF is still hoping the government reconsiders the introduction of national minimum wages, as it believes such a move will not be healthy to the economy

- It says wages should be determined by market forces, rather than an third party

- MEF discusses its views on the potential issues surrounding the National Wages Consultative Council bill:
(a)  the imbalance in the composition of the council members
(b)  the powers mandated to the minister of Human Resources - should the minister has the power to override the decisions of the council?
(c)  the provisions of the bill is considered to be harsh

- If the policy is implemented, the taxation scheme must be re-analysed to reduce costs for business operators

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The US debt ceiling deal is a political issue between the Democrats and Republicans first, and economic, second, says Hal Hill, professor of Southeast Asian economies at the Australian National University. While a deal has been reached, Hill says that Asian investors should continue to keep a close eye on the US political scene, especially in the run-up to the 2012 US elections. 

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The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development is looking into implementing a restorative justice system for young offenders to prevent them from being sent to juvenile detention centres.

Professor Dr Stephen Jambunathan, associate professor at the Department of Psychological Medicine in University Malaya, believes in rehabilitating juvenile offenders because everyone should be given a second chance. Child detention should only be considered as a last resort, he says, adding that early detection of attention deficit disorder (ADD) during one's schooling years will help lessen the likelihood of youths turning into juvenile criminals.

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On May 11, 1969, Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, who was political secretary to Tun Abdul Razak then, was having tea with the deputy prime minister and UMNO secretary Tengku Razaleigh when they received news of the racial riots breaking out in the areas surrounding Chow Kit, Ampang, Setapak and Kampung Baru.

Abdullah says that there is no reason why Tun Razak would have organised the riots, as the UMNO-led Alliance had not lost the 1969 general election - the party had only briefly lost its two-third majority in Parliament. Furthermore, Abdullah says that Penang chief minister Dr Lim Chong Eu and Gerakan leader Tan Chee Koon had assured Tun Razak that Gerakan would not cooperate with DAP but with the Alliance instead, but the riots had broken out before this could be conveyed to the public. 

He attributes the riots to the unruly and insensitive celebration of political wins, as well as the unnecessary mocking of the Malays during the Opposition's celebratory procession. Even though the Barisan Nasional coalition suffered a bigger defeat in the 2008 general election, there were no riots because the lessons of May 13, 1969  had been learnt, he says.

Abdullah, who was living in the predominantly Chinese populated Bukit Bintang with his wife, teamed up with his neighbours to look out for one another. "You never kill your neighbours," he says. Following the riots, Tun Razak made efforts to increase the multi-racial diversity in the populated areas in KL.

In the interview, Abdullah also talks about how the May 13 incident affected the education system, the role of the press as well as the importance of upholding racial unity in Malaysia.

This is part three of the Merdeka Series 2011: Many Voices, One History

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Shamsudin Khalid, President, Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association, discusses:

- Costs of solar installations;
- Progress in obtaining support of financial institutions and attractive loan terms for solar installations;
- Challenges in implementation of the feed-in-tariff (FiT);
- Challenges to the mass adoption of the Feed-in-Tarff system;

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Is Wahhabism a real threat to the country? Not really, says Dr Farish Noor, senior fellow for the research cluster on contemporary Islam in Southeast Asia at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who describes Wahhabism as a conservative, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.

An offshoot of Salafism, Wahhabism is the phenomenon of Muslims who believe that a literal imitation of the way of life and belief of the Prophet and his companions is the proper way to be a Muslim. 

In the 18th century, it became the official orthodoxy of what became Saudi Arabia, adopted by the Saudi royal family.

In terms of theology, Wahhabism is no different from Islam. To link Wahhabism to terrorism is to miss the point altogether. Among the most influential Wahhabis in the world is Saudi Arabia, which is a  strategic ally for the US, even as the latter continues to wage its global war on terror.

Furthermore, politics is considered bida or an innovation that is unlawful, and unIslamic because there were no politics during the time of the prophet. Conservative Salafis do not regard the state as important and would rather be apolitical. 

Being a political ideology that is extremely conservative, Wahhabis tends to side with the authorities  because the idea of rebellion is wrong, especially when you have a leader in a Muslim country.

Farish believes that it boils down to a misunderstanding towards the meaning of "Wahhabism".

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Melisa Idris speaks to Gayathry Venkiteswaran, the Executive Director of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), on the freedom of the media, in light of the recent Economist article blackout and the NewsCorp phone-hacking scandal.

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The 'News of the World' phone-hacking scandal has not only rocked Rupert Murdoch's business empire, but also the career's of British politicians and the police, and has forced News Corp to abandon a bid to buy the whole of broadcaster BskyB.

Melisa Idris discuss the impact of the scandal on British media, as well as the rest of the world, with British journalist and editor of Spiked Online, Brendan O'Neill.

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