Current Affairs

In light of the furor that straight A students had failed to secure scholarships from the Public Services Department, we speak with Dr Ong Kian Ming, a political analyst and lecturer at UCSI university, on his views about the scholarship system.

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Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the head of Asli's Centre for Social Enterprise talks explains what social entrepreneurship means, and the centre's plans.

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BFM 89.9's presenter, Freda Liu, was recently in Nepal to visit the base camp of Mt Everest. This was a trip sponsored by Carlsberg Malaysia to promote their Save Mt Everest campaign. Freda is with me now to tell us about her experiences. Freda also spoke with Helle Peterson, the managing director of Gorkha Brewery who is the partner of Carlsberg, on the company's CSR efforts in Nepal.

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Dato Dr Ken Yeang, of TR Hamzah and Yeang, discusses:
- His ecology based approach to master planning;
- His Roof-Roof House KL;
- Sustainable bioclimatic building;
- The principles of ecomimicry (a term he invented);
- His (lack of) recognition of today's Green accreditation systems;
- His proudest work;
- His most exciting project currently;
- Malaysia's best landmark from a green perspective

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has selected the "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" as the theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day, on May 31st.

Professor Rahmat Awang, the Coordinator of the Clearinghouse for Tobacco Control for the National Poison Centre, in Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, explains how Malaysia has adopted the FCTC into the fight agaisnt tobacco smoking. He talks about price and tax measures as an effective tool, as well as the move towards creating more smoking-free environments, to protect people from second-hand smoke.

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Earlier this month the Australian Government, in principle, agreed on a refugee swap plan with Malaysia, that would see Australia resettle 4 thousand Malaysian-based refugees, in return for Malaysia accepting 800 asylum seekers: a five-for-one swap.

Melisa Idris speaks to Rachel Ball, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the Human Rights Law Centre in Melbourne, to get her take on the issues surrounding the swap plan, from an Australian perspective.

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Wong Chin Huat, steering committee member of BERSIH, says postal and advanced voting should be made available to all Malaysians living abroad and East Malaysians living in the peninsular, and there should be automatic registration of voters to minimise discrepancies such as registration of phantom voters and illegals.  

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Professor Dr Khairulmaini Osman Salleh, Professor of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, talks about:

- The haze and his prognosis for the immediate future
- Indonesia's annual burning of its palm oil and its annual impact on Malaysia;
- Climate change and how it impacts Malaysia and;
- His work with Tenaga Nasional on clean energy.

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Chew Phye Keat, President of the Malaysian Intellectual Property Association, says Malaysia's IP laws are robust but there's a perception that enforcement is lax, and awareness is still low.

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Dushyant Sinha, Principal Consultant at the auto practice of Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific,  discusses the impact of Japan's earthquake on the Asian and Malaysian automotive industry.

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