Current Affairs

This afternoon the People’ s Tribunal on the conduct of the 13th General Election concludes with its lead counsel making his closing submissions to the 5-member panel. The Election Commission has spurned an invitation by the Tribunal’s organisers to participate. Most recently EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar was reported to have said that the tribunal is “a political forum to pass judgment on the government” and so they are not lending legitimacy to it. We listen to voices from the Tribunal. 

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It's the run-up to the UMNO General Assembly and what is arguably the most important party political contest in the country. We speak to UMNO observer Shahril Hamdan about the new and more democratic voting rules, the seemingly contradictory "no contest calls", the challenges for the Wanita and Pemuda wings and finally the race for the 3 vice-president posts, which might just be the most exciting of race of all.

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The People’s Tribunal on the 13th General Elections opened in Kuala Lumpur this week. With a six-person panel the tribunal received submissions from a variety of quarters. BFM’s Aziff Azuddin has been covering the event.

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The attack on the city of Zamboanga in the Southern Philippines came on the eve of the 10-day talks in Kuala Lumpur. The talks are part of process celebrated in the media last year as a breakthrough in peace negotiations involving the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government of the Republic of the Philippines. Gus Miclat, Secretary General of a coalition of civil society organisation, Mindanao Peaceweavers, puts the current conflict in context.

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A new government has come into power in Australia, ushering out the ruling Labour and installing the Conservative party of Tony Abbot. Recently former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser commented on Al Jazeera on the refugee debate in Australia. He said that “the policy debates over the last 10 years have gone a long way towards destroying our reputation as a humane and decent society. … Whoever wins [the elections], the policy will be bad. It will be inhumane and it will be brutal.” We spoke to Gerhard Hoffstaedter, a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Queensland. He authored an opinion piece on a solution to the refugee problem (https://theconversation.com/asylum-solutions-we-need-a-regional-refugee-compact-16815).

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Asean wants to form a single market for goods, services, professional talent, and capital by 2015. BFM's Sharaad Kuttan, Melisa Idris, and Noelle Lim discusses what this means for Malaysians, and the implementation problems. The talkset features quotes from Dato Sri Nazir Razak of Cimb; Emirsyah Satar of Garuda; Budi Gunadi Sadikin of Bank Mandiri; and Jaime Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala group during the Network Asean Forum, organised by Cimb Asean Research Institute (Cari).

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Hannah Khaw and Chin Kar Yern, members of the winning team of the recently concluded Malaysia Public Policy Competition 2013 on Brain Drain, join us to share their views on the education system today, the future of Malaysia, and their hopes for Malaysia come its 56th birthday. Juxtaposed with the views of Tan Sri Arshad Ayub in an earlier interview, we see that in spite of the generational gap and the drastically different environment today, the hearts, hopes, and aims of Malaysians are indeed still one.

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The Human Rights Council of the United Nation is an inter-governmental organization of which Malaysia is a member. Rita Ishak, who was appointed as its Independent Expert on minority issues, was here for a conference title: “Malaysia on the Path to Non-Discrimination” organized by Pusat Komas. We asked why minority issues are a concern for the Council. Izhak began with a working definition of notion of a minority: a vulnerable community in a non-dominant position.

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Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific hosts a two-day seminar on politics in Singapore and Malaysia this week.  Called the Malaysia & Singapore Update 2013 Program, the seminar brings scholars from around the world to discuss the remarkable resilience of the government of the two countries. While the two governments do subject themselves to regular elections, both have also been criticised for their authoritarian rule. But is this authoritarian style of governance enough to explain their longevity? And do the recent set backs suffered by the ruling governments in their respective General Elections signal their demise?

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The recent violent crime wave has put the criminal justice system in sharp focus. Are criminals born or made? We speak to two experts who work with young offenders and try to see the world from their point of view. We ask, what would a policy of holistic rehabilitation demand of larger society?

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