General

About 100 youths marched towards Parliament on Saturday, following the Election Commission’s decision to delay the lowering of the voting age to 18. We speak with two protestors about their demands.

Image Source: Bryan Hung, @bryanhungchien on Instagram

At the party's general assembly over the weekend, Umno announced that it is parting ways with Perikatan Nasional, and rejected the possibility of working together with Bersatu or Pakatan Harapan. The party also made statements that raised questions about its relationship with PAS. We speak with two political analysts about the developments, then hear from the perspective of a party member.

Image Source: Shahjehan, Shutterstock

The Kuala Lumpur City Hall are set to plant more flowering trees, such as the Tecoma trees which are reminiscent of cherry blossoms, to promote tourism in Malaysia. Dhanya Nair tells us more.

Image Source: Timo C. Dinger, Unsplash

A recent survey done by Kaspersky found that 1 in 4 users are complacent to allowing applications and online services to access their microphones and webcams, making them susceptible to danger. We speak with C F Fong to better understand why we need to be more careful when it comes to online privacy.

Image Source: Waldemar Brandt, Unsplash

Work-life balance has not come easy for many parents, as they had to learn how to juggle family and work responsibilities from home. But in a household, are both parents affected equally? We hear about mothers being pushed to a breaking point – how much of this is happening behind closed doors without support for their mental wellbeing? We speak to licensed & registered counsellor Anujah Pulanthiran on how the pandemic is affecting the mental health of women, especially mothers, and how they can navigate their feelings of guilt, anger, and exhaustion. 

Image source: Shutterstock

Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao Hua, the co-founders of Macaranga.org return for their monthly wrap-up of environmental news, first to discuss several protests organised this month alone by various Orang Asli communities, against development projects on their ancestral lands. We then turn to the news about an anti-poaching raid that was conducted in Tawau, Sabah which led to the arrest of 14 men, including four policemen and allegedly one ex-MP. Finally we discuss climate change group Klima Action Malaysia, which held a peaceful strike at Tugu Negara to demand decisive action to address the climate crisis and to safeguard democracy.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Klima Action Malaysia Twitter

In 2018, China's National Sword Policy came into effect, which banned 24 types of solid waste imports into the country. This included plastic waste, which then caused a global disruption of the market for recyclable material. It also led to the redirection of plastic waste to Southeast Asia, and from January to July 2018, Malaysia became the world's top destination for plastic waste exports. This influx led to a sharp rise in illegal recycling facilities and illegal dumpsites, causing land, water and air pollution. The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center) kicked off research on this issue, and recently launched their findings, which we discuss with Wong Pui Yi, a researcher with the C4 Center, and Heng Kiah Chun, a campaigner with Greenpeace Malaysia. They will also share why the time is ripe to demand accountability and transparency from our governments and businesses.

Image Source: Shutterstock

20. That’s the number of people injured in Indonesia’s latest church bombing, in the port city of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi. This happened against the backdrop of  Palm Sunday, the first day of the Easter Holy Week. We take a look at what’s behind this tragic incident, and ways the Indonesian government is addressing terrorist threats to improve the country’s security.

Image source: EPA-EFE

The pursuit of happiness can be elusive, but still remains an aspiration for many.  

Since 2012, the world has been celebrating happiness during the month of March, with the United Nations proclaiming March 20th as the International Day of Happiness. Happiness is a profoundly human and subjective experience; and yet, the scientific study of happiness has exploded.

With the nature of work fundamentally changing due to the pandemic, many companies have created a job title to deal with the remote workforce. With so many people working from home, these companies believe that they’ll need someone, separate from HR, to organize and empower their newly-displaced workforce.