By Farish A. Noor
The recent declaration made at the OIC summit that calls for Muslim nation-states to act in a concerted manner and to take legal action against any country, group or individual who deliberately attacks Islam is noteworthy for the seriousness of its intent; but falls short of providing us with a real solution [...]

New Stratis Times hailed the second Abdullah Cabinet unveiled yesterday as “REFORM Cabinet”, describing it as “the Cabinet and government the Barisan Nasional should have had four years ago”.
I would have been the first to welcome a “Reform Cabinet” although it is four years and two months late. Although there are signs that the Prime [...]

In the March 8 general election, the three Opposition parties of PKR, DAP and PAS denied the Barisan Nasional its hitherto unbroken two-thirds parliamentary majority winning a total of 82 parliamentary seats – PKR 31, DAP 28 and PAS 23.
I have been asked by reporters as to who would be the next Parliamentary Opposition Leader. [...]

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s new Cabinet announced today sends out mixed signals – that he is starting to “hear the truth from the people” after failure to honour his pledge for 42 months and which was the cause of the Barisan Nasional’s devastating electoral defeat in the March 8 general [...]

By Ishwar Nahappan
In the euphoria of the opposition severely denting Barisan’s overwhelming dominance of the Malaysian Parliament and further taking control of 5 state governments, the opposition should be cognizant of the extent to which some senior members of UMNO will stoop to in order to sustain themselves in power. UMNO controls all key [...]

By Farish A. Noor
WHEN the opportunity presented itself for Malaysia to choose a Malaysian woman of South Asian origin to be made the country’s first astronaut, those responsible for the final decision stepped back before the seemingly-insurmountable wall of taboos and inherited petty wisdom. No, they opined, we should choose a Malaysian Male Muslim Malay [...]

I was granted an audience with the Perak Regent Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah after the swearing-in ceremony of engineer and PAS Perak Secretary Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as Perak Menteri Besar at the Iskandariah Palace, Kuala Kangsar today where I personally apologized for any offence caused to the Perak Sultan and Regent
On Saturday, I had [...]

by M. Bakri Musa
One least noted but most consequential impact of this last election is that those rabidly racist UMNO ultras have been effectively defanged. Malaysians can now be assured that the next UMNO General Assembly will not see the likes of Hishammuddin Hussein or Khairy Jamaluddin putting on their race-taunting, kris-wielding stunts.
[...]

Flash
The swearing-in for the new Perak Menteri Besar, Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin (PAS) of the DAP/PKR/PAS Perak state coalition government will be held tomorrow, Monday 17th March 2008 at 11.30 am.

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