The recent caning of three Muslim women for allegedly participating in illicit sex is the latest in a series of events flooding Malaysia in adverse worldwide spotlight inimical to our international image and competitiveness in the ten months Datuk Seri Najib Razak has taken over as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Before I came, I googled the two words “malaysia caning” and there were 257,000 search results. I next added another word to google the three words “malaysia muslim caning” and the finds multiplied by 30 times to return 6.45 million results.

Malaysia cannot continue to be in adverse international spotlight if we are to restore our international competitiveness by regaining national and international confidence in good governance; the rule of law; a democratic, progressive and model multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious modern nation to be ideal destination for FDIs, haven for tourists and hub for international students.

There had been a series of adverse publicity for Malaysia world-wide since Najib became Prime Minister negating all his efforts to project a new slogan, 1Malaysia – such as the divisive “Allah” controversy, the sacrilegious burning of churches and attacks on mosques and other places of worship; the 5-0 Federal Court judgment seeking to legalise the undemocratic and unconstitutional ouster of Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin in the Umno power grab in Perak; the mysterious death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters last July, Read the rest of this entry »