Beyond the Ballot Box

We're increasingly seeing the Uberization of the economy, where platform-driven gig work with wages based on algorithms, and precarious labor conditions have become the norm. Look around and you’ll see many young Malaysians as e-hailing drivers and food delivery riders. But people aren’t just doing this as part-time gigs in between jobs or while waiting for college to start – it is the primary sou...

Over the years, especially since the 1MDB scandal, Malaysians have become more familiar with the term ‘corruption.’ Not only have we broadened our understanding of it (no longer do we think it’s just about bribery), it has also become part of mainstream political discourse.  Malaysians know that our country has an entrenched problem of corruption and that it is holding us back, eating us from...

Defamation laws are incredibly important to protect individuals and organisations from false and harmful baseless statements. They help to curb falsehoods that could influence public opinion or even business markets. However, what happens when these defamation laws are abused by big corporations to prevent the public from holding them accountable? What if they hide behind defamation laws while exp...

EPF contributions will now be mandatory for migrant workers. This comes after the Dewan Rakyat passed amendments to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Act 1991 recently. The proposal was first announced in Budget 2025 and under this scheme, both the employer and employee contribution rate is set at 2%.  So, is this a step in the right direction for labour rights in Malaysia? Or does it just s...

Malaysia is politically fragmented and polarized. To make matters worse, this division is drawn along racial and religious lines, fueling deep and growing distrust between ethnic and religious communities. At the same time, discussions about race and religion remain lacklustre often framed as a highly sensitive issue that shouldn’t be talked about altogether OR oversimplified narratives.  So,...

The Urban Renewal Act is set to be tabled in Parliament in the first quarter of 2025. This is arguably one of the most prominent pieces of legislation that is set to be tabled by the MADANI government in their first term in power. It has certainly been one of the most hotly debated ones. The act ultimately sets out to facilitate the redevelopment of aging and abandoned urban properties, enable bet...

The recent German elections saw a big shift toward right-wing parties. The CDU, which is a Christian democratic and conservative party won, while the far-right Neo-Nazi party AFD came in second after making massive gains. This isn’t necessarily surprising. After all, for a while now, we’ve been talking about how far-right parties/movements are on the rise in many parts of the world, certainly in E...

The Parliamentary Services Act (PSA) 2025 was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat this week, by the Minister of Law and Institutional Reform, Dato Seri Azalina Othman Said.  The PSA was enacted in 1963 but was later repealed in 1992 during Tun Dr Mahathir’s first tenure as Prime Minister. This move reduced the autonomy of Parliament and concentrated more power in the office of the Prime Minister.&nbsp...

We often hear that human beings are inherently selfish; That we’re naturally driven by profit and personal wealth accumulation; That success is solely determined by one’s superior intelligence or work ethic, and that we love to compete. We say this is human nature.  But is this literally human nature from a scientific point of view or is it merely a perspective derived from a particular polit...

We often hear that the ultra-wealthy are as rich as they are because of their superior capabilities as entrepreneurs.  But is this actually true? Not quite, according to Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty. In their latest report aptly titled Takers, Not Makers, they highlight that 60% of billionaire wealth is derived from inheritance, cronyism, or monopoly powe...

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman is a 38-year-old Malaysian on death row in Singapore for trafficking 51.8g of diamorphine. Pannir was not a kingpin nor a drug lord but a man caught in the web of poverty, desperation, and manipulation.  Back in 2020, I interviewed the sister of Pannir Selvam and human rights lawyer Latheefa Koya, about Pannir’s journey and the need to abolish the death penalty. Now,...

It’s been 33 years since the Malaysia repealed the Parliamentary Services Act (PSA) during Tun Dr Mahathir’s first administration in 1992. As a result, our once robust Parliament became a lot more muted – well not literally (screaming contests are still part of the regularly scheduled programming at the august house), but in terms of how it functions. It also lost its autonomy to the Prime Ministe...

The rate of unionisation among workers in Malaysia is at an abysmal 6%. This is one of the key reasons why wages in Malaysia are incredibly low.  But why is this the case? What’s preventing workers in Malaysia from organising themselves to have greater bargaining power?  Recently, the Labour Solidarity and Learning Resources Association (LLRC) published a paper titled The Challenges of W...

In an interview with the Financial Times, when asked about the reduced prison sentence for former Prime Minister Najib Razak, current Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that he does not wish for Najib to suffer in “hell” as he once did. This is of course amidst ongoing conversations on the possibility that Najib could be granted house arrest for the rest of his sentence, although it has t...

According to reports by Khazanah and EPF, most Malaysians do not have adequate retirement savings. As of 2024, only 36% of EPF members meet the current basic savings level of 240 000 at age 55. And that’s just basic savings that will allow you to survive from month to month for about 15 years post-retirement.  So, are we in a retirement crisis? And what can we do about it? We speak to Geoffre...

A couple of days ago, in a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) outlined economic challenges facing Southeast Asia and strategies to create an equitable region. The memorandum was received by one of the special officers to the PM.   We discuss the various challenges and opportunities ahead for ASEAN with Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj wh...

Malaysia is the most politically and economically developed country that does not have a political financing act. This is the argument by Dr Magnus Ohman, Director of the Regional Europe Office of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). He’s right. Neighbouring countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia all have some form of laws that regulate political funding....

The world today is at a crossroads. We’re seeing an escalation in conflicts and wars – Russia and Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, are just a couple of prominent examples. We’re seeing the rise of China as a economic powerhouse and with that the rise of tensions between the US and China. But what do these shifts mean, for the world and for Southeast Asia?  In this episode, we speak to Professor...

Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions on the planet, encompassing over 650 million people across 10 member states with diverse cultures, languages, and political systems. Over the decades, the ASEAN region has transformed from a modest regional grouping into a significant economic powerhouse. Today, it is the fifth-largest economy in the world.  ASEAN is in an interesting juncture...

Landraub, directed by Kurt Langbein is a documentary that delves into the global issue of land grabbing, where vast amounts of land in developing countries in the global south, including countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are acquired by wealthy corporations from Europe and US. The film highlights the consequences of this practice towards local and indigenous communities.  Landraub will be...

Have you watched a war film that was shot in an active war zone? The End Will Be Spectacular is a 2019 Kurdish-language film directed by Ersin Çelik, which tells the gripping story of the youth resistance in Sur, the historic district of Diyarbakır, Turkey, amidst the Turkish-Kurdish conflict.  The film is based on true events from 2015-2016, focusing on a young Kurdish woman named Zilan who...

Sankara is Not Dead is a 2019 French documentary by Lucie Viver. The film follows Bikontine, a young poet from Burkina Faso, who embarks on a journey along the country's sole railway line after the uprising of 2014 against President Blaise Compaoré. Travelling from south to north, he engages with fellow citizens in cities and villages, exploring their dreams, disappointments, and the enduring lega...

When many of us think of AI, we think of ChatGPT or self-driving cars. But with each passing day, AI is also used more and more in warfare. While proponents of the usage of AI in armed conflict cite operational efficiency, precision, and speed, the reality is often much different. It raises pressing ethical and legal questions including abuse and a lack of accountability. For example, AI has been...

Everything Must Fall is a 2018 documentary film by Rehad Desai, centered on South Africa's #FeesMustFall movement. The film provides a gripping account of the student-led protests that erupted across South African universities in 2015, demanding free, decolonized education and an end to systemic inequalities within higher education institutions. In this episode, we speak to Rehad Desai about his f...

We live in an increasingly polarised world. Ethnonationalism and other forms of right wing and ultra-conservative populist movements are on the rise in Malaysia and across the world. People are pushing further away from each other. Prejudice fuels political discourse. Why is this happening and what can we do about it? Dr Tee Chen Giap and Chew Zhun Yee, co-founders of the Malaysian Philosophy Soci...