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Today the three parties that make up the Pakatan Harapan coalition agreed to name Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as their pick for Prime Minister if the coalition wins the next General Election. This marks an official shift in focus for the grouping after several failed attempts by Anwar to realise his claims of a parliamentary majority. However, expectations of some quarters that there would be a discu...

On the 13th of November last year, the Transport Minister signed a federal gazette revoking the cabotage exemption policy of the Pakatan Harapan government. The reason given is that cabotage policies protect the interests of Malaysian shipowners, though when it comes to the repair of undersea cables, only 1 Malaysian company is involved. Was this reversal justified when the consequent delays and i...

Late last month Facebook, with Alphabet’s Google and regional telecos, announced plans for two new cables in the Java Sea to boost internet connection capacity in Indonesia and Singapore. It sparked a debate about the Perikatan Nasional government’s decision to reverse a PH-era cabotage exemption policy? Was it fair for critics to charge that this return to the BN-era position on who has rights to...

More than a year has passed since the world began its battle against Covid-19, raising the profile of journalists covering the pandemic such as Malaysian-born Ed Yong, who writes for The Atlantic. Conspiracy theories aside, competing frameworks of understanding as well as political and social values, have put pressure on editorial policies and advocacy campaigns as well. Melisa Idris and Sharaad K...

World Health Day is celebrated every year on April 7th -- a day of global awareness in building a fairer, healthier world. More than a year has passed since the world began its battle against Covid-19, and throughout this year, we’ve relied a lot on journalism to make sense of it all — especially as the virus’s spread frequently outpaced our abilities to comprehend and respond to it. Melisa Idris...

UMNO held its General Assembly on the weekend, where political watchers were looking out for indications of the dynamics within the party, and how it would position itself ahead of the next General Election and more importantly, in relation to Bersatu which leads the Perikatan Nasional government. Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Bridget Welsh, Asia Research Institute, Nottingham Universit...

What does the recently concluded UMNO General Assembly suggest about the relationship between UMNO, Bersatu and PAS in their battle for the hearts and minds of Malay political society? How has the experience of the last year under Perikatan Nasional reshaped expectations and demands of the Malay ground. Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Ibrahim Suffian, Executive Director, Merdeka Center.

How do we best understand the number report on the covid-19 vaccine rollout and how is it related to vaccine supply and to the timelines on achieving herd immunity? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Tan Sri Dr Jemilah binti Mahmood, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia Muhyiddin Yassin on Public Health since March 2020 and Under Secretary General for Partnerships in the Interna...

The Ministry of Health’s official guidance on its Covid-19 website has listed a few groups it deemed are not suitable to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. This includes: women who are pregnant or planning to get pregnant; cancer patients who are undergoing treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, Persons Living with HIV with CD4 counts of less than 200. Melisa Idris and Shara...

The Ministry of Health’s official guidance on its Covid-19 website has listed Persons Living with HIV, with CD4 counts below 200 (protein found on immune cells) as among the groups that are not suitable to receive Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine. This however seems to contradict international advice. Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Dr Khairil Erwan Khalid, Secretary, Malaysian Society of HIV...

Malaysiakini today paid the half a million ringgit fine for contempt of court, that was imposed by the Federal Court last Friday over five readers' comments on its website.n The news portal launched its fundraiser immediately after the sentence was handed down, and raised the 500,000 in less than 5 hours. Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to MalaysiaKini CEO Premesh Chandran.

Immediately after the Court’s verdict, lead counsel for MalaysiaKini was quoted in the press, warning against knee-jerk reactions to the summaries of the judgments. He said that the full grounds of the Federal Court rulings would have to be studied. Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan ask Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar what his understanding is of the judgment.

How has Malaysian media evolved to keep up with new technologies and platforms, but also the growing demand of the public to speak and to be heard? Will the verdict trul spell the end of free speech in Malaysia? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Gayathry Venkiteswaran is Assistant Professor at the School of Media, Languages & Cultures at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Plan will begin on Wednesday -- earlier than was initially scheduled -- with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to receive their first jabs in two days. Will it go according to plan? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Former Health Minister & Head of the Selangor Task Force...

We turn to the state of Selangor and its policies in managing the localised needs of pandemic management. We look at Selangor’s 'Targeted Community Screening' based on Artificial Intelligence to detect hotspots and to bust the cluster. How are these plans coordinated with those of the Federal government? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Former Health Minister...

Almost a year after schools were shuttered nationwide, yesterday a dedicated TV channel for education was finally launched to much fanfare. DidikTV collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Media Prima, and complements RTM’s TV Okey & Astro’s Tutor TV. The educational programmes air for 17 hours a day, but will it be enough to address the gaps exacerbated by the pandemic and the digi...

Astro Tutor TV’s ‘SMK: Study Squad’ is currently the most watched academic show in the country. Arus Academy, which is an education-focused social enterprise, helped write the themes and lesson objectives for the episodes. Are there lessons to be learnt from this effort? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Alina Amir, co-Founder & director of Arus Academy.

Malaysia was recently found to have among the highest number of research publications in ‘predatory’  journals’ defined those that tend to publish low-quality science and deviate from best practices in academic research. They might even collect fees for publishing work that undergoes little editorial scrutiny. The revelation called into question the quality of research work by Malaysian universiti...

A study by two Czech economists who mapped the infiltration of ‘predatory journals' into the Scopus database, reported that ‘in these countries, predatory publication practices have apparently become a systemic problem at the national level, not limited to particular clusters.” How do we fairly assess our universities in the global higher education economy? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to...

Over the weekend, two women had separately alleged that police officers had sexually harassed them when stopped at roadblocks. In recounting their experiences, the women said a police officer had recorded their personal details, including phone numbers. One of the women said she received an unsolicited text message after the encounter, while the other said she was asked to expose herself in order...

It's estimated that for every reported case of sexual harassment, some eight to nine cases go unreported. Sexual harassment is already underreported for a range of reasons - but is this even more the case, when perpetrator is in uniform, law enforcement? Who can the victim turn to? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Nisha Sabanayagam, Programme & Operations Manager, All Women’s Action So...

How do we begin to imagine changing policing practices that are more gender sensitive? And are institutions like the police open to change or do they try to insulate themselves behind what is often called the "blue wall" a culture of camaraderie that seeks to protect officers from the consequences of their illegal or unethical action? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Yu Ren Chung, Deputy E...

As with much of the country, the state of Penang’s Covid-19 cases have risen and fallen, while its strategy is firmly tethered to the Federal government’s national plan. So how is it coping with the pandemic one year on and are state-federal relations proving to be challneging? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Chief Minister of Penang, Chow Kon Yeow.

The success of any vaccine rollout plan is dependent in large part on local factors and resources. How prepared is the state of Penang for identification of priority groups, delivery of vaccines and monitoring of the vaccination programme? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Chief Minister of Penang, Chow Kon Yeow.

The Covid-19 vaccine national rollout, which will begin at the end of the month, aims to immunise 80% of the Malaysian population within a year. But despite repeated assurances from medical experts, many Malaysians remain hesitant about the vaccines -- citing concerns over the types & science behind it, where it’s being developed, efficacy rates, & potential short-term and long-term side e...