Beyond the Ballot Box

The people of Indonesia – the world’s third largest democracy – will be heading to the polls tomorrow, the 14th of February. The three main presidential candidates are Prabowo Subianto from Gerinda (who has current President Jokowi’s son Gibran, as his running mate), Ganjar Pranowo of PDI-P, and Anies Baswedan, independent candidate.  So, what are the key issues of this election? And how will...

Last week, the Pardons Board decided to halve corrupt former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s prison sentence. It was an anxiety-riddled week, filled with speculation, news reports that were subsequently retracted, silent politicians, curve balls, and a severe lack of transparency on the part of the government, as the public waited with bated breath for the decision from the Pardons Board. It’s a sham...

Recently, the world watched South Africa take Israel to the International Court of Justice for the genocidal acts Israel committed in Gaza. After hearing presentations from both sides, the court sided with South Africa. While there is still a long way to go before the case fully concludes at the ICJ, the court has issued a preliminary order barring Israel from further acts of violence against Pale...

When we look at the “Muslim World” – particularly, but not limited to the Middle East – there are many countries which exhibit high levels of authoritarianism or anti-democratic tendencies. There are also many regions which are underdeveloped and riddled with conflict. The Western and/or neoliberal narrative is that the problem is with Islam in and of itself.  This is an incredibly shallow wa...

The Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar has been sworn in as the 17th Agong, for a five-year term. His deputy is Sultan Nazrin Shah of Perak.  In light of that, we take a look at what exactly the role of the monarchy is according to the Malaysian constitution. Image credit: Shutterstock Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We live in a globalised society. The world has gotten smaller, especially over the past 30-40 years. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Borders were closed for a prolonged period and there was a reduction in international trade. This intensified the process of deglobalisation, something that has been discussed in politics for more than a decade.  So, how has the pandemic influenced – or continu...

What's Politics is a series where we explore and break down political concepts and ideas.  In this episode, we discuss a concept called neocolonialism. Malaysia and many parts of the Global South may no longer be directly colonised by the British Empire or any other superpower – after all, we don’t see European soldiers marching down our streets with guns. But the truth of the matter is, we s...

Why are our economic narratives often convoluted and incohesive? Malaysia is a capitalist country, but why do some economists say we don't have a cohesive capitalist class? We vote for MPs to sit in Parliament, but where else does power reside? What are the competing interests? We often try to understand Malaysian politics by looking at it through the prism of race and religion. But to understand...

The Malaysian economy relies on the sweat and toil of migrant workers. Yet, every so often, there will be news about migrant workers who are exploited – underpaid, overworked, passports confiscated, bullied and placed in horrible living conditions. Rarely, if ever, do we hear about employers and recruitment agencies getting arrested for their modern-day slavery practices. Instead, what always ends...

Several investigations are being carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) right now into various high-profile individuals. One of which is on former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, whose name was listed on the Pandora Papers in 2021. There’s also the case of the previous government which allegedly spent RM 700 million on publicity efforts. We speak to Raymon Ram who’s a...

South Africa, the nation that fought and dismantled Apartheid in their backyard has once again emerged as a country that we should learn from, as they have taken the Zionist State of Israel to court. On the 29th of December, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), concerning Israel’s cruel bombardment of Gaza, P...

The care economy is something that we need to take seriously, especially since we’re becoming an ageing nation. But are we on the right track? Not quite, says Edwin Goh, who’s an independent public policy researcher and a columnist at FMT. In one of his columns, he argues that we need new narratives for Malaysia’s care economy. We speak to Edwin Goh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

What's Politics is a series where we delve into political concepts, ideas, and questions and explore how they impact all of us.  It’s the new year. So, in this episode, we look ahead and discuss some of the key things to keep our eye on in 2024 – the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the upcoming elections in the US and the UK, as well as how China is reshaping global politics. See omnystudio.co...

It’s been close to 3 years now since the military coup in Myanmar that took place in February 2021. A lot has happened since then. Immediately after the coup, millions took to the streets in a peaceful civil disobedience movement to call for the restoration of democracy. But when the military decided to respond by force, brutally assaulting and even killing protestors, civilians took up arms and f...

It’s the new year! On today’s episode, we reflect on the year that was 2023 and discuss the kind of reforms Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the Madani government should prioritise in their second year in power, with Ooi Kok Hin, Executive Director, Bersih. Image credit: aizaq abdullah / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Redelineation is a constitutional process of drawing electoral boundaries to ensure that the value of one’s vote is equal irrespective of our geographic and demographic background.  Redelineation exercises can only be done no less than eight years after the last exercise – which means we’re in an incredibly critical juncture right now. Sarawak can begin redelineation exercises this year, Saba...

Malaysia is becoming increasingly polarised across racial and religious lines. And while the culture wars dominate political discourse, inequality is on the rise – the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen at an incredibly rapid pace. On today's episode of '45 Mins With' we're joined by Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, chairperson of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM). Dr Kumar believes that we’re...

Education is a fundamental human right and should be free, or at least highly affordable for everyone. Unfortunately, the reality on the ground is that education, especially tertiary education, is becoming increasingly unaffordable and students are often forced to take loans just to pursue a bachelor’s degree or their diplomas. Upon completing their education, these students are saddled with massi...

There are many different aspects and types of trains in our expanding Transit System in KL and the greater Klang Valley – LRT, MRT, KTM, to name a few. But why do we build public transport infrastructure in Malaysia? What’s our philosophy? Are we heading in the right direction? How do we compare to cities like Singapore, Hongkong, Sydney and Los Angeles? We spoke to Nischal Muniandy, a public poli...

If there’s one thing Malaysians can agree on is that wages in this country have been pretty abysmal. We have a shrinking middle class, 35% of working people in the formal sector earn below RM 2000 and the median wage is only RM 2600 – which means 50% of the country earns less than that. One policy initiative brought about by the Minister of Economy, Rafizi Ramli is the Progressive Wage Model, whic...

The temporary ceasefire in Gaza has ended. Israel has continued its process of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. In the first 24 hours since the ceasefire ended, Israel killed 700 innocent Palestinians. Israel has killed more than 20 000 people since the 7th of October, including journalists and medical personnel. 1.7 million people have been displaced. Just to keep in mind...

What's Politics is a series where we delve into political concepts, ideas, and questions and explore how they impact all of us.  If you’ve listened to this show over the past couple of years, you definitely would’ve heard us say “the past 4 decades of neoliberalism” numerous times over various topics and questions to try and understand various political-economic problems of today. But what is...

Last weekend, PKR held their annual national party congress. This was the second PKR congress held after Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim became Prime Minister (the last congress took place a couple of weeks after Anwar became the PM). A running theme at the congress was maintaining stability, translating good ideas and empathy into concrete policies and implementing reforms. We unpack some of the key the...

Apart from small pockets around the world, there is no denying that “The Left” or socialist movements are losing. Big time. The world is becoming increasingly polarised and right-wing, ultra-conservative populists are on the rise. But why is this happening, despite the rising cost of living, stagnating wages, the shrinking middle class, unaffordable housing and existential threats such as the clim...

It’s been about a year since Anwar Ibrahim became the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia. Since taking office, the Prime Minister has promised to weed out corruption, improve the lives of the poorest people in the nation and strengthen institutions. So, how have the Prime Minister and his cabinet performed so far, and what should they focus on looking ahead?  In this episode, we discuss institut...