Beyond the Ballot Box

Dr Vilashini Somiah who’s a feminist anthropologist and a senior lecturer at University Malaya has been appointed as the next chair of the Southeast Asia Council (SEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS).  This is important in and of itself but also specifically because she will be the first Southeast Asian-based scholar to lead the council since 1970 – that means she’s also the first...

Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) has released their 2024 human rights report . It’s a detailed report on the various human rights violations that have occurred throughout the year, some of the progress made and the changes that should happen moving forward.  We speak to Jernell Tan, who’s the Documentation & Monitoring Coordinator at SUARAM. Jernell also penned numerous chapters in the repo...

Labour Day is observed every year on the 1st of May. It’s a holiday in most countries around the world – and perhaps one of the most important ones. But most of us don’t think about its significance and even take it for granted. Behind the holiday lies a legacy of protest, solidarity, and the ongoing fight for workers’ rights. In this episode, we discuss the significance of labour day, especially...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about PTPTN’s ballooning debt and what to do about it. With a total outstanding debt of RM 40 billion, pressure is mounting on the government to act decisively. The instinctual reactions tend to focus on the defaulters, with many calling for harsh penalties like fines or travel bans. I mean, it’s only natural to think “you borrow, you pay back!”  But are we m...

Kanni Wignaraja is the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with over 25 years of experience in Sustainable Development. She has worked across Africa, Asia and is a prominent advocate for inclusive and people-centered development in the Asia-Pacific region. In this episode, we talk to her about...

The Ayer Kuning by-election will be taking place on the 26th of April and it is going to be a three-cornered fight between MADANI/Barisan Nasional’s Mohamad Yusri Bakir, Perikatan Nasional’s Abdul Muhaimin Malek and Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Bawani Kaniapan (Bawani KS). The election for one out of the 59 state seats in Perak is taking place due to the passing of incumbent Ishsam Shahruddin of Bari...

Basic Income – or Universal Basic Income (UBI) as it’s commonly referred to – is a policy where a government gives all citizens a regular sum of money periodically (i.e. every month), regardless of their employment status or income level.  You might think to yourself that this is idealistic and utopian, wondering if it’s even feasible or necessary.  In this episode, we speak to Guy Stand...

For the past several decades, most of the world has been part of the neoliberal economic model. It burst onto the mainstream with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the late 70s and 80s but gained even more prominence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the emergence of the United States of America as the global hegemon. This era was underpinned by the free flow of capital ac...

Last week, the world watched as U.S. President Donald Trump made headlines once again — this time by declaring “Liberation Day.” But instead of fireworks and parades, he brought out a sweeping new tariff regime. At the heart of it? A universal 10% tariff that spares no one — not even a remote, uninhabited territory like Heard Island and McDonald Islands, best known for its penguins. Beyond the uni...

It is no secret that Malaysia is a highly racialised country. Over the past decade, racial discrimination has not only persisted but evolved in new and complex ways. But are things getting better or worse? More importantly, are we getting better at understanding racism beyond simplistic framings of majority vs. minority? Pusat KOMAS recently released Malaysia Racism Report: A Decade in Review. Bas...

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...