Wishing for a better year

Instead of waiting for others to make improvements, maybe we should start by changing ourselves first. It is finally the end of a very long year. As I meet with friends and others at various gatherings over the holidays, the mood is sober and pessimistic. A year ago, we all wished for a better year in 2015...

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Misunderstanding the meaning of human rights

Many think it means the right to absolute freedom rather than basic rights such as the right to life, to dignity, to a nationality, to education and to work. OCCASIONALLY you get a request from someone from a country so new to you that you can’t resist agreeing to a meeting. That was how I sat down today with...

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Culture gives us a break

DRIVING along in the middle of George Town last weekend, I spied a Malay couple in full wedding finery taking photographs in front of one of the restored old buildings. I couldn’t stop to take photos of them but I was intrigued because you rarely see this in Kuala Lumpur. According to my friends in Penang, these...

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Focus on the Paris perpetrators

Governments should go after those who committed the bloody violence, but individuals should not blame whole groups of people for this latest tragedy. THE nightmare is upon us again. More violence and bloodshed, more hate and more tears. I spent Saturday morning searching for news of friends and family in Paris....

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Speak up for our right to speak

Malaysians have a tendency to not appreciate something until we’ve lost it. IN an effort to lose some weight recently, I went on a diet which required me to eat smaller portions of healthy food. When food suddenly became a precious commodity, I found myself eating more slowly and savouring each bite. The same...

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Living amidst the murk

THERE are few things more dispiriting than returning from a holiday where you had unexpected blue skies to a homeland where you can hardly see anything outside the plane window. What quirk of climatic times do we live in when I was travelling in a temperate country which had more sunshine than the tropical one...

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A week that saw many old taboos broken

Last week was pretty groundbreaking when it came to getting rid of old taboos, even though they came from unexpected quarters. IN the past week we’ve seen many taboos being broken. The taboo on assembling in public to demonstrate was of course already broken some time ago, but until last week it was taboo...

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Protest not for protest’s sake

On Malaysia Day, let’s leave the Red Shirts to do their business. ON Aug 29, Malaysians proved something very important – that it is possible to come together in common cause and do it peacefully. No more can we believe anyone who says that any gathering of more than five people is bound to be disorderly and...

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The inequality of freedoms

I’VE been noticing a disturbing phenomenon recently among my brethren. It is a type of mob behaviour where groups of people will attack a person online, usually female, accusing her of immorality based totally on something superficial, usually her dress. It happened with the gymnast who was criticised for her...

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That little voice in our head

I RECENTLY attended a conference where the keynote speaker, a renowned academic, talked about science and conscience. One of the slides he showed was a quote from Sophocles, the Greek “tragedian” or playwright (496-406BC) which went: “There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which...

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Simple guide to success in Malaysia

SINCE everyone in this country is an expert in giving advice to everyone else, I thought I would join in and generously give my totally unsolicited counsel to all those aspiring to join cupboards or closets of any kind. Any likeness to anything familiar around us is naturally a complete coincidence. First of...

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Looking for positive inspiration

It’s great to meet youths who want to change things.  I’VE been told that recently I’ve become strident and fierce in my columns. This was a bit of a surprise; I thought I’ve always been fierce and strident. But I suppose my readers see a noticeable uptick in the tone of my columns these days, hence the...

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