I extend my heartfelt condolences to the fiancee and the family of the late Teo Beng Hock, political secretary of Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was alleged to have died under ’suspicious circumstances’. See here for context.

MerdekaReview will soon launch its Malay edition. To get an initial taste of what’s on offer, check this out.

The temporary website has already posted articles that range from critical analysis of Chinese newspapers to discussion of national politics.

This old number may well be the favourite of, if not a signature tune for, that certain politician (and his family) whose palatial mansion stands magnificiently over a piece of land somewhere in Shah Alam, Selangor.

In contrast, there are still many Malaysians, such as those residing in TOL zones or on a squatter land, who are desperately looking for a decent and permanent abode they can call their own.

If dialogue implies conversation and exchange of ideas between two people, then Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Dr Rais Yatim’s idea of an “open approach to the new media” is problematic, if not laughable.

Rais Yatim was quoted by Bernama as saying that “the government always emphasised government policies in every meeting with bloggers, as well as reminding them of the Sedition Act, the Defamation Act and the Internal Security Act.” See here.

This statement indicates an eagerness on his part to instead preach and prescribe to the bloggers what they ought not to do. Rais should try lending an attentive ear for it would benefit him and the federal government in the long run to know what the bloggers, among other Malaysians, think and have to say about politics, justice, freedom of information, economy, religion, ethnic relations, corruption etc.

Otherwise, the planned meeting with the bloggers may turn out to be a monologue of futility.

The reported spat and rift between partners in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in recent days predictably made the headlines, some hitting the front pages, of many of the mainstream newspapers.

The screaming front page headline of today’s Star, ‘Splitsville’, says it all.

Put another way, the Pakatan chaps are put in a negative light, rightly or wrongly, and quite often they are seen through the eyes of their political rivals in the BN.

A piece published in today’s New Straits Times can give us a sense of how the major newspapers have gone to town with the ‘Pakatan disunity’: See here.  

Perhaps this is also the time for the Pakatan chaps to take stock of themselves irrespective of the kind of media reportage they’ve got.

Goodbye Michael Jackson (who passed away yesterday). ‘Black or White’ is one of his hits that will be remembered fondly.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers reportedly revealed today that “the most important element needed to stick a sodomy charge on the politician was missing from a report prepared by Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).”

They said that the medical report released by the hospital has revealed that there was no evidence of penetration on Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan – the complainant on whom the criminal case was based.

A copy of the medical report was attached to an affidavit filed by Anwar yesterday to strike out the sodomy charges.

The court is to hear the case beginning July 1.

It is anticipated that the authorities would attempt to get to the bottom of things.

In this regard, it is fervently hoped that ordinary Malaysians, including impressionable children, are not subjected yet again to a public parade of, say, supposedly semen-stained mattresses.

Been away for quite some time now, and thus it gives me a strange feeling to come back home to learn that ‘love’ in Malaysia is very much in the air.

So it seems that certain UMNO leaders and their counterparts in Pas have been struck by Cupid’s dart. But such a ‘love affair’ predictably causes some people to wonder aloud. For instance, how deep is this ‘love’? Or, where will all this affection and amorous feelings really lead them to?

One thing is for sure, though: Pas spiritual leader Nik Aziz is not going to touch ‘love’ again even with a ten-foot pole. He should know ‘coz he’s been there before. See here.

(Photo credit: The Malaysian Insider. Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran and former Perak State Assembly speaker V. Sivakumar on the phone beside him in a moving black maria.)

Ordinary Malaysians may be excused these days if they feel as if they’ve been boxed-in, what with the increasing restrictions that have been imposed by the authorities of late.

For one, we’ve already been told that it isn’t kosher to sport black shirt, especially in the glaring presence of lighted candles in an open public space. The contrast, it seems, can be too jarring for some people.

Then, one can’t articulate the name of a certain deceased foreigner in public, let alone celebrate her posthumous birthday, for fear of her ghost haunting some other people.

Today we are made to understand that one cannot indulge in fasting, especially under a canopy. It befuddles the mind, though, to think that a group of people who fast, and subsequently grow physically weak, could inflict violence or social disorder to the extent that it might harm ‘national security’.

Malaysian politics, it seems, has come of age.

Politics has developed at such a dizzying speed to the extent that many politicians and personalities have come in pairs (with the exception of the three runaway Perak State Assemblypersons) in their professed desire to serve the rakyat: two Speakers, two Menteris Besar, and, the latest, two Presidents of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).