BERSIH 2.0 and the Bar Council organised a webinar last Monday on judicial independence. An incisive and well-researched report was presented and discussed by the panelists.
NATIONS grow great through harmony and fall into oblivion through discord.
For several decades after independence, Malaya (later, Malaysia) was seen by the world as a nation in which peace and prosperity, democracy and development could go hand in hand in the midst of dazzling diversity.
Sadly, we have regressed. Since the 1990s, religious, racial and regional extremism have become mainstream.
Syariah and civil court disputes, unilateral conversions, the Kalimah Allah controversy, infrequent but explosive cases of apostasy, the khat issue, the Islamic state debate and the push for hudud laws are all polarising society.
Not only inter communal disputes, but also intra communal discord, have become prominent. The tirade against “liberals, secularists, and deviants” is quite vociferous. Though not officially acknowledged, class divisions are emerging, and the elitist orientation of institutions, laws and enforcement processes is drawing serious concern. Endemic corruption is per