Opini

By Dr. Farish A Noor The official history of Sri Lanka obscures its long historical links with the rest of the Indian subcontinent and there is precious little mention of the long historical links with Southeast Asia, particularly with Burma/Myanmar, Thailand and Java It is odd that while South and Southeast Asia have been the ...

By AB Sulaiman Michael Chick`s 3-part narration on the origins of the Malays was very scholarly presented. He established the migratory routes of the homo sapiens, from one single point in the savannahs of Africa to all corners of the world. He related how and where it then branched and sub-branched off into different tribes and ...

By Dr Farish A. Noor It is odd that while South and Southeast Asia have been the oldest civilisational neighbours to each other, we know so little about our neighbouring communities and understand even less about our common shared history. A cursory overview of the state of official history writing in the postcolonial states of South and ...

By Iem Brown I would not say that learning Indonesian is “easy”, as I don`t believe for an adult learning any language is “easy”. It is, however, relatively “easy” to get by in Indonesian, as historically speaking, the basis of this language was for many centuries used as a lingua franca or a means of communication among the traders, ...

Yasmin Ahmad‘s new movie Talentime. After watching it yesterday I only have one thing to say: WOW. Ok. Maybe not one thing, but I just don‘t know where to start. Firstly the movie was so honest. WHY? Watching the movie made me real: THIS IS MALAYSIA these are MALAYSIANS. We may be Chinese, Indian and Malays BUT this is what we go ...

By Mohd Nadzrin Wahab Despite Malaysia being heavily promoted as a tolerant multicultural, multireligious country, there are obvious undertones of tension among the younger generation, mostly fuelled by the racial politics and current issues that plague our headlines daily. It`s a boiling cauldron of emotion that`s waiting to blow over. ...

By Himanshu Archaeologists last year stumbled upon at least 30 structures from an ancient Indianised civilisation that existed in the region of Kedah as far back as 1,700 years ago. The lost kingdom of the Bujang Valley was once spread across a vast tract of land that still surrounds majestic Gunung Jerai. Over the last fifty ...

By Suzalie Mohamad Knowledge alone is insufficient to build a sound and balanced personality; good habits and deeds are crucial. It has been narrated by many scholars of Islam that if parents have any inheritance, there is no greater inheritance than Adab. Al-Walid ibn Numayr said that he heard his father say “righteousness is ...

By Goh Ban Lee IT`S only recently that one hears or reads about "civil society" and its growing role in urban governance. What is civil society? Why is it important? How should the local authorities deal with it? Like most social science terms, there is no one definition for civil society. A common one is "a voluntary participation by ...

By Annie Sloman As I walk home from the market one afternoon in the southern Timorese border town of Suai, my ears pick up the sound of the famous dangdut song `Pacaran lagi` (Dating again). A group of Timorese children are putting on an impromptu concert in a tree overhanging an old burnt-out building from Indonesian times. The tree ...

By Dr. M. Nadarajah In recent times, the cultural and political notions of “Bangsa Malaysia” and “One Malaysia” have gained currency of use and are fast becoming household terms. They seem to have caught the imagination of many well-meaning sons and daughters of Mother Malaysia. Our fourth Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohammad, ...

By A.D.Pirous and Setiawan Sabana It is common knowledge that Indonesia was under the Dutch rule for three and a half centuries. The statement implies that in all that time, Indonesian people did not react at all except to submit to the Dutch colonial government. In reality, they were not that passive. Another point of view has it ...