Side Views - The Malaysian Insider

Ritualism and erosion of human rights – Melanie O’Brien

While paying lip service to stopping human rights abuses, leaders in the Asia-Pacific are rejecting basic freedoms and reinforcing their own power, eroding human rights and flouting the very...

What the Jakarta attacks mean – Greg Barton

Those behind the attacks in Jakarta on January 14 desperately hoped to emulate the November 13 attacks in Paris. This time they fell far short. The attackers, contrary to initial impressions,...

How leap years work – Daniel Brown

Most of the time, a year is made up of 365 days. But this year, just like 2012, and the year four years before that, has 366. And that vital extra day, a leap day, is (partly) what keeps our...

Why US should stay engaged with Asean – Tham Siew Yean

After weathering a tumultuous 2015, the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) appears headed into an uncertain 2016 despite the formal establishment of the Asean Community, including...

Will Malaysians trust the government again? – Sin Chew Daily

According to the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer, Malaysians' trust towards the government slipped further from 45% to 39%, which if judged as academic performance in schools, was a big "F". The...

How Grab and Uber rob the taxi driver community – Mr Anonymous BG

Ever since the birth of Grab (formerly known as "Mytaxi") and Uber in Malaysia, taxi drivers ranging from sole breadwinners of the family, family men and single individuals, have found it...

Expect walls to close in further on freedom of expression – Centre for Independent Journalism

Malaysians should be very concerned with the increased cases of Internet censorship by the government in recent months, signalling worse days ahead for freedom of expression and information in...

Who you gonna call over policy flip-flops? – Saleh Mohammed

A remark and question posed by Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam in an article a few days ago says it all. "As a former senior civil servant I am perplexed and politely ask – what has become of our...

Time to see the forests for the sake of the trees – Patrick Durst

Over-exploitation and mismanagement of Asia-Pacific’s forests have left nearly 400 million hectares of land cleared of trees or heavily degraded, according to a new report by the Food and...

Move up the value chain, don’t race to the bottom – Chang Lih Kang

Lately, the government's announcement to bring in another 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers over the next three years has become the talk of the town. The move has incurred criticism from all over...

Immigrants ‘R’ us – Nadia and Nabila Habib

Why does the heavy flow of immigrant workers make us uncomfortable? Why do we tend to prioritise our nationals over billions of other earthlings who own the Earth just as much as we do? Why do we...

Security and privacy must not be traded off against each other – Eugene K.B. Tan

Last week, a United States federal judge ordered Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain entry into an encrypted iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook to know where Farook and his...

Can democratic Muslims defeat intolerance? – Airlangga Pribadi Kusman

Maurizio Geri of Old Dominion University, Norfolk, the US, wrote in The Jakarta Post on January 20 about the battle to defeat the Islamic State (Isis) movement in Indonesia. Brimming with...

Why gag and bind TMI? – Goh Wei Liang

I do not agree with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission's decision to block access to The Malaysian Insider (TMI). According to Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak, the decision to...

We don’t need no information – Dharm Navaratnam

These past few days have been very interesting as well as educational. A news portal (The Malaysian Insider) was suspended for carrying an article that was purportedly detrimental to National...

Don’t let drugs rule Indonesia – The Jakarta Post

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s commitment to the fight against drugs is part of his responsibility to protect the nation. Last year he repeatedly warned of “a drug emergency”, saying 50 people...

End arbitrary action against news organisations – Institute of Journalists Malaysia

The Institute of Journalists Malaysia (IoJ) is deeply concerned about the sudden block in access to news portal The Malaysian Insider by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission...

Walls will close in further on freedom of expression – Centre for Independent Journalism

Malaysians should be very concerned with the increased cases of Internet censorship by the government in recent months, signalling worse days ahead for freedom of expression and information in...

Simple ways to reduce air pollution at home – Ian Colbeck

Outdoor air pollution is responsible for around 40,000 deaths in the UK each year, according to a new report by the Royal College of Physicians. It’s a scary headline number. However just as...

What’s at stake in Iran’s parliamentary elections – Scott Lucas

Iranians will vote today to elect both the 290-seat parliament and the 88 clerics of the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the supreme leader. This is the most important political...