Landing in Kuala Lumpur's low-cost and international airport a couple of days just before Chinese New Year is depressing. There are perfunctory signboards and decorations to mark the Lunar new year but there is nothing festive about it. There is no longer the annoying raucous Chinese New Year music that used to annoy me but... Continue Reading →
Why Edi Rejang’s apology is not an apology
Ostensibly the man who insulted and hurled verbal abuse at a beer promoter in Kuala Lumpur's Ampang Point shopping mall day before yesterday has apologised. After being whiplashed by Netizens and apparently lost his job since a video of him abusing the beer promoter that he himself uploaded went viral, Edi today released the video below.... Continue Reading →
The night Mahathir came to town
Yesterday evening was billed as a special session with the Malaysians living in Indonesia with the new old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. It was part of his first official visit to neighbouring Indonesia where he would meet Jokowi. I went with mixed feelings. I was curious to see the old warhorse, still flushed from his... Continue Reading →
Please help ensure this hater Jamal Yusof has no place to hide in Indonesia – and make Rp35 mio in the process
Indonesian friends, your help is needed to ensure that this man, who is not unlike those who incite hatred in Indonesia, doesn't use Indonesia as a refuge from the justice he deserves in Malaysia. His name is Jamal Yunos and he used to be a division leader of Umno, the party that was under the... Continue Reading →
Time for old dogs in new Malaysian government to learn new tricks?
Many Malaysians have heaped scorn on Bloomberg Gadfly columnist Andy Mukherjee for suggesting that the country's new Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng should exercise more tact when speaking about the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issue. The anger is understandable. After 9 years of Najib and his cronies, Malaysians feel they have achieved something substantial by ousting... Continue Reading →
Pribumis, Bumiputras and the politics of race
Let's be honest: when the word Pribumi is used, it is code for anti-Chinese. This is the same in Malaysia where the word Bumiputra is used to mean anti-Chinese. The parallels do not stop there. The champions of the the racial ideology - Anies Baswedan in the case of the Pribumis and Mahathir Mohamad in... Continue Reading →
What do pribumi Indonesians think about their Chinese counterparts?
Not much that is good. That's what the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute found in a survey titled Chinese Indonesians in the Eyes of the Pribumi Public, If the survey is accurate it suggests that after decades of living cheek by jowl with the pribumis, they still harbor stereotyped perceptions about the Indonesian Chinese. Among the most... Continue Reading →
Who let the dogs out? Malaysia vs Indonesia’s Amazing Race to the Bottom
Most of your would be unaware of it but there is a relentless race between two neighboring and competing nations Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a race to the bottom of the IQ ladder by its religious wallah. You know the type, using the name of religion to to impose their stupidity on others. ... Continue Reading →
A Malaysian newbie in Jakarta
What would you make of Indonesian working life and the people in general if you're a Malaysian, newly graduated and looking for some work experience? Andrew Seow took the plunge and tried his hand in public relations at Maverick and this is this story: Time passes when you are having fun. So after what... Continue Reading →
Surprises in Malaysian Health Care
My impressions about public health care in Malaysia were shaped at last three decades ago. Then, it was the choice you made if you could not afford to be treated elsewher This was because the hospitals were run like government bureaus with the civil servant acting like the rest of us were servants. Many were incompetent,... Continue Reading →
The Bomoh’s back with five watermelons to keep things cool
The Malaysian bomoh(shaman, medicine man, con man whatever you call them) Ibrahim Mat Zin, who won notoriety for his antics involving a magic carpet, several coconuts and some nuts serving as acolytes in the search for the missing MH370 is now back. Never mind that his methods did not yield any results in the search for MH... Continue Reading →
The incredible silence and welcome to China’s effrontery to Malaysia
Something incredible, unprecedented and potentially dangerous happened in Malaysia last Friday that most Malaysians do not seem to have paid much notice to. In fact many of the Malaysian Chinese actually welcomed it, fed up as they were by Malay hooligans trying to stir up Malay supremacist and anti-Chinese sentiments in Malaysia. Photo from Free... Continue Reading →
Unspun 