ENVIRONMENT: Floods Teach Malaysia Hard Lessons

Natural disasters are rare in this generally balmy country and so when devastating floods hit the country as the new year began, they caught victims, rescuers and government officials without a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan.

MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Case Against Bloggers – Test for Freedom

A leading state-backed newspaper has sued two prominent bloggers, critical of the daily and the government, for alleged defamation raising fears that this represents another attack on freedom of expression in Malaysia.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Malay Ethnic Assertion Unnerves Minorities

"Malay rights cannot be challenged, otherwise the Malays will run amok and the May 13 (1969) riots will happen all over again.''

POLITICS: Thai Coup Blow for ASEAN Democracy

Malaysians, led by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, uniformly reacted in shock at the sudden and unexpected crash of democracy in Thailand - a country that Malaysian civil society looked up to for pointers after two decades of autocratic rule under former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Justice for the Justices

A dark and shameful episode in the history of Malaysia's judiciary, that had lain hidden from public view for 18 years, is finally unravelling as lawyers, judges and rights activists press for an independent investigation into what is still spoken of in hushed tones as the ‘1988 scandal'

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Campaign Against Indefinite Detention Picks Up

One day in December 2000 the world, as he knew it, came crashing down on restaurateur Mohamed Samsudin. He was picked up by police and detained without charges for the next three years.

POLITICS: No Place for Socialists in Malaysian Democracy

In a tiny, dark, room in the squalid suburb of Brickfields, south of the national capital, a small group of people gathered to mourn yet another defeat for democracy, free speech and secularism - this time in the shape of a superior court upholding government refusal to recognise a socialist political party.

POLITICS: OIC Meet Exposes Muslim World’s Rifts

Notwithstanding the strongly worded demands for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and intervention by the United Nations, the emergency session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in the Malaysian capital only managed to expose a lack of unity within the Muslim world.

POLITICS: Lebanon, False Note in Rice’s Piano Diplomacy

The sole discordance to United States top diplomat Condoleezza Rice's virtuoso piano performance for Asia's foreign ministers, on Thursday night, was the chorus of ''Get Out Rice'' and ''Stop the Genocide in Lebanon'' chanted by demonstrators outside the hall.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Lebanon, Terrorism Equal Concerns for ASEAN

Israeli military operations in Lebanon and global terrorism were prime concerns as the 39th ministerial meeting of the ten-member ASEAN regional grouping got off to a start in the Malaysian capital on Tuesday.

MALAYSIA: Apex Court to Decide If Muslims Can Convert

Both Muslims and non-Muslims keenly await the verdict of Malaysia's Federal Court on one of the most contentious issues it has ever examined - whether the country's secular constitution, which guarantees freedom of worship, allows ethnic Malays to renounce Islam.

MALAYSIA: Minorities Wary of Islamist Party’s Overtures

Malaysia's opposition Pan Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) has been making serious overtures to the country's non-Muslims, promising them ‘justice and equality'.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Police Defy Oversight Plan

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's plan to set up an ombudsman to oversee the functioning of Malaysian police, that has an unsavoury reputation for abuse and rights violations, has come up against opposition but postings on the force's official website have revealed the full extent of defiance by the men in uniform.

MALAYSIA: Temple Demolitions Spell Creeping Islamisation

"Why do they have to tear down our temples," asked A. Kanagamah, a hospital worker. Tears streamed down her cheeks as city hall workers, protected by police in riot gear, demolished a 107-year-old Hindu temple in the city mid-May

INDONESIA: Malaysia Pitches In with Quake Relief

Indonesia's closest neighbour Malaysia, which is host to some two million Indonesian migrant workers, half of them undocumented, has been rushing food, tent, doctors, nurses and medicines to earthquake hit Java.

MALAYSIA: Provincial Polls, Wake Up Call for Badawi

Malaysia's ruling National Front coalition won the elections, last week, in timber and oil-rich Sarawak - the country's biggest state and also one of the poorest - but it is a coalition of opposition parties, led by charismatic opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, that is celebrating.

MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Film on Communist Leader Banned on Shaky Grounds

The Malaysian government has banned a film on the life and times of an octogenarian communist insurgent leader, who had also collaborated with the British during World War II, setting off a hornet's nest of charges about denial of freedom and space for democratic expression.

MALAYSIA: Street Vendors Fear City Hall, Await New Policy

Rain is what Kadar Sultan, a seller of the native dessert called ‘chendol' on the streets, fears most. Next comes City Hall.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Police Reject Ombudsman as Lockup Deaths Rise

The most dangerous place in Malaysia may well be the inside of a police lockup, going by the deep concern expressed by lawyers, human rights activists and even senior judges about the number of people who die in police custody..

ECONOMY-MALAYSIA: New Deal for Rural Poor

After watching development pass by for nearly three decades, Malaysia's rural poor - mostly native ethnic Malays - can finally look forward to some goodies thrown their way.

POLITICS: Calls Mount to Eject Burma from ASEAN

The 200-odd Burmese migrant workers, crowded into a small hall, gasped in horror as the photograph of a bloodied head was projected on a screen.