About a month ago, I was interviewed via email by Malay Mail Online (see the lines in bold below) wanting a little insight into the present state of the opposition bloc, Pakatan Rakyat. It was based on a recent Facebook survey by Politweet which pointed out that "support" for Pakatan "appears" to be on the decline. So I gave my two cents as below. Note that this was the political mood a few weeks before the implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax). I doubt I would be saying the same thing today. KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Malaysians are increasingly becoming disenchanted and tired of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) because they seem to have made little headway since the 13th general elections, political observers noted. Social media analyst PoliTweet.org pointed out that interest in the federal opposition coalition on Facebook has reached an all-time low since June 2013, which observers said might have been caused by political fatigue. “There is a kind of cooling ...

Dr Mahathir Mohamad: The Writer (This blogpost was first posted on instagram) In light of the controversial and sensational attacks against PM Najib Razak, I was reminded of an old book, a compilation of Dr M's newspaper articles from 1947-72 (Thanks to Berita Publishing). "The Malay Dilemma", banned in the 1970s, may be Dr M's most celebrated book, but little is known about his collection of writings from the 1940s. As ironic as it may sound, Dr M has always been critical towards the establishment. What? Read on. In 1949, it was against the Royalists. He criticised some segment of the Malay aristocrats for rejecting the proposal for a "Malay Deputy High Commisioner" post. (Context: The idea of such post was to train and to prepare Malayan administrators for independence. However, some members of the royalty sees it as a threat to the powers and influence of their sultans). [Note: Dr M was 24 years old when his articles were published in th...