TIME 2015 Person of the Year. It is without doubt, to my mind, that the 21st century Germany Chancellor, Angela Merkel is the equivalent of the visionary 15th century Ottoman ruler, Sultan Bayezid II, who welcomed thousands of Jewish refugees to Ottoman lands. While Bayezid II accepted thousands of Spanish Jews seeking refuge from the Spanish Inquisition 1492, Merkel has to date welcomed more than 100,000 Syrian refugees and is reported to take in a million more refugees. This is why history is very important. As George Santayana famously said, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it". Donald Trump is one good example.  His ridiculous proposal to ban Muslims from entering America is no different from King Ferdinand's decree to expel Muslims and Jews from Spain. Someone should really remind Trump and his fellow GOP supporters about the dark history of the Spanish Inquisition. I cannot imagine the kind of disaster if Trump becomes presid...

 Another online media interview on Malaysian politics. Written by Amira Nutfah Zulkifli of The Mole . KUALA LUMPUR – Nov 3, 2015: The lack of tactical and robust cyber warfare strategies had been identified as the main reason why Barisan Nasional is on the losing ends against the opposition parties in cyberspace. Cyber warfare experts told The Mole that in order for BN to reverse that trend, it must also step-up its game in influencing public opinions by fixing their leadership and internal issues. They insisted that BN must work on fresh narratives for their strategies if they are to win the people’s hearts again. Primarily, BN should understand that cyber warfare involves more than just cyber troopers as for now, the opposition are thriving in resonating their beliefs and propaganda. Political analyst Shahnon Mohamed Salleh of the Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) reviews local cyber warfare as being rather phenomenal particular...

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...

This is quite an old news actually (22 July), but the issue is still ongoing. Latest news is that Khalid has submitted his resignation letter to the Sultan but was requested to continue as the Mentri Besar until a replacement is found. Anyways, here is a tweet reply sent to mStar , an online Malay news portal, which was deemed good enough to be made headline. Thanks to my colleagues, Anita and Khai, for the alert. " Menerusi laman Twitter rasmi  mStar Online  (@mstaronline), pemilik akaun yang dikenali sebagai Shahnon Salleh (@shahnonsalleh) menyuarakan pandangan sinis mengenai keputusan Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) itu... " From 'sleeping beauty' to puppet MB? " demikian tulis Shahnon selepas mengulang twit berita laporan mStar Online berhubung keputusan melantik Dr Wan Azizah sebagai Menteri Besar Selangor yang baharu. " Click for the full news report. So if anyone asks have you made any news headlines? I can now say yes. Ha ha.

Esquire Malaysia, Feb 2014 "I can understand the government's need to monitor potential threats. How do you expect them to do this without monitoring activities, conversations, channels? Let's put it simply: if the government doesn't monitor at all, they would be a fool to do that" Last December, I was interviewed by Esquire Malaysia  pertaining to the issues of cyber surveillance and the century-old-debate between liberty and security. What are the perimeters? How do we draw the line between respecting citizens' privacy and at the same time ensuring and maintaining public safety and security? Even US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain had once publicly stated that the US do not yet have the right formula of balancing between people's privacy and national security. My view is that (this is not in the magazine) each and every country on earth have its own unique history, culture and society. In this respect, a one-size-fits-all pol...

Former Prime Minister,  Tun  Dr Mahathir  Mohamad  had once described the state of Malaysia’s inter-ethnic relations as one that can be termed as “racial stability”, rather than racial harmony. We have had several conflicts and skirmishes in the past but generally we succeeded in overcoming the differences. But post-13th General Elections saw yet again the rise in the  racio -political temperature. It is high time that something serious needs to be done to ensure that our fundamental structures –unity, peace and harmony – are free from threats that may come in the form of external or internal extremist organisations, groups or ideologies.   The idea of the "National Reconciliation" seminar was based on our strong conviction and consciousness that a long lasting peace and unity is in our national interest. It is something that is paramount and uncompromised. As a matter of fact, it forms the fundamental structure for our nation’s social, economic, polit...