Tag: Malaysia

Call off the search. For its display of rare global moral leadership, Time Magazine's 2019 “Person of the Year” award should unquestionably go to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).  

Israel has acknowledged that it was responsible for airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria on Jan. 20 and 21. 

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is to be commended for its principled, moral decision to prevent Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's Malaysia from hijacking the Paralympic world swimming championships in defiance of the ideals of the international Paralympic movement.

As expected, Malaysia’s recycled Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has resumed his Israel-hating ways, this time taking out his bigotry on, of all people, paralympic swimmers.

In the wake of a Thai-Malaysian leaders summit and the appointment of new negotiators, official pronouncements of a “new era” in the peace process sound premature.

When [Mahathir] entered the fray, he not only brought pathetic threats and displayed disingenuousness of epic proportions, but drew some attention to the attitude of Malaysians to terrorism.

Instead of threatening Australia for daring to review a long-standing position, why don’t we see Malaysia and Indonesia – both of whom provide strong rhetorical support to the Palestinian cause –  as well as Morrison’s critics, encouraging progress towards a two-state peace, which most profess to support, and which underlies Morrison’s review initiative?

Anwar Ibrahim clinched a landslide victory in a by-election, setting the scene for an intriguing next chapter as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad serves a (promised) two-year term as PM while his supposed successor waits in the wings. 

While the physical edifice of the “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria has been all but pounded into dust, with hundreds of fighters either killed or in detention camps along the Turkish border, the influence of returned Southeast Asian cadres continues to be felt well beyond the five-month Marawi siege in the Philippines last year.

"A new era has dawned for Malaysian politics." Such is the flavour of the commentary greeting the shock election defeat of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition after 61 years of uninterrupted rule. But it is too early to tell how deeply things will change as the familiar figures of Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and (soon) Anwar Ibrahim return to leadership under the banner of reform and rejuvenation.