Siti Lights

From the people, for the people: Maju’s council is made up of just regular folks, says the writer (left) – like all the Malaysians at the NGO’s inaugural forum. I WROTE this in the dead of the morning after our first stop of the Maju (Malaysian Action for Justice and Unity Foundation) roadshow: “The battle [...]

Making a stand: Dozens of students and professors stood, turned their backs and held up signs to protest the war in Iraq when former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered the commencement address at Boston College in 2006. - Reuters I THINK it is time we talk about Malaysian education again, considering what has [...]

ON September 16,1963, Malaysia was born. Then, as the next decade dawned, the Rukun Negara was conceived – and within it the idea of what this new nation should be was enshrined. When I was in school, we would recite the Rukun Negara preamble every week during assembly before we sang the Negaraku. In it [...]

From ground up: Only a few Malayans had to take arms in the nation's struggle for freedom, like these local women who joined the Malayan Home Guard troops during the height of the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. - National Archive YESTERDAY I read a heart-wrenching piece by one of our towering Malays in academia, [...]

JUST when I had written the article on bringing together progressives to unite Malaysia for a better tomorrow, as if on cue, the dark side of the force apparently decided that it was a good time to tear our Malaysian family apart. So, I thought to myself, I really need to wade into these issues [...]