Contributors
Abidin Muhriz, Director of the Malaysia Think Tank (www.waubebas.org), shares two almae matres with the Minister of Education.
Ahmad Hafidz Baharom merupakan seorang graduan UiTM dari jurusan IT.
Al-Mustaqeem M Radhi ialah penulis dan penterjemah, dan graduan Pengajian Islam, Universiti Mu'tah, Jordan. Dia merupakan Zamil Kehormat Penulisan, International Writing Program, University of Iowa.
Brendan Navin Siva is an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. Brendan is also the Honorary Secretary of the Kuala Lumpur Bar and a member of the Human Rights Committee, Bar Council. The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily that of either the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee or the Human Rights Committee, Bar Council.
Brian Yap is a journalist with an unhealthy addiction to the news. If useless information were a currency, he'd be so wealthy he could run for a position in UMNO. At 31, he has written for KLue, The Malaysian Insider and the New Straits Times.
Dahlia Martin has contributed to numerous publications in the past, including the New Straits Times, The Star and Malaysian Today. During her undergrad years, she was an active student leader, campaigning for wom*n's issues and increased political awareness on campus. She has just completed her BA (Hons) thesis on "Religious Discourses of Young-Adult Malaysian Muslims" at Monash University.
Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan has been in practice for 26 years. She is the President of the Malaysian Bar.
Dato' Dr Ghulam Sarwar Yousof graduated in English from the University of Malaya (1964), and did a Doctorate in Asian Theatre at the University of Hawaii (1976). Professor Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof was responsible for setting up Malaysia's first Performing Arts programme at the Science University of Malaysia (USM) in Penang in 1970. He served at that university as lecturer and Associate Professor. He joined the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya (UM) as Professor in 2002. Currently he is Adjunct Professor at the Centre, and also Director of The Asian Cultural Heritage Centre Berhad, a private research initiative set up by him to promote research in traditional Asian cultures. He is one of Malaysia's most distinguished scholars, and one of the world's leading specialists of traditional Southeast Asian theatre.
Dato Dr. Sharom Ahmat began his career in academia in 1963 as a lecturer and eventually became the Deputy Dean at the University of Singapore. He also served as a Professor of History, the Dean of Humanities and the Deputy Vice Chancellor of University Sains Malaysia. His wide knowledge in the field of education comes from over 40 years of experience in the field and has gained him advisory and consultative positions in institutions both local, and abroad.
Datuk Nur Jazlan is a two-term Member of Parliament for Pulai, Johor. He is also the Barisan Nasional and UMNO chief for the Pulai constituency. He is a chartered accountant by training.
Dennis De Witt is a fifth generation Malaysian Dutch descendant originating from Malacca. He is the author of 'Reconnecting Through Our Roots' (2006) and 'History of the Dutch in Malaysia' (2007). He has also written a number of articles regarding historical influence of the Dutch in Asia and on the Malaysian Dutch descendants. He is a registered speaker with the Malaysian Tourism Development Council and he has delivered talks on the subject to Malaysian tour guides, cultural groups and university students. In May 2008, he was invited by the Netherlands-Malaysia Association to deliver a lecture at The Hague and to launch his book there. He is currently one of the co-ordinators of the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project and is engaged as a management consultant in Kuala Lumpur.
Dr. Kumar Devaraj is a medical graduate from University Malaya who left government service in 1999 to contest the Sg Siput parliamentary seat - he lost then and in 2004. Dr Kumar is a founding member of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia which has finally suceeded in its attempt to be registered! He is also the secretary of the Coalition Against the Privatisation of Health Care.
Hafiz Noor Shams is an economics graduate from the University of Michigan preparing for a graduate work at the University of Sydney. On his free time, he shares his libertarian views at The Malaysian Insider and at maddruid.com
Ho Yi Jian is a Political Science graduate from the National University of Singapore. He writes at Kent Ridge Common on Malaysia, Singapore and campus issues.
Idlan Rabihah Zakaria is a football-mad academic who lives in Colchester with five bookshelves and a road bike. She is interested in the behavioural aspects of accounting, finance, and capital markets, specialising in corporate governance. In her spare time she also enjoys amateur photography and bad British comedy. To pay the bills she utilises her doctorate in accounting and finance by teaching unsuspecting undergraduates (and the odd postgraduate or three) that very little about accounting is related to numbers.
Jacqueline Ann Surin is an award-winning journalist who is co-founder and editor of The Nut Graph. She also co-founded MalaysiaVotes.com with Cindy Tham and Danny Lim in early 2008. A journalist since 1994, she is also the author of Shape of a Pocket. She gained an M.A. in Media Studies at Sussex University in England as a Chevening scholar, and studied journalism in the United States under the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship. In 2007, she received the Excellence in Opinion Writing Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia for her Shape of a Pocket column. She was also named by London-based Article 19 as the Pioneering Women's Voices Candidate for Malaysia in commemoration of International Women's Day in 2007.
John Lee ialah seorang pelajar dan penulis. Dia sedang melanjutkan pelajarannya di Amerika Syarikat, tetapi dalam masa lapangnya mengikuti isu semasa di tanah air. Walaupun tidak begitu fasih dalam Bahasa Malaysia, dia percaya bahasa jiwa bangsa. Alangkah baiknya masyarakat begitu majmuk, biarlah dari segi bahasa ataupun bangsa.
John Lim is the Assistant Editor for New Media at The Edge Communications. He has been around the publishing block with magazines such as KLue, FHM Malaysia, and NewMan Malaysia. For more rants and raves surrounding media you can check his blog at johndotorgslashblog.wordpress.com, follow twitter.com/johnlim, or see his lighter view of the Web at popmedia.tumblr.com.
Julian C.H. Lee is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Monash University's campus in Malaysia. He is editor of the column Ini Budaya Kita the magazine Off The Edge. He is also a member of the Women's Candidacy Initiative, a civil society group that aims to raise women's representation in Malaysian Parliament. His scholarly articles have appeared in, amongst other places, Anthropological Forum, Anthropology Today, and The Round Table.
Khoo Gaik Cheng lectures in cultural studies, gender, and Southeast Asian Cinema at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on cosmopolitan spaces such as independent filmmaking, kopitiam and mamak stalls. She is interested in everyday spaces, instant noodles, and the overlaps between secular and Islamic discourses. Her publications include Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature (UBC Press, 2006), she has edited special issues on SEAsian cinema in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (2007), Asian Cinema (2007, with co-editor Sophia Siddique Harvey) and and she is one of the co-editors of Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore (Routledge, forthcoming).
Dr. K. J. John is the Executive Director of OHMSI, a civil society organization that began the National Congress on Integrity. He also is Director of the Malaysian Institute of Development and Asian Studies or MiDAS at the University College Sedaya International in Cheras. He has retired from public service after more than 30 years.
Lee Khai Loon is the Convenor for Youth for Change (Y4C). He was an active student leader throughout his time at University Malaya, and continues to work towards empowering Malaysian youths about their rights as citizens through advocacy programmes and education on the democratic process of elections.
Lim Ming Kuok is a product of Malaysian, Japanese, and American education. A final year PhD. Candidate at the Pennsylvania State University (U.S) in the field of Mass Communication, he is deeply interested in the relationship between media, society, and democracy. Currently, he is researching on the connection between blogging and democracy, using Malaysia as a case study. He recently concluded a series of interviews with prominent bloggers, academicians, and media practitioners in the country on the same topic.
Lingswaran Singh is a final year law student at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He also writes at http://diskopi.wordpress.com. He works towards educating Malaysian youths about justice, freedom, equality, human rights, and nation building.
Logan Sabapathy is an Advocate & Solicitor.
Loong Caesar was educated at Raffles Institution Singapore, The London School of Economics and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was admitted to the English Bar in 1982, the High Court of Malaya in 1985 and the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1994. He is a founding partner of Raslan Loong and primarily involved in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial, finance and securities work.
Marina Mahathir headed the non-governmental Malaysian AIDS Council for twelve years from 1993-2005. She has also been involved in several AIDS NGOs, sat on several UN expert panels, represented Asia Pacific AIDS NGOs on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board and spoken at the United Nations General Assembly. Currently she is a member of the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV and Development as well as Chair of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) Working Group on the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) to be held in Bali in 2009. She is also a newspaper columnist, blogger and TV producer.
Mavis Puthucheary was formerly associate professor in the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. Since retiring, she has continued to research and write about politics in Malaysia, particularly on the issue of the 'social contract'. In 2005, she edited a book with Norani Othman on Elections and Politics in Malaysia.
Michelle Yoon is a second year architecture student in Auckland, New Zealand. Other than her assignments and the regular part-time jobs she undertakes, she jots down her thoughts regularly at http://malaysianpolitics.wordpress.com/. She believes in a Malaysia that can go beyond the usual "tolerance" to achieve a truly unified and diverse society.
Mohd Nasir Baharuddin has a Masters of Fine Arts. He has been attached to Universiti Putra Malaysia as a senior lecturer at the Architecture Department, Faculty of Design and Architecture since 1998. His work emphasises socio-culture environments and visual culture study.
Nathaniel Tan blogs at www.jelas.info. He is 28, addicted to far too many vices, and tries to keep the bottom line at the forefront of his thoughts on activism and politics.
Nizam Bashir runs a legal practice in Malacca, where he lives with his wife and four kids. He once aspired to be an anonymous blogger, but soon realized that registering his blog under www.nizambashir.com wasn't the smartest way of realizing his aspirations. In his spare time, he follows the English Premier League, supporting every other football club that Man United plays against.
Nursufya Yacob is a student who is soon to graduate with a degree in Accounting from Victoria University of Wellington. She is striving to understand how the world works. Her dream is to solve the awful inequities present in the world today, like the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
Ong Kian Ming is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Duke University. His thesis investigates how authoritarian regimes manage to stay in power despite (or because of?) holding regular elections and how they might fall out of power. He used to be a management consultant but decided that political research was more interesting.
Ooi Kee Beng The writer is a Fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. His latest books include Lost in Transition: Malaysia under Abdullah (SIRD & ISEAS 2008) and The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (ISEAS 2006). The latter won an Excellence Award in the category "Best Writing Published in Book Form, about Any Aspect of Asia (non-fiction)" at the Asian Publishing Awards ceremony held in Singapore on 15 July 2008.
Premesh Chandran is the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysiakini.com, an independent online media, struggling to fulfil its social mission, while staying afloat. He is a former journalist and perhaps a future blogger.
Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato' Lim Kok Wing is the founder and president of Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology. Read more here.
Raja Aziz Addruse is a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. He was President of the Bar three times and a former President of the National Human Rights Society. He is widely recognised for his outstanding efforts to promote and protect the Rule of Law. His contribution to the law, in particular to the areas of constitutional law and human rights, is unparalleled. He has appeared in numerous landmark cases.
See Tshiung Han is an Editor at Bluetoffee, a small publisher based out of Bangkok with offices in Singapore and Malaysia. He read English Literature at University of Surrey Roehampton.
S. Jamal Al-Idrus is many different things to different people. Some know him as a systems engineering professional in the world of oil & gas, some know him as a part-time musician, and some know him as a part-time writer and blogger. Among other things. But mostly, he's a concerned citizen who's hopeful for a better future for his country.
Suflan Shamsuddin qualified as a barrister from the Middle Temple and was then called to the Malaysian Bar. He is currently based in London, England.
Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Selangor.
Terence Gomez is associate professor of political economy at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. He can be contacted at terencegomez@hotmail.com.
The Worried Student is a student from a certain local university that is headed by certain a man with a famous moustache. He tends to think too much until he turns to depression and then buys self-help books. He also secretly wishes that his writing would attract the opposite sex. Previously, his letter on a similar theme appeared on The People's Parliament
Tommy Thomas is an advocate and solicitor with a passionate interest in Malaysian public affairs.
Tricia Yeoh is the Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies. Her work involves research and analysis in the areas of socioeconomic policy, national unity and governance. She writes and speaks regularly on the above subjects and is particularly passionate about social and economic justice. She believes in a Malaysia that transcends racial politics. In her (very little) free time, she involves herself in "Revolution of Hope Malaysia" and fantasizes about playing in a band.
Yee I-Lann is a professional artist and set designer.
Yusuf Martin was born in London but lived mostly in East Anglia, England, briefly in India and has finally retired and settled in rural Malaysia. He is a former graphic designer, social worker and now writer. Yusuf earned his B.A in Philosophy and Masters degrees in Art History &Theory and Gallery Studies from the UK. He has written many short stories some published in collections in Malaysia including - Silverfish New Writing 5 (2006) Silverfish New Writing 7 (2008), Urban Odysseys due shortly from MPH and an essay for New Malaysian Essays 2, due next year by Matahari Books.
Zaidel Baharuddin ialah seorang jurutera elektronik di sebuah syarikat tempatan dan graduan Sarjana Muda Kejuruteraan Eletrik dan Elektronik dari Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Bekas ahli pasukan debat bahasa Inggeris UTM, Zaidel kini bergiat dalam beberapa buah NGO seperti Institusi Kejuruteraan Malaysia (IEM), Rukun Tetangga Taman Permata dan Parti Pembangkang Selangor. Pada masa lapangnya Zaidel suka berkaraoke lagu-lagu Frank Sinatra dan menulis cerita-cerita rakyat dengan menggunakan nama pena Sinatra_Z.
Z. A. Samad once thought that becoming a 30-something would bring on all kinds of epiphanies. She was horribly surprised to find that these epiphanies came with questions bigger than she had imagined. She often wishes she took law instead of engineering, worked in finance instead of IT, and still weighed 54 kilograms. In her spare time, she is an interested observer in the unfolding of the Malaysian dream. Those school days spent scouring through LKS' "Malaysia: Crisis of Identity" and MM's "Malay Dilemma" describes her attempt of making herself her own social experiment, as she shifts gear from 'outcast' to 'mainstream'.
Zubin Rada Krishnan returned to Malaysia returned to Malaysia in 2004 after graduating from Oxford with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He has spent most of his time since working in the business advisory arm of KPMG in Kuala Lumpur. Despite what one may infer from his name, he is actually three-quarter squatter and only one quarter of him would be able to 'balik India' should anyone ask him to do so. Zubin came back to his Motherland hoping the first question asked of him will not be, "What are you?