Amber gets the green light.

The Sabah government’s announcement on the 24-hour DP approval is welcome news. This is an important first step towards achieving a more efficient, transparent and hopefully, corruption–free property development application/approval system. To expect this policy to provide the ultimate all–in–one solution will be unrealistic. It is not the panacea for all the problems that have plagued Sabah since living memory! However, this initial step is, I hope, will be like the proverbial Chinese saying that “a journey of a thousand li [Chinese mile] starts with a simple step”. We need to temper expectations. Sabah’s real estate development is a complex industry and will require many other supplementary wide-ranging innovative policies, administrative procedures and co-operation from government/private stakeholders to bring it up to speed. If I may be permitted, as a layman, to give some comments which, hopefully, will contribute in some small ways to this very important industry achieving proper perspective and back to the right track.

SABAH has had a challenging year with constant media attention on wildlife issues and numerous deaths of pygmy elephants.  In 2019, 24 deaths were recorded with five occurring in the space of four months.

IN NOVEMBER 2019, we at Fight Inequality Alliance released our first report, The State of the Growing Movement Fighting Inequality. We aimed to begin balancing the plethora of research on inequality – its causes and symptoms, as well as the data crunching and killer statistics that others have been doing so well since inequality has skyrocketed to its current crisis levels – with some analysis of how the movement fighting back is growing in response.

Tan Heang Lee ON MONDAY (3 February), a man allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death in a house in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.

G25 would like to respond to the various comments as well as criticisms that have been made in the media following the publication of its latest report “Administration of Matters Pertaining to Islam”.

AMONG the reactions kindled by Australia’s raging wildfire in Malaysia, perhaps the most deeply felt has been the awe of seeing man and the world which he had built being brought face to face with the power and authority of nature. Imagine the confusion when the language coming out of Australia was not one of awe but anger; anger not at nature but at man’s inability to confront nature’s power.

The whole world, from Timbuktu to Timor Leste, from USA to China, is struggling for economic development or fighting for economic superiority [like USA and China]. In sharpest contrast is the just concluded Kimanis by election. PH coalition has said there is a lesson to be learned, exactly what they have said in the last 5 by election losses. Tun M’s statement that PH might be a 1 term government is the most serious admission so far. BN, in typical unnatural exuberance over another by election victory, has expressed dreams of being returned to power. Up to date score is PH=5 and BN=5.

In 2015, I was living with a Malaysian Chinese flatmate in the United Kingdom. Smiling. Greetings. Smart-causal outfits. Everything from her seemed fair.

Morning all.  First I would like to apologise if my paragraphs run into each other, which makes reading my column often a bit confusing.  I will separate the sections by putting in spaces and hope it works. If you carry on reading – and I am told people do – then thank you very much! I have been thinking about that word ‘banter’, of which I have always felt a healthy mistrust. It is so often used as an excuse for bullying, and if people are challenged, the challenger is made to feel that they don’t have a sense of humour and can’t take a joke. Sometimes this might be true but so often it is absolutely not. It is in fact a sort of cowardly meanness, to hide behind, without acknowledging what is really going on.  Like not being allowed  to be in a group of friends at school, or being teased for having spots or being a slow runner on sports day… As we grow older, we need to be kinder. Kindness, I think, is one of the most important qualities, and makes everything else so much more bearable.