Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia

Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia RM40.00

Author: Salbiah Ahmad Publisher: SIRD Year: 2006 Number of page: 405     In this collection of insightful essays, Salbiah Ahmad – lawyer, activist, writer – explores and analyses the various dynamics in Malaysia which surround and affect contemporary issues involving religion, democracy, politics, the law, human and civil rights and gender relations. The articles contained within are a compilation of what she has authored for her column ‘Malaya!’ which has appeared in malaysiakini.com since 2001. ‘Malaya!” as the column name comes from Tagalog in which it means ‘freedom’. In producing these articles, Salbiah Ahmad skilfully combines the analytical skills of the lawyer and the experience of the seasoned activist to tackle complex ideas making them both understandable and empowering.

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Where Monsoons Meet : A People’s History of Malaya

Where Monsoons Meet : A People’s History of Malaya RM18.00

Author: Musimgrafik Publisher: SIRD Year: 2007 Number of page: 174     For many people, history is often a boring flurry of dates, treaties and pompous princes. For Malaysians, history books are made even less digestible by the dominance of authors who persist to write from the British colonialist’s point of view. Where Monsoons Meet attempts to lead a new path away from the beaten tracks. The history book of Malaya is refreshing in its highly readable and entertaining cartoon presentation. Content wise, it breaks new grounds by recounting Malayan history from the people’s point of view. The period covered stretches from the days of the Malacca Sultanate in 1400s to the granting of Merdeka to the Federation of Malaya in 1957. Some notable highlights colorfully described include the squabble of colonial powers over Malacca, the fierce rebellion of the Malayan people against the establishment of British indirect rule, the gallant resistance against Japanese fascist occupation, the drastic British measures taken to suppress the anticolonial struggle during the ‘Emergency’ and the formation of the various political parties forces of the period before ‘independence’. To those of us who wonder about the background to the present day political development in Malaysia, and especially those who were born after the Second World War, this is an invaluable, edifying of a people’s struggle against colonialism.

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Mahathir vs. Abdullah

Mahathir vs. Abdullah RM26.00

Author: various Publisher: Kinibooks Year: 2007 Number of page: 212 Delivery: 1 day The book is a compilation of articles that try to cut through the sandiwara (playacting) of the vicious war of words, and see what really drove TDM to launch such a merciless attack on his handpicked successor, as well as analyze the factors influencing each turn this scandal-ridden battle took. It also includes letters from Malaysiakini readers – representing a truly wide spectrum of opinion, critical thought, and passionate support for both parties. The book features a number of high-profile contributors, including Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, P. Gunasegaram, Tian Chua, Collin Abraham, M Bakri Musa, Steven Gan, P Ramasamy, James Wong, Kim Quek, Charles Hector, Khoo Kay Peng, and many more.

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No Dram of Mercy

No Dram of Mercy RM22.00

Author: Sybil Kathigasu Publisher: Prometheus Enterorise Year: 2006 Number of page: 186     No Dram of Mercy is the story of a women’s courage, told simply and unassumingly in her own words. Sybil Kathigasu was the wife of an Ipoh doctor who along with her fellow Malayans became caught up in the horrors of the Japanese occupation of Malaya during the Second World War. Her selfless concern for the sick and wounded anti-Japanese guerillas who came to her arrest and imprisonment by the Japanese authorities. The tale of fortitude and endurance under duress and torture which follows is testimony not so much to the ruthlessness of a conquerors as to the indomitability of the human spirits informed by faith and belief in God. As such, the story of Sybil Kathigasu, reprinted here after a lapse of five decades, is a tract for our times as much it is a reminder of the tribulations experienced by a former generation of Malayans.

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Mad About Malaysia

Mad About Malaysia RM25.00

Author: Dean Johns Publisher: SIRD Year: 2007 Number of page: 233 Delivery:   Mad about Malaysia reflects a commitment and it comes delightfully packaged with a style of writing that – trust us – will make you smile, laugh, sigh, curse or roll your eyes up as you go along. This is a book to be read once and taken out again at regular intervals by all those who wish to reminiscence, regret, rejoice and celebrate together with that curious species known as Malaysians. – S. Vicknesan   …….More and more are getting even madder than I am, however, and becoming increasingly brave and bold in speaking-out and standing-up for themselves and their compatriots. So these days, i’m more madly in love than ever with the good side of Malaysia, and even madder in my determination to help expose and defeat the bad. – Dean Johns

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MAY 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969

MAY 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969 RM20.00

Author: Kua Kia Soong Publisher: SUARAM Year: 2007 Number of page: 136 Delivery: 2 days This is the first credible account of the May 13, 1969 racial riots in Malaysia, using documents recently declassified at the Public Records Office, London, after the lapse of the 30-year secrecy rule. These documents provide the only available confidential observations and memoranda by British and other foreign embassy operatives based on their intelligence and contacts with local officials and politicians. They include dispatches by correspondents which were then banned in Malaysia. A social scientist, Kua Kia Soong provides a fresh political analysis of this “May 13 incident”. In his view, the riots were by no means a spontaneous outburst of violence between Malays and Chinese but rather a planned coup d’etat by the ascendant state capitalist class against the Tunku-led aristocracy. He discusses the contradictions of the post-Independencec Alliance racial formula and traces the rise of this new Malay capitalist class which has ruled Malaysia since 1969. These documents clearly show who were responsible for the violence and pose the question why the security forces allowed the violence to go on. With this publication, it is hoped that the frequently raised “spectre of May 13” by the Barisan Nasional government will be forever put to rest. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Kua Kia Soong is a director and founding member of human rights organisation, Suaram. He was a Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya (1990-95), a former political detainee during Operasi Lalang (1987-89) and former lecturer at the National University of Singapore (1978-79).

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Malaysia 45 Years Under ISA

Malaysia 45 Years Under ISA RM50.00

Author: Koh Swe Yong Publisher: SIRD Year: 2004 Number of page:       “Malaysia 45 Years Under ISA: Detention Without Trial is translated but updated from Malaysia: 40 Years under the ISA, which was originally written in Chinese. It was authored by Koh Swe Yong who was a nine-year ISA detainee himself from 1976 to 1985… “The purpose of publishing the series is to record the struggles of the people so that such struggles fought will not be lost and forgotten with passing time, and the facts which have been intentionally twisted will be uncovered and known by all, now and future…” From the “Preface” by Publisher’s note

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K. Das & The Tunku Tapes

K. Das & The Tunku Tapes RM20.00

Author: Kua Kia Soong(Editor) Publisher: SIRD Year: 2002 Number of page: Not Specified Delivery:   Covering a broad spectrum of incidents in his colourful life from childhood to his retirement, K.Das & the Tunku Tapes gives Malaysians an intimate portrait of Bapa Malaysia as the charming prince with the commoner’s touch, caught in the changing times. This publication is above all, one of the Malaysia’s best writes and fighters for justice.

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Elections and Democracy in Malaysia

Elections and Democracy in Malaysia RM60.00

Author: Editors by Mavis Puthucheary and Norani Othman Publisher: UKM Year: 2005 Number of page: Not Specified     Elections and Democracy in Malaysia provides a composite study of the role and functions of elections in Malaysia by locating the electoral system within its broader historical and social-cultural milieu. Its chapters cover such diverse subjects as the limits to democracy, the party system and how the dominant party system has evolved in Malaysia, the way political parties have functioned at the national, state and local government levels, and the role of the media and the judiciary in the electoral process. The nature of political representation in Malaysia and its consequences for participation and the various ways in which civil society organizations have become engaged in the electoral process and politics are also explored. Some of the contributors to this study consider whether or not elections in Malaysia are reasonably free and fair by highlighting areas where the conduct of elections may be called into question, such as the periodic redelineation of constituency boundaries, the maintaining of up-to-date and accurate electoral rolls, and the administration of the mechanisms for the nomination of candidates and polling precedures. Its various chapters, including both scholarly analyses of formal party politics and also accounts of civil society society. Will have a significant effect on how people think about and prepare for Malaysia’s next elections, and for citizens’ attempts to enlarge the meaning of Malaysian democracy generally. This study will long stand as an interim assessment of Malaysian politics towards the end of the first half-century of independence: as a ‘mid-term review’ of the continuing development of Malaysian democracy as a ‘work in progress’.

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