KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — A Penang Umno leader’s claim that Muslims may be confused by a Taoist shrine in a public park belittled followers of Islam, said two Islamic organisations today. Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) chairman Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa said while it may be acceptable to propose shifting the shrine over cultural or aesthetic reasons, it was untenable to do so on religious grounds. “It is totally absurd that Muslims will be confused by the existence of other people’s

On April 5 in Paris, the director-general of Unesco opened an event organised by Malaysia’s International Centre for South-South Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation, titled “Embracing the Future: Improving the Quality of Science Instruction in Schools”. Irina Bokova said, “The world today needs more science, better science, more inclusive science. In this setting, I believe we must make the most of the greatest renewable energy we have. This is human ingenuity.

THE top three posts in government service in Malaysia which are responsible for public administration, law and order are the Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN), Attorney-General (AG ) and Chief Justice (CJ). The KSN is the head of the civil service, which comprises the administrative, professional and technical services. All secretaries-general of government ministries are accountable to the KSN. The AG who is the chief prosecutor and legal advisor to the Government and

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Police are empowered under existing legislation to help enforce state Islamic laws, a lawyer asserted following contention over the agency’s powers to conduct “moral policing”. Responding to the controversy over the secondment of police officers to a religious authority, Nizam Bashir said both the Police Act 1967 and the state-enacted Islamic laws catered for such a role. These included acting on Shariah offences such as consumption of alcohol, not obse

TWO YEARS ago The Economist constructed an index of crony capitalism. It was designed to test whether the world was experiencing a new era of “robber barons”—a global re­run of America’s gilded age in the late 19th century. Depressingly, the exercise suggested that since globalisation had taken off in the 1990s, there had been a surge in billionaire wealth in industries that often involve cosy relations with the government, such as casinos, oil and construction. Over two deca

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin (pic), a member of the group of eminent Malays known as G25, is suing a businessman for defamation, allegedly for implying that she is treacherous and had insulted the religion of Islam. Noor Farida, 69, said that Azmi Arshad on July 13 last year published a defamatory article on his Facebook account and the Portal Islam & Melayu website. High Court Judge Yeoh Wee Siam advised the parties to go for mediation to resolve the matter. Speak