About 50 people set the example for religious coexistence as they walked on a journey of harmony visiting various houses of worship along Pitt Street, before breaking fast at a mosque. GEORGE TOWN: The city’s trishaw peddlers, tourists and passersby stopped and watched in awe as leaders of different faiths walked hand-in-hand during a “spiritual tour” of Pitt Street here, commonly known as Street of Harmony. The group of nearly 50 people were led on a tour to diverse places o

The political wrangle surrounding FGV shows clearly the difficult environment in which this FELDA subsidiary, a public listed company, has to operate as a commercial enterprise in the market place. With FELDA as the majority shareholder of FGV and Ministry of Finance Inc. having the “golden share" in the company, giving the government the ultimate power over the board, there is a heavy political presence that makes good corporate governance difficult to achieve. FELDA itself

The Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) applauds the youth who appreciate the importance of English and want to make an impact on improving the proficiency of schoolchildren in the language. We met a few outstanding young people at a recent town hall forum titled “TN50x: Teaching English in Malaysia, Challenges and Solutions”, which was hosted by the office of Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun. The event was organised by Teach For Malaysia (TFM) and moderated b

AN 800m-long street in the heart of Penang’s George Town may well hold the secret to achieving racial and religious harmony, the increasingly elusive goal of multi-racial Malaysia. The "Street of Harmony" starts with the commanding St George's Church at the start of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, and ends at Acheen Street Mosque at the end at the junction of Lebuh Cannon and Lebuh Acheh. Between the Anglican church and the Lebuh Acheh mosque are other 19th century houses of wor

A roundtable discussion on drug policy comprising health experts and enforcement agencies has resolved that the country's approach to drug abuse requires urgent reforms. In particular, participants called upon the authorities to view drug abuse as a public health issue, and not as a criminal justice issue, in view of large volume of empirical research supporting this. Several experts who presented their findings during the discussion outlined problems posed by the existing dr

KUALA LUMPUR: A medical professor has warned that putting drug users in prison may threaten the health of the rest of the public once they are released. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, who is the dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Malaya (UM), said the prison environment could amplify chronic diseases, especially among drug users, who may be predisposed to these diseases. “There is an ongoing risk of contracting chronic diseases in prisons because of poor nutrition and a poor