Malaysia’s Foreign Policy The First Fifty Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism by Johan Saravanamuttu

ISBN: 9789814279789

Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)

Published: 2010

This overall account of Malaysia’s foreign policy 1957-2007 is based on groundbreaking study and interviews with major players over some years. It brings into focus some of the uncertainties and pressures from which the country’s present international standing or diplomacy has emerged. Policy changes and uncertainties, the stamp of major personalities, policies of neighbouring countries and global powers, and the pressures of religious and economic change are discussed, with clarifying graphics and systematic referencing.

The Voice of Hope Aung San Suu Kyi: Conversations with Alan Clements by Alan Clements

ISBN: 9781888363838

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2003

Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of struggle against repression and brutality. In The Voice of Hope, she emerges as a human being–a mother of two sons as well as an inspirational human rights advocate and all-around moral compass. Once a soft-spoken scholar living in England, this daughter of a Burmese military hero catapulted to prominence as the spokesperson for her country’s beleaguered democracy movement. Even when imprisoned by Burma’s ruling junta, she continued to work for freedom and human rights, eventually winning the Nobel Peace Prize and attracting the world’s attention to the plight of Burmese dissidents. The Voice of Hope chronicles nine months’ worth of her conversations with British-born Alan Clements, a Burma expert and former Buddhist monk. The two discuss love, truth, power, compassion, and freedom from fear as well as Aung San Suu Kyi’s own brand of activist Buddhism. In the process, a portrait emerges of a profoundly religious as well as political leader, a woman who used years of house arrest to develop her meditative practice, mindfulness, and spiritual strength.

The Man from Borneo: An Autobiography by Brother Micheal Jacques

ISBN: 9789675832048

Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD)

Published: 2010

This book focuses on a lifelong commitment to the work of the De La Salle Brothers institutes of education. It is a remarkable journey that took him from Kuching to Penang, Ipoh, Singapore, Malacca, London and Rome where he rose to head the brotherhood’s Asian region. Brother Michael documents, among much else, the Japanese Occupation, the road to merdeka, the turbulence that affected the Catholic church in the aftermath of Vatican II and the efforts to establish teaching institutions in some of the world’s most conflict-ridden societies such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Burma.

The Education of Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Malaysian Chinese by Tan Tao Sua, R. Santhiram

ISBN: 9789675832062

Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD)

Published: 2010

This is case study of the dilemmas of minority education in plural societies, focusing on the complex phenomenon of the education of the Malaysia Chinese. The Malaysian education system accommodates minority interests by allowing for Tamil and Chinese-medium primary schools. But since Malay is the main medium of instruction, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels, most minority students undergo a transitional bilingual educations.

Ethnic Relations in Malaysia: Harmony & Conflict by Syed Husin Ali

ISBN: 9789833782598

Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD)

Published: 2008

With Malaysia in the throes of sweeping political change, academic turned political activist Dr Syed Husin Ali traces how ethnicity has been manipulated, since Independence, by Malaysian politicians for their own gain to the detriment of the masses. In articles spanning more than three decades, collected for the first time here, he dissects the origins, fallacies and destructive nature of communal politics in Malaysia and examines the issue of class versus race. It is time, he argues, for an end to race-based politics.

Cartoon-O-Phobia: A Collection by Zunar

ISBN: 9789834092290

Publisher: Kinibooks

Published: 2010

Zunar’s political cartoons are fun to look at because they are funny although his messages are serious and thought-worthy. – Din Merican, independent blogger

What struck me were Zunar’s astute observations, brazen courage and devastatingly poverful caricatures. – M. Bakri Musa, writer and surgeon

I enjoy Zunar’s caricatures because they are funny, pungent and immensely effective in pricking the conscience of the nation to the political darkness that is still enveloping us. – Kim Quek, writer

I envy Zunar’s great graphic gifts. His drawings so eloquently convey his message that even the illiterates of UMNO/BN can’t fail to understand it. – Dean Johns, writer

I salute Zunar’s fearless determination to bring about awareness on the injustice and corruption of the present UMNO/BN government through his cartoons. – Quah, a fan

Zunar is not a mere cartoonist but more of a reform genius using cartoons to push his insights and ideas on changing the politics of Malaysia. – Anwar Fadzil, a fan