ANALYSIS: The rakyat will judge success of aid boost
Despite the global economic crisis, Malaysia is picking itself up and moving on with aid of the RM60 billion mini-Budget, the biggest stimulus package in its history, writes NAJIB RAZAK.

MOHAMED ARIFF: It's time for the dollar to take a big haircut
IT is amazing that a country that consumes more than it produces, imports more than it exports, saves so little, spends so much, and is mired in deep imbalances, can have a currency so strong.

W. SCOTT THOMSON:
Having reached bottom, stop digging
ARRIVING in Washington after an absence encompassing the joyfully forgotten end of the reign of King George and almost two months of "Messiah" Obama, and expecting a "springtime of freedom" (or at least new air), I discovered instead the heavy snows and cold winter representing the long slog ahead.

FRANK CHING:
Beijing attempts to appear less threatening

FRANK CHING A desperate Taiwan continues to be cautious
A FEW days ago, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao offered to hold political and military talks with Taiwan in order to end the state of hostility between the two sides, which has existed for 60 years. Taiwan immediately rejected the offer, with President Ma Ying-jeou saying through a spokes-man: "At this stage, we will only talk about economic and trade issues."

ZAINAL AZNAM YUSOF Only good governance can rescue economy
THE main beneficiaries of the political impasse in Perak, it now appears, are lawyers and the legal profession. Court cases are multiplying. The costs of the litigation involved must be sizable, and lawyers must be laughing all the way to the bank.

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR Are they waiting to be paid off?
FOR reasons best known to themselves, more than a dozen people think they can become the new assemblyman for Bukit Selambau.

ANIS IBRAHIM JB traders pray it's not all gloom and doom
Tough times have befallen Johor Baru's business district with the opening of the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex. And there's fear the situation may worsen with the relocation of government agencies to Nusajaya, writes ANIS IBRAHIM

EDITORIAL: Raw deal for Bangladeshis
ON the face of it, the decision to revoke the visas of some 55,000 Bangladeshi workers appears to be the correct thing to do. With thousands of Malaysians already laid off and more expected to be retrenched as the economic slowdown continues to take its toll on the job market, it would have been "untenable", as the vice-president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress put it, to bring in more foreign workers. To be sure, in these hard economic times, the priority should be on hiring Malaysians and reducing the dependence on foreign labour. That said, however, it would appear that the workers from Bangladesh have been given a raw deal. After all, they have followed procedures, obtained the necessary documents, and had been promised that jobs were waiting for them. To add insult to their injury, while the employers who had paid for the visas and levies will be recompensed, there is little likelihood of a refund of the large sums of money these workers paid their recruiters.

VASANTHA GANESAN: It's not easy to buy Malaysian
BUY Malaysian. Okay, but where do I shop for Malaysian products and what do I buy?

SHERIDAN MAHAVERA Timing of by-elections a double-edged sword
SIMULTANEOUS by-elections are rare in Malaysia. When they are announced, excitement builds up to the day voters go to the polls and does not immediately die down after the results are out.

FRANCOIS NICOLLAUD Use reason, not emotion, to deal with Iran
NEGOTIATIONS over Iran's nuclear programme have been stalled for more than three years. For six years, the voices of reason have largely been drowned out, with passions and delusions claiming primacy.

FRANK CHING Putting Sino-American ties back on track
HILLARY Clinton's visit to China -- the most important leg of her trip to Asia, which included Japan, Indonesia and South Korea -- went off well, in part because the United States secretary of state had indicated publicly ahead of time that differences over human rights would not be allowed to inhibit progress on other matters.

FRANK CHING China acts tough, but it's no match for US might
THE recent incident at sea involving the US naval ship Impeccable and five Chinese vessels eerily resembles the aerial incident eight years ago when an American intelligence-gathering EP-3 collided with a Chinese jet-fighter, leading to an international crisis.

KOH LAY CHIN: Najib's visit to herald better ties with Singapore
IT will be his first official visit to the island republic as prime minister and Datuk Seri Najib Razak's arrival here today is expected to herald new beginnings for bilateral relations.

CHOK SUAT LING: Transparency needed in scholarship awards
IT'S that time of the year again. Just as torrential downpours always result in traffic congestion, the award of Public Service Department scholarships never fails to elicit a torrent of protests, and in some instances, floods of tears.

EDITORIAL: Skills for survival
BASED on the 1,000 out of a possible 18,000 who have enrolled for the "Train and Place" programme, when it comes to retooling themselves, it would seem that the recently jobless are the "choosy lot" that the human resources minister says they are.

ZAINUL ARIFIN A relief to see focus on economy
EXCESSIVE, round-the-clock politicking has clouded our sense of urgency on the economy, but hopefully the RM60 billion stimulus plan would have a way of shouting down the rhetoric of desperate politics, as it should be.

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: Forget consultation, Pas facing fierce battles
THE green light to campaign in the coming contests for key posts in Pas is exposing some hopefuls to the prospect of breaking party taboos.

ZAINUL ARIFIN: A hunger strike can't change the numbers
IN Ipoh, several former state leaders are leading a hunger strike to protest a myriad of issues, chiefly against being ousted from office.

MOHAMED JAWHAR HASSAN: Fresh priorities on a well-travelled road
Datuk Seri Najib Razak's visit to China next week, 35 years after his father's groundbreaking visit, speaks volumes about the importance Malaysia attaches to its ties with the country, writes MOHAMED JAWHAR HASSAN

CHOK SUAT LING: The problem lies with national schools
IT is something parents think about even before their child is thrust screeching and wailing into the world. For those who want only the very best for their rambunctious bundles of joy (or torment, depending on the time of day or month), this decision necessitates a voyage of contemplative self-discovery and soul-searching.

FRANK CHING: US' Pelosi can speak quietly about human rights
THE visit to China this week of the United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, one of the strongest critics of Beijing's human rights record for the last two decades, has spurred speculation about what she might do during the trip, the official purpose of which is to discuss climate change.

EDITORIAL: Asean on trial, again
WHILE Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer does not know whether to be "happy or sad", since she is still in prison and on trial though no longer under house arrest, the delicacy of her health and the frailty of her political condition leave no room for ambivalence and prevarication. Of course, the tin soldiers in charge, who have put the opposition in chains and silenced domestic dissent, want the rest of the world to shut up, too, and stay out of their domestic dealings. And so does Asean, in keeping with its sacrosanct principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another. Even when it was not possible to remain blind, dumb and deaf when the internal turned into the infernal in Myanmar, the regional grouping has chosen to speak softly rather than strongly, as reflected in the most recent expression of "grave concern" over Suu Kyi's trial and the commitment to constructive engagement by the Asean chair.

CHOK SUAT LING: Get set for another round of spectator sport
BEING held so frequently, and generating such interest, by-elections are among the most popular spectator sports in the country. The participants are no less enthusiastic, if less athletic and sinewy.

EDITORIAL: Just a mean test
IF people are truly in dire straits, they should be living in hovels devoid of modern amenities, deprive themselves of the good things in life, and work at staying in disadvantaged and wretched conditions to continue to qualify for financial aid.

FRANK CHING: The interdependence of China and the US
AS a presidential candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly accused China of manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage and promised to pressure Beijing to change its ways if elected. But now the Obama administration has decided not to label China a currency manipulator.

EDITORIAL:
Reading the signs
AS extortionate as the RM89,000 bill for the RM30,650 signboards showing the way to the Petaling Jaya Museum may have been, it does not bear comparison to the disproportionate payment of RM5,700 made by the National Youth Skills Institute a few years ago for car jacks that were worth RM50. As for more than half of the signs not having been made according to specifications, they were at least functional, unlike the two helicopters that cost RM117.5 million to purchase and another RM15.4 million to train the pilots to fly them, which were found unfit for use when they were delivered to the Police Air Wing some time back. But the most significant difference is that the contractor was not allowed to profit from the high-price, low-quality and inexact signs.

CHANDRA MUZAFFAR:
'Jews of conscience' a hope against Israel
The UN Review Conference last week failed to describe Israel as a racist, apartheid state but there is a small group of Jews willing to stand up against the country's discriminatory policies, writes CHANDRA MUZAFFAR

EDITORIAL:Above the fray
IN his royal address at the pledge of loyalty and investiture ceremony on the occasion of the silver jubilee of his reign, Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah cautioned against the misdeeds, intrigues, and ruinous counsel that had caused the downfall of monarchies in the past. Given that present-day monarchs are no longer the feudal rulers of old and could even lose their thrones if they are convicted of an offence and sentenced to jail for more than one day by the Special Court, a pragmatic sense of self-preservation dictates that this royal advice deserves serious attention. So far, there has been little sign of the misadventures and missteps that could consign the sultanate in the silver state to a "museum piece". Indeed, in the 25 years that he has served as head of state, the sultan has conducted himself with impeccable dignity and decorum, personally and constitutionally. Which is why the sultan remains a revered and popular monarch and the sultanate remains a respected and credible institution.

KLAUS SCHWAB: Brace for new realities to move ahead
THIS is a transformational crisis -- and one that will have fundamental effects on our globalised world. Here in Davos over the past five days we began the task of collectively shaping that transformation. Let me explain how.

FRANK CHING Now not the time for US to pick on China
THE Obama administration backed away from a confrontation with China after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said during confirmation hearings that, "President Obama, backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists, believes that China is manipulating its currency".

US economic sanctions seep into our capital
NEW US Treasury Department guidelines for American securities and futures firms threaten to have a far-reaching, extra-territorial impact.

AHMAD IBRAHIM
Future of palm oil remains bright
JUST a year ago, palm oil was on Cloud Nine. It was the toast of the country's economy. The price of crude palm oil (CPO) breached the RM4,000 mark to touch RM4,312 a tonne on March 3, last year. Prices stayed above RM3,000 for about seven months, an all-time record.

FRANK CHING
China gives US a dose of its own medicine
ONCE again, hours after the United States issued a report condemning China's human rights record, the Chinese government retaliated by issuing one deploring the situation in the United States.

EDITORIAL
Not just bricks and mortar
WHEN the character of Archbishop Thomas Becket in T.S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral rejects the temptation of engineering his own death as a means of extending his fame, he does so on the grounds that it would be tantamount to doing the right thing for the wrong reason. As exemplary and ideal as it is to always do the right thing for the right reason, it is, nevertheless, perhaps better to do the right thing for the wrong reason than to never do the right thing at all. The same cannot be said, however, when the wrong thing is done, even when the reasons are right.

FRANK CHING:
When a policy of no's can improve tense ties
TAIWAN and mainland China signed three agreements in Nanjing over the weekend, the third time agreements have been reached since President Ma Ying-jeou assumed office less than a year ago. The improvement in relations has been dramatic.

CHOK SUAT LING:
Jammed if you do and jammed if you don’t
TO the avid shopper, it has everything from bargain-bin goods to the most luxurious accoutrements money can buy.

LESLIE ANDRES: Shunning any lessons that promote racism
A COUPLE of Saturdays ago there was a reunion of sorts for a few old schoolmates, triggered by the return on holiday of one of us who had emigrated to Australia some 20 years ago.

FRANK CHING: China playing a number of balancing games
DESPITE the political upheavals in Thailand that aborted summit meetings scheduled in Pattaya between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea managed to meet and reach agreement on pushing forward the six-party talks in the wake of North Korea's rocket launch.

EDITORIAL: Making room for thinkers
AS music has the power to inspire love for one's country, the more patriotic songs are played the better it would be -- that seems to be the logic of the thinking behind the legal requirement that makes it mandatory for private television and radio stations to play patriotic ditties for a few minutes every day. But sometimes, too much of a good thing might be, well, too much. In many cases, a sense of overkill often backfires on the very cause such constructive campaigns are supposed to support. For another thing, we would need more hard evidence to establish a direct link between a daily dose of patriotic music and a strong sense of nationalism before we can conclude with any degree of certainty that such extended air play can help to develop the idea of "1Malaysia".

CHOK SUAT LING: MCA must listen to what the grassroots say
THE weeks of anticipation culminated in an almost audible exhalation of relief for the MCA last Thursday.

ZAINUL ARIFIN A relief to see focus on economy
EXCESSIVE, round-the-clock politicking has clouded our sense of urgency on the economy, but hopefully the RM60 billion stimulus plan would have a way of shouting down the rhetoric of desperate politics, as it should be.

EDITORIAL: Kiss and make up
EVER since the MCA assembly voted in Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat as president, but sprang a surprise by choosing Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek as his deputy, sceptics have been quick to point out that the bad blood between the two men was so thick and their political interests so disparate that it was doubtful whether bridges could be built between them. Indeed, speculation of a split between the pair intensified when Dr Chua, the former Johor MCA chief, was not appointed to any party position in his own state and instead assigned to head a minor bureau in the party. Lately, the rumour mill has been working overtime with talk of plans for an extraordinary general meeting to drive the party president from office. Despite both leaders insisting barely two weeks ago that reports of a feud between them have been overplayed, few believed that all was well.

FRANK CHING: Mr Science outshines Mr Democracy
NINETY years ago this week, thousands of students from Peking University and elsewhere gathered in the then much smaller Tiananmen Square before marching through the city in protest.

EDITORIAL: How good are the data?
HOW good is our education system and how can we improve it was the question that Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin posed at a meeting with some 2,000 officials and educators at his ministry on Tuesday. And he seems to be counting on the findings of a study to be conducted by a cabinet committee to provide him with the answers. Given that the National Education Blueprint was said to have been the result of two years of study, and it will come to an end next year, this appears to be as good a time as any for a comprehensive review and to plan for the following five years. And the first stages of planning requires an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, a task which seems to have been made a little easier by the fact that the blueprint incorporates a twice-yearly report card on the progress of its implementation, timelines for delivery of the plan and key performance indicators.

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: Zambry has a Plan B
NO, he has not been using the services of a bomoh to ensure he remains in power.

EDITORIAL: Muddying the waters
ACCORDING to a Bernama report, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein wants to see only three categories of schools by next year -- national schools, government-aided schools and private schools -- because he does not want people to be "confused". When things are a blur, we could always do with a clarification to clear up the muddle. But in this case, the minister seems to have simply muddied the waters. The problem is that we, the people, have always thought that, as far as funding is concerned, there have always been these three classes of schools, and the names of schools have reflected this classification, albeit circuitously. This is why a government-aided vernacular school is invariably a "national-type" rather than a "national" school, and a distinction is made between the independent Chinese high school, which does not receive any government funding from its national-type sister school bearing the same name, which receives some financial assistance from the government.

EDITORIAL: Trivial pursuit
ALL the independent candidates in Tuesday's by-elections lost their deposits for failing to obtain the required minimum of one-eighth of the votes. If, as had been alleged, some had been paid to contest in order to split the votes, this would have not been a personal loss at all. In the event, the candidates indignantly denied these aspersions on the purity of their motives and the solidity of their finances. In which case, since they claim to have deep pockets, the forfeiture of RM5,000 or RM10,000 cannot be anything but a trifling loss and a minor drain on their resources. But even if the amount makes a dent in their pockets, their loss still does not qualify for any sympathy, for the simple reason that this is a penalty they had been willing to take. They must have known that the odds were stacked against them right from the start. After all, they were hardly household names. As it is, it has been virtually impossible to get elected without the backing of a political party. The results of the by-elections demonstrate once again that voters are pragmatic and tend to vote for the party rather than the candidate.

MAHENDRA VED US reaping harvest of poisoned seeds
Seven years after George W. Bush's 'smoke them out' call, the Taliban is stronger than ever in South Asia. MAHENDRA VED analyses the situation, particularly Pakistan's role, should President Barack Obama's exit plan for Afghanistan come to fruition

FRANK CHING It's all lovey-dovey on the Sino-American front
ALL indications are that the first summit meeting between the new American president, Barack Obama, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, went extremely well. The American leader has accepted an invitation to visit Beijing later this year.

JENNIFER GOMEZ:
Poser over training centres for housemen
WE do not have enough doctors, but the 38 hospitals accredited for houseman training are struggling to cope with the increasing number of medical graduates.

CHOK SUAT LING:Another subject that will go down in History
FROM the statements that have been emanating from Education Ministry officials, it appears that History will be making a comeback in primary schools. And very soon too, when the new school year starts in January.

KEVIN RUDD: APc can help make this Asia Pacific's century
THE global economic crisis is at the forefront of our minds this year. As we tackle the challenges before us, we should also consider the international structures that help us deal with challenges.

MOHAMED ARIFF: Too much of a good thing led to bad times
The returns from risky financial innovations - structured credit, securitsation of mortgages and tri-party repo - were so good that many investors did not subject them to risk analysis, thus laying the foundation for the global financial crisis, writes MOHAMED ARIFF

AZMI ANSHAR: How the pretentious filch English to sex up their Malay
THE most revealing pop culture obsession in Malaysia now is English, the global language we persevere to read, write and speak. Only a minority, mostly Anglophiles raised in an English curriculum environment and born before the 1970s, and children stewed in middle class indulgence, have a grasp of the language's technical, artistic and aesthetic facility.

CHOK SUAT LING: Better for locals to do the dirty jobs
THERE are more than two million foreign workers in Malaysia. Coupled with those not supposed to be here but are through ingenious means, the numbers are far greater, perhaps by another million.

SHARANJIT SINGH: All knotted up in CAT's cradle
A LEADING cast member of the play Cat On a Hot Tin Roof had an interesting line when he asked a fellow actor about a smell in the room.

CHOK SUAT LING: Pakatan founders on reefs of present realities
PAKATAN Rakyat was assembled with the best of intentions -- to govern and right perceived wrongs.

FRANK CHING It is a time for tolerance and understanding
WITH the issue of Taiwan independence having subsided, China is turning its attention to the question of Tibet, using its newly acquired power, soft and hard, to impress upon all countries that if they want good relations with Beijing, they will have to give up support of the Dalai Lama.

ZAINUL ARIFIN A relief to see focus on economy
EXCESSIVE, round-the-clock politicking has clouded our sense of urgency on the economy, but hopefully the RM60 billion stimulus plan would have a way of shouting down the rhetoric of desperate politics, as it should be.

EDITORIAL: Pack up and leave
GRANTED, the June 30 pull-out of American troops from the cities is just the first deadline in the timetable under the "Status of Forces Agreement" calling for all US forces to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Still, there is something not quite right with this picture of military withdrawal. Certainly not when there are unspecified but substantial numbers who will remain in the cities in "training", "supporting" and "advisory" roles. And certainly not when the 130,000 American soldiers who will remain -- a not insignificant size considering that at the peak of the invasion in 2003 there were 170,000 -- have only moved away to a striking position on the outskirts of the cities, poised to re-enter at a moment's notice at the invitation of the Iraqi security forces.

CHOK SUAT LING: The opposition antics that leave us cold
THINGS are either black or white for most people; hardly anything in between.

FRANK CHING: BRIC ambition to form a new world order
CHINA, along with other emerging economies, is trying to shape a new world order -- or, at least, a new financial world order.

EDITORIAL: Taming the Tigers
ON the face of it, there could be no better person to tame the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam than Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose second name propitiously means the "King of Force" in Malay. True to his name, Rajapaksa has preferred a military solution over a negotiated settlement to the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka -- and invested in the firepower to make it possible to defeat the Tamil Tigers. After seizing one Tiger bastion after another in a two-year military offensive, it would seem that the hawkish leader's prediction in his national day speech last Wednesday that the war would end "within days" was no idle boast. The setbacks suffered by the separatists have apparently been so severe that the territory under their control has been reduced to less than 100 sq km -- and there was even speculation that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had fled to this country when its last stronghold in Mullathivu was falling to government hands. It would appear that Asia's longest-running conflict is in its final stages and Colombo is poised to deliver the death-blow.

RAJA AZIZ ADDRUSE & DING JO-ANN It all boils down to our constitutional rights
WHAT started as a tussle for political power to govern the state of Perak has blown up into a political crisis.

MOHAMED ARIFF: Pump-priming may be too little, too late
IT was during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when economic misery became the order of the day, with millions of workers losing their jobs and livelihoods, that John Maynard Keynes figured out that pump-priming through government spending would arrest and reverse the downward spiral.

FRANK CHING: Praise is all China wants in human rights review
CHINA presented a report on human rights to the United Nations last week and, while its human rights record was widely praised by Third World countries, the government was clearly not happy that it was criticised by Australia, Canada and some European countries. The United States was silent.

CHOK SUAT LING: Preventing H1N1 is a task for everyone
TWO months ago, the first case was recorded in Mexico. In mid-May, the H1N1 virus arrived in Malaysia on MH091 from Newark, New Jersey, in the United States.

MOHAMED ARIFF: Unfair to blame media for failing to forecast crisis
THE so-called "Great Recession" the world economy is currently experiencing seems to have come without warning. The magnitude of the global economic crisis has taken many by surprise. The international business media have been ticked off for failing to highlight the problem while it was unfolding, such that the world was caught unawares.

EDITORIAL: Passing fancy
ON Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called for feedback on whether to make it compulsory to pass English in the SPM exam. By 4pm yesterday, almost nine out of 10 of the 1,027 respondents in this newspaper's online poll had said "yes". However, according to another report, most of the 500 views received by the Education Ministry by the end of yesterday were negative. Presumably, since the deputy prime minister was ostensibly voicing a thought rather than making a proposal and wants the people to give their views, if they do not want English to become a required pass subject, it would seem that he will not stand against them, or vice versa. But what has become quite clear is that expert and popular opinions are divided. And though the extent of the division will only become evident as more standpoints are made known, if the debate over the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science in English is any guide, it will be just as controversial and divisive.

EDITORIAL: Fighting words
WITH the lodging of a police report, the submission of a memorandum to members of parliament and the plan to organise a large rally to protest the use of English in the teaching of Science and Mathematics, we seem set to witness an emotive clash over language and education on a scale we have not seen since 1967, when the passage of the National Language Act triggered mass demonstrations. While the failure to improve performance in Science and Maths and proficiency in English have been added to the arguments against the policy, in reality these are peripheral to the main contention, which is that it threatens the status of Malay.

M. HUSAIRY OTHMAN: Severe case of PR denial
IT may be a case of denial. The opposition can also point fingers at Barisan Nasional, in general, and Umno, in particular. But the truth is this: their own parties are racked with internal dissent and their blatant disregard for democracy is costing them Perak.

ALISSA DE CARBONNEL Honouring Russia's war heroes, 60 years on
In the decades since World War 2, search squads have recovered more than 250,000 soldiers heaped in mass graves. The search is still on in Russia's vast battlefields to give the remains of the nation's defenders a respectful burial, writes ALISSA DE CARBONNEL

EDITORIAL: Consumer power
LAST year, skyrocketing fuel, commodity and food prices on the world market were blamed for the rise in the domestic cost of living. But now that world prices have come down significantly from last year's peak, by the same token, prices of essential goods should ease to reflect the global declines. In reality, though, Malaysian consumers have hardly seen any drop in food prices anywhere near the expected levels. All they get from producers, distributors and retailers is a long list of excuses why they cannot keep prices low. A case in point was the recent rise in the price of broiler chicken which was attributed to the current dry spell. Understandably, consumers are getting hot under the collar. They suspect that if they are not reaping any benefit from the drop in global prices, then someone else could be manipulating the market and profiting at their expense. It would not have escaped their notice that while many companies on the local bourse were reporting red ink on their bottom lines, food and beverage stocks were posting double-digit growth in takings and profit margins.

CHOK SUAT LING When order of the day is disorder
PERAK Darul Ridzuan, according to the state's anthem and tourist brochures, is picturesque, peaceful and calm. "Darul Ridzuan", after all, means "abode of grace".

FRANK CHING: A warming effect in Sino-Japanese relationship
SINO-JAPANESE relations have greatly improved since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down as prime minister in 2006. None of his successors have visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Still, problems remain.

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: A bumpy road to Bukit Selambau
THE Bukit Selambau by-election is shaping into a battle that neither Pakatan Rakyat nor Barisan Nasional could regard as a walk in the park.

EDITORIAL: Cleaning up Umno
THE expressions of displeasure, charges of selective prosecution and insinuations of hatchet jobs over the disciplinary board's decisions on Tuesday show how complex and combustible the task of lancing the boil of endemic vote-buying in Umno is going to be.

EDITORIAL: The collapse of professionalism
WHILE Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said has wasted no time in announcing that the state government will investigate the collapse of the roof of the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak, Works Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor has also been quick to divulge that the Construction and Industry Development Board is putting together a team to search for the cause of the catastrophe. On top of that, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has initiated a probe into the incident. While the alacrity of these proactive measures is to be appreciated, it is to be feared, however, that it might be a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling the broth. To be sure, since the stadium belongs to Terengganu, there is no question that the state government should be involved. But the scale of the cave-in and the reverberations from the collapse make it very much a national disaster, and not just a localised one. Likewise, the manner in which the contract to build the stadium was awarded should be looked into. However, while there is no question that there should be a full-scale, thorough and independent investigation to get to the bottom of things, it does not make sense to allow separate probes that push, pull and shove in different directions.

CHOK SUAT LING: Ending this obsession with As
MALAYSIANS are avid record breakers. Anything and everything can be surmounted. Any record can be bettered. Malaysia boleh, after all.

FRANK CHING: Cheering on those who fight for their innocence
A PUBLIC outcry in China over the case of a woman arrested for stabbing a local official who assaulted her when she refused to provide sexual services reflects widespread distrust of officials and sympathy for the underdog -- even when the underdog may face a charge of murder.

AMY CHEW: 'Jilbab' a selling point in Jakarta elections?
The jilbab or headscarf has become an issue in Indonesia’s presidential polls, slated for July 8. Some quarters think followers are more inclined to vote for candidates whose wives are veiled. However, it has little or no bearing on some supporters, writes AMY CHEW

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: Campaigning takes a new turn
NEVER before has campaigning for Pas internal elections been so intense as it is now.

MOHAMED ARIFF: Liberal trade policies vital to global recovery
The Democrats, who control both the presidency and Congress in the United States, are likely to succumb to protectionist pressures with the domestic economy in the doldrums, and turn up the heat on America's trading partners, writes MOHAMED ARIF

FRANK CHING China boosts European ties to get rid of enemy
AT the core of Chairman Mao Zedong’s revolutionary theory was the strategy of the united front: identify the main enemy and then isolate it by forming a united front with as many other classes, groups or elements as possible. That should make it possible to destroy that enemy. Once that is done, the process can be continued with the identification of the next main enemy.

EDITORIAL: Something new, something old
FED up that his reminder to private clinics and hospitals to immediately report all cases of dengue fever has not had the desired effect, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has delivered a final warning to them to act, or else face the penalty of a compound fine of RM5,000. Given that the law requires medical practitioners to notify suspected cases to the health authorities, there is no question that these should be reported right away. Furthermore, just as early medical treatment is vital to fighting the infection, so is timely information in public-health intervention. The irony, of course, is that when the targeted 85 per cent instead of the present nine per cent of private doctors do so, the result is likely to be a sharp rise in the reported number of cases, most of which will not be confirmed positive. Still, when it comes to preventing the outbreak of disease, such over-cautious over-reporting is to be preferred to any under-reporting.

FRANK CHING: An old idea that really would set China free
THE publication of the secretly recorded memoirs of former Chinese party leader Zhao Ziyang, who spent the last 16 years of his life under house arrest for opposing the crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, provides a rare glimpse into how elite politics works in China.

EDITORIAL: Diplomatic extension
A SCATHING recent commentary in this newspaper by former diplomat Datuk Deva Mohd Ridzam seems to have been borne out in the urgency with which both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin addressed the 7th Heads of Mission Conference in Putrajaya this week. Deva had broached the deterioration of this country's diplomatic corps, quoting former Thai foreign minister Dr Tej Bunnag in lamenting that what was once "a wonderful bunch of highly qualified, intellectually gifted, internationally minded, multiracial, dedicated and wise patriots" had declined into a service that was now "dull, distant and inconsequential".

CHOK SUAT LING: It's more than just pain when maids get abusive
WHAT can draw exclamations of fear and make one's hair stand on end? Croaking long-haired female ghosts and cyborg killing machines in celluloid blockbusters? The shenanigans of our elected representatives in Parliament? The performance of the Malaysian football team?

B. SURESH RAM: Few victors in battle to win trust of Indians
Over the years, Malaysia has witnessed the emergence of many Indian-based political parties. But a very small number can boast of having stood the test of time. It appears that what's lacking is the will to persevere when under a cloud of doubt.

SAJAHAN ABDUL WAHEED: Caught in a tempest over top Wanita posts
IN her victory speech as Wanita Umno head, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil pledged to bridge any gap that existed within the movement.