Topic: Front Page News out of Malaysia

[Rachel Crass]

It's always interesting to take a minute to put a sporting event into the larger context of the culture in which the competition takes place.

(As a writer, I find the differences in technical reporting rules—capitalization, punctuation, format, and the like—almost just as interesting as the content. But that’s probably just me. lol)

Anyway, I found today’s front page rather intriguing….

“King urges restraint

We can’t follow practices of other countries, says Tuanku Mizan

KUALA LUMPUR: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong yesterday urged certain segments of the people not to be overzealous in their attempts to “enrich democracy” in the country lest this “brings about destruction”.

Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin said Malaysians could not be following blindly the practices of other countries because harmony and stability were things that needed to be defended by everyone.

He said he had been closely following the plan by Bersih 2.0 to organise a rally on Saturday to hand over a memorandum to him and expressed confidence in the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in handling the issue.

Najib, meanwhile, defended police actions, including the use of the Emergency Ordinance, saying such measures were necessary.

The prime minister said this was to prevent people with hidden agendas from exploiting the gathering.

It was a sentiment echoed by his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who said the opposition was inciting people to go to the streets to demand for fair and transparent elections, which he added was already being practiced.

Addressing the Federal Territory Barisan Nasional convention yesterday, Muhyiddin, who is also BN deputy chairman, said it was never the opposition’s motive to fight for democracy.

He said the opposition had no right to demand for democracy as they did not practice it themselves.

Arrests were made in several states, including Selangor, Johor, Malacca and Perak, over the weekend. All were suspected to have been promoting the illegal rally.

In Klang, police detained Kapar member of parliament S. Manikavasagam yesterday when he was found in possession of nine Bersih 2.0 T-shirts in his car.”

(the article goes on, but you get the point….)

The other front page article:

"Treating maids well will help bosses in future

KUALA LUMPUR: Households that treat their maids well may forgo maid agency fees to replace those wishing to return home when their permits expire.

This is because the government is looking into allowing employers to directly hire relatives of Indonesian maids who wish to return home.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said employers need not go through maid agencies as they would be swapping maids rather than rehiring.

When contacted by the New Strait Times, Dr Subramaniam said the procedure would work only if employers and their families maintained good ties with the maids and their families.

He said this would also improve the bilateral relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia, which had soured following several cases of maid abuse.

This resulted in the republic imposing a total ban on Malaysia hiring its maids since 2009.

After a long series of bilateral discussions on the matter, Indonesia agreed to lift the ban with the signing of a memorandum of understanding in May."

(article truncated.)