Do we not have free will to believe what we want to or is our thinking restricted by the need to ‘protect tradition’?

MANY academicians were disappointed when Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin announced that the unity government will not touch the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA).

YET again the Malaysian education system throws up a “conversion controversy”: Last week it was reported that a teacher told an Indian pupil he should become a Muslim to boost his chances of becoming a national footballer.

Things have not changed much in 40 years, judging by the knee-jerk reactions to an age old issue.

Every time a hot button issue crops up, we tend to resort to knee-jerk reactions that do nothing to address the matter and, worse, damage relationships.

Teachers help to create citizens. How they teach the young has an enormous bearing on our nation’s future.

FOR my annual Christmas article, I once again draw on the concept of gift-giving from my brethren Christians in Malaysia.

If we let the impatient among us punch holes in its roof, it will come down on all of us.

AMONG the major political party coalitions in Malaysia, I believe one particular coalition falls all too easily into using religious fear and a narrative of hate. And what devastates me is that it is that very coalition that is being backed strongly enough by one race that it is a serious contender in forming the new government.

WHEN the dissolution of Parliament was announced on Oct 10, we citizens of Malaysia became “kings” of our destiny once more.

The discovery of the earliest human activity and the first peoples to exist on the peninsula can teach us much about modern-day politics and sustainability.

Allow the words of a man of conscience to drown out the bigotry and extremism of toxic narratives put forward by those looking only for power.