Gripevine

JUNE 17, 2015 marked a momentous day for Malaysia as the Animal Welfare Bill 2015 was passed by the Dewan Rakyat. It proved to be one of those rare bills that garnered support from both sides of the political divide. Animal lovers who were following the live debate on RTM1, spoke of how refreshing it was to see both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs eloquently debate and support the new act.  In the words of SPCA's Selangor patron Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye - "While politics may divide us, let this new Animal Welfare Act unite us." One of the key points of the act is harsher penalties for animal abuse - a minimum fine of RM20,000 and a maximum of RM100,000 or a jail term of up to three years or both, a far more severe penalty than the RM200 animal abusers had to pay under the Animal Act 1953. As netizens celebrated the passing of the bill seen as a huge step forward in tackling cases of animal abuse and neglect, many people expressed scepticism on whe...

Tunku Abdul Rahman: "Bapa Kemerdekaan" Tun Abdul Razak: "Bapa Pembangunan" Tun Hussein Onn: "Bapa Perpaduan" or as some say "Bapa Maintain/ Bapa Neutral". Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad: "Bapa Pemodenan". Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: "Bapa Batik" I don't know if anyone of you have given any thought to what "Bapa" Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak would be at the end of his premiership. Definitely not "Bapa Altantuya" yes.....? "Bapa 1Malaysia" perhaps? Well that might have been so, if he did not literally rip his shirt open Superman style on the night of May 5 and reveal to the nation what a racist he truly is. He coined the term 'Chinese tsunami' and blamed it on Barisan Nasional's poor showing at the polls. Najib might conveniently forget this at some point in the future. But the enlightened electorate never will. In fact future generations to come will know of this to...

This post was supposed to be written and published by August 31, but work dictated otherwise, while most of you were probably enjoying the start of the long weekend yesterday, yours truly was slogging it out at the office, furiously uploading photo after photo of Merdeka Day celebrations, and scrolling the newswires for stories on how the nation celebrated our 55th Independence Day - That in short is the stuff we newspaper people get up to on all the siesta/public holidays. Being exhausted as I was, I did entertain the thought of saving this post for next year, but then the thought occurred to me, that things might be a lil' different then. The last elections brought a lot of changes, and I think many of us are expecting more changes to follow, once our esteemed Prime Minister decides to dissolve Parliament and call for elections. So......the best time to write this post would be now I dare say. The contents of this posting is a result of years and years of observing the ...