Women in the 2004 Malaysian General Election | Saliha Hassan | 27 March 2004

“A YES TO BN IS A YES TO WOMEN'S RIGHTS” screamed one of the election advertisements in the recent Malaysian General election. Another paper headlined that the battle was for the women's votes which made up more than fifty percent of Malaysia 's registered voters ...More

UMNO and the Changing Political Culture | Abdul Rahman Embong | 8 May 2000

A decade ago, a well-known Japanese scholar wrote a book, entitled An Age in Motion to describe early twentieth century Indonesia which saw the birth of radicalism and various nationalist forces that later fought against the Dutch for independence. The writer also argued that similar characteristics could be found in post-war Malaya ...More

The Taliban in Our Universities | Farish A Noor | 7 April 2000

While teaching at the University of Malaya not long ago, I experienced a number of episodes that made me wonder about the future of the Malay-Muslims in the country. On one occasion, I found myself in one of the science faculties of the university. I was about to deliver a lecture on the subject of civilisational development and inter-civilisational dialogue to the students who were assembled there ... More

Perkembangan Sains Kemasyarakatan dan Kemanusiaan di Malaysia: Realiti dan Cabaran Baru | Abdul Rahman Embong | July 1998

Masyarakat manusia pada akhir abad ke-20 kini sedang menghadapi pergolakan besar dan mengalami perubahan yang pesat dan mendalam. Bidang ilmu pula terus menerus berkembang. Untuk memainkan peranannya dengan lebih berkesan pada masa hadapan, Lembaga Editorial dan para penyumbang untuk Akademika perlu peka terhadap beberapa perkembangan penting, baik dalam bidang ilmu mahupun dalam masyarakat yang turut memberi dampak ke atas bidang ilmu. Di sini kami akan membuat ulasan ringkas mengenai beberapa perkembangan penting ini ...More

The Significance of September 11 | Lee Poh Ping | 27 February 2002

There are two schools of thought concerning September 11.The first school, many of whom are political scientists, see this as an important turning point in recent world history, comparable to two other turning points, that of the end of World War 2 and that of the end of the Cold War ...More

Looking Back, Looking Forward | Rajakumar | April 2000

If I were to state a First Law of history, it is that history does not teach us how to anticipate the future. The lesson we must learn is that the future will be full of surprises ; the best we can do is to prepare ourselves to cope with the unexpected. In this essay, I refer to the unpredictable historical routes that have brought each of us to our present situation. Humility is of the essence ...More

The Development of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Malaysia : New Realities and Challenges | Abdul Rahman Embong | July 1998

Today, at the close of the twentieth century, human societies are faced with major upheavals, and are going through rapid and profound changes. The corpus of knowledge also continues to proliferate. To ensure that Akademika can play its role more effectively in the future, its editors and contributors must be keenly sensitive to important developments in the various branches of knowledge, as well as to developments in human societies that impact upon the frontiers of knowledge ...More

An Independent Race Relations Institute | Collin Abraham

The recent statement by the Prime Minister, that the Government was caught unaware of the actual levels of poverty that existed in the periphery of the capital city of Malaysia, (that apparently led to the ‘disturbances' among Malays and Indians,) has thrown into sharper focus the failure of the bureaucracy in being able to correctly reflect and report on the reality of the social situation ...More