News stories by Baradan Kuppusamy, page 4

Days of simmering religious tension over a New Year’s Eve court ruling allowing Catholics to use the Arabic word ‘Allah’ to denote the Christian God has boiled over after unknown individuals tried to burn down three churches in the capital.

Melinda Teoh, 42, had a life that could easily be the envy of many except that it took an unexpected turn just when she thought she had it all.

'My family was starving. . . . I was sold to people who brought me here to work and feed my family back home,' said Ah Mun, a victim of child trafficking.

In wealthy Malaysia that employs over four million Asians to service its high- rolling lifestyle, a tiny indigenous tribe is fighting for its survival against state inaction and bureaucratic apathy, as well as marauding giant multinationals and timber loggers.

Race relations here, unsteady even in the best of times, are worsening with the ruling Umno party ratcheting up racial and religious issues to maintain its influence over majority Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the population of 27 million.

A huge public protest on Aug. 1 calling for the repeal of the Internal Security Act, a law that the authorities have used to jail extremist and legitimate political opponents alike without trial, was broken up using brute force.

Anwar Ibrahim, the country’s charismatic former deputy prime minister, is set to go on trial this month for allegedly sodomising a male aide. It’s a charge his supporters dismiss as a political conspiracy against him.

Domestic helper Siti Hajar, 33, from Garut district, Indonesia is a picture of calm as she leans against the wall at a shelter for abused maids and dreams of returning to her village.

After years of lobbying by rights activists and the international community, Malaysia passed an effective and comprehensive law in 2007 against human trafficking with provisions for protection, shelter and return of trafficked person to their home countries.

Malaysia’s controversial Najib Razak, who became the country’s sixth prime minister on Apr. 3, has launched a charm offensive to win the hearts and minds of a people disillusioned by numerous scandals and political skullduggery.