Loading...
Alwyn Lau
Bookworm. Contrarian. Proud Malaysian. Or thereabouts. Tweets at @alwyn_lau
More from Alwyn Lau
-
So is it Pakatan Harapan or Pakistan Harapan?
DECEMBER 2 — Four guys caned for having gay sex. A radical preacher from overseas remains protected. Child marriages remain legal. The LGBQT community remains threatened. A...
-
Thank god, we don’t have ‘the right to bear arms’ in Malaysia
NOVEMBER 18 — “I have a very strict gun control policy: If there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.” — Clint Eastwood Last week’s shooting in a school in...
-
How long more can bookshops in Malaysia survive?
NOVEMBER 7 — I swear to God, every time a bookshop closes a unicorn dies. And many unicorns have been dying. I recall feeling a disturbance in the horned horse force when MPH in...
-
#UMProtest: Why the convo 'stunt' may have been wrong but really isn't
OCTOBER 21 ― There is an on-going debate over Wong Yan Ke’s solo protest at the recent University of Malaya convocation, and whether or not what he did was right and...
-
Will the ‘Joker’ movie inspire violent crime?
OCTOBER 14 — Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the movie Joker. Why is ‘Joker’ so controversial? It’s not often you hear of cinemas banning a major...
-
Mental health awareness: Four confessions of a care-giver
OCTOBER 7 — From news reports, the rate of people suffering from mental health issues in Malaysia is said to be rising every year. For schizophrenia alone, the Health Ministry...
-
Why protests must always remain non-violent #HongKong
OCTOBER 4 — “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” — Martin Luther King...
-
Chinese wedding dinner time vs Malaysian time
SEPTEMBER 16 — Last week I attended the wedding dinner of a good friend. As I was (marginally) a part of the planning committee, I noticed that the agenda prepared by the couple...
-
Two wrong reasons to be a lecturer
SEPTEMBER 9 — Recently, a friend of mine (with about 20 years’ experience in banks) told me he wanted to quit and join one of the local private colleges as a lecturer. When I...
-
The paranoia over Christian evangelism in Malaysia
SEPTEMBER 2 — The claim by Ikatan Muslim Malaysia (Isma) recently that there is some drive to “evangelise” Putrajaya is, frankly, amazing. It’s incredible not...
-
‘Beg-packers’ are the least of Malaysia’s problems
AUGUST 19 — I could be wrong, but I’ve been noticing a minor (albeit growing) backlash against “beg-packers” i.e. foreign tourists (usually Caucasian) who go around...
-
The 12 paradoxes of Malaysian education
JULY 29 — About half a dozen years ago, I published an article on 10 paradoxes in our education system. In light of the upcoming PT3 and SPM examinations, I thought I would...
-
Durians are no laughing matter
JULY 22 — You know why South-east Asia never produced an Isaac Newton? Because all these world-changing hopefuls were sitting under durian trees. The truth must have...
-
A look at today’s ‘toreh diri’ phenomenon
JULY 9 — I asked the Form 5 kids the Malay term for “self-cutting.” Immediately a few of them told me it was “toreh diri.” Macam menoreh getah, bang! That was both cute...
-
Is sexual fidelity necessary for public office?
JUNE 17 — The recent sex video scandal has resurrected the spectre of “gutter politics” (or maybe it’s just proven that the gutter never left us) and exposed the factions...