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| Monday, 19-Oct-2009 08:48 |
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THE BUDGET: How the Government is Spending OUR Money
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BUDGET
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Synopsis
Every year, around Budget time in September or October, public attention focuses on the “goodies” we can expect from the government. Will our income taxes be cut? Will the subsidies continue? Will the road-tax rebate be extended? And every year, after the Budget is announced, there are the usual proclamations of “it’s a people’s budget”, “it’s people-friendly”, “it’s a growth budget”.
Really, those “goodies” are a mirage. Whatever “goodies” we get, we pay for in other ways. Those “goodies” are not free money handed out by the government. Those “goodies” are paid for with our tax money!
It’s called a Budget because the government, like us, has a fixed sum of money to work with every year.
The government gets its money from taxes such as income and corporate taxes and various excise and tariff duties, and yes, petroleum royalties. That fills the government wallet. And out of the wallet comes expenditure on paying civil servants, funding healthcare and education and national development and yes, our “goodies”.
Every Ringgit of “goodies” that we “get” is a Ringgit less for other important things, like healthcare or education, for example.
The mainstream media and government are happy to keep the focus on “goodies” because it avoids discussion and debate on the really important issues including accountability and choice.
These issues are covered in The Budget - How the Government is spending OUR money. The federal government alone is expected to spend about RM200 billion this year. That is about RM8,000 for each Malaysian. On top of that, there is also spending by state and local governments. Do you think you got your money’s worth?
The first of its kind in Malaysia, this book explains in plain English where the federal government gets its income and what it spends it on. Interested citizens and taxpayers will find this an accessible read while professionals will, for the first time, find the numbers compiled in a concise format.
Endorsed by Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz (“an excellent guide … so intelligently put together”), Professor Rajah Rasiah of the University of Malaya (“simple language backed with solid statistics” and Yeo Yang Poh, Past President of the Malaysian Bar Council (“a straightforward, incisive approach to this normally dry subject”) and with illustrations by Antares (formerly known as Kit Leee), be informed and entertained for just RM20.
The federal government of Malaysia spends about RM200bn per year. On top of that, there is also spending by state and local governments. Where is all that money going? The Budget: How the government is spending OUR money is a guide to how the government raises its funds and how it chooses to spend that money.
Budgets are arguably the most critical macroeconomic instruments governments use to address long and short-term development goals. Public expenditure provides the infrastructure - transport, utilities, healthcare, education, defence and other basic services - necessary to meet the needs of the people and to stimulate growth.
Despite this, the budget is rarely put through the paces of thorough, accessible discourse. By addressing the issues of budget formulation, its components, sources of deficit, transparency and the political economy of government expenditure in Malaysia, the author sheds light on a topic that is usually conveyed through approximations, whitewashing and grand addresses.
This book serves us a timely reminder of the impact of the nation’s budgetary policies on our everyday lives. This simple, straightforward approach to the perplexing but important issue of the budget is the essential dummies guide; a must-read for every citizen and taxpayer.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-983-44629-6-3 | Paperback | RM 20* (English)
Author: Teh Chi-Chang
Publisher: Research for Social Advancement (REFSA)
Year: 2009
* excluding postage charges
To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <BUDGET BOOK>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Thursday, 10-Sep-2009 13:18 |
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Straight Talk
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STRAIGHT TALK
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STRAIGHT TALK
“An incisive commentary on the socio- political foibles of the nation…serious, fearless, and critical…deliciously rendered…” Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat.
Few people are as known for their robust advocacy against corruption not only in Malaysia, but globally, as Tunku Abdul Aziz. As a measure of his standing in the international anti-corruption community, he was appointed Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General in 2006. In that capacity, he established the United Nations Ethics office in New York, putting in train the ‘whistle blower protection’ programme and the ‘declaration of assets’ programme involving some two thousand top officials around the world. In Malaysia he led a group of like-minded individuals to set up Transparency International Malaysia at a most difficult time - when Dr. Mahathir, well known for his ambivalence towards corruption in public life, was Prime Minister.
Straight Talk is a collection of articles published by the News Straits Times that display Tunku’s insightful and responsible critique of his home nation. Oftentimes blunt and always eloquent, perceived injustices and mal-administration, flawed processes and personalities, and also praise-worthy acts and individuals, have never been so ably addressed.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-983-44629-4-9 | Paperback | RM 40* (English)
Author: Tunku Abdul Aziz
Publisher: Research for Social Advancement
Year: 2009
* excluding postage charges
To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <STRAIGHT TALK>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
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| Thursday, 10-Sep-2009 12:06 |
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Tangerin & Nikotin
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Tangerin & Nikotin
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Mimi Morticia menghabiskan setengah dari hayatnya mencari kepunyaannya yang sentiasa tersalah letak di mana mana. Boleh jadi kepunyaannya itu orang, barang atau pun hal hal terlarang.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-983-43868-3-2 | RM 15*
Author: Mimi Morticia
Publisher: Sang Freud Press
Year: 2009
Pages: 84
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To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <TANGERIN & NIKOTIN>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Wednesday, 9-Sep-2009 12:01 |
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ASEAN-India-Australia: Towards Closer Engagement in a New Asia
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ASEAN-India-Australia: Towards Closer Engagement in a New Asia
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India’s emergence as a great power has sensitized its regional neighbours to its growing role as a key security actor in an increasingly interdependent world. Both Australia and ASEAN now view India as a major player in the formulation and application of their broad security agendas. This emerging trilateral compendium is particularly evident in such policy areas as maritime security, climate change, energy security, law enforcement, “good governance” and the politics of security institutions or “architectures”. This book represents one of the first systematic efforts to consolidate these diverse but important concerns into an overarching framework for ascertaining and cross-comparing how these three entities are approaching these policy challenges, individually and collectively. It argues that the dynamics underlying their intensifying security relations are sufficiently important to conceptualize them as a distinct analytical framework that needs to be understood in the larger context of Asia-Pacific security politics.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-981-23096-3-1 | RM 161
Editor: William T. Tow and Chin Kin Wah
Publisher: ISEAS
Year: 2009
Pages: 417
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To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <ASEAN INDIA AUSTRALIA>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Wednesday, 9-Sep-2009 11:55 |
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Gender Trends in Southeast Asia: Women Now, Women in the Future
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Gender Trends in Southeast Asia: Women Now, Women in the Future
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As a region, Southeast Asia has undergone enormous economic and social changes in the last few decades. Women as a collective have seen their lives transformed as a result of rapid development and economic growth. In exploring the progress made by Southeast Asian men and women, this book seeks to answer the following questions: (a) In what areas have women been able to achieve parity with men? (b) In what areas do women encounter specific disadvantages based on their gender as compared with men? and (c) How have women’s concerns and problems been addressed by the governments in this region with the aim of encouraging gender equality?
As the title of this book suggests, the chapters provide and analysis of the broad trends – including changes and continuities – in the experiences, interests and concerns of Southeast Asian women. The chapters examine the trends related to women in the following arenas: the family, economic participation, politics, health, and religion. In some arenas, the trends reflect the disadvantages women face, which in turn have led to gender gaps; in other areas, women’s progress has been found to eclipse that of the men, although this tends to be the exception.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-981-23095-5-6 | RM 92
Author: Usman Awang
Publisher: ISEAS
Year: 2009
Pages: 115
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To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <GENDER TRENDS IN SOUTHEST ASIA>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Wednesday, 9-Sep-2009 11:51 |
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The ASEAN Regional Forum
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The ASEAN Regional Forum
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The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the only Asia-Pacific-wide forum for consultations and dialogue on political and security issues. Although many articles and books have been published on the ARF, this is one of the few books that treat the forum comprehensively and from the standpoint of the region itself. It traces the ARF’s origins, the efforts to move it from confidence building to “preventive diplomacy”, and the forces that hold them back, analysing the strategic environment that both constrains the ARF and makes it essential. The book discusses the question of participation, describes the numerous cooperative activities that the participants undertake, and deals with the issue of institutionalization. Finally, it assesses the ARF as a forum and a process on its own terms. The book is written by the former ASEAN Secretary-General and former senior official who was involved in the ARF’s early years.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-981-23099-0-7 | RM 92
Author: Rodolfo C. Severino
Publisher: ISEAS
Year: 2009
Pages: 186
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1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <THE ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM>)
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* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Tuesday, 8-Sep-2009 11:39 |
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Submitting to God: Women and Islam in Urban Malaysia
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Submitting to God: Women and Islam in Urban Malaysia
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In recent decades, Malaysia has been profoundly changed both by forces of globalization, modernization and industrialization and by a strong Islamization process. Some would argue that the situation of Malay women has worsened but such a conclusion is challenged by this study of the everyday religious practice of pious women within Kuala Lumpur’s affluent, Malay middle class.
Here, women play an active part in the Islamization process not only by heightened personal religiosity but also by organizing and participating in public programmes of religious education. By organizing new forms of collective ritual and assuming new public roles as religious teachers, these religiously educated women are transforming the traditionally male-dominated gendered space of the mosque and breaking men’s monopoly over positions of religious authority. Exploring this situation, the book challenges preconceptions of the nature of Islamization as well as current theories of female agency and power.
Sylva Frisk is a lecturer at the School of Global Studies at Gothenburg University in Sweden, teaching social anthropology and Asian Studies, and is Director of Studies for its Master Programme in Global Studies. Her research interests are gender, religion and globalization with a particular focus on gender and Islam in Malaysia. She is currently involved in an interdisciplinary research project on the transformations of Islam and politics in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-877-69404-8-5 | RM 103
Author: Sylva Frisk
Publisher: NIAS
Year: 2009
Pages: 216
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1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <SUBMITTING TO GOD>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Monday, 7-Sep-2009 11:32 |
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Beyond Democracy in Cambodia: Political Reconstruction in a Post
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Beyond Democracy in Cambodia: Political Reconstruction in a Post
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For more than three decades Cambodia lived with civil war and genocide. After the peace agreement, major reconstruction efforts and UN-supervised elections in the 1990s, it was hoped that the ravages of the past could be repaired. Instead, one political crisis after another has ensued. And to the extent that some political stability has emerged, seemingly this has been won at the expense of democracy. Moreover, reconstruction efforts appear to be at odds with processes of liberal democratization.
This volume (written by a broad mix of Khmer and non-Khmer researchers) is the first study to assess the post-conflict democratization process in Cambodia in a systematic and in-depth empirical way. In going beyond a one-dimensional view of democracy, the full complexity of this process is illuminated. Not only does the volume focus on the successes and failures of Cambodia’s political elite but also it looks beyond Cambodia, assessing the extent to which the globally applied post-conflict strategy of intervention followed by early elections, hoping for rapid democratization, is sustainable and progressive.
Joakim Ojendal is Professor of Peace and Development Research at Gothenburg University in Sweden. He has written extensively on Asia, and in particular on democratization in Cambodia. Currently he leads several research projects, including on post-conflict reconstruction and democratic decentralization, and engages in policy work in this area. Among his earlier works is Southeast Asian Responses to Globalization, published by NIAS Press in 2004.
Mona Lilja teaches at Gothenburg University’s School of Global Studies. She has previously written on female political leadership strategies in democratization and development processes, with her monograph Power, Resistance and Women Politicians in Cambodia published by NIAS Press earlier in 2008. Currently she is engaged in a research project on ’hybrid democratization’ in Cambodia.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-877-69404-3-0 | RM 115
Editor: Joakim Öjendal & Mona Lilja
Publisher: NIAS
Year: 2009
Pages: 320
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To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <BEYOND DEMOCRACY IN CAMBODIA>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
* choices: maybank.2u.com, Maybank kawanku ATM, or the nearest Maybank branches near you.
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| Sunday, 6-Sep-2009 11:21 |
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Suara Orang Buangan: Renungan-renungan tentang Islam
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Suara orang buangan
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Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid telah dipaksa meninggalkan Universiti Kaherah kerana dianggap tersesat. Jenayahnya? Nasr menyebut dalam tulisannya bahawa sejarah dan budaya harus diambil kira dalam mentafsirkan Quran. Selain itu, Nasr juga menghujahkan bahawa dalam pentafsiran Quran, ayat-ayat kitab suci in harus difahami secara tamsilan (metafora) dan bukan secara kaku dan hurufiah.
Pada Jun 1995, Mahkamah Rayuan Kaherah menjatuhkan hukum “bahawa tulisan-tulisan Abu Zaid di dalamnya, dan dengan sendirinya, membuktikan beliau sebagai seorang murtad.” Golongan Islamis mengancam nyawanya. Dia tidak lagi dapat mengajar. Para pengawal, lengkap dengan machine gun, berkawal sekeliling rumahnya. Para peguam Islamis cuba memisahkan Nasr dari isterinya, Dr Ebtehal Younes, juga seorang professor di Universiti Kaherah, bersandarkan alasan bahawa seorang wanita Muslim tidak boleh berkahwin dengan non-Muslim. Nasr, justeru telah diisytiharkan sebagai murtad, tidak lagi boleh dikira sebagai seorang Muslim. Urutan dari itu, kedua-dua mereka lari ke Belanda, dan sejak itu Nasr mengajar bahasa Arab dan Pengajian Islam id Universiti Leiden.
Dengan terbitnya buku ini, dunia berpeluang mendengar cerita dari yang empunya badan, Nasr Hamid, yang telah terlibat dalam salah satu kontroversi paling rebut di abad ke-20. Selain penjelasan tentang kontroversi berkenaan, menerusi buku ini Nasr juga mencatatkan renungannya tentang Islam yang digeluti dan dialaminya sejak kecil.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-983-39121-5-5 | RM 25*
Author: Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid
Publisher: Middle-Eastern Graduates Centre Sdn Bhd
Year: 2009
Pages: 326
* excluding postage charges
To order;
1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <SUARA ORANG BUANGAN>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
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| Saturday, 5-Sep-2009 11:06 |
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Sahabatku: Puisi-puisi 5 bahasa
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Sahabatku: Puisi-puisi 5 bahasa
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Sempena menyambut hari lahir Sasterawan Negera Malaysia yang ketiga, Usman Awang, yang telah meninggal dunia pada 29 November 2001. Buku khas ini memaparkan 12 buah puisi karya beliau yang mencerminkan watak peribadinya. Beliau adalah seorang penyair yang cinta pada manusia, tanahair, alam dan berjuang dengan mata penanya demi kesaksamaan sejagat.
Puisi-puisi ini diterjemahkan ke Bahasa Inggeris, Bahasa Mandarin, Bahasa Tamil dan Bahasa Iban sebagaimana yang di impikan Usman Awang. Beliau idamkan – satu bangsa Malaysia – dari dulu lagi.
Bilakah semua warganegara mendapat hak layanan dan keadilan yang sama dikenal dengan satu rupa nama: Bangsa Malaysia? – Usman Awang.
Book Detail:
ISBN :
978-983-37420-6-6 | RM 28
Author: Usman Awang
Publisher: UA Enterprises Sdn Bhd
Year: 2009
Pages: 118
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1. Pls SMS 019-2232002 (Type <SAHABATKU>)
2. After confirmation from the administrator, pay the amount to maybank2u.com or Maybank Kawanku to account Faisal bin Mustaffa (MBB 114179439605)
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