News Agenda

Its been an exciting for the past 9 months what has happened globally and locally in terms of politically, economically and socially. The biggest news year 2009 has to be Barack Hussein Obama who is the 44Th and current President of the United States. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. He is the first African American to hold the office.Indeed, the Americans have move forward since the racial segregation in the late 1960s and confidently placed their bets on a fine gentlemen to lead the change for the better of the nation and internationally. Unfortunately, at that moment the world was suffering from the economic recession and all major companies were declared bankrupt. For instance, AIG insurance on September 16, 2008, suffered a liquidity crisis following the downgrade of its credit rating. In March 2009, AIG faced public outrage and media and political backlash for its retention payments of $165 million. During this time period, many AIG employees endured hate mail and death threats.

On the local front, Dato Seri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak was the sixth and current Prime Minister of Malaysia. He previously held the post of Deputy Prime Minister from January 7, 2004 until he succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister on April 3, 2009. On March 26 2009, Najib won the UMNO presidency unopposed. Shifting away from that, few parties were unhappy with the appointment of Dato Seri Najib who was heavily linked on the Internet and by political rivals to the brutal murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu. Although all these allegations were pointed towards him Dato Seri Najib managed to come up with satisfactory stimulus packages to battle the economic recession and he also came up with the 1Malaysia concept.The latter personally emphasized the meaning of 1Malaysia as an effort to unify that which is common to all Malaysians, during the initial days of his new government, the 1Malaysia concept has become subject to a broad range of interpretations and discussion, both by those in favor of and opposed to particular government policies, and involving different elements of Malaysia’s major ethnic groups.

The most gruesome news that successfully managed to grab the headlines all over the world is the chaos that happened in Sri Lanka. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are considered a terrorist organization and banned in 31 countries including the United States, India, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Australia, ran a de facto state in large parts of the north and east of Sri Lanka. Starting in early 2009 the Sri Lankan army began an all out assault on Tamil Eelam that resulted in the collapse of LTTE conventional ground forces. The last remaining area of Sri Lanka that was controlled by the LTTE, a small coastal strip just north of Mullaithivu bordering the Nathikandal lagoon, fell on 18 May 2009. Most of the senior civil and military leadership of Tamil Eelam, including their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, were said to have perished by the Sri Lankan military during his last stand. The body of Velupillai Prabhakaran was then recovered. It was months of injustice for the innocent people in Sri Lanka as many died with regards of the war that happened in the island.

These were the major issues that I was very much attentive too. Anyone might wonder, why would all these issues and news interest me when actually nothing I can control. Well, obviously we can't control it but knowing what is happening around you is related to self awareness. By being so, not only do you know what is happening, you also hold the privilege of expanding your learning curve horizon. As mentioned by Mark Sweeney, "It's not just being aggressive. It's the whole package from top to bottom of attentiveness, of sensitivity, of response, of timeliness, of understanding (prospects) what needs to be learnt. With that, I sign off.

Cheers
Abilash Menon