AkademiMerdeka.org is a joint web project of the Malaysia Think Tank and the Atlas Global Initiative and promotes free-markets, peace and liberty in Bahasa Melayu (spoken in Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei) and Bahasa Indonesia (spoken in Indonesia and East Timor). On February 5-7 AkademiMerdeka.org held its Freedom Academy in Kuala Lumpur on the subject, “Constitutionalism and Understanding Rule of Law.” Forty participants from ten different Malaysian states attended the event.
Interestingly, Malaysia Think Tank’s founders come from different political stripes – one is a member of the opposition party, one is member of the ruling party, and one is independent. However, they are bound by libertarian ideas – and they put these ideas before party politics. ”There are four main ideas – individual liberty, free markets, the rule of law, limited government – which we seek to embed into policymaking,” says Wan Saiful Wan Jan. ”The problem is that we as a people have become accustomed to government intervention. Across so many sectors, when there is a problem, the first question is ‘what should the government do to fix this?’ … when we could be saying ‘hold on: what can the community do, and how can we get the private sector – through open tenders and transparent competition – to help?” says Tunku ‘Abidin Tuanku Muhriz.
You can read more about their courageous effort in English here in the Singapore Strait Times, and here in Malaysian Today. You can also take a look at Wan Saiful’s article in Utusan Malaysia Online, “Reject efforts to create world carbon police.”
Copyright © 2010 The Atlas Network.
Developed by The Liberty Lab