“Economic liberalisation is the process of freeing up market in order to allow people to work and support themselves as they see fit.”

Responding to the “New Economic Model” report recently released by the Malaysian government, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF) produces a document, entitled “Liberalising Malaysian Economy?”

This document is intended for the general public and policy makers. The authors – Kwek Kon Yao, Afif Absullah and Wan Saiful Wan Jan – hope to contribute to the ongoing debate about the report and the future shape of the country’s economy, and to supply further arguments why economic liberalisation is the best way forward for Malaysia. The document focuses particularly on the four critical issues of the report, namely economic liberalisation, privatisation, foreign workers and minimum wage.

Thirty students from 13 universities from West, Central, and East Java and Jakarta participated in the second Akademi Merdeka Indonesia in a Bogor resort on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Getting to know and understanding an idea is an important endeavour for a society, especially for its youth and students, and particularly for the young people in Indonesia, a country in the process of transition to democracy. The ideas of freedom, free society and liberalism are more or less new ideas for many students, after the words gained negative association during the dictatorship era before 1998 in Indonesia.

By Dr Tom G. Palmer

The opening of the Center for Libertarianism in Japan in one of the most technologically advanced nations on earth is by itself a significant event. It represents the entrance of people writing the Japanese language into an international dialogue with people from all over the world who are committed to universal principles of justice, of peace, of voluntary cooperation, and of respect for the freedom of the individual person.

The principles of liberty have been known at various times under various names. (In Europe friends of liberty have been known at various times as levellers, whigs, and liberals, and in North American they are usually now known as “classical liberals” and libertarians.) The principles can be found in every culture and every history. No one civilization has any monopoly on the ideas or the practice of liberty, for every civilization has at least two narratives: a narrative of liberty and a narrative of power.