Wikibeng

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly editorial November 2026 ONE OF THE deepest legacies of colonisation worldwide is the nation-state. Having learned that every inch on earth has to be owned, sooner or later, by some political power, the emergent nation-states, which inherited the territories left behind by crumbling European powers—and Japan—in the 20th century, … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, in Penang Monthly November 2026 FOR WORKAHOLICS TO drop everything and go on a retreat is as crazy as asking a parent to stop worrying about their children for a while. Not really possible. Unless, of course, the workaholic is suffering the symptoms typical of advanced alcoholism. When he begins doubting … Continue reading →

By Dr Ooi Kee Beng, The Edge, 4-11 October 2026 AS THE ENDING of Western hegemony over the world becomes more undeniable, and the civilizational and ethical complexity of mankind shows itself to have survived, the question on most minds is, “What will take its place?” Instead of simply identifying which new players will take … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly Editorial, October 2026 THIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS liveability in Penang, and an initial word of warning is in order. A particular kind of misleading confidence comes from a spreadsheet. Ask a town planner what makes a city liveable, and you will be handed numbers: walkability scores, transit access, density targets, … Continue reading →

RETIREMENT, MOBILITY AND INVESTMENT Malaysia is widely ranked as one of the world’s best places to retire. This may surprise many who read local political news and wonder about its stability. But the truth is that the country is attractive to many people—local and foreign alike—seeking low costs of living, easy travel opportuni-ties, good healthcare … Continue reading →

Ooi Kee Beng on BFM 89.9: Breakfast Grille podcast, with Sharaad Kuttan https://www.bfm.my/content/podcast/malaysia-reluctant-resilient-reflective AS WE celebrate the country’s achievements since Independence but also reflect on its shortcomings. But how do we do so without resorting to the now threadbare vocabulary and conceptual frameworks that have guided us thus far. And where are new frameworks and … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, at the “Scars of War and a Shred Commitment to Peace” dialogue panel on 10 September 2026, at the Lin iang Xiong Art Gallery in Penang. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ART is never static. It changes with time, with circumstances, with the need for expressions particular to the times. The same can … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, speech at book launch on 9 September 2026 at St Xavier’s Institution of Paul Kiong’s book, “The Communist Role I Played”. WE LIVE IN comfortable times today. One could say, “too comfortable times”. It is therefore a privilege for us today here at St Xavier’s Institution, to host an event where … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, opening speech at the Penang Peace Dialogue, 5-6 September 2026. First, let me say that Peace is not simply the Absence of War. Peace is not merely a Ceasefire. It is a state of mind, a culture, a value system. War is easy, by all present accounts. Peace is hard. Keeping … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial for September 2026 issue of Penang Monthly . THE POLITICAL ECONOMY encompassing the night market is strangely illuminative of human society. Why do I say that? Now, one can take the individual as the point of departure for analysing the bare constituents of society. Or one can start with the family, … Continue reading →

A discussion on 21st century geopolitics and the centuries-long history behind it. Has global decolonisation entered its final stage? We dissect and reconnect concepts and notions on international relations and global power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0OiVjvYf9g

By Ooi Kee Beng, in The Edge Weekly Malaysia, 22-30 August 2026. We take global trade as a given nowadays. And yet, despite countless attempts by postcolonial scholars to push the genesis of what can be properly called “global trade” as we know it today as far back in time as possible, the fact remains … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG (GTLF Festival Director, Penang Monthly Managing Editor, and Penang Institute Executive Director) In Mekong Review, August 2026 MOST FESTIVALS are like birthdays. They puncture the relentless monotony of daily life. Like new year days, harvest or spring festivals, and religious events. In that sense, they are also celebratory. Like parties But … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge, 1-6 August 2026 Serious change in a person’s pathos and ethos—their will and the rationale for their actions and feelings—is most likely to take place when their self-image is altered. A self-image, in turn, is constructed on the network of narratives relevant to their surrounding—their reference group, basically; … Continue reading →

Interview with Yicai Global, July 15, 2026 (Yicai) July 15 – A new stage in the decolonization in Southeast Asia began recently, triggered not by politics but by the transformative regional growth driven by China’s phenomenal rise, according to the executive director of Penang Institute, one of Malaysia’s major public policy think tanks. “The broad … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng. Penang Monthly editorial for July 2026 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN culture and economics is a fascinating one. Staying alive is much easier to do as a group than alone. Interweaving functions, connecting roles and sharing the benefits of teamwork; all these are the building blocks of society. And of culture. I chase … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 20-27 June 2026 TWO THINGS that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been depending upon for its slow-and-steady, all-aboard method to deliver are firstly a lack of urgency, and secondly an absence of unrelenting outside pressure. Anyone concerned about the issues the organization purports to … Continue reading →

In Captains & Legends column in EZ Malaysia May 19 2026 See https://ezmalaysia.news/2026/05/19/chaptering-my-life/.

PENANG PROFILE, Penang Monthly, June 2026 AS USUAL, THIS column highlights an exciting personality from Penang, no doubt because of what they have achieved, but more importantly, to showcase their infectious passion for the state of Penang and their ability to inspire its next generation. I query Ch’ng Huck Theng, a conspicuous artist and businessman, among … Continue reading →

PENANG IS FULL of inhabitants who were not born here. In fact, there is some oft-repeated “test” to decide if someone not born on the island is truly a Penangite or not. So far can the triviality over identity go. On a good day, I think of Penang as an inclusive, if ironic, entity, having a … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG for “Picking on the Present” in The Edge Malaysia, 22-29 May 2026 About 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of having dinner at the home of Robert Kuok and his wife Poh Lin. It was memorable for many reasons, but not least for something he said which stuck with me … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly editorial for May 2026 “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT” makes good sense as a concept. This term was definitely coined to draw attention to the dangers inherent in unrestrained “development”, in a world where all countries have ambitions of becoming “developed”. We cannot, for practical and moral reasons, stop any country from … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 24 April – 1 May 2026 Decolonisation is a complicated process. While a lot was written about it in the late 20th century, much less attention has been paid by scholars to that subject over the last two decades. This might suggest a popular acceptance (1) that … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, Penang Monthly April 2026 editorial IN THE ENGLISH language, a “hamlet” or “colony” connotes a place of untainted being. Nature is close by, human warmth is at hand and social changes are slow enough to be embraced. But the rural, in practice, is often messy, starting with the domestic and half-tamed … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Forum, 21-28 March 2026 IT IS SAID that pandemics change the world, but in such profound ways that it takes a long time before these changes become obvious. Once the paths they furrow become deep enough to be accepted as “The New Normal”, much of what was the … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG (Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 23, 2026 – March 1, 2026) The line of enquiry whenever Southeast Asian regionalism is mentioned together with European regionalism is how they are comparable, and how they can learn from each other. And given the European Union (EU) has a much longer history … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, Feature in Penang Monthly, March 2026. COSMOPOLIS. That is an exciting word that is full of positive connotations. The original Greek expresses this idea by pairing Kosmos (“world” or “universe”) with Polis (“city-state”). Cosmopolis thus translates into “world-city”, which in short signifies the ideal of a unified political com-munity that absorbs … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial for March 2026 issue of Penang Monthly. ACTIVE AGEING is a trendy term indeed. It is an inspirating notion, serviceable for policymakers and inspirational for ageing individuals. However, and poignantly, it also implies that passive ageing is the default mode for most old people. This is probably because old people … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 26, 2026 – February 1, 2026, under the column “Picking on the Present”. Tensions have increased for European countries between their role as members of the Cold War military organisation Nato, and their long-term ambitions to become a super-state … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly editorial, February 2026 A MAJOR AND very useful instinct I developed when dabbling in wushu sparring many decades ago was the ability to read movement. This was part and parcel of physical defence, of course. Not only does one have to be fully attentive all the time—and that would … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial in January 2026 issue of Penang Monthly. MOST OF HUMAN civilisation has been powered by the advancement of group messaging, by the quality and nature of information flows within society. As messaging improved, the size and complexity of society grew accordingly. Language expanded to become scripts. Scripts required scribes, and … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Weekly on December 29, 2025 – January 4, 2026 How are nations — and poles of power — to relate sustainably to each other once the hegemonic basis for globalisation exercised over several hundred years by Western powers becomes untenable? What will be the rationale for international relations? … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly Editorial, December 2025 NOTHING PROVIDES MORE inspiration for coinage of terms than our five senses. We fashion fundamental words to describe the wide range of information that flows from without onto our body and brain. For example, I am told that the sense of Touch relies on our Skin … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 1, 2025 – December 7, 2025 For centuries, the Pearl River delta had been the trading hub for anyone wishing to trade with the Chinese Empire. When one considers the dynamics of China’s political economy over the last millennia, this makes a lot of … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly November 2025 Editorial FESTIVALS are basically a picnic at community level, aren’t they? And just like family picnics, festivals seek to bond. Favourite snacks are brought along by uncles and aunties, favourite games are arranged for the children, and favourite drinks in all colours are prepared to avail all … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, in The Edge Malaysia, Oct 27 – 2 Nov 2025. The deepest legacy that colonialism left behind in Southeast Asia are the nation-states that now control the colonialists’ contingently-defined territories. By and large, all these countries were born during the Cold War that followed the Second World War. This tells us … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng. Editorial, Penang Monthly October 2025 I am past 70 years of age, so I shall pull rank on my readers—most of you anyway, and talk about Birth, Life, and Death. My parents are both dead. I was at their wake, funeral, and burial. There is much one can learn from the … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Malaysia Weekly. September 22-28, 2025 The passing of the Gig Workers’ Bill 2025 by the Malaysian parliament is significant, encouraging and inspiring. For a country whose political culture pathologically encourages racial consciousness, confrontation and intimidation, this legislation is a rare acknowledgement of society’s struggling classes — and gig … Continue reading →

Keynote speech given at Canon Malaysia’s “Think Big” Conference on 9 September 2025 at Holiday Inn, Bukit Mertajam. PENANG INSTITUTE PROVIDED much of the thinking, the research and the ground support in the creation and socializing of the Penang2030 vision and masterplan, along with Think City and the Chief Minister’s Office. We decided to publicize … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial, September 2025, Penang Monthly WE LIVE WITHIN narratives, don’t we? Our identities are built on them. Our collective identities are definitely group memories woven by time into stories and narratives, and into memories and myths. For places and times for whom there are few stories, we use terms like “prehistorical”, “no … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) may be proudly considered one of the great achievements of diplomacy in the world. For the region itself, the initiative has allowed for the various member states to be cognizant of each other’s differences and difficulties. Be that as it may, it has yet … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng. Penang Monthly Editorial for August 2025 THE MOON WAS full two nights ago. I sit now on the first-floor patio of my friend Fazil’s beach house. This is in Marang, just south of Kuala Terengganu. It is 5.30 in the morning. The regular passing of trucks and cars pulsates at an erratic … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, “Picking on the Present” column in The Edge Malaysia 21-26 July 2025 THE SHOCK AND AWE approach that President Donald Trump’s Project 2025 clearly depends on, when exercised on the international stage, has brought about a whole range of reactions from governments all over the world. At one pole, you have … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial, Penang Monthly July 2025 MY WARDROBE IS overflowing. With no Spring Cleaning habit for tropical people like me, my short-sleeved and long-sleeved shirts hang next to each other, expanding year by year. My trousers are much too few in number, and have been relegated to the lower section. My short … Continue reading →

By Ooi Kee Beng ASEAN is almost seven decades old. The wish to get along despite cultural diversity and political differences is a value in itself. One should ask why ASEAN has survived so long despite an underwhelming track record. What is it that its founding fathers understood, and how precious are the lessons learned … Continue reading →

The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)-China Summit held on May 27 in Kuala Lumpur shed light on the collaboration among Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and China amid Trump’s tariffs worldwide. In an exclusive interview recently, Ooi Kee Beng, Executive Director at Penang Institute, Malaysia, noted that the summit, gathering 10 … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, June 2025 Editorial in Penang Monthly. “Does Penang Exceptionalism still exist?” That question was put to me recently by a learned and slightly agitated visitor. I assume the query stems from distress over how recent developments in the state have been too much, too hasty, and too uncontrolled. It is a … Continue reading →

By OOI KEE BENG, presentation at the Baichuan Forum: “Global South in Transition: Geopolitical Dynamics and Development Cooperation”, 24-25 May 2025, Organised by CUHK-Shenzhen and Iinstitute for International Affairs, Qianhai Adopting different timespans provide for different glimpses of the subject in question. Different timespans also impact the concepts being used to decide them. This weekend, … Continue reading →

Speaking at the Colonel Light Celebrations, 9 May 2025, at Adelaide Town Hall at the special invitation of the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Dr Jane Lomax-Smith. By Dr OOI KEE BENG My being here today, in Adelaide, South Australia, is still a great surprise to me. This is because there are certain geographical journeys in … Continue reading →