//
archives

Ooi Kee Beng

Dr OOI KEE BENG is the Executive Director of Penang Institute (George Town, Penang, Malaysia). He was born and raised in Penang, and was the Deputy Director of ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, ISEAS). He is the founder-editor of the Penang Monthly (published by Penang Institute), ISEAS Perspective (published by ISEAS) and ISSUES (published by Penang Institute). He is also editor of Trends in Southeast Asia, and a columnist for The Edge, Malaysia.
Ooi Kee Beng has written 528 posts for Wikibeng

Chaptering My Life

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

Speaking of CHT… on Penang Seizing the Moment and Breaking from Industrial Silos

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

The Inclusive Ownership Of Penang And Its Paradoxes

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

Making Political Economy a Legitimate Expression of the General Will

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

Sustainability Is Good, But Not Enough; Let’s Aim For Satisfiability

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

A Geopolitical Future Based on Collaborations and Not Alliances Holds Good Promise

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

Staying Sane By Acknowledging Our Rural Soul

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

A Global Epiphany Dropped on Us This Century

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

Discipline Big Powers with Strategic Inter-regional Alliances

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

Cosmopolises: A Necessary Interpretation of the World of the Future

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