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By Ooi Kee Beng , for The Edge Malaysia, 21-28 February, 2025 AS THE TSUNAMI of earth-shaking executive orders bursts out of Trump’s Oval Office, the world tries to stay upright. Our legs seem rubbery though. Now we know what collective vertigo feels like. For now, the shock is greatest for Washington’s closest allies. Learning … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for February 2025, Penang Monthly IT IS OFTEN SAID—way too often—that “History belongs to the Victor”. There is of course a lot of truth in the dictum. But it faults for being glib, and for being a discussion stopper. What I find more fruitful to consider is that “History belongs … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng “Picking on the Present” column in The Edge Malaysia, 25-31 January 2025 As geopolitical shifts continue in ways that profoundly affecting East Asia, processes of decolonization in this region—most begun after World War Two, many transmuted by how that war ended, and all captured within the conflicts and standoffs of the … Continue reading
Ooi Kee Beng is executive director of Penang Institute and author of Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World (Faction Press). Featured in “Head to Head” in History Today January 2025: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/head-head/what-modernity. “For most of the world, modernity arrived as a fully formed composite” MODERNITY HAS TO be considered a global event. It … Continue reading
By Penang Institute’s researchers
Interview on BernamaTV’s Nation ASEAN+, on 25th October 2024:
By OOI KEE BENG, Penang Monthly editorial for January 2025 YOU WOULD HAVE seen them. Mobile drone shots of cities, done with the camera pointed straight down to capture the topographical grid of streets and buildings. Whether done in daylight or at night, the effect is a reminder to us of how like those of … Continue reading
Opening speech at SPOTLIGHT, organised by Penang Art District, held at The Art Gallery on 4 January 2025 Thanks to the Penang Art District (PAD) for giving me the chance to say a few words. Let me start by saying that Penang Institute, though primarily the think tank for the Penang State Government, is basically … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 23-29 December 2024. From the column “Picking on the Present” NEW FRONTIERS facing the world today are, firstly, tantamount to a historical crossroads for humanity. They are that significant. Secondly, they are most cogently considered as philosophical and anthropological, as well as geopolitical and geo-economic. And by … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, speech given at the opening forum titled “Pioneering the New Frontier: Technological Innovation, Economic Transformation”, of the 5th World Association Presidents’ Conference (WAPC) held on 2 December 2024 at Wisma MCA, Kuala Lumpur. We can study the New Frontiers confronting us today either from a geopolitical level, or we can do … Continue reading
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