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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 521 posts for Wikibeng

Reformasi, Perpaduan, Madani — Anwar Ibrahim and the Search for a Sense of Common Purpose

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RSIS Seminar by Ooi Kee Beng, 21 March 2024. Keypoint, RSIS, NTU Abstract The political life of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been a very long one, but it is the last 20 years that have provided him with a role and a purpose that go beyond what would have been normal for an UMNO … Continue reading →

Geopolitical Trends and Their Impact on ASEAN

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Online Lecture given by Ooi Kee Beng to the Master’s Class at the Law Faulty of Chulalongkorn University, on 14 March 2024. Good morning everyone. I am most happy to have this chance to speak to all of you. I do miss lecturing, which I have only done sporadically ever since I left academia to … Continue reading →

Pursuing the Meaning of Equality and Liberty (With AI Assistance)

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By Ooi Kee Beng, March 2024 Editorial, Penang Monthly WHETHER WE LIKE to think so or not, modern political thought gained effective sloganicexpression during the French Revolution (in 1789), incidentally around the time Penang wassettled (in 1786) by the English East India Company. No doubt the motto wasinstitutionalised only a century later during France’s Third … Continue reading →

Strengthening the nation’s sense of common purpose is all the unity government needs to do

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By OOI KEE BENG. This article first appeared under the column “Picking on the Present” in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 26, 2024 – March 3, 2024 IT IS TRUE that no political party in Malaysia has ever commanded a large enough majority to govern without the help of a coalition. Barisan Nasional … Continue reading →

On Meaning-making, Nationhood and Country-building for a New Malaysia (Part 1, 2 and 3)

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Podcasts with Dato’ Dr Ooi Kee Beng ( Jan 4, Jan 17 and Feb 1, 2024, on Spotify) .

Deconstructing Malaysia, Past and Present

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Podcast with Dr Ooi Kee Beng: “Inside Story” on BFM 89.9 — February 6, 2024 (https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-edition/inside-story/deconstructing-malaysia-past-and-present)

Taking Physical Space or Making Cultural Space?: Multicultural Peace Depends on Which We Prefer

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By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for February 2024, Penang Monthly SPACE: The final frontier… Good slogan. Classic. Melodramatic, evocative. And totally anthropocentric; to be sure, Space is after all 100% of the Universe, minus this negligible and infinitesimally small pebble we call Earth. But the opening line of Star Trek does work though. Suggestive, bold … Continue reading →

How Nationalism Drops Us in Euclidean Space Away from the Multiverse

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By OOI KEE BENG JUST RETURNED FROM Singapore after an effective two-week stay there, I am prone not only to wax lyrical about the public transport system the city-state has developed, but also to ponder deeply over the central importance that spatial management has in urban life. Urban life by definition is a crowded one, … Continue reading →

Penang Institute Pushes for Economic Ecosystems Development

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SINCE THE THEME for January 2024 is Penang’s Economic Development, it seems appropriate that I present in somewhat truncated form the document produced in March 2023 by Penang Institute as a think piece for internal use. This is the “Penang Regional Industrial Support Measures” (PRISM). PRISM functioned as the touchstone for Penang Institute’s researchers in … Continue reading →

The Deep Crises of Our Times Instil Quiet Despair in Us All

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By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Weekly Malaysia. 24-31 December 2023 WE LIVE IN a time of layered crises, each portentous of the Future being worse than the Present. That’s bad enough if you are old. What if you are young? How would that affect your psyche, your life decisions, your morals? Why should … Continue reading →

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