//
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 517 posts for Wikibeng

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

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

Deconstructing Malaysia, Past and Present

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

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

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

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

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

Country Building is Citizen Building

By OOI KEE BENG, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, 27 November 2023 WHAT IS IT exactly that Malaysians have been fighting about since the country gained independence as the Federation of Malaya on Aug 31, 1957? The segmented nature of the population cannot be denied. We see that undeniably in how no political party has ever … Continue reading

Fight for Your Man Caves and Your Comfort Foods

By Dato’ Dr. Ooi Kee Beng; Editorial in Penang Monthly, December 2023 YOU HAVE YOUR favourite places to be in. Favourite rooms within whose walls you feel safe, where you feel at home. There, you relax. The knot in your stomach loosens, your breathing slows and grows deeper, and your frontal lobe gives way to … Continue reading

AI—Boon or Bane, Intelligent or Illusory?

These are the days of miracle and wonder.Don’t cry, baby, don’t cry.Don’t cry. — Paul Simon, “The Boy in the Bubble”, 1986. THE 1960S AND 70S were turbulent times culturally. At least that was what I thought when living through them. The youth revolution and the music revolution were going on. But more profoundly, underneath … Continue reading

A Speech on Unity Written for Anwar Ibrahim, by ChatGPT and Me

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 28 October 2023 (Republished in Penang Monthly here). MY YEARS AS a political analyst and historian have taught me to look up every now and then from the quagmire of details and distractions cluttering my head today. I was thinking of the importance of Sociology in enhancing … Continue reading