By Ooi Kee Beng Defining terms at the start of an important discussion is necessary if one is not to get lost in misunderstandings. With that brief preamble, let me take issue with the term “Nation Building” and the dangers of it being used as loosely as is done in Malaysian discourses. We tend to … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng. Editorial in Penang Monthly, October 2021 WISDOM COMES MOST easily to the recluse; that’s a process long been recognised and advocated throughout human history, and in most societies and civilisations. But that epiphanic effect, by its very nature, is not for sharing with the rest of society, and cannot but befall … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly, Cover Story, September 2021 IF THERE IS one motto that Penang Monthly can use to describe its mission and vision, it is “Knowing Penang”. That means capturing to the best of its ability all there is to know about Penang: Its past and prospects, its people and places, and its dreams … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, EDITORIAL, Penang Monthly September 2021 IN THE FEEDBACK which has come to my attention to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow’s Penang2030, which he launched on August 29, 2018, just three months after the federal government was toppled for the first time in Malaysian history, one item stands out in my … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly: Penang profile, September 2021 THIS IS PART Two of an interview Penang Monthly’s editor Dato’ Dr. Ooi Kee Beng had with Dato’ Seri Haji Farizan bin Darus on April 15, 2021. Farizan retired as State Secretary for Penang State in 2019, and is now CEO for the Penang Infrastructure … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, August 2021 EDITORIAL in Penang Monthly WE SAY THAT birds fly and fish swim. We think of reptiles as crawlers and monkeys as climbers. But what about us? What about man? What is our default physical activity as a species? Sleeping doesn’t count. We sleep in order to be able to do … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, August 30- Sept 5, 2021 ONE HEARS ABOUT countries that are ungovernable. These are societies too divided, too unintegrated and too unregimented for a government to knit together. We can call them failed states for being on the verge of crumbling into separate political entities or we … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, in The Edge Malaysia, 31 July 2021 Max Planck, the German scientist whose discoveries in Physics laid the foundations for quantum theory, famously said that “a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die, and a new … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For the first elected government since independence that is not based around the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to fall within 20 months, one has to blame betrayal and claim treachery. But then, such terms are ethical ones, and therefore do not mean much in Malaysian politics, or maybe in politics … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial in Penang Monthly, July 2021. LIKE SO MANY generations before me have done, I associate learning with schools. With buildings to which little uniformed boys and girls trudge before the day gets warm. With teachers who share knowledge generously but who keep doubting themselves. With exams that hang like a … Continue reading
