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By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 27 March 2017. Also published in Penang Monthly, May 2017. I paid at the counter for a taxi at KLIA2 a few weeks ago to take me to Bandar Sunway. My cabbie was an elderly Malay man who liked quoting Shakespeare. (Well, he was somewhat older even … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for Penang Monthly, March 2017. “The Present” is a strange concept. For one thing, it is really not possible to think of “The Present” without relying on images of “The Past” and imaginations of “The Future”. They are after all three sneaky sides of the same strange coin. (Yes, a … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE, Malaysia; 6 March 2017. THERE IS something captivating about the generation of people in Malaysia and Singapore who were born in the decades before the Japanese occupation. The times had definitely been very uncertain throughout the region. The British colonialists were arguing among themselves about how the Southeast … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia, 30 January 2017 There is a forceful quote from John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the political economist and philosopher, which reads: “A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes – will find that with … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly editorial, February 2017 Culture, if you ask me, is the joint expression of the inter-personal behaviours of a particular society over time. Within that, we find comfort and orientation in life. The key word is “time”. When profound changes come at us at great speed, how we behave towards … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly Editorial, January 2017 How does one show respect? How does one show tolerance? How does one show acceptance? These are important questions to answer when the ethnic and religious diversity of modern societies are increasingly considered a persistent problem and not a cultural wealth. If we wish for greater … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng / The Edge Malaysia | December 29, 2016 This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 26 – January 1, 2016. THE YEAR 2016 is about over. It was a year of surprises globally, what with terrorist attacks in Europe, the refugee flows into Europe from the … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng / The Edge Malaysia | December 10, 2016 This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 5 – 11, 2016. MALAYA GAINED independence on Aug 31, 1957; Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. Those historic dates mark the end of British colonial control over the Malay peninsula and … Continue reading
Ooi Kee Beng For The Straits Times, 10 November 2016 Mass demonstrations are a strategic forcing of an issue to a head. This is definitely so in the case of Malaysia’s Bersih 5 rally planned for Nov 19. As its name reveals, this is the fifth street protest in a series. Organised by a huge … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, November 2016, PENANG MONTHLY Most religions are defined by their rituals and by the regimenting the collective behaviour of its followers. That is what ultimately defines a “religious establishment”. During this process, things tend to get misunderstood and become issues for contestation despite starting out as rather rational and practical … Continue reading
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