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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
By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE MALAYSIA, November 7, 2016 Southeast Asia has enjoyed relative peace since the end of the Cold War in 1991. Its major regional body, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), founded in 1967, was finally able to welcome all the countries in the region as members by the … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in Penang Monthly, October 2016. Man’s discoveries and inventions revolutionise him. That is a truism. The conquest of fire altered how and what we eat; the invention of the wheel changed how we travel and how we construct machines; the discovery of germs increased human population as new modes of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 2 October 2016 The word “Governance” has the same roots as “Government”. However, the recent popularity of the use of “governance” comes from the growing notion of looking at political control as a technical matter, and of an increasing tendency to think of the government—and the governing—of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng for The Straits Times 26 September 2016 According to its Constitution, Malaysia has to hold its next general election by Aug 24, 2018. That is still almost two years away. And yet, rumours of early elections persist, both at the state and federal levels. This needs some explaining, given how Prime … Continue reading
Ooi Kee Beng for The Straits Times, 8 September 2016, Malaysia’s former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, surprised his countrymen by turning up at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Monday to shake the hand of his former deputy and protege, and (perhaps former) political foe, Anwar Ibrahim. This is a highly significant event, … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, Penang Monthly, September 2016. Much of youth is definitely wasted on the young, and this is because the young as a rule are not aware enough of what it means to be old. They are not burdened by the growing sense of mortality that growing old brings. And that is … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 29 August 2016 Studying history teaches us that the significance of events depends on what span of time and space one brings into play. As in geology, movements can sometimes be so painfully slow to be practically indiscernible, as with the tectonic plates covering lengthy periods of … Continue reading
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