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This category contains 435 posts

Kuala Lumpur – Still Best at Being Middling?

By Ooi Kee Beng For THE EDGE, Kuala Lumpur, 26 March 2012 I am sitting at a dear friend’s apartment in Hong Kong’s Wanchai district, looking across to Kowloon. Well, that’s not totally correct. I can actually not see Kowloon at all. The mist is so dense that even the vessels floating in the straits … Continue reading

Feel better, be bilingual

By Ooi Kee Beng (Editorial in Penang Monthly, February 2012) Why is it so important to scientists to discover extra-terrestrial life forms? They know the odds are astronomically small. Well, they are hoping against hope, certainly. But I think that it is because they intuitively know that the leap in knowledge about Life and the … Continue reading

A grave injustice avoided

By Ooi Kee Beng For TODAY, Singapore│10 January 2012 The High Court verdict on Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial must be seen as a big triumph for the three-member opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR). One of the biggest challenges that it has in trying to win federal power is to convince voters that it has the … Continue reading

Anwar acquittal boosts Malaysia’s opposition

By Dr Ooi Kee Beng (9 January 2012) for BBC Online To the great surprise of many of his followers, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was found not guilty of the sodomy charge brought against him by a former aide. High Court judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah declared him innocent early on Monday morning, while huge … Continue reading

New Think Tanks for New Times

By Ooi Kee Beng This interview with YB Liew Chin Tong, outgoing Executive Director of Penang Institute and Member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera, discusses his understanding of the tasks think tanks need to adopt in the 21st century. Malaysian nation building has not been an easy process, and one of the negative developments it … Continue reading

A Monthly Dose of Penangiana

By Ooi Kee Beng [Editorial in Penang Monthly, http://www.penangmonthly.com] It has now been two years since this magazine, Penang Economic Monthly, was revamped into a new colourful product meant for wider circulation and sale. The reasons why that had to be done are still valid. In fact, they are more valid than ever. After March … Continue reading

In Malaysia, reforms take a staggered path

By Ooi Kee Beng, 3 December 2011, in TODAY, Singapore The leader of the Youth Wing declared at the United Malays National Organisation’s (UMNO) annual assembly held this week that the opposition parties had been vehemently opposing the Peaceful Assembly Act because they were hoping to create the conditions for widespread demonstrations in the hope … Continue reading

Drivers Behaving Badly

By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial for Penang Economic Monthly [www.penangmonthly.com] What would happen if every car is obliged by law to have a CCTV camera mounted in front of the driver, which immediately beams his face prominently onto an LED screen fixed on the roof of the vehicle for the world to see? Simple answer, … Continue reading

Did Malaysia mature when we were not looking?

In Today & The Malaysian Insider (Oct 31, 2011) THE FLURRY OF Malay organisations making the news in Malaysia bodes well for the country, whether or not these group together extreme rightists, opposition voices, concerned students or professors, or green or human right activists. The matter has now become too obvious to be denied, which … Continue reading

Will Najib’s election goodies be enough?

By Ooi Kee Beng For TODAY, Oct 10, 2011 THE ANNUAL BUDGET is a powerful weapon for the Malaysian government, and never more so than when national elections are impending. Mr Najib Razak’s third budget as Prime Minister, announced last Friday, definitely signals that elections are indeed on the way. Beleaguered as his government must … Continue reading