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By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge, Malaysia, 25th August 2012 ELECTIONS are on the way, and an endless stream of promises will be forthcoming. The good thing is that Malaysians are such a politically savvy people — and this is paradoxically a sad reflection on the state of politics in the country’s recent history … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For New Mandala’s series “Malaysia after regime change, 30 June 2012 A dialogue about something as serious as regime change in Malaysia must examine at least two vast subjects. Firstly, a thorough and open discussion about the historical conditions under which the Federation of Malaya, and then Malaysia, was constructed is … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge, May 28, 2012 Undoubtedly, the self-image of a nation includes the memory of key events from the past. These may include those whose impact on the course of events was so strong that no narrative, either by historians or by the layman, can ignore them. And then there … Continue reading
Caught between hardliners and need for change, PM Najib’s slow pace of reforms fed Bersih 3.0’s huge crowds By Ooi Kee Beng For TODAY Newspaper │ 30 April 2012 And so the third Bersih rally has taken place. It cannot be understood in isolation from the political dynamics of the last few years. The demonstration … Continue reading
Book Review: P.G Lim’s Kaleidoscope: The Memoirs of P.G. Lim. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. 2012. By Ooi Kee Beng This much-awaited volume lives up to all reasonable expectations and should be read by anyone – historian, lawyer or layman – interested in Penang, in late colonialism, and in the early history … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng [This article is part of ANU’s New Mandala “Malaysia after regime change” article series, edited by Greg Lopez] Malaysia had to begin life as a federation because, like all federations, its diversity of polity, culture, history, ethnicity and economy was simply too deep for a centrally controlled regime to be practicable. … Continue reading
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
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
PEM Editorial — November 14, 2011 A HISTORY of Public Space in post-colonial countries is long overdue. Such a narrative would be a powerful one indeed if it also adopts the fall of empires as its background. We no longer ponder about the strange phenomenon of the string of empires – colonial or traditional – … Continue reading
by Ooi Kee Beng For TODAY, 2 Sept 2011 On July 9, the streets of Kuala Lumpur played host to animated engagements between demonstrators and the police. Bersih 2.0, which started out as a simple and hesitant attempt to revive public interest in electoral reforms, became a huge demonstration that captured the imagination of many … Continue reading
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