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By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for Penang Monthly, November 2014 Let’s get serious about global communication. In the Age of Nationalism, which is what we continue to live in, we tend to forget that communication between peoples requires a range of compromises, not least of all in the use of language, in the use of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, Penang Monthly, October 2014 At a time when journalism—as a social activity more than a salaried profession—is booming beyond measure in Malaysia—a fact proven by heightened contestations in the public domain, and by government attempts to intimidate and harass all types of non-supporters, it is important that we pause and … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in Penang Monthly, September 2014 There is much to worry about in the world today, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ewhich should give us reason to pause and consider what the long-term, persistent and negative consequences of the cultural shrinking of the world actually are. Politically, … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in PENANG MONTHLY, August 2014 Watching the recent World Cup matches brought to my mind the snug relationship between Form and Flair. Football seen on the TV screen shows clearly how different formations—of 4-3-3 or 4-4-2—function differently, and how each of these hold different possibilities and different limitations. Now, if … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial for Penang Monthly, July 2014. A CLEAR CONNECTION seems to exist between an economy’s health, on the one hand, and that society’s handling of religious and ethnic minorities, on the other. In fact, I would venture that one can best identify a society in crisis by studying the xenophobic tendencies … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial for Penang Monthly, June 2014 This month’s cover is about Malaysia’s brain drain; and what is fascinating is how old—and yet how current—the story reads. Indeed, we should be talking about a Brain Drain Trap, as we do about the Middle Income Trap. And we should be worrying just as … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG The sudden demise of opposition leader Karpal Singh in the early hours of 17 April in a traffic accident on the North-South Highway outside Kampar in Malaysia has left many Malaysians saddened. The sadness is deepened by the thought that he had only a month ago been convicted of sedition. It … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial, PENANG MONTHLY May 2014 The morning was soft and cloudy—but only for a while. By 10 am, the sun was blazing and having its usual relentless way with Penangites. Perhaps as many as 20,000 of us were already gathered outside the Dewan Sri Pinang, where the body of one of … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial for Penang Monthly, April 2014. PM’s cover story this month is about East Malaysia, and how unknown a territory it has always been to Malaysians on the peninsula. To start with, we need to remind ourselves of how troubled the beginnings of the Federation of Malaya actually were—and I don’t … Continue reading
Review of Penang – The Fourth Presidency of India 1805-1830, Volume One: Ships, Men and Mansions, by Mark Langdon. George Town: Areca Books. 2013. By OOI KEE BENG, for Penang Monthly, March 2014 There are several questions about the history of Penang that have bothered me for quite a while, satisfactory responses to which cannot … Continue reading
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