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By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial in Penang Monthly, October 2013 An important issue that should surface during coming debates about the impending Goods and Services Tax (GST) is how it affects the basic relation between the government and the Rakyat. The curse of having ample natural resources – which Malaysia has suffered from to a … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial for Penang Monthly, September 2013 I remember spending a lot of time in my teenage years wondering how societies are possible. Noticing how difficult it is for people to get along, I wondered what the key mechanisms are underlying the impressive stability one finds in societies whose members can number … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in Penang Monthly, August 2013 Following the General Election in 2008, BN had the strange situation of being in the opposition in five states. Before March 8 that year, it only had that role in peripheral Kelantan. Despite the fact that Perak fell back to BN through defections soon after, … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial, Penang Monthly July 2013 The pattern of change in Malaysia became ever more discernible after the 13th General Election. While the ruling BN understandably wishes to describe its victory as a reversal of trends that became apparent in 2008, too many other movements are saying the opposite, which is that … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial in Penang Monthly June 2013 One important effect of the March 8, 2008 elections was that it forced the BN government in Putrajaya into crisis management. That became the responsibility of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when he replaced Tun Abdullah Badawi as Umno president and as Malaysia’s Prime Minister … Continue reading
As the Norwegian Nobel Committee correctly noted when announcing its decision to award the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to the Intergnovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and to Al Gore Jr, “Indications of changes in the earth’s future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Cover story in Penang Monthly, (published as “Much at stake over BN’s Johor fortress, in The Straits Times, 13 April 2013) WHEN an army becomes restless, the general must fly into decisive action to signal that the waiting is over, and that battle plans are in place. Wearied by months, if … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in Penang Monthly, May 2013 Let’s face it. Whatever the election results, certain things will not go away easily. For one thing, Malaysia will be ruled by a coalition for a long time to come yet. That is a direct reflection of the impressive diversity of the country. Now that … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial for Penang Monthly, April 2013 It’s April now, the month at the end of which the Malaysian Parliament has to be dissolved to make way for general elections to be held, and within 60 days of that dissolution. Technically, elections must be held by 28 June. But in any case, … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG A review of The Peranakan Chinese Home: Art and Culture in Daily Life, by Ronald G. Knapp. Photography by A. Chester Ong. Tokyo, Rutland (Vermont) and Singapore: Tuttle Publishing. 2012. Hybridity is the essence of cultural development, and it is largely for political and economic reasons that the process of cultural … Continue reading
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