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By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge, 28 August 2017 THE ELECTIONS are coming, and the array of political parties facing each other across the widening divide can be stupefying for any observer newly arrived on the Malaysian scene. It would seem therefore that a quick look at the historical context in which some of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng The Edge Malaysia Weekly (June 26-July 02, 2017). You know that you are living in the 21st century when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is reach across the bed — not to caress your spouse, but to embrace your smartphone. After all, it has … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng The Edge Malaysia Weekly (May 2017) Humans are land animals. The history of humanity has been largely played out on land. The sea was something that rivers emptied into, and much of seafaring had hugged coastlines. Lakes were simply smaller seas. Access to fresh water, though, is vital to human life. … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge, Malaysia. 1 May 2017. Although one may forgive those who laugh off the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations in 2015 as a vain exercise to create Heaven on Earth, it is nevertheless vital for the credibility of goals that seek to change the direction of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 27 March 2017. Also published in Penang Monthly, May 2017. I paid at the counter for a taxi at KLIA2 a few weeks ago to take me to Bandar Sunway. My cabbie was an elderly Malay man who liked quoting Shakespeare. (Well, he was somewhat older even … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE, Malaysia; 6 March 2017. THERE IS something captivating about the generation of people in Malaysia and Singapore who were born in the decades before the Japanese occupation. The times had definitely been very uncertain throughout the region. The British colonialists were arguing among themselves about how the Southeast … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia, 30 January 2017 There is a forceful quote from John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the political economist and philosopher, which reads: “A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes – will find that with … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng / The Edge Malaysia | December 29, 2016 This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 26 – January 1, 2016. THE YEAR 2016 is about over. It was a year of surprises globally, what with terrorist attacks in Europe, the refugee flows into Europe from the … 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 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
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