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By OOI KEE BENG The Edge Malaysia, 26 October 2015 What any Malaysian knows at heart is that the Malay community will always dominate the politics of the country. This means in concrete terms that Malaysia’s key leaders will always nominally and in reality be Malay Muslims. However, the country’s population is a very mixed … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For Penang Monthly, October 2015. [Also published in Digital Edge Weekly, 31 August 2015 as “Merdeka – Unfinished Liberation”] It takes two hands to clap; there is no shore unless there is sea; and one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor, as the poet rightly claims. You get the point. There … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia | July 7, 2015 I have always enjoyed the story — almost certainly a false and libellous one, but that does not matter here — about the tragic French Queen Marie Antoinette watching in consternation from a palace window as rebels rioted on the streets of Paris … Continue reading
For THE EDGE Malaysia, May 31-June 6 2015 (titled “Democracy is Necessarily Multi-tiered” By OOI KEE BENG It is time we pay careful attention to the essential multi-tieredness of democracy. Democracy is in essence much more than simply the electing of a central government. It is about electing representatives at different levels in order to … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE MALAYSIA, March 29-April 4 How the geographical belt stretching from South India through Southeast Asia up to Northeast Asia develops in the near future holds great significance not only for the global economy but for how leaders in maritime Southeast Asia think about their own country. To be … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The EDGE Malaysia, April 2015 Malaysia is in serious trouble today because the different narratives that have been driving politics in the country for more than half a century have come into direct conflict with each other. This shows more clearly than ever that what was always important for social … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG for THE EDGE MALAYSIA, 22-28 February 2015 Malaysian political disagreements have deteriorated to a level quite unthinkable in the minds of the founding fathers. Name-calling of the type, “I’m not a racist, you are”, is now common, and does no credit to the country’s reputation. When childish quarrels take the place … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, for THE EDGE Malaysia, 31 January-6 February, 2015. Aiming for maximum effect, the anti-poverty organisation Oxfam International megaphoned just before the World Economic Forum began in Davos, that the wealth gap has become incredibly huge. It released a study indicating that the richest one percent is on the brink of owning … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, for THE EDGE Malaysia, 21 December 2014 There is no doubt that the standard of English in Malaysia has fallen badly over the last few decades. And this is true for all Malaysian communities, even the Eurasians. It is a generational phenomenon made all the poignant because Malaysians started out having … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE Malaysia, November 30-December 5, 2015 Merdeka is the country’s most important word. It defines the country’s original aspirations and means a great deal to older Malaysians. For that reason alone, young Malaysians should study what it means for them to be heir to that imposing legacy. All Malaysians … Continue reading
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