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By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge Malaysia, 28 March 2016 The problem with thinking of Merdeka—of independence—as a reboot, and as the beginning of a largely internal process through which pride of place on the world stage for the people and the state is that one becomes rather ahistorical. By that, I mean that … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge Malaysia, 7 March 2016 This year—2016—is a special year for Malaysia. This is not because of the Sarawak state elections due in April (according to some sources); not because of the alarming economic situation facing so many already poor Malaysians today; nor is it because of the risk … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 25 January 2016. The biggest paradox in Malaysian political narrative is how the call for unity is in reality a call for disunity. This comes about because calls for unity tend to be rhetorical appeals for racial unity vis-à-vis other races. Since all societies today—and Malaysia started … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia, 28 December 2015. Malaysia has drawn the attention of the global community in recent times, and this has largely been much more as negative publicity than positive. Just last Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution deploring “the deteriorating human rights situation in Malaysia and in particular the … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 30 November 2015 In recent weeks, the Southeast Asian region has been getting more global attention than it is used to, or is in fact comfortable with. But while governments there have for years been reiterating ASEAN Centrality as the cornerstone of their foreign policy, most of … Continue reading
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
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