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The Edge

This category contains 162 posts

Southeast Asia – Peripheral No More

By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 27 October 2014. South of China, east of India and north of Australia, much is about to happen. This is besides the endless outbreaks of diplomatic antipathy and maritime scuffles between claimant states in the South China Sea, all poignantly signifying Beijing’s inevitably enhanced role in East … Continue reading

Political Populism, Public Opinions and Prime Ministers

By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge, Kuala Lumpur, September 29, 2014 It is indeed a heavy sign of the times that more and more ex-leaders are adopting the Internet as the preferred avenue for publicising their views. And why should they not? The arrival of the World Wide Web and all the fast-evolving social … Continue reading

Is the Nation’s Essential Multiracialism in Grave Danger?

By Ooi Kee Beng For THE EDGE, Kuala Lumpur, 25 August 2014 Multiracialism does not come by chance. It is always an expression of the populated territory’s geopolitical history. We imagine societies to be essentially mono-cultural and mono-religious. That may be true of some regions in the world, but in regions such as Southeast Asia, … Continue reading

Jokowi’s victory is a regional one

By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE MALAYSIA, 3 August 2014 The whole region held its breath as it waited for the final result of Indonesia’s fifth presidential election to be announced on 22 July, 2014. Following exit polls done on election day on 9 July, both candidates had declared victory, and the tension worsened … Continue reading

Let’s Work Out What Malaysia is Good For

By Ooi Kee Beng For THE EDGE Malaysia, 30 July 2014 A wave of pessimism and dejection has been pervading Malaysia for quite a long time now. Exactly when it started is hard to say, but what has been obvious is that whatever potential lines of division that can be found in the diversity that … Continue reading

Malaysia in More Middling Traps Than Meets the Eye

By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge, Malaysia, May 25, 2014 What seems to have happened in Malaysian politics since 2008 is that we have a voter population that is divided right down the middle, and given the nature of the game, this situation is expected to remain for quite a while. We have a … Continue reading

Turning Disaster into a Learning Experience

By OOI KEE BENG For THE EDGE, Malaysia, April 28, 2014 As they say, one can only tell if a child is well brought up by how it acts—not when it is rested, fed and showered—but when it is exhausted, dirty and hungry. It would be good for Malaysia to turn the disaster of MH370 … Continue reading

Soft Handling of Divisions is ASEAN’s Strength

By Ooi Kee Beng For THE EDGE, Malaysia,30 March 2014 One trend is quite certain in these uncertain times, and that is that China’s political economy’s impact on the world will increase for a long time to come. For the Big Powers, China’s rise is understood sometimes as a win-win situation, but oftentimes as a … Continue reading

The More Satire We Accept, the More Mature We Are

By Ooi Kee Beng For THE EDGE, Malaysia. Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2014 Regimentation is elemental to Nation building. The issue is about “How”. How are the processes of social regulation, legal control, central education and negotiated buy-ins arranged?; how is national pride and identity, not to mention national knowledge and aspirations, developed and … Continue reading

Malaysia’s democratically elected leaders must act

By OOI KEE BENG, For The Edge, Kuala Lumpur, 3-7 February 2014. WITH rising racial and religious intolerance dominating the stage in Malaysia, the basic unresolved problem in the country’s development becomes painfully apparent once again, and questions begged to be asked and answered, again. Principally, how can the diverse cultural terrain that is Malaysia … Continue reading