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By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 28 October 2023 (Republished in Penang Monthly here). MY YEARS AS a political analyst and historian have taught me to look up every now and then from the quagmire of details and distractions cluttering my head today. I was thinking of the importance of Sociology in enhancing … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG The steady fall of the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) from power, stretching from 2008 to 2018,and its ability to remain in government thereafter in one role or another tells an incredible tale thatcould not have been predicted and that still leaves most pundits confounded. Some of the implications of UMNO’s recent … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 21, 2023 – August 27, 2023 Seldom had state elections seemed so important to the future of the country as the six that took place on Aug 12, 2023, nine months after federal elections put Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG OVER THE YEARS, as one studies Malaysian history in all its aspects, an uncomfortable feeling grows strong that the ethnic diversity of its post-colonial population, by falling into the nation-state trap of racial ranking, has turned attention away from the geopolitical and geo-economic conditions in which the country develops under. Nothing … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 26, 2023 – July 2, 2023: “Picking on the Present” column. THERE ARE MANY ways one can attempt to fathom what it is that ails Malaysian democracy. Is it democracy itself that, when applied in a country newly emerged from colonial control, has allowed … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia (Column “Picking on the Present”), 27 May to 3 June 2023 New nations by virtue of being “new”, suffer immediate ontological challenges. Not only does this concern its very existence as an integrated geographical entity, a national economy and a united polity, but also its acceptance by … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, in “Picking on the Present”, for The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on April 24-30, 2023 Allow me to dream a while about Malaysia. Malaysia is a divided country, but it is often stated how lucky a place it must be for it to have functioned so peacefully despite the odds stacked against it … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, in The Edge Malaysia (Picking on the Present), 26-31 March 2023 WE GET TO know what White is by knowing what Black is, and then deepen our understanding of them by fathoming how the two interact. The same goes for Unity, the operative term in Malaysian governance today, and understanding it … Continue reading
“There has thus been a strong push in Malaysian political life since 1998 for systemic changes, which has profoundly informed the political thinking of a generation or two of Malaysians. A proper culmination has been necessary. We thought 2018 was that culmination, but it was not. Now we hope that 2022 is that culmination.” By … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, “Picking on the Present”, column for The Edge Malaysia, 28 January to 3 February 2023 It had seemed obvious to some observers of Malaysian politics back in 2008, after the fateful elections that saw five states fall into the hands of the opposition and the Barisan Nasional (BN) lose its super-majority … Continue reading
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