By OOI KEE BENG, Published on 19 May, 2018 by Heinrich Böll Stiftung on their website: https://th.boell.org/en/2018/05/18/malaysias-reformasi-movement-lives-its-name
By Ooi Kee Beng Cover story in Penang Monthly, April 2018 The world may be stunned by the enormity of national scandals that have hit Malaysia and further dazed by the flippant official explanations that accompany them. Yet, the ruling BN remains expressly confident of victory in the coming elections. A high enough voter turnout, … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly Editorial for April 2018 As the 14th general election draws near, the sense that Malaysia – and the whole Asia-Pacific region, for that matter – must now leap into a new era is growing stronger by the day. What seems common to advanced countries and developing countries alike is … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng This article first appeared as “Back to Reformasi” in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 29, 2018 – February 04, 2018. The return of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the forefront of Malaysian politics at the age of 92 — 19 years after he sacked his deputy … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, “This Week in Asia” in South China Morning Post, 6 December 2017. AFTER ALL the analysing done by pundits on Malaysia’s political dynamics in the post-Mahathir period, the country has now come to the strange point of being in a potential pre-Mahathir period. There is now the more-than-theoretical possibility that 92-year-old … 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
Ooi Kee Beng For The Straits Times, 10 November 2016 Mass demonstrations are a strategic forcing of an issue to a head. This is definitely so in the case of Malaysia’s Bersih 5 rally planned for Nov 19. As its name reveals, this is the fifth street protest in a series. Organised by a huge … Continue reading
Ooi Kee Beng for The Straits Times, 8 September 2016, Malaysia’s former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, surprised his countrymen by turning up at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Monday to shake the hand of his former deputy and protege, and (perhaps former) political foe, Anwar Ibrahim. This is a highly significant event, … Continue reading
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
By Ooi Kee Beng, For The Straits Times, 13 April 2013 WHEN an army becomes restless, the general must fly into decisive action to signal that the waiting is over, and that battle plans are in place. Wearied by months, if not years, of waiting for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to dissolve Parliament and … Continue reading