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By Ooi Kee Beng for CNA Commentary, 25 February 2020 PENANG: A coup d’etat attempt of sorts took place between Friday (Feb 21) and Monday. What unfolded by the end of Monday was that Dr Mahathir Mohamad had resigned as prime minister, only to become interim prime minister at the request of the Agong. This … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia, 31 March 2019. Malaya was born a democracy in 1957. The first general election held on the peninsula had taken place just two years earlier, on 27 July 1955. In fact, the first ever proper election was the municipal one held in George Town on 1 December … 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
PODCAST on Wide Open Air Exchange: Political history and Malaysia, Dr Ooi Kee Beng – WOAE057 Dr Ooi explains some of the political history of Malaysia in relation to global history and international order and by critically analysing concepts of colonialism, nationalism and regionalism.
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, “Picking on the Past”, column in Penang Monthly, October 2017. (Published on Merdeka Day, 31 August 2017 in The Malaysian Insight). MALAYSIA is a special place for its natural geography and its human history, but most importantly of all, because of its demographic complexity. The peninsula is on the western receiving … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, Penang Monthly, September 2017. Nurul Izzah, Daughter of the Reformasi, and of the jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was pulled into politics as a young girl. Now 36 years old, she has become a major figure in Malaysian politics. The future looks bright for her, and many see her as a … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Edge Malaysia, 2 October 2016 The word “Governance” has the same roots as “Government”. However, the recent popularity of the use of “governance” comes from the growing notion of looking at political control as a technical matter, and of an increasing tendency to think of the government—and the governing—of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng For The Straits Times, Singapore. 22 July 2016. The civil lawsuits filed by the US Justice Department on 20 July 2016 to seize assets worth over US$1 billion stolen from Malaysia’s state fund, 1MDB, are sending tight ripples across the globe. Not only are these the largest set of cases brought … 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
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