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By Ooi Kee Beng , for The Edge Malaysia, 21-28 February, 2025 AS THE TSUNAMI of earth-shaking executive orders bursts out of Trump’s Oval Office, the world tries to stay upright. Our legs seem rubbery though. Now we know what collective vertigo feels like. For now, the shock is greatest for Washington’s closest allies. Learning … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng “Picking on the Present” column in The Edge Malaysia, 25-31 January 2025 As geopolitical shifts continue in ways that profoundly affecting East Asia, processes of decolonization in this region—most begun after World War Two, many transmuted by how that war ended, and all captured within the conflicts and standoffs of the … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, for The Edge Malaysia, 23-29 December 2024. From the column “Picking on the Present” NEW FRONTIERS facing the world today are, firstly, tantamount to a historical crossroads for humanity. They are that significant. Secondly, they are most cogently considered as philosophical and anthropological, as well as geopolitical and geo-economic. And by … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Malaysia, 23-30 November 2024. I HAVE OFTEN wondered about the nature of “mediocrity”. We tend to think of mediocrity as something an individual besits and should be accountable for. When considered collectively, we have skills and knowledge that we prefer to call “common sense”, and these may not … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Penang Monthly 15th Anniversary bumper Issue, October 2024 WE ARE AT one of those self-appraising points in time when we—not only Penang Monthly, but also Penang Institute as a whole—stare hard into the rearview mirror in order to orientate our journey forward. In fact, individually, we do that all the time … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, in The Edge Malaysia (Picking on the Present column) 28 Sept – 4 Oct 2024. IS THE WORLD still caught in the ethnocentric fervour of European colonialism, during which the multiple revolutions in political organisation, in energy harnessing, in science and technology, and in military prowess, backed by creative ideological innovations … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, RSIS Working Papers WP342 18 July 2024 Abstract The last 25 years in Malaysian political history have circled around the personalities of Mahathir Mohamed and Anwar Ibrahim, with several minor (in hindsight) actors playing supportive—or destructive—roles. Although over 20 years apart in age, they have participated in the same protracted play … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, “Picking on the Present” column in The Edge Malaysia, 22-29 June 2024. IT HAS CONSTANTLY been said of Malaysia that it is “at a crossroads”. That is more a glib statement about the contingent nature of the country and the compromised nature of its politics than it is an insight about … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge FORUM: Picking on the Present. 25 -31 May 2024. WE ALL AGREE that the world has changed greatly in recent centuries, accelerating in the last decades to such a degree that it is now almost impossible to isolate and identify dynamics of change well enough for us to … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, for The Edge Malaysia, 27 April – 3 May 2024. SO WHAT CAN be wrong with the Unity Government? It has a two-third majority, it is made up of four coalitions of parties, none of whom would be in positions of power if they did not work together, and it is … Continue reading
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