Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His recent books include The Eurasian Core and its Edges: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World (ISEAS 2016).

312 posts

The Diminishing of Humans through Identity Politics

3 min read

Who am I?A simple question to ask oneself, and yet, no simple answer suggests itself. As long as the issue is about the singular person, it appears to be but...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Enough With Penang Food Already! What About the Drinks?

3 min read

Yes, Penang has amazing food, be it fusion or hybrid, street or mall, traditional or accidental. And yes, it has amazing desserts too, like the Penang Road te...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

We Are Equal Only Through Our Vote

4 min read

Freedom cannot be understood apart from power. Like with all good dichotomies, it is never clear where the one turns into the other, or lives off the other.To...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Penang Should Make the Most of Transiting Cruise Tourists

3 min read

I assume anyone reading this has some time or other been one of those strange global creatures, disliked by some for their transient but disruptive presence a...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

How Penang’s Early Prominence was Lost

15 min read

The early decades in the life of Prince of Wales Island did not see it living up to the expectations of its administrators, especially as a ship-building port...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Justices of the Peace: An Institution at Risk of Being Forgotten

11 min read

As a colony of the British, Malaya inherited the tradition of appointing Justices of the Peace (JPs) from among its prominent individuals and community leaders....

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng & Koay Su-Lyn

Koay Su-Lyn

Catharsis – The Rebirth of Malaysia Finally Begins

9 min read

MAYBE IT WAS because the transition took so long, and opposition parties had had a chance to rule certain states for two terms and made change in government an...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

It all seems so simple now...

3 min read

INTO THE GREAT dining hall, the children came. The guards at the gates do their best to keep as many of them out as possible, but they are too few, and the chil...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

In Lieu of Race and Religion

4 min read

One can easily see how southern South-East Asia – being largely maritime, ethnically very diverse and geo-economically a collection of trade routes &ndash...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

A Malaysian Spring for the Intelligentsia?

4 min read

I know Malaysia is a tropical country, but let’s adopt a concept from temperate zones without having to be politically sensitive about it. We are in the m...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

The Deep Historical Significance of GE14

4 min read

Whatever one’s politics may be, one has to admit that the origins of the Federation of Malaysia are complicated and are overlaps of compromises made over...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Naming Modern Means of Mass Transport

3 min read

In the age of speedy technological innovations, thinking up names for totally new things that are not created by Mother Nature but by this innovative ape we c...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng