Deepening the Here and the Now
3 min read
IN THE FEEDBACK which has come to my attention to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow's Penang2030, which he launched on August 29, 2018, just three months afte...
Working in Silos Becomes the Norm When Merit Systems Are Shunned
3 min read
FORMER INTERNATIONAL Trade and Industry minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz entertained Malaysia with her comment that the idea that Malaysians like working in silos was not really accurate since silos are places huge enough for significant things to happen.
Pedestrians of the World, Unite!
4 min read
WE SAY THAT birds fly and fish swim. We think of reptiles as crawlers and monkeys as climbers. But what about us? What about man? What is our default physical a...
With E-learning, Universal Education Finally Comes of Age
3 min read
LIKE SO MANY generations before me have done I associate learning with schools with buildings to which little uniformed boys and girls trudge before the day get...
![Farizan bin Darus: A Lifetime Serving Penang and the Civil Service [Part One]](https://host.forward.edu.my/pm_storage/public/13960/penang-profile.jpg)
Farizan bin Darus: A Lifetime Serving Penang and the Civil Service [Part One]
6 min read
AFTER A LIFETIME in the civil service, Dato' Seri Haji Farizan bin Darus finally retired from the powerful position of State Secretary for Penang State in 2019....
Why Meet the 21st century with 20th century Mindsets?
3 min read
Why Meet the 21st century with 20th century Mindsets?We should not forget that in the days before social media and news websites, the flow of information &n...
Social Media and the Self
3 min read
What is it about social media that turns us so easily into converts and addicts?This is not a difficult question to answer, really. It is immediate; it prov...
Is Capitalism without Socialism Sustainable?
2 min read
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the communist experiment, and to the extent that the experiment was an application of Marxist ideas about class...
Did Merdeka Liberate or Create Malaya?
2 min read
Sixty years may have passed since Merdeka Day, but its historical significance remains something we continue to debate.Did Malaya fight to free itself from...
Wan Azizah & Nurul Izzah: Rebuilding A Nation Long Divided
21 min read
By Ooi Kee BengNurul Izzah, Daughter of the Reformasi, and of the jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was pulled into politics as a young gi...
One Thing is Certain – Expect More Amendments to the Constitution
3 min read
As with all agreements, consensus and contracts, a Constitution is a hunt for a balance – and a dynamic one at that – between the expressing on one hand of lofty national aspirations and ambitions, and on the other of compromises meant to be more binding than they usually turn out to be.
The Primacy of Political Economy in Asia
3 min read
It’s a complicated subject, this thing we call Economics. I don’t always know what it means.I remember once talking to Robert Kuok about it. His...