June 2026

Discover Penang Monthly’s June issue: explore the stories behind Penang’s enduring heritage brands, the richness of its multilingual and multicultural heritage, innovative local businesses, community-led initiatives, and the challenges shaping the state’s future. From family enterprises and semiconductor pioneers to traditional food, festivals, education, and environmental sustainability, this issue celebrates Penang’s resilience, identity, and capacity for renewal.

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A publication of Penang Institute, Penang Monthly is the voice of Penang - an inspiring read for the curious Malaysian, featuring stories about the people, ideas, and issues shaping the state's well-being. Sign up for a free account to enjoy unlimited access to all our articles.

Education in South-East Asia: Disruptions Are Happily at Hand

9 min read

Dato' Dr Ooi Kee Beng.I am very happy that the first Asean-Australia Education Dialogue (AAED) is held here in Penang, my hometown. We like to think of Pe...

by Penang Monthly

Heng Ee: A School that Practises Inclusiveness

7 min read

From his experience in China, Father Julien was inspired to set up a school in Jelutong for social outcasts and school dropouts after observing the large number of youngsters in the area who failed to receive a basic education owing to poverty. And so, the idea to establish Heng Ee was conceived.

by Lim Sok Swan & Pan Yi Chieh

The Travel Industry Will Never Be the Same Again

5 min read

WIT Indie, the latest edition of Web in Travel (WIT), Asia’s leading digital travel media and events platform, was held on April 13 at Penang Institute. O...

by Regina Hoo

Ambassadress of Arabic Music

4 min read

April Centrone is a drummer, percussionist, teacher and music therapist based in New York and New Jersey in the US, who enjoys an international reputation as we...

by Tho Mun Yi

Prominent Mosques of Penang: The Enclave of George Town

6 min read

Apart from being important places of worship, mosques function as points of orientation in time and space for Muslims. They are places where social ties, religi...

by Nidhal Rawa

Nidhal Rawa

GE14: A Malaysian Moment

5 min read

In the hilly land to the north of Johannesburg, on the wall opposite the Bench in the Constitutional Court of South Africa, nestled within the Old Prison Fort w...

by Steven Sim

When Malaysians Took Back Control

4 min read

It was on nomination day that I first sensed something in the air. I was in the midst of my rounds at a village in my constituency that afternoon when a police...

by Zairil Khir Johari

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

Malaysia’s Demographic Shift Poses Big Challenge

7 min read

People are having fewer babies today. There has been a steady decline in fertility rates worldwide since 1950. Live births have shrunk by half, from five babies...

by Ong Wooi Leng

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

OBITUARY: KHALIL IBRAHIM (1934-2018) Rustic and Enduring

7 min read

Khalil Ibrahim and his East Coast Fishermen Series in acrylic.IN THE SULTRY New Delhi heat, the ceaseless traffic of humanity below was a cacophony of pro...

by Ooi Kok Chuen

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