Halal – the next frontier
15 min read
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Haji Abdul Malik Kassim at mou signing at mihas 2009.The global halal industryInternational experts place the worth of t...
November 2025
This November, Penang Monthly explores language, place and memory. As GTLF returns, we highlight Penang’s multilingual streets and the dialects that keep local history alive.
Unripened spices
3 min read
The onset of the Napoleonic Wars meant disaster for Penang’s fledgling pepper industry which was battered by a trade embargo. Without access to the lucr...
Unravelling the figures
8 min read
The Bank Negara (Penang branch) building on Light Street.Official numbers for the Malaysian economy are released twice every year, in March by Bank Negara...
Birdmen of Penang
8 min read
Laced woodpecker by Choo Beng Teong, watercolour on paper.The bird population in terms of species and numbers is dwindling in Penang. Choo Beng Teong attr...
The New Economic Model – Strategic Policy Directions
4 min read
Malaysia has made significant progress over the last few decades – the eradication of poverty and provision of health and education for its people, world-class infrastructure and access to modern technologies.
Young Nepalese in Penang
5 min read
Penang, filled with factories on the island and in Seberang Prai on the mainland, has an unquenchable thirst for workers, both skilled and unskilled. Opinions differ as to how this demand cannot be met by local workers.
Laying the groundwork for innovative growth
3 min read
During the talk at Wawasan Open University’s main campus on April 20, 2010, World Bank economist for Malaysia Philip Schellekens emphasised that “innovation is key for Malaysia’s longterm prosperity”.
Celebration of culture
4 min read
Two years on from George Town’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the newly established George Town World Heritage Office is planning a revamped and extended annual bash to celebrate the honour.
Safety in the cities
8 min read
A horrific incident occurred in April in Shah Alam, Selangor, that will sadly be merely an additional statistic in the growing list of police shootings recorded in recent times.
Gardens going to seed
7 min read
The public wants to be involved before a project is carried out.” But the public wasn’t informed, not until the projects were well under way. Then it was too late, and widespread outrage soon followed.
Butterworth Remains the Ugly Duckling
5 min read
When a clear vision for growth is missing, places and plans that hold promise turn into disappointments. Such is the case for Butterworth. But now that the town is richly represented in the state assembly, perhaps the aging duckling can yet turn out to be a swan.
An Eminent Malaysian Academic Abroad
10 min read
Professor Aihwa Ong is an internationally respected anthropologist with at least 10 books to her name. Born in Penang where she had her entire pre-tertiary education, she is now a Professor of Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, the United States.
Explore column