Editorial - Penang Monthly (Page 8)

Let’s be cosmopolitan and leave multi-ethnicity behind

2 min read

It is fascinating how seemingly innocuous words actually are not. Especially those that sound neutral, even ethically positive. That is why the sage never think...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Towards substantive democracy

2 min read

Democracy is a big word, and like all big words it is given to controversy and misuse.Since the magazine’s cover story this month and in April will be...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

To excel is to stay curious

3 min read

This is not strange given how our brain, no matter how complex it may be, is one highly interconnected organ that never stops working. It seeks to integrate,...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Education is not only for building a common identity

2 min read

Education is a key issue in nation building; in no other country has it been more evident than in Malaysia where so much contestation since the 1950s has been...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Proficient Multilingualism is the future

2 min read

Let’s get serious about global communication.In the Age of Nationalism, which is what we continue to live in, we tend to forget that communication bet...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Let’s globalise wisely

2 min read

There is much to worry about in the world today, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which should give us reason to pause and consider what the long-t...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Growing Old and Staying Young in a Brave New World

3 min read

The ICT revolution has been taking place all my adult life: I bought my first home computer in 1990 when I was 35, my first mobile phone a decade later, and t...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

The interplay between Form and Flair

2 min read

Watching the recent World Cup matches brought to my mind the snug relationship between Form and Flair. Football seen on the TV screen shows clearly how differ...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

A Final Quarrel Between a Repentant Grandfather and Old-fashioned Self-absorbed Parents

2 min read

As the 14th general election draws near, the sense that Malaysia – and the whole Asia-Pacific region, for that matter – must now leap into a new era...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Xenophobia signals crisis

3 min read

A clear connection seems to exist between an economy’s health, on the one hand, and that society’s handling of religious and ethnic minorities, on...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Trapped multiple times

2 min read

This month’s cover is about Malaysia’s brain drain; and what is fascinating is how old – and yet how current – the story reads.Indee...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Funeral for a true son of Penang

2 min read

The morning was soft and cloudy – but only for a while. By 10am, the sun was blazing and having its usual relentless way with Penangites. Perhaps as man...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng