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).

310 posts

Getting Back on Our Feet, and with Back Held Straight

11 min read

DISASTERS – natural or manmade – tend to affect a limited geographical area.A typhoon cutting across the Philippines, like Typhoon Vongfong in May...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

The Future of Tourism—Only as Bright as We Make It

3 min read

SINCE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL became possible post-Covid, I have, for various reasons, been staying in at least five countries for substantial periods of time, inc...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Farizan bin Darus: Disruptions Await Society and the Civil Service (Part Two)

6 min read

THIS IS PART Two of an interview Penang Monthly's editor Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng had with Dato' Seri Haji Farizan bin Darus on April 15, 2021. Farizan retired as...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Introducing the Penang Walk Zones Project

10 min read

IF THERE IS one motto that Penang Monthly can use to describe its mission and vision, it is "Knowing Penang". That means capturing to the best of its ability al...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

From Free Port to Modern Economy. Economic Development and Social Change in Penang, 1969 to 1990

7 min read

Published by Penang Institute and ISEAS (Singapore) 2019Introduction (Abridged)WHILE Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu (1919-2010) was undoubtedly a major actor in the early...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

E&E and E&E: Penang’s Two Economic Legs Showing Strong Muscles

3 min read

As with Singapore three decades later, Penang, on being taken over by the British in 1786, immediately depended on the benefits of being a free port. The contin...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Digital Literacy Should Be Pursued the Way Universal Literacy Once Was

4 min read

AT ITS MOST basic level, literacy is about the ability to read and write. But reading and writing is a goal to an end. It was to get us educated. Literacy leads...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Relating Tales of Dislocated Culture

8 min read

AUTHOR SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA’S initially hesitant demeanour over Zoom belies the writing style of her debut short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. Sh...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Euston Quah and the Virtues of Cost-Benefit Analysis

8 min read

OUR EDITOR WAS stuck in Singapore for a few weeks in 2021 during the pandemic, and took the chance to meet up with one of Penang’s many famous sons living in th...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

What Are the Tropics If Not Naturally Diverse?

10 min read

DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE in the tropics once employed expressions such as luxuriant, verdant or lush. As technical terminology became the vogue, our ability to im...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Penang Continues to Punch Above Its Weight

9 min read

PENANG MONTHLY starts a new series, where we, once a year, talk to the Chief Minister of Penang. We met up with YAB Chow Kon Yeow after lunch on Saturday, 4 Mar...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Can We Be Playful About Sport?

3 min read

ALL SOCIALLY-INCLINED animals start life by crying for food. Beyond that, they seek safety and comfort. After that, the need to train their bodies for the futur...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng