Inhabitants of Penang, 1803
4 min read
The 38-page typewritten volume was conceived more as a report to the East India Company and the British Government in London than as a public document. Certain...
Marks of a Sincere Malaysian Leader
4 min read
There is an anecdote told among close acquaintances of the late Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s feared and respected Deputy Prime Minister and Home...
Jefferey Sachs: Growth & Equality are Compatible
9 min read
Penang Institute held the fourth event in its “Penang in Asia” Lecture Series on October 20, 2012. The honoured speaker was Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs. P...
Of Birds and Buffaloes, Alligators and White Ants, 1816
5 min read
As soon as it gets dark on this mountain [Penang Hill], there arises on every side, a singular concert of birds and insects, which deprived us of sleep for th...
Penang Economic Outlook
30 min read
We live in a time when giant economies have had to experience how fragile they can be. The global crisis that began in 2008 has been going on for quite a few...
Smoking opium in Penang, 1854
4 min read
It destroyed countless lives and countless families, and came to be associated with Chinese culture despite the trade being run largely by the British as part o...
At Home with the Peranakan Chinese
3 min read
Hybridity is the essence of cultural development, and it is largely for political and economic reasons that the process of cultural definition is carried, large...
Malaysians Take Charge
12 min read
The consolidation of oppositional forces in general, not only party-based ones, has been extraordinary. This makes the status quo untenable; something that the...
Slowing Climate Change
10 min read
As the Norwegian Nobel Committee correctly noted when announcing its decision to award the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to the Intergovernmental Panel on Cl...
Watershed Elections for Malaysia
13 min read
Malaysia’s Arab Spring happened in September 1998 when former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was arrested. By refus...
After the elections: A new game begins
11 min read
Historical lines of conflictThe 13th General Elections held on May 5 this year did not bring about the change in government at the federal level which the opp...
Local Government in Penang, 1940
6 min read
Coming out as it did just a couple of years before the Japanese put a rude end to the intricate system of government that the British over 160 years had slowly...