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...
The written word in a democratised world
5 min read
Literature and the individualThe only subject I was really excited by when I went to school four decades ago was Literature, both as a subject and in the form...
Letting little things talk
6 min read
What fascinates me greatly about your writing is your ability – and your apparent need – to embellish your narration with sensitive descriptions of...
A Magnificently Rich Tome on Early Penang
4 min read
There are several questions about the history of Penang that have bothered me for quite a while, satisfactory responses to which cannot be found in any Malaysia...
When Penang became a Spice Island
7 min read
Spices were much sought after, not only to tempt Europe’s tongues but also to cure its sick who were suffering from the plague and other nasty diseases. A...
One country’s Merdeka is another’s damage control
6 min read
It takes two hands to clap; there is no shore unless there is sea; one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor – as the poet rightly claims.You...
The more individual stories we acknowledge, the more authentic our national history
6 min read
Balik kampung – a true Malaysian traditionOne thing common to most Malaysians is the balik kampung tradition. This goes even for those millions who have...