Penang Monthly

Penang Monthly, by Penang Institute, is the voice of Penang, offering insights on its people, politics, economy, culture, and society, with a focus on local and national issues for curious Malaysians.

835 posts

Local Democracy Alive and Kicking in Pakatan States

5 min read

IN A PEM column last year, I wrote extensively about local government elections and the laws and policies governing them in Malaysia. At that point, both the st...

by Penang Monthly

What's Your Penang?

2 min read

A LONG TIME AGO, I was standing on a London tube platform watching rats scurry under the rails. Something caught the edge of my eye, a vaguely familiar beach...

by Penang Monthly

What Is The Truth About The Baling Talks?

6 min read

WE TEND TO THINK OF the Baling Talks of 1955 as a serious attempt by the government to negotiate peace with the Communists.But if we were to study the actua...

by Penang Monthly

Learning Heritage From Penang

2 min read

A DELEGATION FROM the Indonesian National Heritage Trust, made up of architects, planners, archaeologists, heritage property owners, government officers, acad...

by Penang Monthly

The Past Is The Present

7 min read

SOMEHOW heritage became an unquestionable value in itself in the everyday life of George Town ever since its Unesco World Heritage listing, and often there is n...

by Penang Monthly

Rivers of Tears

4 min read

HANGING AROUND Lorong Kulit on a rainy evening isn’t everyone’s idea of an artsy night out; the area is better known for its daytime fruit stalls an...

by Penang Monthly

George Town –Where Design and Culture Must Continue to Merge

10 min read

GEORGE TOWN CANNOT help telling a thousand tales. The “outstanding universal values” that emanate from its foundation of culturally informed design...

by Penang Monthly

Household Debt in Malaysia – Is It Sustainable?

7 min read

ONE IMPORTANT LESSON from the financial crisis of 2007–2009 is that economic stability and financial fragility are not only influenced by consumer price...

by Penang Monthly

Pricing The Homemaker

5 min read

TWO-THIRDS OF economic wealth is generated by human capital; and the catalyst in this staggering equation lies in the process of parenting. More interesting, a...

by Penang Monthly

The Face of A Movement

3 min read

AMONG ALL THE photographs taken during the Bersih 2.0 rally, one stands out. In it, a petite grey-haired lady clad in a yellow T-shirt is seen standing in fro...

by Penang Monthly

Bersih 2.0 A Desire For Democracy

9 min read

THOESE WHO PARTICIPATED IN, or followed developments leading to the gathering organised by Bersih 2.0 on July 9, 2011 must have come out of it with mixed feelin...

by Penang Monthly

Keep Solid Waste Local

6 min read

ON A MALAYSIAN online directory listing, Alam Flora Sdn Bhd’s description of itself reads: “We’ve been entrusted by the Government to manage t...

by Penang Monthly