Malaysia’s energy generat ion and usage
5 min read
Malaysia’s national grid operates as such: customers are connected with power from hydroelectric and thermal plants through a network system made up of tr...
Tokyo trippin’
5 min read
Standing on a curb on an overcast day in Tokyo, I was surprised at how excited I was while waiting for the lights to change at the (in)famous Shibuya scramble c...
The gay side of Singapore
4 min read
“If you are interested, I will bring you around,” my gay Singaporean friend told me. It sounded like an open invitation for something naughty. I gra...
Raising the stakes in Asia’s art world
7 min read
Art Stage Singapore 2014 saw a record-breaking 45,700 visitors walk past the Joko Avianto-constructed archways at its Marina Bay Sands venue. It was the centrep...
Bandung’s Creative City image grows stronger
5 min read
I still remember vividly arriving in Bandung in the early 2000s, when I was just starting university. It was night time when I passed by Dago Street, which wa...
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...
Supping in the homes of strangers
4 min read
The idea was immediately appealing to budding restaurateurs in Malaysia, and thus, Plate Culture was launched in June last year. What's not to like about it? It...
A Malaysia lost
6 min read
I want to talk about the issue of belonging. It may seem like an old hat but it’s a perennial issue and a very important one. To many of us, it is a sore...
Mind the Chinese shift in foreign exchange holdings
6 min read
While the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) is the dominant economic issue today, the announcement made by the People’s Bank of China last November tha...
Out of gas weighing our energy options
11 min read
As fossil fuel resources become increasingly expensive, energy-exporting countries have to realise that in order to meet domestic energy demands, they will have...
Asean’s response to Typhoon Haiyan
6 min read
At the end of October 2013, the Vietnamese government, together with the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centr...
The rise of Islamist conservatism in malaysia
9 min read
IntroductionA wide variety of interpretations and schools of thought have characterised Islamic scholarship in the Malay world, as can be seen from its willin...