Ooi Kee Beng

Lee Hock Guan

Saravanamuttu Jayaratnam

For a whole generation of Malaysians, no proper closure to the traumas of the racial riots of May 13, 1969 has been possible. But then came March 8, 2008 The surprising results of the General Election on that special day have started eclipsing the fears linked for so long to that spectral night forty years ago. All the three researchers from ISEAS who each authored separate chapters for this book were in different parts of Malaysia monitoring its 12th General Election during the thirteen days of campaigning. Their analyses provide new insights into the phenomenon that Malaysians now simply refer to as "March 8." Ooi Kee Beng scrutinizes in detail the electoral campaign in the state of Penang, Johan Saravanamuttu studies the case of Kelantan state and the elections in general, while Lee Hock Guan examines changes in the voting pattern in the Klang Valley.

Eclipsing May 13

March 8

Malaysia is no easy country to analyse, or even to understand. With so many narratives about the country, its peoples, and its histories, the noise generated — both online and off — can be as deafening as that of any rave party. Since 2019, Malaysians have lived through a unique period in the country’s history. Amid the Covid pandemic and its many challenges, Malaysia experienced three prime minister changes, and countless other political dramas and plot twists. Signals in the Noise is not just a book on politics, though. Moving with ease between different sociopolitical and socioeconomic discourses, this collection of Ooi Kee Beng’s columns and commentaries — published between 2019 and 2023 — showcases more than ever his talent as a historian and philosopher, alongside his prowess as a political scientist. This wide-ranging collection is a must-read beginner's guide to Malaysian politics. It also highlights Ooi’s love for his hometown of Penang, his concern for the environment, and how the arts define a society and its perceptions of the world.

Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World

To understand how independence was gained for a politically complex country such as Malaysia, and how its structure took form requires familiarity with the key players involved. More importantly, only by locating these actors within the changing socio-political context in which they specifically lived does their influence both before and after the birth of the country become clear. Having written potent biographies about Malaysian and Singapore leaders such as Ismail Abdul Rahman, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia who died in 1973, Goh Keng Swee, the economic architect and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Singapore, and Lim Kit Siang, the unwavering opposition leader of Malaysia, Ooi Kee Beng now tells the story of Lee Hau-Shik, based on the latter’s extensive private papers housed at ISEAS Library, Singapore. Born in Hong Kong to a highly prominent family at a time when the Qing Dynasty was falling, Hau-Shik received degrees in Law and Economics in Cambridge and became a successful tin miner in British Malaya and an influential member of Kuala Lumpur’s colonial society. After the Second World War, his influence in elite circles in China, Britain and Malaya allowed him to play a key role in the gaining of independence for Malaysia. He was one of the founders of the Malayan Chinese Association, and served as the country’s first Minister of Finance. "Ooi Kee Beng’s new book on H.S. Lee provides a remarkable picture of an “unlikely politician” who made major contributions to the formation of the early Malayan state. It adds another dimension of study to the formidable task of nation building in a multi-communal society and is an excellent follow-up to his widely praised study of Tun Ismail as the 'reluctant politician'." -- Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore "Set against the global turbulence that marks the birth of modern Malaysia, Ooi Kee Beng has given us a compelling account of Sir Henry Lee Hau Shik’s personal life and political career, his role in the move to independence and the indelible imprint he left on the country’s history. In highlighting and contextualizing H.S. Lee’s own papers, As Empires Fell should be read by all those interested in how Malaysia came to be." -- Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawai‘i

The Life and Times of Lee Hau-Shik, the First Finance Minister of Malaya

As Empires Fell

The story of Dr Baey Lian Peck should be well known, but it is not. Not even among Singaporeans, and especially not among the young. This tells us a lot about a Singapore caught in pathological haste and prone towards ignoring values that do not add to the financial bottom line. The innovativeness of Dr Baey did not only make him a very wealthy man before he was forty, it also made him an indispensable actor in the implementation of urgently constructed national policies. Political leaders such as Dr Toh Chin Chye, Lim Kim San, Chua Sian Chin and Dr Goh Keng Swee picked him to solve pressing problems such as skyrocketing inflation in the early 1970s, the crisis in prisoner ward in the late 1970s, and the drug addiction epidemic in that same latter period. His one condition for taking on public positions was that he should not be paid. It was exactly this independent trait that made him so highly effective.

Baey Lian Peck's Singapore Story

Serving a New Nation

The two Chinese classics that this volume consists of – Wu Zi’s Art of War and Conversations with Tang Taizong – were written a thousand years apart. However, the latter carries regular references to the former, and the principles of warfare, leadership, strategy and organisation were themes eagerly discussed throughout Chinese history. Even a cursory reading of these books provides ample reasons why General Wu Zi, who lived in the earlier part of the Warring States period (475-221 BC) never lost a battle in his life. And also why Emperor Taizong managed to found the long-lasting Tang Dynasty (618-906) that southern Chinese still proudly refer to as the basis of their culture. Today, centuries later, these master strategists still overwhelm us with their insights and words of wisdom

Chinese Strategists: Beyond Sun Zi’s Art of War

Malaysia pulled itself back from the brink on 9 May 2018. That day the majority of its voting population decided to topple the Barisan Nasional government that had been in power for over 60 years and that had come to be seen as corrupt beyond redemption, and incompetent to boot. Lined up against the unpopular administration of Najib Razak was a coalition led by former strongman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who at the age of 92 had decided to return to Malaysian politics to stop the rot which many believed had begun during his earlier period in power, in 1981-2003. As the oldest prime minister in world history, he is now setting about creating structure that he believes will lead to a Malaysia that will achieve the Vision 2020 that he first propounded in 1991. This vision dovetails with the ideals of the highly influential Reformasi Movement which was ignited by the sacking of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, in 1998. This compilation of insightful analyses is Ooi Kee Beng’s seventh, and discusses key events from the last five years leading up to 9 May 2018 and beyond. These seven books together cover the strange period we may come to know as the Inter-Mahathir Era, and the present volume discusses some of the challenges facing the new government, and the Malaysian population in general, now that the Barisan Nasional has imploded.

A Second Chance for Democracy in Malaysia

Catharsis

Over the past two decades, ISEAS has compiled abridged articles that analyse key aspects of Southeast Asia’s development and the ASEAN process. The ASEAN Reader was published in 1992 just as the Cold War ended, while The Second ASEAN Reader came in 2003 in the wake of the 1997 Asian crisis and the September 11 attacks in 2001. The past decade has not been spared its share of intense changes, with the rise of China and India bringing new challenges to the region’s power equation, and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite this, the momentum towards an integrated ASEAN community has been maintained. The articles in The Third ASEAN Reader study the trends and events of recent years, and discuss the immediate future of Southeast Asia.

The 3rd ASEAN Reader

Lim Kit Siang has been fighting on the forefront of Malaysian politics since the late 1960s. Uncompromising in his mission to pull the country away from systemic race-based politics and all the ills that stem from the sustainment of these over five decades, he was jailed twice without trial. His persistence saw him and his followers well placed to participate in the surprising resurgence of political opposition over the last 15 years. Since 2008, his Democratic Action Party has grown greatly in strength, and together with its allies, has been able to seriously challenge the ruling coalition. This book captures the spirit of Lim’s life, and describes the grim yet gratifying journey that his refusal to compromise on his political convictions forced him to take. It is the tale of a man who felt he had no choice, and consequently, whose impact on his country’s history is great. In that sense, his story is also a narrative about a country that has yet to fulfil the great promise that it holds

Ooi Kee Beng

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