About

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of History and International Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD). I graduated with a DPhil (Politics) from St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. I work in the area of institutions and institutional change. Having been working in the area, I fervently believe that the issue of institutional quality has not been given enough attention when we want to understand change. I go with the idea that state is distinctive in character and that state’s institutional character is a product of the various social, political and economic trajectories that it has carved for itself. While, I agree that agency is important to any change process, agency must be taken together with institutional considerations when we talk of change. Put simply, judgement and policy prescription must be based on a deeper appreciation of state’s unique political, historical, social and economic trajectories. My interest in institutions and change has led me to an eclectic range of projects from politics, economics and political economy, public policies and administration. Rather that see myself in a particular discipline, I see my interest as at the intersection of politics, economics and social and even historical concerns. I recently co-authored a book on institutional change and the Malaysian bureaucracy. Another book, Malaysia’s State Formation: Small Steps and Large Outcomes of a Contested Leviathan, will be released by Routledge in 2023. I am also working on a book project on Political change in Southeast Asia which will be out in the mid-half of 2024. Check out my publications.