China recently released a revised map staking its claims to the South China Sea. It is no longer a “9-dash line” but a map showing “10-dash line” that appears to be an expansion of the area it claims as its territory. China’s latest overtures is disconcerting. To critics this is yet another demonstration of China’s…
Thailand’s election on 14 May produced results few predicted. While Thai politics before the military led government revolved around the battle between the royalist (yellow shirts) and the reformist (red-shirts) led by supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party, the polls saw a new force in Thai politics, the Move Forward party. Led by young…
This is my latest book, currently in press. The book will be out perhaps end of this year or early 2024. This book comes up with the Contested Leviathan Framework to describe the essence of Malaysia’s political economy. The framework is developed from tracing Malaysia’s political economy over approximately 157 years (1800-1957) and tested against…
This is my latest article on political change; why change can be so difficult. As much as we want change and expect change agents who champion the promise of political change to deliver on their reform promises, we are usually left disappointed. This article explains that actors are not able to make the change because…
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri, has just announced the dissolution of the country’s parliament, paving the way for the country’s 15th General Election. The move was much anticipated following weeks of speculation. In his address to the nation, the Prime Minister mentioned that the “people’s mandate is a powerful antidote for the country to…
Malayan Chinese muted response to the Malayan Union proposal in 1946 which promised common citizenship rights and equal opportunity to non-Malays have not been sufficiently explained by existing literature. This article suggests that such muted response is due to the presence of Chinese transnationalism that diluted and diverted the community’s attention from seeking a Malayan…
The recent tiff between France and Australia over the latter’s buying of nuclear powered submarines has created diplomatic tension. Australia’s about turn – choosing of the US nuclear powered submarines against the French-made submarines – has soured relations between France, UK and the US with the French accusing its NATO partners of “stabbing its back.”…
This is a recent article I wrote for Critical Asian Studies. In the article I raise the point that any intervention in Myanmar should take careful note of the complexities of Myanmar’s political economy and the country’s institutional quality where democratic institutions are still at a nascent stage. ASEAN, specifically, needs to take a more…
This is an article I wrote in 2016, before Malaysia’s eventful May 2018 election that saw the Barisan Nasional (BN) losing control of the government and the first time that Malaysia saw a new coalition government, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) taking control. At the time the PH government included many former BN members, including the…
Habit is difficult to break, they say, because if you take the H there is still “a bit”. Even if you take away the “a” there is still the “bit”. And even if you remove the “b” there is still “it.” There is some truth about habit and change. Why is it that some societies…
