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George Town’s historic City Hall was the setting for the inauguration of the Penang Institute, previously known as the Socio-Economic and Environmental Research Institute (SERI). This took place on December 9, 2011 alongside the Institute’s second Penang in Asia lecture on “Finance and the Current Recession”.
By Inge Witte
“We are here to ponder the future of the world from Penang,” Penang Institute's executive director Liew Chin Tong explained in his opening remarks. “Penang Institute is a modest attempt to provide a platform for new ideas to flourish and bear fruit through implementation in Penang and beyond.”
Keynote speaker Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who is also the Institute’s chairperson, described the current situation of the state of Penang, the advancements made and the importance of the role of think tanks. He expressed confidence that the institute would play an important role in contributing to policymaking in Penang. “We must create new ecosystems or adapt to new ones to connect and reconnect with qualities of hard work, openness and innovativeness,” he said. “(The name change) signals our aspiration to make Penang an important intellectual centre of an ever more important Asia.”
Nobel Prize winner Prof Sir James Mirrlees
Lim took the opportunity to publicly announce the confirmation of Prof Woo Wing Thye as the Penang Institute's executive director from March 2012. Woo is professor at the University of California at Davis and senior fellow of the renowned Brookings Institute.
The speech was followed by a panel discussion on improving the policymaking process in Malaysia. Led by PM editor Dr Ooi Kee Beng, the speakers were Members of Parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar and Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who discussed the issues and flaws in Malaysia’s parliamentary process, and how these could be improved.
Giving the Penang in Asia lecture, 1996 Nobel Prize winner Prof Sir James Mirrlees spoke at length about the European Union’s (EU) current financial situation and elaborated on moral hazards (a situation where a party weighs its decision based on how exposed it is to risk) and the role of states in this matter.
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Liew Chin Tong
“As we approach a new year, we can conclude that the world will likely remember 2011 as we remember 1968 and 1989. In each of those years, the world changed beyond recognition.”
“Today, we are here to ponder about the future of the world from Penang, and to celebrate the inauguration of Penang Institute.
Victor Hugo once remarked: ‘You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an idea whose time has come’, while John Maynard Keynes said that ‘The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else.’”
Excerpts from the welcoming speech by Penang Institute executive director Liew Chin Tong, at the inauguration of the Penang Institute.
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Lim Guan Eng
“… in Malaysia, despite it being a federation of states, power and authority have been increasingly centralised at the national level. As an example, in 1990, the combined total of all the state budgets made up 25% of the federal budget. Today, it is less than nine per cent.”
“The time of National Government knows best is over. Housing, transportation, garbage collection, sewerage, health and even education services should be devolved to the state government. It makes no sense for someone sitting in Putrajaya to be able to understand and comprehend the road and transportation needs of George Town or Butterworth. How can the federal government meet the housing needs of the people when land is a state matter?”
“It is high time for the devolvement of fiscal and political power to the states. If cities are to be catalysts of growth, then they need to be given enough autonomy in order to achieve it.”
“The state government has also committed to allocate a significantly larger amount of funds for the Penang Institute in order to achieve its ambition of fostering ideas for the continued improvement of Penang and beyond.”
Excerpts from the keynote address by Penang’s Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, at the inauguration of Penang Institute.
Inge Witte is currently conducting her Masters research in Penang to complete her Msc in Economic Geography at Utrecht University.
Originally published in issue 1.12 of Penang Economic Monthly.
