As one of Malaysia’s major think tanks, Penang Institute participates in public discourse, identifies both negative and positive socioeconomic trends in state, national and regional development, and attempts persistently to influence policy making in the state and the country. This Newsletter provides summary information on events at the Institute and their significance, and on the Institute’s participation in public life over the previous month. It will forthwith be distributed regularly by email.
June 2022 – Relax But Stay Cautious
As we start getting used to post-pandemic realities, and physical events and travels become daily affairs again, there is still a need to stay cautious…
Read MoreMay 2022 – Making Conscious Choices In A Changed Environment
If you had fallen into a coma in January 2020, and woken up only in May 2022, you will probably feel very…
Read MoreApril 2022 – Post-Pandemic, People Are Prone To Take Charge Of Their Lives
As things return to “normal” in Malaysia, most of us do sense that a profound transitional period is at hand. This goes beyond…
Read MoreMarch 2022 – Springtime In The Air
The past month has been a very busy one at Penang Institute, despite some staff members catching Covid-19. There is definitely optimism and energy…
Read MoreFebruary 2022
Giving words and attention to the strange forms of isolation we had to endure over the last two years and to the various ways we devised to manage that…
Read MoreJanuary 2022 – A Renewal Of Malaysian Federalism May Be At Hand
Johor is soon to hold its state election separate from the federal election. With that, it joins Sabah and Sarawak, which over the last 18 months …
Read MoreDecember 2021 – Trust Is What We Need, More Than Hope
Hope is what we reserve for things that are beyond our control. It is therefore the passive sentiment most popularly promoted when we are overwhelmed by events, as…
Read MoreNovember 2021 – Exposure Keeps Us Culturally Healthy
What the Covid threat and the lockdowns throughout the world have done is to encourage cultural claustrophobia and social defensiveness. In a country like Malaysia…
Read MoreOctober 2021 – The Post-Covid Reality is a Political Process
There is no doubt that Malaysia and the world will exit into a normality informed by the Covid-19 pandemic which brought common suffering to all of mankind. What that normality will be like…
Read MoreSeptember 2021 – Correct Data and Its Strong Sense of Community Should Get Penang Through
As the world begins to see the end of the pandemic, the real work of rethinking and rebuilding and restoring awaits. This requires reliable information and data about how the pandemic…
Read MoreAugust 2021 – Tough Days Ahead for Everyone
As the pandemic enters its 18th month, the vaccination rate has reached a respectable and hopeful level. However, the infection rates are also at their highest throughout the country…
Read MoreJuly 2021 – Can Today’s Young Still Rely on the Old to Lead Them?
As disruptions come thick and fast, and as the health and political crises in Malaysia drag on and on, we have to wonder if dazed political leaders and dumbfounded corporate leaders on one hand and…
Read MoreJune 2021 – We Have No Choice But To Stay Optimistic
With the vaccination roll-out looking more encouraging, Malaysians now look optimistically to the future. What they see, apart from the political instability, is the need..
Read MoreMay 2021 – Being Creative Together
Penang’s economy depends greatly on the strength of its cultural heritage, which provides it with the power to attract tourists, to educate its young and to orientate itself in the…
Read MoreApril 2021 – Regional Matters Matter a Lot to Penang
There is always a danger for a small place such as Penang, and which always punches above its weight, to slip into parochialism and introversion. We saw that happening…
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