Category Archives: Reflections

Mahathir Mohamad at 100: Monumental Achievements, Mixed Legacies

by Tricia Yeoh and Francis Hutchinson This was first posted on Fulcrum (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute platform) on 10 July 2025, the 100th Birthday of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad here. An edited version of this opinion piece was republished on the … Continue reading

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Abdullah Badawi – An Understated and Underrated Leader

This piece that was co-authored with Dr Francis Hutchinson of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute was first published in Fulcrum on 6 May 2025, here. Abdullah Badawi’s brand melded the best of two worlds, namely rising living standards and technological ambition minus … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Economics, Education, General Politics, Public Administration, Reflections | Leave a comment

Crisis Averted for now: Malaysia’s 15th General Election and What Lies Ahead

Tricia Yeoh This piece was originally published by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Southeast Asia website here, on Monday 28 November 2022. Malaysia’s highly anticipated 15th General Election (GE15) on 19 November 2022, originally intended as a way to end the … Continue reading

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Malaysian Politics: What Just Happened and the Political Outlook

This article was first published by the Heinrich-Boell Stiftung Southeast Asia on its website here, on 20 October 2021. It is never a dull day in Malaysian politics, but there seems to be a brief pause – for the time … Continue reading

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The Fall of the Corrupt

First published in theSun here, on 17 May 2018. IN Ayi Kwei Armah’s book, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born, the protagonist is a civil servant who chooses not to take bribes for favours at the expense of his children’s education … Continue reading

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Notes on a New Nation, Day 7

Notes on a New Nation Day 7 Post GE-14 (16 May 2018) and Concluding Thoughts (for now) How apt it is to end the week with what most would consider to be sweet justice. Just seven short days following the … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Elections, Federalism, General Politics, Public Administration, Reflections, Transparency and Good Governance | Leave a comment

Competition for better political and policy outcomes

First published in theSun on 26 April 2018 under the title “Competition for better outcomes”, here. GRAB, the Malaysian home-grown riding app, recently bought over Uber in several Southeast Asian countries. Some of us avid users have already noticed a … Continue reading

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Sustaining public healthcare

A version of this article first appeared in theSun here, on 18 January 2018. IT is said that you get what you pay for. The more expensive the product or service, conventional wisdom assumes that the quality of the product or … Continue reading

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Policy and Persuasion

First published in theSun here, on 21 December 2017. OVER the last few months, I had the privilege of teaching a class of final year undergraduate students at Nottingham University the 101 of public policy. This seemed to be a perfect … Continue reading

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Ideas of Freedom

First published in theSun on 31 August 2017, here. OVER the last four years, I am proud to have been part of a young, dynamic team of people working hard to produce research-based ideas and policy proposals at a local, independent … Continue reading

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