Challenging Malaysia’s Status Quo

History professor, consumer advocate, policy analyst and public intellectual par excellence Dr Lim Teck Ghee has put together this important collection of critical essays on the existential crisis of the Malaysian nation today. Through these essays, Dr Lim systematically exposes the poor state of governance in the Malaysian state and the flaws of its past and current policies. His pointed analyses of how and why we must change ineffectual and moribund policies is essential reading for academicians, politicians and activists. – Johan Saravanamuttu, Adjunct Senior Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore.

The life time spent by Dr Li Teck Ghee on studying and analyzing issues affecting the well-being of Malaysia and the world is exhibited an impressive fashion in this collection of articles. Often controversial, always informed, his incisive words confirm his standing as one of the country’s most intrepid and resolute public intellectuals. – Ooi Kee Beng, Executive Director, Penang Institute

Malaysia has been in a low-intensity crisis – punctuated by occasional moments of real confrontation – for so long that it is all too easy to normalise the status quo as the only imaginable world. For nearly five decades Lim Teck Ghee has been on of Malaysia’s most principled and eloquent critics of this system, and of ruling class that has entrenched itself, its ides and its interest into the body politic. His writing and political engagement are the epitome of the public intellectual – thinking about and reflecting broadly upon the realities of society, and offering feasible solutions. He straddles the worlds of rigorous scholarship, social activism and public discourse. And his view remain steadfastly subversive. The publication of Challenging Malaysia’s Status Quo bring together some of Lim Teck Ghee’s most penetrating analyses from the past decade. They offer a critique, a challenge and a chance to imagine that another world is possible for all Malaysians. – Gareth Richards, Gerakbudaya Bookshop, Penang

No Malaysian concerned with the future of Malaysia or anyone with an academic interest in the country can afford not to read this superb collection of essays by Dr Lim Teck Ghee, one of Malaysia’s foremost public intellectuals. With his impressive critical eye, deep historical insights, and extensive experience in political and social activism spanning almost five decades, Dr Lim offers his critical analysis and reflections on several political, economic and social issues in Malaysia with the vision of making change happen in a country on the brink of becoming a failed state. – Alberto Gomes, Professor, La Trobe University, Australia

Publisher: SIRD

Paperback

2017

ISBN: 9789670960920