The competitive edge and creativity which globalization demands of corporations and states alike requires fresh management methods. There is growing awareness that unlocking human potential is a key to sustaining growth. However, hierarchical management structures, which reward adherence to outdated thinking and hamper creative and energetic citizens and employees, are still widespread in government and private sectors in Southeast Asia. The articles on Human Resource Development (HRD) in this volume span and link the concerns of states and business. The first section contains advice on HRD...

This is a collection of opinion pieces written by Ooi Kee Beng and published in the mass media after Abdullah Badawi became Malaysia's Prime Minister in October 2004. The articles analyse the many difficult aspects of leadership that have been facing Abdullah Badawi over the last two years. The book discusses the country's underlying problems, the dilemma involved in succeeding Mahathir Mohamad, and draws conclusions about nation building in general. The leading party and its many weaknesses and strengths, the role of Malaysian Islam and the growing importance of regionalism and globalisation...

This is the long-awaited biography of Malaysia's powerful Home Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, who passed away of a heart attack on 2 August 1973. It is based on his private papers and on numerous interviews with his relatives and with people who knew him well, including Ghafar Baba, Musa Hitam, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Robert Kuok, Lee Kuan Yew and Ghazalie Shafie. New perspectives are provided about the struggle for independence, Malaysia's relationship with Singapore, the origins of Southeast Asian regionalism, the internal conflicts of the ruling...

This collection of articles takes a long look at the dynamics of regionalism in Eastern Asia and shows how although the past limits the future, its hold on our possibilities for peaceful coexistence is not as strong as we think. What makes this volume unique is that Taiwanese scholars are brought together with Malaysian scholars to discuss a subject that is vital to the future of both East and Southeast Asians. Japan's diplomatic history as well as the heritage of its conquest of Eastern Asia is examined alongside China's cultural geography, paradigmatic dynamics, and intra-regional...

'Dr. Ismail's writings and speeches, and his letters to the Tunku, covering a variety of foreign policy issues, are a valuable asset in understanding the unique role he played in the nation's history. He was without doubt the primary architect of Malayan (Malaysian) Foreign Policy'. - Tengku Tan Sri Dato' Seri Ahmad Rithauddeen, Former Foreign Minister of Malaysia. 'Not only was Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman Malaysia's first ambassador to the United States and permanent representative to the United Nations, he was also Foreign Affairs Minister in 1959-60. Later, as long-time Home Affairs Minister,...

For a whole generation of Malaysians, no proper closure to the traumas of the racial riots of May 13, 1969 has been possible. But then came March 8, 2008 The surprising results of the General Election on that special day have started eclipsing the fears linked for so long to that spectral night forty years ago. All the three researchers from ISEAS who each authored separate chapters for this book were in different parts of Malaysia monitoring its 12th General Election during the thirteen days of campaigning. Their analyses provide new insights into the phenomenon that Malaysians now simply...

Most of the chapters in this volume were first presented at the Penang Outlook Forum 2009, held on 1-2 June 2009 at the E&O Hotel in Penang. A few others have been added to complement those at the conference. At present, comprehensive and authoritative studies on Penang's current economic conditions are a rarity. This book is thus an effort to correct that lack. Evidence does suggest that the state had not been doing well in the first half of the first decade of the new millennium. Being a small state situated relatively far away from the administrative capital of Putrajaya, Penang has to be...

The story of Dr Baey Lian Peck should be well known, but it is not. Not even among Singaporeans, and especially not among the young. This tells us a lot about a Singapore caught in pathological haste and prone towards ignoring values that do not add to the financial bottom line. The innovativeness of Dr Baey did not only make him a very wealthy man before he was forty, it also made him an indispensable actor in the implementation of urgently constructed national policies. Political leaders such as Dr Toh Chin Chye, Lim Kim San, Chua Sian Chin and Dr Goh Keng Swee picked him to solve pressing...