Bücher von Ooi Kee Beng

With China's transformation into a republic after two millennia as an empire as the starting point, Ooi Kee Beng prompts renowned historian Wang Gungwu through a series of interviews to discuss China, Europe, Southeast Asia and India. What emerges is an exciting and original WorldHistory that is neither Eurocentric nor Sinocentric. If anything, it is an appreciation of the dominant role that Central Asia played in the history of most of mankind over the last several thousand years.The irrepressible power of the Eurasian core over the centuries explains much of the development of civilizations founded at the fringes - at its edges to the west, the east and the south. Mostsignificantly, what is recognised as The Global Age today, is seen as the latest result of these conflicts between core and edge leading at the Atlantic fringe to human mastery of the sea - in military and mercantile terms. In effect, human history, which had for centuries been configured by continental dynamics, has only quite recently established a new dimension to counteract these. In summary, Wang Gungwu argues convincingly that "The Global is Maritime".

A 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, and others.

Presents a collection of opinion pieces published in the mass media after Abdullah Badawi became Malaysia's Prime Minister in October 2004. This work analyses the many difficult aspects of leadership that has been facing him over the years, discusses the country's underlying problems, and draws conclusions about nation building in general.

With a new coalition opposing him in parliament, Najib Razak has come to power wedged between his own coalition's aged traditions and the restive spirit of the times. Whether he can squeeze his way into a comfortable spot and stay in power is the question the coming years will answer.