FINAL Berita 48 (1) (2022) (original) (raw)

Letter from the Chair As I write this letter, we are hopeful that for the first time in two years, many members of our group will be able to be physically present at the upcoming Association for Asian Studies Conference, scheduled to take place in Hawaii between March 24 to March 27, 2022. We hope some of you will be in attendance and that you will be able to attend our annual MSB Studies Group Business Meeting on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 2:15pm-3:45pm. At the meeting, we'll present our annual awards, discuss plans for the future of our group, and for the first time, will have a small reception, giving us a chance to renew old connections and make new ones with other scholars with interests in the Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei region. (Of course, if the format of the Conference changes, we will let you know. The MSB Business Meeting will also be available virtually; see our Facebook page for updates.) This year, I'll hand over the chair of our group to my friend and colleague, Cheong Soon Gan, of the University of Wisconsin-Superior. When Cheong Soon takes over as chair, I become 'Chair Mentor'-or the ex officio chair, replacing Eric Thompson of the National University of Singapore (NUS), who has guided me wisely during my term. Serving as the Deputy Chair under Cheong Soon will be Elvin Ong, of NUS. Elvin brings both a long record of engagement and a keen commitment to our MSB group. My role as chair has allowed me to connect more deeply with many of our members and I have gained tremendously from my association with this group. This past year we made the best of our virtual connection by sponsoring the first-ever MSB Annual Lecture, featuring James Chin, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania. One of the leading commentators on Malaysian politics, Dr. Chin's lecture, NEP @ 50, assessed the success and failure of the policy and the key lessons from Malaysia's experiment with social engineering. We held the lecture on August 6th via Zoom, precisely fifty years to the day that Tun Razak gave the first speech concerning 'Malaysia's New Economic Policy' to the Economic Bureau of UMNO. The lecture was followed by a commentary by Dr.