Beyond the Ballot Box

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As they say, democracy doesn't begin and end at the ballot box. On Beyond the Ballot Box, we have in-depth conversations about political economy and human rights in Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and around the globe through a class prism.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    China Rising Part 2: Taiwan, Xinjiang, Sovereignty and Human Rights

    For many of us born in the 90s, we’ve only known one world: A world where the US has been the singular hegemon, leading what we call a unipolar world. This has been the case since the tail end of the Cold War and especially so after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  But things are changing. There’s plenty of talk about a shift towards a multipolar world. This isn’t just what’s been said by leftists or anti-colonialists from the global south. It was also highlighted by the Canadian Prime Minister and former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, in his speech at Davos on a new world order. He called it a “rupture.”  So, how do we make sense of these changes? And what does it mean for Malaysia? In this two-part conversation, I speak to Dr Lim Teck Ghee, who’s an economic historian, author, and public intellectual. His new book “China Rising: USA and West Responses” is a compilation of over 50 column articles in Oriental Daily over the past 4 years, focused on, as the title suggests, the emergence of China as a global political and economic force.  In part two of the conversation, we focus on:  What are the possibilities of World War III with Taiwan as the flashpoint? Is it time for China to put the 1949 revolution behind it and accept Taiwan as a sovereign nation?  The human rights violations in Xinjiang Should China put its principle of non-interference aside and actively defend its allies militarily What should ASEAN keep in mind as China continues to rise Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    33 min

  2. 3 DAYS AGO

    China Rising Part 1: How the Unipolar World Is Ending

    For many of us born in the 90s, we’ve only known one world: A world where the US has been the singular hegemon, leading what we call a unipolar world. This has been the case since the tail end of the Cold War and especially so after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  But things are changing. There’s plenty of talk about a shift towards a multipolar world. This isn’t just what’s been said by leftists or anti-colonialists from the global south. It was also highlighted by the Canadian Prime Minister and former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney in his speech at Davos on a new world order. He called it a “rupture.”  So, how do we make sense of these changes? And what does it mean for Malaysia? In this two-part conversation, I speak to Dr Lim Teck Ghee, who’s an economic historian, author and public intellectual. His new book “China Rising: USA and West Responses” is a compilation of over 50 column articles in Oriental Daily over the past 4 years, focused on, as the title suggests, the emergence of China as a global political and economic force.  In part one of the conversation, we focus on:  The key features of a unipolar US-led world order What shifting towards a multipolar world means How China went from a poor country to the second largest economy Popular misconceptions of China What does democracy mean in China? Significance of Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s speech at Davos Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    40 min

  3. 5 FEB

    What Do the Epstein Files Teach Us About Power?

    Jeffrey Epstein was a financier and convicted sex offender whose network spanned the worlds of finance, politics, academia, and celebrity.  Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice released what is now known as the Epstein Files. There are over 3 million pages, 2,000+ videos, and 180,000+ images, so far, including flight logs, emails, court filings, and internal notes detailing his activities and connections.  Two rounds of document releases have so far painted an incredibly repulsive picture of sexual exploitation, trafficking, and elite complicity. Some of the highlights include: US President Donald Trump, who is mentioned in over 38,000 references, with the most serious allegation being a withdrawn 2016 federal lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl at Epstein’s Manhattan residence. Silicon Valley billionaires, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and others, appearing hundreds of times. There are also emails and exchanges suggesting an international political network involving countries such as Israel, India, and Russia.  All of this is merely scratching the surface of the Epstein files. To try and make sense of it all, we speak to Peter Beattie, Political Economist and Political Psychologist from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).  Image Credit: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, 1993 via Picryl See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    47 min

  4. 3 FEB

    Do Business Schools Play a Role in Normalising Labour Exploitation?

    We often discuss the exploitation of labour, especially at the very bottom of the chain, namely the migrant workers who are frequently trapped in conditions that resemble modern-day slavery.  But one thing we haven’t really interrogated is the role of business schools: what they teach, what they leave out, and whether the lessons and curriculum deal primarily with managing a boardroom and ensuring profitability, or if they reflect realities on the ground, where wealth and corporate success are often also built on the backs of exploited labour. In this episode, we speak to Dr Priya Sharma about exactly that. She is the Head of the Commercial Law & Justice Centre at the Sunway Business School. She’s also the co-editor of a book called Combating Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    40 min

  5. 29 JAN

    How Cartels Shape the Migrant Labour System in Malaysia

    Recently, Bloomberg published an in-depth investigation into the recruitment of Bangladeshi migrant workers into Malaysia, exposing how inflated fees, cartel-like recruitment structures and political protection have trapped thousands of workers in debt, exploitation and, in some cases, human trafficking. The article explicitly names individuals linked to these cartels.  We speak to Charles Santiago, co-chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), who was quoted in the article.  Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    48 min

  6. 27 JAN

    What You Need to Know About a Highly Underappreciated Component of Elections

    Most of us know that elections are important. After all, they shape who governs us and how decisions get made. But we rarely stop to think about what actually happens behind the scenes: the hundreds, sometimes thousands of workers and volunteers who make sure polling day runs smoothly, especially polling staff on the ground.  In this episode, we speak to Danesh Prakash Chacko, Chairperson of Persatuan Bertindak Pilihan Raya Bebas Dan Saksama (Tindak), about exactly that. Tindak is currently running a petugas programme that trains and mobilises citizens to serve as polling and counting agents.  Click here if you’d like to sign up for Tindak’s Petugas program: https://sites.google.com/view/petugas-tindak-malaysia/home Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    46 min

  7. 22 JAN

    How to Navigate a Polarised Malaysia

    Malaysia is incredibly polarised right now, especially across racial and religious lines. Perhaps that has always been the case to some degree, given the ethnocentric political parties and culture that have dominated a bulk of our history since independence and especially so post 1969. Things seem to be getting worse. You often get the sense that every community feels that they’re marginalised or that they don’t have a place in this country, or maybe that’s just the social media comment section.  Of course, there’s no silver bullet to solving this. In this episode, we speak to Jason Wee, the founder of Architects of Diversity. We talk about some of the drivers of our racialised politics, if things are indeed getting worse and even the role of social media. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    48 min

  8. 20 JAN

    How to Make KL and the Klang Valley More Liveable

    Three things we often hear about Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley at large is that it’s incredibly congested, not walkable and that it is becoming increasingly unaffordable. But why do these problems persist? We speak to Aziff Azuddin, associate researcher at IMAN Research, about the greater Klang Valley’s urban design philosophy and key principles on building an equitable and inclusive city.  Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    47 min
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As they say, democracy doesn't begin and end at the ballot box. On Beyond the Ballot Box, we have in-depth conversations about political economy and human rights in Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and around the globe through a class prism.

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