The May 18, 2009 editon of the New Yorker features an Ian Burma article headlined: "Letter From Malaysia: Eastern Promises."
The article – online as an abstract and author Q&A here – is about the life and times of Anwar Ibrahim, who might become Malaysia's next Prime Minister.
The story serves up plenty of context, including one think tank-related anecdote that again demonstrates how repercussions abound for people working in the independent public policy and research fields. This recalls tank expert James McGann's recent "NGO Pushback" comments during his TTLA interview.
From the New Yorker:
"To challenge UMNO's ethnic policies is still to court serious trouble. I met Professor Lim Teck Ghee, a Chinese Malaysian and a former World Bank social scientist…. A soft-spoken man, peering sadly through his glasses, Lim was the director of a leading economic think tank until he published, in 2006, a careful analysis showing that Malays, far from being dominated by the Chinese, actually owned more than forty-five per cent of corporate equity in publicly listed companies. He was quickly vilified for being 'anti-national,' and he resigned his post."
The complete article is available on newsstands, or online to New Yorker subscribers.
By the way -- Kuala Lumpor is listed by McGann and his Global Go-To team as one of the three Asian "regional think tank hubs," along with Sydney and Tokyo. Malaysia has 17 total tanks, according to McGann.
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