When people think of the World Bank, the image they often see in their minds is one of a global financial institution that provides loans to developing nations to raise their standard of living. That is basically the picture that the Bank’s PR people would like you to see.
The reality is quite different. The World [...]
When are petroleum royalties not petroleum royalties? When they are deemed to be “goodwill funds”, of course.
If you suffer from insomnia, then wading through the Malaysian Auditor General’s report may be just the thing for you. But then again, what you find in there might give you even more sleepless nights. Just reading through one [...]
It looks like the FTA negotiations between the United States and Malaysia - now in a crucial phase - are not going to be easy to conclude. For one thing, there is the whole issue of government procurement and how an FTA would affect the NEP policy of affirmative action. More crucially, an FTA would [...]
Things can go drastically wrong when banks are poorly regulated - as we saw during the 1998-98 Asian economic crisis. The problem is further compounded when political connections come into the picture. During the 1990s, I personally saw how banks were falling over themselves to lend to certain politically well connected firms, sometimes merely on [...]
I wrote this article for IPS because I was concerned that Asean was heading down the neo-liberal path. I felt there were many lessons that the people of Asean could learn from South America, where many countries have rejected neo-liberalism after the devastating impact it has had over there. Moreover, the Asean Charter is being [...]
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