Events

The 3rd Annual MBRAS Lecture for 2013 is jointly organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore and The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS), in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of Malaysia.

CHAIRPERSON & DISCUSSANT

Dr Cheah Boon Kheng, Vice-President of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS)

ABSTRACT

It is fifty years since Malaya became Malaysia and Singapore. That was a momentous step in the decolonization process. Was that the only way forward? What was gained and what was lost by that change?

Among the results that followed are the following:
• The effort to merge 14 political units in 1963 led to at least two roads to nation building if not end up with two kinds of nation-states.
• Another result was to produce new trajectories of economic growth in Southeast Asia.
• Yet another was to contribute to several decades of stability and development in East Asia.

I shall use the 50-year story to explore some of these questions and offer some ideas what might lie ahead.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Wang Gungwu was born in Surabaya, Indonesia in 1930, and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. After completing his secondary education at the Anderson School in Ipoh Wang went up to study history at the University of Malaya in Singapore where he received both his Bachelor and Masters degrees. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1957) for his thesis on the structure of power in North China during the Five Dynasties. Upon his return, he taught at the University of Malaya (in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur) before going to Canberra in 1968 to become Professor of Far Eastern History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at Australian National University. He became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995. Currently, Wang is University Professor at the National University of Singapore, and also Chairman of the Managing Board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Wang was a Distinguished Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies where he is now Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He is also an Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University, Canberra.

For more information about MBRAS, please visit their website at http://www.mbras.org.my/

REGISTRATION

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