FCC club lunch with Karim RASLAN

Speaker: Karim RASLAN
Columnist
Topic: Malaysia: race and religion in a rapidly-growing Southeast Asia

Malaysia’s potential has long been saddled with obstacles, most notably the racially-tinged New Economic policy. A hub of market activity and mine of natural resources, it now trails neighboring Singapore and Indonesia in the race for development. Prime Minister Najib RAZAK’s reforms – including amendments to the policy – have been heralded as good tidings by economists. But are these moves too little, too late? Can Malaysia move past its entrenched racial and religious disunity? What opportunities are there?

Karim RASLAN has been a lawyer, columnist and regional analyst for the past twenty-two years, and now divides his time between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. He writes a regular weekly column for the newspapers The Star, Sin Chew Daily, Sinar Harian in Malaysia and The Jakarta Globe and contributes to other regional and international publications. His third collection of columns “Malaysia A Dream Deferred’ was published this year.