My Blog 

You’ll find here all my commentaries and analysis for think-tanks and the Media.

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta or Civil Society?

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta or Civil Society?

Malaysian democracy and civil society The relationship between the concept of democracy and civil society is central to understanding the dynamics of the Malaysian system. The general concept of civil society goes back to antiquity as an arena between the...

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta Beyond Stereotypes

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta Beyond Stereotypes

For over 30 years, Pekida has been one of the shadow allies of the ruling party, UMNO; emerging in the media only in 2008. The election results of 2008 were seen as an awakening of political consciousness among the majority of Malaysians. Facing this new wave of...

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta through the Years

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: Gangsta through the Years

Reconstructing the history of Pekida and its network’s is a hard task. No historical account of the organisation has been found, and every attempt to locate official records has been an arduous mission. This article relies primarily on oral history (rarely shared with...

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: A Gangsta’s Paradise

New Mandala | Gangsta to the Roots: A Gangsta’s Paradise

What if the liberalisation of the public sphere since the Mahathir era paved the way for the emergence of civil surrogates of political parties? What if the so-called “civil society” was used as a veil to hide and promote the rise of militants who are in fact...