In the wake of Malaysia’s 13th General Election some commentators speak of a sharpening of ethnic politics — with Prime Minister Najib blaming a “Chinese tsunami” for his government’s polling setbacks; others are optimistic about the arrival of a new “non-racialized form of politics” and the emergence of “transethnic solidarity”. This book, which engages with both the race paradigm and its opponents, warns that change is likely to come slowly — but is not impossible. Malaysia’s race paradigm is a man-made ideological construct — one that has been contested in the past, and could realistically be contested in the future. In confronting the continuing challenge of globalization, Malaysians should not neglect the history of ideas — and ideology — as they search for new options.

This book attempts to understand Najibnomics-economic policies advocated by the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, since he helmed office on April 3, 2009. Najibnomics refers to a new approach to Malaysia’s economic development which is typified by three main characteristics: knowledge, innovation and freedom. It is a set of strategies, programmes and measures meant to transform Malaysia into a high-income and developed nation by the year 2020. This book analyses Najibnomics in action, or rather attempts to problematise Najibnomics at the level of its implementation. Through Najibnomics, the Malaysian government strives to keep the momentum of a sustainable growth trajectory, to enhance the well-being of the rakyat (people) and ensure the country gets out of the “middle-income trap” to become a high-income and developed economy by the year 2020.

Since 1957, Malaysia’s economic development has been an account of growth, transformation, and of structural change. More than 75 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the manufacturing and services sectors. However, Malaysia is stuck in a middle-income trap and is facing challenges on the economic and political front. In June 2010, Prime Minister Najib Razak unveiled the 10th Malaysian Plan (2011-15) to chart the development of Malaysia from a middle- to high-income nation. This publication represents a policy-oriented stocktake and evaluation by academics, policy-makers, and business people on Malaysia’s achievements, present work-in-progress endeavours, and some of the future challenges facing the nation in its pursuit to achieve a developed high-income country status.

This book offers a thorough and reader-friendly discussion of the relevance of incorporating robotics into the 21st century classroom. It explores essential topics including outcome-based education, robotics technology, the use robotics in education, and its theoretical underpinnings, among others. It also provides a wide range of examples and figures, making the book relevant across multiple disciplines in the social, educational and computer sciences. As such, it will appeal to students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who intend to conduct robotics training in schools or institutions.

The contributors engage with a range of critical and contemporary issues of two key societies in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and Malaysia. These include foreign policy and national security; multiculturalism and citizenship; the middle class; global governance; migrants and international students.

The monograph ‘Sustaining APEX: Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Mission to Transform Higher Education’ seeks to expand on and elaborate themes found in the previous two monographs in our Intellectual Discourse Series. In this monograph, we also take a deeper look at the problems of values and national development as well as issues of legitimacy and the efficacy of change and transformation in conditions of complex globalization. This monograph seeks to engage the difficult issues around science and technology and values, the social legitimacy of reform, and addresses the issues of newness, reputation, ranking and the problems of leadership. In doing this, we hope to tease out more of the implications of USM’s reform agenda and locate discussions of it within a broader discourse of globalization and its vicissitudes. The essential argument made in this monograph is that USM’s transformation agenda is a direct challenge to contemporary neo-liberal project for higher education. USM’s agenda entails a fuller idea and engagement with the educational and ethical mission of the university. Ecological sustainability, scientific and technological advancement as well as the sustainability of Malaysian culture, values, and sense of social justice is central to the mission of USM. Seeking to advance these in the current conditions of globalization and ensuring continued legitimacy for this project within such an environment is the challenge ahead. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia

This volume analyzes the experiences of developing countries in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and examines how they might catch up. Based on growth performance across the developing world over the last five decades, it offers a thorough account of the possibilities to engage in such processes in an increasingly globalized world. Together, the chapters highlight the diversity and variation of development pathways and provide valuable lessons and implications for how to approach this difficult question. The book shows the importance of acknowledging that the process of development is dynamic and that the possibilities for catch up are situation dependent. At the same time it makes clear that without structural change, and in particular agricultural transformation, sustained catch up is unlikely to happen. The volume demonstrates how analysis of current growth processes in developing countries can be enriched by paying closer attention to the multifaceted nature of both economic backwardness and successful pathways to escape it.