Beyond the Ballot Box

If you’ve walked around your city, chances are you may have seen people skateboarding off the rails outside a shopping mall or doing parkour on a dingy rooftop of an abandoned building, or perhaps even kicking around a ball in an alleyway turned into a makeshift futsal court.

But what do these activities tell us about urban culture? Do they reveal anything about politics? And is there anything urban planners can learn from them?

In this episode, we’re joined by Duncan McDuie-Ra, whose latest book, Insurgent Play: Social Worlds of Urban Disruption, explores exactly those questions and more. Prof Duncan is also the Head of Monash University Malaysia’s School of Arts & Social Sciences.

To purchase his book, visit: anthempress.com/books/insurgent-play-pb

Image Credit: Anthem Press / Monash University

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We have often talked about the rise of right-wing populism with fascist tendencies across the world. From US President Donald Trump to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party UK, Marine Le Pen in France to the AFD in Germany, political parties and leaders that are proudly anti-democratic, espousing hatred for ethnic, religious or sexual minorities, and scapegoating migrants and refugees have gone from the fringes to the mainstream. It’s not just the West. We can also think of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

Make no mistake — the right-wing is winning, and winning big, both on the ground and at the ballot box.

At the same time, the popularity of the technocratic, neoliberal, so-called “centre” — represented by the likes of Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Keir Starmer — appears to be on a rapid decline, after four decades of rising inequality.

In response, something else seems to be emerging — or reemerging: left-wing economic populism. In other words, socialism. The likes of Zohran Mamdani are making waves in the US. Jeremy Corbyn is launching a new party in the UK explicitly on the platform of left-wing economic values and internationalism. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has seen a surge in popularity in France.

So, how are the likes of Zohran Mamdani cutting through in this political moment? And what does it mean that they are? What can progressives around the world learn?

We speak to Professor Peter Beattie, who’s a political economist and political psychologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Image Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons

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Khalsa Aid International is a humanitarian relief organisation based in the UK. It was founded in 1999 by Ravi Singh based on the Sikh principle of Sarbat da Bhala – the wellbeing of all. Today, this cross-border humanitarian agency operates across six continents and have done work in many conflict zones such as Iraq and Ukraine to natural disasters including the Türkiye earthquakes and Pakistan floods. 

In this episode, we speak to Gurpreet Singh, Head of Operations for Khalsa Aid, Asia Pacific about the work he has done during the Covid-19 pandemic and coordinating refugee evacuation efforts.

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The 27th National Congress of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) was held in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, from July 25th to 27th. The congress, themed "Kuasa Ketiga, Kuasa Kita" was attended by around 150 delegates.

In this episode, we speak with Arveent Kathirchelvan, who’s a Central Committee Member and Coordinator of the Policy Research Bureau of PSM. We discuss some of the key motions they passed at their congress surrounding healthcare, pension and housing. We also unpack the various challenges faced by the left in the country, electoral politics, how they plan to elevate class consciousness and break through the wall of racial & religious politics that's holding the country back.

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Katrina Leclerc is an award‑winning peacebuilder, researcher, and advocate who specializes in the intersection of Women, Peace & Security (WPS). She serves as a respected expert advisor to governments, UN agencies, and civil society, supporting inclusive peace policy development and implementation across multiple regions and countries, including in Congo, Kenya, Lebanon, Rwanda and more. She was also here in Malaysia recently to meet up with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, as well as civil society.

In this epsiode, we speak to Katrina about the work that she does as a peacebuilder, what a feminist foreign policy would look like, and power asymetries between the global north and global south.

Image Credit: www.leclerck.com

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It’s been 16 years since Teoh Beng Hock’s passing. Beng Hock was the political aide to an elected representative from the DAP, who was found dead after overnight questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in 2009, sparking public outrage and ongoing allegations of foul play.

Today, justice is yet to be served.

Last week, the MACC issued a public apology to Teoh’s family. This was followed by a public apology by the DAP. But rather than healing old wounds, it reignited long-standing questions — about accountability, institutional reform, the state of our democracy and the ability of political parties who promised change to actually make change when in power.

In this episode, we speak to Dr Khoo Ying Hooi, an Associate Professor of International Relations and Human Rights at Universiti Malaya (UM). She recently wrote an article titled ‘A Week Where Apologies Fell Flat and Lawyers Walked.’ We reflect on where we are today as a country, in terms of fighting for justice and protecting democracy.

Image Credit: Dr Khoo Ying Hooi's X Account / Shutterstock

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Malaysian ethnic Indians make up less than 7% of the country’s population — but this small community is disproportionately represented in some of the country’s most troubling statistics. Indians form a shockingly high percentage of the prison population, face persistent income and wealth gaps—both between ethnic groups and within their own community—and continue to grapple with access to quality education. These are not isolated issues; they reflect deep-rooted structural inequalities, legacies of colonial exploitation, and decades of policy neglect.

The question is, what can we do about it?

YB Charles Santiago is the former MP for Klang and has been passionate about this issue for years. Recently, he’s worked together with Yayasan Iltizam Malaysia and the Sustainable Initiative for Community Change to come up with some proposals which address this issue as well as how we can make Malaysia more inclusive and equitable for all. In this episode, we speak to Charles Santiago. 

Click here if you’d like to find out more about the specifics of their proposal.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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It’s been 70 years since the first General Elections in Malaya in 1955, and 61 years since we voted for the first time as a new nation called Malaysia in 1964. From the era of one-party dominance under the Alliance and then Barisan Nasional, to the historic change of government in 2018, our electoral journey has been an incredible one.

In that time, we’ve gone from a nation that didn’t think it was possible to change a government to a nation that believes we can change our government at anytime.

In many ways, we’re still going through a maturing process—figuring out what kind of democracy we want to be. On today’s show, we’re taking a step back to reflect on 70 years of elections in Malaysia: how far we've come, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and the critical reforms we still need to build a fairer, more democratic future.

In this episode, we speak to Danesh Prakash Chacko, Director of Tindak Malaysia.

Tindak Malaysia has an event coming up called 70 Years of General Elections: Shaping Malaysian Democracy, happening on the 26th & 27th of July at the Trident Events (MCNCC) Event Hall.

Click here if you’d like to register for the event.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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In GE15, the surge of Malay youth support for Perikatan Nasional sparked narratives about a rising “green” or “theocratic wave” and urgent questions about the shifting political attitudes of younger Malays. Many were quick to blame the election outcome on the lowering of the voting age and even went as far as calling the constitutional amendment a mistake. But these narratives are simplistic and divisive and do not get to the heart of the problem.

Orang Kita: Politics of Acknowledgement and Resentment is a brilliant new paper by IMAN Research that dives into the minds of Malay youths, especially in the Malay heartland.

In this episode, we speak to Aziff Azuddin, the author of the report, about the insecurities, sentiments and political desires of the Malay youth. We also discuss how we can truly build a political project based on multiculturalism and democracy in polarised Malaysia, or at least, where to start.

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Tess Ingram is a spokesperson with UNICEF who has been on the frontlines of some of the most urgent crises in North Africa and the Middle East, including the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza due to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians carried out by the State of Israel. In 2024, while attempting to deliver life-saving aid to the North of Gaza, she was inside a clearly marked UNICEF convoy that came under live fire.

In this episode, we speak to Ingram about the challenges faced by aid workers in Palestine, the day her aid convoy was shot at by the IDF, what gives her hope and more.

Image Credit: UNICEF Supply Division's YouTube Channel

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