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Preparatory visit to the Chief Minister and The State Legislative Assembly of Penang by our participants 24th May 2024
After briefing the Penang Chief Minister at his office
From Left: Dato' Cheok Lay Leng, Kwok Kian Chow, Lee Khai, Winfred Khoo, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, Woon Tai Ho, Loh Lean Chooi and Prof. Emeritus Yuen Kah Hay
Kian Chow, Lee Khai and Tai Ho
Coffee with the Penang Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, Dato Law Choo Kiang
Keynote Speakers
George Yeo
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
John L Petersen
George Yeo will be providing an overview of the concept of the Commonwealth of World Chinatowns. It's relevance in today's fledgling multipolar world in the context of a rising China. His views on China are sought after by many organizations and will help to elucidate the importance of people-to-people interactions in small collaborative projects.
John L Petersen
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
John L Petersen
John will share his views on the potential outcomes for humanity in the near and mid-range based on the recent and current turmoil of pandemics, wars and a potential climate emergency. His insights come from years as the head of the Arlington Institute and through his interactions acting as advisors to governments including Singapore.
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
Prof Gerald Pollack's experience charting new territory in water science and the challenges faced in funding research and publishing results not in concordance with establishment views are increasingly concerns shared by many. He will offer his perspectives on possible solutions. One of which is the formation of the Institute for Venture Science.
Prof Ian Brighthope
Prof Ian Brighthope
Prof Gerald H. Pollack
Prof Brighthope recounts his pioneering path of creating the Australasian College for Environmental and Nutritional Medicine, how he helped save lives in the 2009 swine flu pandemic with high dose intravenous nutrients. He will explain his decision to found another movement, World of Wellness to counter the misinformation of the recent pandemic.
Timofey Egorov
Prof Ian Brighthope
Timofey Egorov
Timofey will explain the Young Cosmonaut School which is planned for commencement in Penang in 2025. This is a project to give the young a headstart in a career as an astronaut and to learn about the living universe grounded on the philosophy and science of the new Russian Cosmism.
Dr Poh Soo Kai's Memoirs
Dr Poh Soo Kai's Message for Lim Boon Keng the Musical
Transcript
Greetings to participants and distinguished guests at this special event of the Lim Boon Keng Musical, hosted by the Commonwealth of World’s Chinatowns in Penang.
I am Dr Poh Soo Kai and, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to say a few words in honor of Lim Boon Keng and Tan Kah Kee on this occasion because I am Tan Kah Kee’s maternal grandson and one of Lim Boon Keng’s grandsons-in-law.
Tan Kah Kee and Lim Boon Keng were giants of their times n of today still.
The two men collaborated in various fields, notably in pioneering agricultural research on a new cash crop called rubber from Brazil, and subsequently in investing capital to establish rubber plantations in Peninsula Malaya and Singapore. They were not adverse to taking risks.
But their most famous collaboration was in the setting up of Xiamen University in Tan Kah Kee’s home province in China. Tan Kah Kee made Lim Boon Keng, the Principal of Xiamen University.
Lim Boon Keng set to work to improve the standard and ranking of the university. It was under the watch of this brilliant man that Xiamen University had its first scientific research paper published in the London Science Society (I believe). It was certainly no small feat in that era.
However, it was also under Lim Boon Keng’s watch that his epic clash with Lu Xun, the eminent Chinese revolutionary, took place. A polemic ensued within the student body of Xiamen University which was also resoundingly echoed throughout the educational institutions of China. The issue hotly debated was framed as: to be “RED” or to be “EXPERT”.
Lu Xun was for the Chinese youth to join the revolutionary front, whilst Lim Boon Keng’s concern was for Chinese youth to acquire knowledge that would serve economic reforms.
Decades later, Mao Tse Tong, chairman of the Communist Party of China, reconciled this contradiction with his famous quotation that one should be both RED and EXPERT !
I have written about my grandfather in my political memoirs LIVING IN A TIME OF DECEPTION. Indeed, I am proud to be his grandson. His essence is encapsulated in a poem he wrote in 1948, of which I quote below:
On the rise and fall of a country
Everyone has a responsibility
The self and family may be sacrificed
But between right and wrong, there can be no compromise.
May we carry forward the spirit and legacy of these two great men: LIM BOON KENG and TAN KAH KEE.
This 21st Century that we live in now is one of great turmoil, where we are daily reminded that “between right and wrong, there can be no compromise.”
Enjoy the Musical and a big thank you to Stella for dedicating her talent to preserve the memory of her great grandfather, Lim Boon Keng.
Thank you.
ON MALAYAN THINKING, FEELING AND DESIGNING:
THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF IDENTITY
The Malayan Generations had dreams of being a free people after decolonisation. They lived through the 1950s to the 197Os when it was an intense period of political ferment and intense creativity searching for an authentic politics and culture true to our people and place. The Malayan Soul was not to last though, in the ensuing onslaught of Globalisation.
This ferment expressed itself in politics, multiracialism, poetry, literature, art and architecture then.
I began to understand the struggle better when I retired from practice. All throughout, as a Malayan, I struggled against Western Styling but I did not fully understand why and what it was that left me yearning for something real and not fake.
This essay is my attempt to explain what the struggle was among the Malayan generations manifested in poetry, art and architecture in the immediate postcolonial period. Also why is Malayan-ism fading away as Western-ism takes a grip on the new generations especially in the major towns and cities of Malaysia and Singapore. Then again, a new era is emerging, the challenge of New Asia...
THE IMMEDIATE POST-COLONIAL ERA
The period of intense creativity did not last long but it was an exhilarating period from the 50s to the late 70s before Global Media driven Western styles and norms became overwhelming.
I will start with three most distinctive works by architect Lim Chong Keat’s Singapore Conference Hall, the Seremban Mosque and the Jurong Town Hall and the most distinctive work by Alfred Wong, The National Theatre.
The bamboo pyramid hall in Kampong Temasek in Sungei Ulu Tiram, Johore 2015