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Today’s Reads VIII – Wordle, Reification, and Climate Change

  1. Sometimes, all it takes is a shared passion to reconnect with the ones we love…
  2. This is a profound opinion piece that I think every Malaysian policymaker needs to read. The words “reification” and “medicalisation” are what I wish I had in my vocabulary when I was assigned to monitor the Anti-Corruption initiatives under the Government Transformation Programme. I was butting my head against the wall for weeks, constantly feeling frustrated by the lack of progress, and it took deep reflection over the experience in a Leadership course at graduate school, many years later, for me to finally realise that my team and I were essentially collateral damage for a technical approach of ostentatious initiatives (“let’s have anti corruption pledges!” “let’s appoint Chief Integrity Officers!”) aimed at simulating “seriousness” in tackling corruption, when in the other room, billions of public money were being siphoned off thanks to Najib and Jho Low. There needs to be more conversations in Malaysia about how we skirt around our dysfunctional politics, spinning our wheels around make-busy work while Rome continues to burn.
  3. The UN secretary-general just called for a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies. Can we afford to ignore climate change any longer? And what would this mean for Petronas, which has long been the white knight of last resort for Malaysia (cf. Bank Bumiputra, Proton, KLCC, MISC, GST refunds)?