This book offers an interesting and informative account of the often fractious account of two countries in the heart of Southeast Asia. It outlines the primary issues that plagued relations between Malaysia and Singapore in the last fifty years and the political, diplomatic and legal initiatives taken to address them. The author gives a first-person narrative of the seemingly endless behind-the-scenes episodes that have brought the love-hate relationship to where they are today. He further delves into the vast reservoir of information on the rocky bilateral relationship to provide a reasonable argument over why Malaysia has behaved as it has since 1965. Exhaustive records of, among others, minutes, letters and documents are brought to light to substantiate the Malaysian view in relation to issues of contention with Singapore. Coming from an insider with more than four eventful decades in the Malaysian Foreign Service, it will be an eye opener for many.

Perspectives on the Security of Singapore: The First 50 Years explores the security of Singapore in the last 50 years and its possible trajectories into the future. This volume brings together the diverse perspectives of a team of academics with different expertise, ranging from history to political science to security studies with a common interest in Singapore. The book is further boosted by the recollections of key civil servants involved with foreign affairs and defence, such as S R Nathan, Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Philip Yeo.

Border Urbanism presents a global array of authors’ research that tackles the perception, interpretation, and nature of borders from a transdisciplinary perspective. The authors examine ways in which borders attempt to define socially, economically, politically, and historically incompatible systems, from micro neighbourhoods to global macro territories, and how this blurs urban order that results in an absence of cohesion. Their analysis of contextual worldwide settings considers the unique issues and the broad scope of forces that shape borders and separate socioeconomic, political, cultural, and historical polarities. The authors consider ways in which the resulting urban border conditions determine the mobility of goods, resources, and people and how these delineations define relationships that influence geopolitical relationships, socioeconomic transactions, and people’s lives at multiple levels. They address the temporal issues defined by a variety of unique urban conditions that result from these lateral thresholds. Each chapter contributes to a critical discourse of the subject of border urbanism and the phenomenon created by separation, demarcation, and segregation as well as by conflict and coexistence. The transdisciplinary approach of Border Urbanism ensures that it will be of interest to individuals across a spectrum of professions and disciplines. Professionals such as urban planners, designers, architects, developers, and civil and environmental engineers and students of these disciplines will be particularly interested as will allied professionals and those not traditionally associated with urbanism; these include artists, sociologists, historians, lawyers, politicians, and civic and government leaders. The authors’ global perspectives, combined with their expertise in environmental, historical, cultural, social, political, and geographic areas, will appeal to anyone interested in border urbanism and its intersection with these areas.

Architecture and Affect is motivated by two questions: Why does dismissed affective evidence trouble us? What would it mean for architecture to assemble such discrepant evidence into its discourse? Arguing that the persistent refrains of lived affect dwell in architecture, this book traces such refrains to a concept of architecture wedged in the middle ground—jammed amidst life, things and events. Rather than being aloof from its surrounds, architecture-in-the-midst challenges an autonomous epistemology. Beyond accounting for the vivid but excluded, this book develops a frame and a disposition for thinking critically about, speculatively through, and being grounded by, encounter. Examining affect through a constellation of spaces in contemporary Singapore, it details architecture’s uneasy but inextricable relationship with key subjects relegated to the incommensurate, the peripheral, the scenic and the decorative. The outcome is a politicized architectural discourse simultaneously grounded and speculative; bridging depth and intuition, thinking and feeling.

Malaysia is one of the most intriguing countries in Asia in many respects. It consists of several distinct areas, not only geographically but ethnically as well; along with Malays and related groups, the country has a very large Indian and Chinese population. The spoken languages obviously vary at home, although Bahasa Malaysia is the official language and nearly everyone speaks English. There is also a mixture of religions, with Islam predominating among the Malays and others, Hinduism and Sikhism among the Indians, mainly Daoism and Confucianism among the Chinese, but also some Christians as well as older indigenous beliefs in certain places. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Malaysia contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Malaysia.

Real Estate and Taxation in Singapore provides a multi-disciplinary approach to the subject for Singapore real estate and tax aficionados. The book helps the reader to navigate the complex world of real estate taxation by taking them through the various changes in the Singapore real estate market over the years, as well as the property development and investment life cycle from acquisition and development, to investment and ownership, to disposal.The book primarily focuses on tax issues — income tax, stamp duty, property tax and goods and services tax — faced by property developers and investors in Singapore. It further explains the tax and non-tax aspects of topics relating to the Master Plan, development charge and differential premium, the real estate market cooling measures, as well as real estate investment trusts and funds.It is an all-in-one, 'must-have' reference book for professionals, policy-makers, academia, students and the general public who are interested in the field of real estate and taxation.

This book aims to celebrate the many contributions of Professor Tommy Koh as a Singaporean diplomat, public intellectual and social changemaker.It is an account of the ideas and ideals of an extraordinary Singaporean public servant who was not only born with the talent and ability to traverse many areas of society, but one who, when given the opportunity, had the drive and ambition to make the most of it to create a better world for Singaporeans and the global community.Experts in the various fields of endeavour and people who have worked with him examine his significant contributions in essays that are organised in four main sections: Diplomacy and International Relations; Arts, Culture and Heritage; Progressive Society; International Law; and a fifth section that features tributes contributed by his colleagues and former classmates.Set in the context of Singapore — a nation known for its socio-economic progress, its ability to punch above its own weight in international relations, as well as its increasing appreciation for heritage, the arts, and sustainable development — this book illustrates the power of the individual and sense of agency that can create the systems and structures to achieve all those things. The story of Professor Tommy Koh as captured in this book should energise other change agents to go out and create the progressive, inclusive and sustainable world they want.An inspirational collection for general readers, this book reflects the spirit of Singapore's pioneer generation whose determination and tenacity turned the nation into the modern-day miracle that Singapore is today.

This is a Festschrift in honour of Professor Asit K. Biswas, for his manifold contributions to water resources policy and management and his extensive efforts over six decades to generate, synthetize, apply, and disseminate knowledge at national and global levels. Global Water Resources: Festschrift in Honour of Asit K. Biswas includes invited contributions on global water issues from 23 globally renowned leaders in the public and private sectors, as well as academia, who have made significant contributions to the field of water resources policy, management, development and governance. The vision and expertise of this distinguished group of experts provides a unique focus on unfolding water issues and their bearing on world development This book will be of great value to scholars, students, and policymakers interested in water resource governance, sustainable development, and climate change. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Kadir Mohamad just for the record