RSIS Panel Seminar on “Contemporary Developments in Singapore-Malaysia Relations: Prospects and Challenges for Bilateral Ties”

PANELLISTS

Mr Wan Saiful Wan Jan
Chief Executive, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Malaysia

Mr John Pang
Senior Fellow, Centre for Multilateralism Studies, RSIS

Lecture Abstract:

In recent years, Singapore and Malaysia have undergone an unprecedented improvement in bilateral ties.  The warm relations have reduced tensions between both countries significantly.  Long-standing disputes such as the implementation of the Points of Agreement (POA) pertaining to the Malayan Railway land and the issue of the 1961 water agreement were successfully and amicably resolved.  The Iskandar Malaysia project in Southern Johor and the agreement to build the Kuala Lumpur Railway Train are examples of the close economic ties between Singapore and Malaysia.  As such, this seminar will explore the contemporary issues in Singapore-Malaysia relations.  It will also examine the prospects and challenges for bilateral ties.  The first speaker, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the Chief Executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Malaysia, will address the political issues shaping bilateral ties.  The second speaker, John Pang, Senior Fellow at RSIS, will discuss the economic dimension of Singapore-Malaysia relations.

About the Speakers:

Wan Saiful Wan Jan is Chief Executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (www.ideas.org.my). He is also Director of the Southeast Asia Network for Development (www.seanetwork.asia) and Chairman of the Istanbul Network for Liberty (www.istanbulnetwork.org).

Additionally, he is also a member of the Advisory Board at Laureate International Malaysia; member of the Advisory Board of the University of Nottingham’s School of Politics, History and International Relations; a Governor at Rafflesia Education Group; and Chairman of IDEAS Academy, a not for profit learning centre for stateless and refugee children in Kuala Lumpur. In August 2015, he was appointed as a member of the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing, following the Prime Minister’s announcement to set up the group.

He lived in the United Kingdom between August 1993 and October 2009. There he served several organisations, including the think tank Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, the British Conservative Party’s Research Department, and Social Enterprise London. He is now a columnist for The Star, a national newspaper in Malaysia.  He also writes for several other national and regional press.  His opinion has been quoted by various media, including the BBC, Reuters, Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Al-Jazeera and The Economist.

John Pang is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) where he is active at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies. He was the founding CEO of a regional public sector driven think tank dedicated to ASEAN economic integration and of an organisation of ASEAN CEO’S, the ASEAN Business Club. Before this he was a consultant with a global strategy firm and with a London-based strategic intelligence firm. He was Special Advisor to the Minister of Education of Malaysia and has held visiting fellowships at NYU Stern and at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia. He is a member and former chair of the Global Agenda Council for Southeast Asia of the World Economic Forum. Mr Pang pursued research in the philosophy of economics and in the philosophy and anthropology of religion at the London School of Economics and at Stanford University. He was born in Malaysia and educated in Singapore.

Organised by Malaysia Programme, IDSS and RSIS Events Unit.