Research Seminar Series: Dr. Lee Hwok Aun

We are thrilled to invite you to the upcoming session of the Research Seminar Series at the Asia School of Business, featuring Dr. Lee Hwok Aun.

Seminar Title:

From Old Conflict to New Cooperation: The Case for Group Advancement Policy

Event Details:

📅 Date: 4th February, 2026 (Wednesday)

⏰ Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

📍 Venue: CR-W3-01, Asia School of Business

💻 Zoom Link: https://asb-my.zoom.us/j/93596193559?pwd=rbdxvMqeOdtV66FaPfPr2i3d6OAH9Z.1

Meeting ID: 935 9619 3559

Passcode: 638714

Registration required.

Abstract

Policies involving ethnicity chronically polarize Malaysians. Breaking out of this deadlock begins by critically revisiting the old habits of thought that fuel dogmatic, misguided, and distrustful debate. Policy discourses must shift from the old, simplistic, and divisive confrontations to new cooperative pursuit of group advancement policy (GAP) for Bumiputeras and other beneficiaries. The challenge is not to abolish “race-based” policies and only doing “need-based” policies but to implement both universal well-being and group-targeted advancement as distinct and enduring policy, and to take into account identity, need, and merit in allocating socioeconomic opportunity. GAP relies on systematic and critical inquiry rather than sweeping judgements of “success” vs “failure”, and evaluates policy outcomes and solutions that are specific to each policy and programme. National development and diverse groups’ interests can be balanced by making GAP more fair and effective.

Speaker’s Bio

Lee Hwok Aun (PhD) is a Senior Fellow and Co-coordinator of the Malaysia Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an MSc in Political Economy of Development from SOAS University, and a BA (honours) in Economics from the University of British Columbia. He was previously Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Development Studies in the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya.

He was also a national consultant for the inaugural (UNDP, 2014) and a member of the inaugural Technical Committee of Malaysia’s National Wage Consultative Council. Over the years, he has maintained newspaper columns in The Sun, OfftheEdge, and The Selangor Times, and he continues to regularly contribute opinion pieces, primarily in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s commentary page fulcrum.sg.

Hwok Aun is the author of : Preference for Parity (Routledge, 2021) and of numerous articles and book chapters on affirmative action, inequality, discrimination, social protection, labour and education. His research has been published in the ISEAS Perspective and ISEAS Trends in Southeast Asia series, and in the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, and other international refereed journals. He has led Southeast Asian regional research projects resulting in the edited volumes: Inequality and Exclusion in Southeast Asia: (ISEAS, 2021); and Learning from Covid-19 in Southeast Asia: (ISEAS, 2025).

We look forward to your participation in this insightful research seminar.

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