Publications

This discussion paper is part of KRI’s Gender and Care Work research series. It examines how unpaid care labour has been increasingly reframed in Malaysia’s policy discourse, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

Malaysia’s 2025 Budget highlights a tension between bold ambitions and fiscal restraint. The push to cut the deficit below 3% risks underfunding development, weakening competitiveness, and worsening inequality. A developmental-state approach is urged, prioritising strategic investment, domestic financing, and growth-led fiscal health to break free from the Middle-Income Trap.

The World Bank’s 1981 Berg Report provided the blueprint for structural adjustment, including economic liberalisation in Africa. Urging trade liberalisation, it promised growth from agriculture.

Buying a new fridge for your new home is far less stressful than buying the home itself. While both may represent significant purchases in a person's life, the psychological and systemic differences between the two are stark. In Malaysia, this comparison goes beyond simple economics—it reveals something deeper about how our housing and consumer systems function.

The 1982 movie with the above title took place in Jakarta during the political turmoil in Indonesia in 1965; a period that saw President Sukarno eventually ousted and the emergence of the Orde Baru in Indonesia. The phrase itself was taken from Sukarno’s 1964 National Day speech where he used the Italian phrase ‘vivere pericoloso’ (living dangerously) to describe the coming year. The alleged coup attempt by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the anti-communist purge by the Indonesian military that followed was a bloody episode with estimates of deaths ranging from a hundred thousand to many more.