09 Jun COVID-19 Conversations 8: Lessons for COVID-19 from Malaysia’s Earlier Crises with Dato’ Steven Wong

Drawing from his expertise in policy-making, Steven Wong reflects on past crises Malaysia has faced and what they offer for responding to COVID-19.

Guest Speaker: Dato’ Steven Wong

Steven is a former deputy chief executive and board member of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia. He researches and writes on economic and regional affairs, and was previously a columnist for two newspapers on social matters.

Hosted by: Dr Bridget Welsh

Dr Bridget Welsh is currently an Honorary Research Associate with the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute Malaysia (UoNARI-M) based in Kuala Lumpur. She is also a Senior Research Associate of the Hu Fu Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University, a Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center, a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University. She specializes in Southeast Asian politics, with a focus on Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Indonesia. An author and editor of numerous books, reports and articles, her last report is Grappling with Transition: Myanmar’s 2019 Asia Barometer Findings. Her forthcoming book A Divided Malaysia: The Rise and Fall of Pakatan Harapan examines Malaysia’s 2018 elections and the transformation of national politics during the Harapan government of 2018-2020. She taught at John Cabot University, Ipek University, Singapore Management University, SAIS (JHU) and Hofstra University. She received her Ph.D in political science from Columbia University, language training at Cornell University (FALCON) and B.A. from Colgate University. She is a Senior Advisor for Freedom House, a member of the International Research Council of the National Endowment for Democracy and a core member of the Asian Barometer Survey covering fifteen countries in East Asia.