As an upcoming commentator and well-read columnist, Karim Raslan is very much the model of what he himself sees as the New Malaysian intelligentsia. Well-educated, multilingual, cultured, and financially accomplished; a citizen of the world, yet with firm roots in Asia and Malaysia. Karim is a pragmatic liberal. In many of his essays, the importance of societal empowerment, liberal values, and human rights are set against the occasionally arbitrary authority he realises a state must command in order to function well, particularly in times of crisis like the recent terrorist attacks in Bali and the Philippines. This forms as important a subtext in his volume of essays, Ceritalah 2, as it does a dilemma of our age.

The essays here contrast markedly in tone with his more optimistic first volume, beginning as he does with 'The Past is Another Country', a bleak (perhaps overly so?) assessment of Malaysia's democratic potential today, compared to the early- and mid-1990s. His political writings sit alongside rosier accounts on a diversity of topics, including travel, identities, art, and Islam, in the context of Southeast Asia in transition. In particular, his stories of immigrants, Muslim enclaves in Thailand, and modern monarchy in Solo and Jogjakarta are uplifting, albeit bordering on the homilic. Nonetheless, this attention to the marginal and disempowered is laudable: while there is no shortage of introspective and essays on the larger and more publicised peoples in Asia (such as the Madurese at the turn of the new century, the Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s, and the East Timorese after 1991), Raslan presents necessarily brief yet incisive portraits of smaller and equally endearing communities, from Rangoon to Thailand.

It is hence surprising that (among other things) an examination of the marginalised Indian community in Malaysia itself is not included. This hints at a noticeable, though not damning, tendency for Raslan to expose the flaws of Malaysia's government without hesitancy, yet curious unwillingness to tackle the ugly side of socio-economic-cultural conditions (something that exists in all countries) in Malaysia with equal gusto. Indeed, where he tackles such issues, he reveals startling facets of his personality. One glaring example of this is when (in Ceritalah, his first volume of essays) he argues passionately against the fact that non-Malay-Muslim Bumiputras (in Sabah and Sarawak, particularly) suffer from discrimination compared to Malay-Muslim Bumiputras such as himself, and calls for a redress, yet never seriously considers the even worse discrimination suffered by the Indian (8% of total population) and Chinese (24% of total) citizens of Malaysia under the NEP. This commitment to institutionalised discrimination is inconsistent with a belief in modern liberal doctrine and a universalist conception of human rights.

Despite Raslan's disillusionment with Malaysia's political processes, he praises UMNO (Malaysia's dominant party) for its adaptability, and sees Malaysia's role as a 'model Islamic state' crucial proof that Islam is not opposed to modernity. Likewise, he retains the clarity to bring healthy skepticism to bear on the idea that the 'Barisan Alternatif' is at present a plausible substitute for the Barisan Nasional, Malaysia's ruling coalition. Thus, although there have been no shortages of spokespeople defending moderate Islam since the September 11 terrorist attacks, Raslan's voice is important in this milieu. For if it is sometimes said that one should aim to know something about everything, and everything about something, politics in the context of Asian Islamic societies (such as Malaysia and Indonesia, and enclaves in the Philippines and Thailand) is clearly Raslan's strong suit. His analyses of PAS-UMNO competition, and political Islamism in Indonesia, are rigorously argued.

However, on the topic of Singapore-Malaysia relations, Raslan's arguments are comparatively less rigorous. Despite his admission that countries do, and must, take the measures necessary for their own survival, he criticises the insensitivity of Singapore's participation in bilateral free trade arrangements with non-ASEAN countries such as the USA and Japan, arguing that ASEAN should show unity. Although he suggests that Singapore-Malaysian relations are hindered by these arrangements, which exclude Malaysia, and also by Singapore's predominantly Chinese (and non-Malay-speaking) population, he implies that the fault lies with Singapore, rather than notice the parallels between Singapore's FTAs and Malaysia's membership in the OIC, and between Singapore's Chinese elite and Malaysia's own non-Mandarin-speaking Bumiputras.

Furthermore, Singapore's eminently pragmatic technocracy has long realised that Raslan's two 'choices' (economic advancement and regional co-operation) are in reality mutually reinforcing levers best pursued in tandem, and is loath to squander potentially-lucrative regional goodwill unless there is no alternative. Hence, it is churlish to blame other governments for sacrificing neighbourly sensitivities in the pursuit of economic benefit, when Malaysia's own Tanjung Pelepas port is clearly a means of whittling down Singapore's current regional predominance in transshipment services - even at the expense of cross-straits brotherhood.

Finger-pointing, heated exchanges, and outright competition are rife in regional affairs, as seen from the recent dispute over abuses of prisoners (suspected to be Filipino immigrants) by Malaysian police, or the (barely) ongoing cross-straits water negotiations. It is necessary to temper any analysis of regional politics with an understanding of these tendencies, rather than attempt to 'pin the blame' on particular countries as Raslan sometimes does.

Nonetheless, Ceritalah 2 has been marketed as a valuable glimpse into the psyche of the new generation of Malaysian elite, one unafraid to hold firm opinions on contemporary issues, confident and educated. It is debatable whether, as a liberal, British-born, Cambridge-educated lawyer, yet a privileged Malay-Muslim Bumiputra, Raslan's opinions, or his profile, are typical of much of Malaysia's emerging indigenous educated middle-class. However, it is likely that the tussle between liberal sentiments, a pragmatic awareness of being beneficiaries of class and parentage, and a more conservative bent, amply illustrated within Ceritalah and Ceritalah2, troubles many Malaysians like him, and this seeming 'inconsistency' is nothing more than a display of the dimensions and vicissitudes of human nature.

Let us not be mistaken - it is the attitudes and opinions of people like Raslan who will shape the Malaysian political, economic and cultural landscape in the coming decades. This, together with Raslan's proximity to local policy circles, the esteem with which he is held in by many Malaysian politicians, and his commitment towards understanding the regional dynamics of Southeast Asian affairs, should be reasons enough to read this book as one of many insights into Malaysia today.