Pressing Matters

Hong Kong-based Reporter at The Wall Street Journal shares with us how Chinese automaker BYD overtook Tesla to become the world’s largest EV maker. She helps us understand how its CEO Wang Chuanfu built this business from scratch. Hopefully she will share with us what the acronym BYD stands for. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We delve into the evolving landscape of philanthropy in Asia with Keeran Sivarajah, a Partner at The Bridgespan Group, discussing the nuances between Eastern and Western philanthropic approaches, and how philanthropy intersects with and complements business and governmental initiatives throughout the region. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Brian Hioe, editor from New Bloom Magazine about the latest Taiwanese presidential election results and what the election of William Lai and third consecutive win for the Democratic Progressive Party will mean for Taiwan and the region. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak to Greg Poling, Senior Fellow and Director, Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies to reflect on the extent of deterioration of US – Sino relations in 2023 and whether we expect the tensions between both superpowers to ramp up this year following the recently concluded Taiwanese presidential elections. Se...

In today's Pressing Matters, Philip speaks to Shannon Teoh, the Malaysia Bureau Chief of Straits Times as we do a quick reflection on the 2023 political developments that took place in Malaysia. From the state elections to a cabinet reshuffle, to cap 2023 we ask Shannon whether 2024 will be able to match the excitement of 2023, or would it be rather dull, but perhaps much welcomed, year?...

In today's Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Ushar Daniele a broadcast journalist based in Malaysia to unpack the progress or lack of from the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties or in short COP28. We get a sense of what was achieved and the work still required to meet the 1.5 Celcius goal set out by the Paris Agreement in 2015. Image credit:...

Medicine San Frontier (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders regional director Paul Brockman gives us a sense of the situation of the Rohingya crisis taking place, and talks about the motivation behind their recently produced short animation film titled “Lost at Sea” about a story that reflects the atrocities faced by the Rohingya as they seek refuge. Image credit: Doctors Without Borders See omnystudi...

Today's all about unpacking the two of the biggest stories that took place this year in the crypto industry. Philip See speaks to Sam Reynolds, Journalist at Coin Desk, as he helps us unpack the imposition of FTX and the downfall of the two major dominant figures of the crypto industry names, Sam Bankman Fried, short for SBF from FTX and Chan Peng Zhou, short for CZ from Binance. Sam helps us cont...

On Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Dr Benjamin Loh, senior lecturer at the School of Media and Communication at Taylor's University on the state of our media and the effectiveness of the government's plan and proposed media council. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Nat Tan Zhai Yun, editor of ESG at the Edge Malaysia. We get a sense from her on how ESG, short for Environmental Social and Governance is covered by journalists in Malaysia and whether Corporate Malaysia risks being accused of greenwashing. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today’s Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Dr. James Gomez, Regional Director at Asia Centre as we reflect how national and global citizenry can be embedded within Malaysia’s youth. This issue comes to the fore in view of how our public education has decided to embrace social causes such as the Solidarity with Palestine week. We get James’s perspective and views on whether these efforts rea...

On Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Dr Abdul Rahman Yaacob, Research Fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, on how ASEAN governments have been responding to the Israeli-Palestine conflict taking place in Gaza. They will be discussing the impact on domestic politics and the repercussions it may have on other conflicts within ASEAN as well as whether there will be a shift...

Philip See speaks to Khalil Majeed, Co-Founder & Project Director of Faqcheck, as we have a broad ranging conversation about disinformation. Khalil helps us unpack how he is building a mini-army of fact-checkers and we ask him how easy is it to get to the root cause of disinformation. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip See speaks to Sha Hua, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal's Singapore bureau as we have a discussion with her on her recent article titled ‘A nation goes for dominance – of World’s stinkiest fruit’. We get her insights into the Chinese Love affair of the Durian and we ask her the lengths the Chinese have gone to to meet their growing appetite for this thorny fruit. Image credit: Shutte...

We speak to Nazri Noran, Chief Executive Officer, Media Prima Audio to get a sneak peek of Media Prima’s strategy on its radio business. We ask him whether former Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s gig as guest DJ in Hot FM has helped the station and whether his radio presenters feel threatened by the presence of Aina Sabrina, Malaysia’s first AI Radio DJ. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

On Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Cliff Lim, Director of Risk & Compliance at Dow Jones to get a sense of how financial crimes have evolved in the region and whether we learnt the lessons from 1MDB. Cliff will also try to connect the dots if the recent unearthing of corruption scandals in Singapore could have been aided by improved compliance following the 1MDB saga. Image credit: Shut...

Philip See speaks to Kris Cheng, a journalist based in the UK, who used to work for Hong Kong Freedom Press and now works for Voice of America. They discuss the level of freedom of the press in Hong Kong and the difference in coverage between a journalist based in and away from Hong Kong. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak to Angela Christian-Wilkes, researcher from Deakin University about the press coverage of the recently concluded Women’s World cup and how the beautiful game has begun taking on a broad range of social issues. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Pressing Matters, Philip See speaks to Simon Huang, journalist and Chief Analyst from Tech in Asia as he helps us unpack how the big ASEAN unicorns, Grab, SEA and Goto,  have performed so far this year and whether the next generation of unicorns will be difficult to emerge as the era of cheap money is over. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Pressing Matters, we speak to Malek Ali Founder of BFM Media, with 15 questions about BFM. We trace the ups and downs of the station and ask him how the station has evolved and what his hopes for the future are for the next 15 years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since the military ousted the democratically elected government in Myanmar in February 2021, press freedom in that country has been shoved down the sewers, forcing many journalists, both local and international to exit the country. Sonny Swe the founder of Frontier Myanmar, now operates from just across the border, in northern Thailand, to provide its readers with balanced, in-depth reporting and...

Ibrahim Sani and Luqman Hariz, anchors of Astro Awani and hosts of the Tiber podcast join a discussion on the evolving role of the new room following the latest report from the Reuters - Oxford Institute for the Study of Journalism about the growing role of Digital influencers in breaking and shaping news. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip See speaks to Norman Goh, a journalist from Nikkei Asia, about the outcome of the recently concluded state elections. He recounts the campaign and reflects on the tensions that took place throughout the day. So what's next? When the dust settles, what are the lessons and post mortem of this pivotal vote? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Pressing Matters, our guests are no strangers in Malaysia’s media industry as Philip See gets into conversation with Datuk Ahirudin bin Attan aka Rocky Bru and Terence Fernandez about their latest news portal the Scoop as we have a wide ranging conversation and understand their motivations behind the birth of this portal. Phil tries to get the Scoop on the Scoop. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Bradley C. Freeman, Media Professor & Associate Dean at Sunway University debates with us on whether tech giants should pay online news and local media content. Will Malaysia follow the pathway taken by Australia and Canada? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.