BUILDING BACK BETTER | JEYAKUMAR DEVARAJ

Author: Jeyakumar Devaraj

Publisher: SIRD

Pages : 97 pages

“The ‘Revolution’ – if that can be taken to denote the fundamental changes that are required to shift from an economic system propelled by the profit motive of large corporations to an economic system premised on solidarity – is still as necessary as ever.”

In this selection of essays, Dr Jeyakumar gives fresh insights into several of the major issues affecting Malaysia, including the failure of the reform initiative, persistent rural poverty, the widening ethnic divide, the role of free trade agreements in promoting the race to the bottom among ASEAN countries, the financing of political parties, youth unemployment and the shortage of federal funds to finance anti-poverty measures, while suggesting out-of-the-box solutions for these issues. A must-read for Malaysians keen on building back better.


Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj is a medical doctor who left government service in 1999 to contest the Sungai Siput constituency in the general election of that year. He finally won that seat in 2008 and was the Member of Parliament for Sungai Siput for two terms. He is currently the Chairperson of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia, which he co-founded in 1996 together with several NGO colleagues.