KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): A new book titled Globalization: Perak’s Rise, Relative Decline, and Regeneration by DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan Nazrin Shah discusses and documents his state’s cycles of fortune set against a backdrop of the world’s economic, social and political history.

A deep-dive between the covers also reveals an attempt to create a needed chart for regeneration at a brittle time. Less tract or manifesto, it remains not just an exhaustive and comprehensive study, but also an exhortation and urging from a reigning monarch. The book is also, touchingly, dedicated ‘To Perakians Everywhere’ — a lasting bequest from a ruler to his subjects. Beyond that, for all of us, globalisation asserts that it is ingenuity, worldliness, imagination, and that most fundamental resource of all — human and cultural — that determines, drives and animates renewal.

Still on the topic of literature, the NUS Museum has brought out a new book on the late Datuk N Parameswaran’s Vietnam War art collection. Featuring 1,230 artworks from Vietnam between 1954 and 1975, the collection offers glimpses of life beyond guns and battle, as well as landmark events in the country. The Perak-born joined the foreign service in 1969 and served as Malaysia’s ambassador to Vietnam from 1990 to 1993, a time when the country was embarking on economic reform and becoming more open to the world. Its art scene was emerging and he met many artists, which sparked his interest in wartime art.

As Taiping celebrates 150 years of existence, a local-born writer traces the arc of the town’s history and discovers a society that continues to be shaped by a legacy of peace. Liew Suet Fun, president of the Taiping Heritage Society and author of more than 20 books of non-fiction and poetry, hopes that local residents will stay faithful to what is authentic and true while safeguarding our history and heritage for every generation that comes after them.

Read about these and more in our June 30 issue of Options, out with The Edge Malaysia weekly.

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