The Society held its election AGM on 14 July 2016 at 2 Goodwood Hill. Immediate Past President Mr Michael Hwang reported that since the last non election AGM on 9 September 2015, the Society has had four Fireside chats with Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Editor in chief of Inconvenient Questions), Prof Kevin Tan (Professor of Constitutional Law, NUS), Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara (Temasek holdings) and Prof Low Teck Seng (CEO, National Research Foundation).
There was also a Freshers Going Up event, a private docent-led tour of the newly opened National Gallery and the much anticipated Oxbridge Annual Dinner at Eden Hall (coinciding with Chinese New Year) which was over-subscribed at 120 diners.
Amendments were passed to the Society’s Constitution to allow for candidates to stand in absentia for office provided a letter of consent was produced by someone present at the AGM. Amendments were also made to the process for nomination of officers of the Society to be submitted no later than two weeks before the meeting and nominations shall not be allowed at the AGM itself. It was clarified that an office bearer shall hold office for two years and elections for the Committee shall be held at every alternate AGM. The post of Immediate Past President was created who would automatically be part of the Committee without the need for election.
The following were elected to the Committee at the AGM:
- Year 2016 – 2018
| Name | Designation |
| Dato’ Paul Supramaniam | President |
| Dr Michael Hwang SC | Immediate Past President |
| Dr Melanie Chew | Vice President (Oxford) |
| Mr Toh Han Li | Vice President (Cambridge) |
| Mr Ng Yeau Chong | Honorary Secretary |
| Ms Yu-Ann Wang | Honorary Treasurer |
| Mr Tan Yi-xun | Assistant Honorary Secretary |
| Dr Caitriona Heinl | Assistant Honorary Treasurer |
| Mr Paul Broom | Liaison Officer from the British High Commission |
| Mr James Cheah | Member |
| Ms Rachel Chew | Member |
| Ms Genevieve Ding | Member |
| Ms Purnima Gandhi | Member |
| Mr Tyler Henry Hung | Member |
| Mr Zakir Hussain | Member |
| Mr Lucas Jiang | Member |
| Mr Anupum Khaitan | Member |
| Mr Mark Nelligan | Member |
| Ms Debra Quek | Member |
| Mr Ervin Tan | Member |
| Dr Wu Huijuan | Member |
The AGM was followed by a Fireside chat with Dr Johan Saravanamuttu on the topic entitled “New Politics in a Divided Nation – Quo Vadis Malaysia?”
Dr. Saravanamuttu was formerly professor of political science at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang where he served as Dean of the School of Social Sciences (1994-1996). He was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, from 2007-2014 and, in 1997, was the Visiting Chair in ASEAN and International Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, the First 50 Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism (ISEAS, 2010). Other publications include: The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative Action, Ethnic Inequalities and Social Justice (co-edited with Terence Gomez, NUS Press 2013);March 8: Eclipsing May 13 (with Ooi Kee Beng and Lee Hock Guan, ISEAS, 2008); New Politics in Malaysia (co-edited with Francis Loh, ISEAS, 2003). His latest co-edited book is Coalitions in Collision: Malaysia’s 13 th General Election (SIRD & ISEAS, 2015) and has authored another book, Power Sharing in a Divided Nation: Mediated Communalism and New Politics over Six Decades of Elections in Malaysia (ISEAS- Yusof Ishak Institute, in press, 2016).
