Martin Khor


Martin Khor Kok Peng was the Executive Director of the South Centre from 1 March 2009 to 2018. He replaced Dr. Yash Tandon who was the Executive Director of the South Centre from 2005 to 2009. Khor was also a journalist, economist and the former Director of the Third World Network, which is based in Penang, Malaysia.
Khor was born in Penang, Malaysia. He was active in the civil society movement.
He attended the World Social Forum, European social forum and in 1999 and 2000, the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He was also a member of the UN Secretary-General's Task Force on Environment and Human Settlements since 1997, and a member of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's National Committee on Multilateral Trade Issues in Malaysia. He was a Vice-Chair of the Working Group of Experts on the Right to Development under the UN Commission on Human Rights.
He took part in the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy.
Khor sat on the board of directors of the International Forum on Globalization.
Khor was a columnist for The Star from 1978 to 2019.
He studied at Cambridge University and the Universiti Sains of Malaysia. He was an economist there.

Illness and death

Khor had been fighting cancer since 2015, and he had returned to Penang to fight it. He passed away on April 1st, 2020. His wake was held at the funeral parlor at Mount Erskine on the following day and his funeral was held on April 2nd at the same location. He had a daughter and a wife at the time of his death and Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan paid tribute to him.

Quotes

Selected works