Young Soon has worked with Orang Asli in West Malaysia and Orang Asal indigenous communities in East Malaysia on socio-economic development using a community development approach that empowers and gives ownership to the community. Some of the initiatives he is involved in are in Co-operatives, micro-finance, income-generation, capacity building, sustainable agriculture, indigenous peoples land rights and healthcare. He is married to Patricia and they have three daughters; Mayna, Masnah and Rusan.

Qualifications

• PhD, Monash University Malaysia
• MA in Rural Development, University of East Anglia

Publicaitons

• ‘The political economy of healthcare as commons: Exploring the commons health system and Indigenous peoples.’ In Primrose, D., Loeppky, R. and Chang, R. (eds), The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare. Routledge, Oxon, 2024.
• ‘The Role of Christians in Building Compassionate Communities.’ In Hwa Yung and Helen Ting (eds), Christians and Nation-Building in a Pluralistic Society. SIRD, Vinlin Press, 2021.
• ‘Why we run when the doctor comes: Orang Asli responses to health systems in transition in Malaysia’ Critical Public Health, 29(2), pp 192-204, 2018.
• ‘Sustainable Development Goals, universal health coverage and equity in health systems: The Orang Asli Commons approach’ Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics, 1, e12, 2016.
• ‘Health Care as Commons: An Indigenous Approach to Universal Health Coverage’ The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(3), 2014

Affiliations

• Director, Yayasan Integral Berhad
• Committee member, Social Workers Without Borders
• Advisor, El-Shaddai Refugee Center