Michael Backman has written widely about the ills faced by Asia's economies, arguing for greater scrutiny and transparency and denouncing official corruption.
Another theme is that Asian leaders must be accountable for their actions - to the citizens they are supposed to serve and that this is best guaranteed by an independent judiciary and a free media.
Rowan Callick writing in the Australian Financial Review described Backman as "the brilliant young writer on regional business strategies" and one of the fresh names to drive debate over Australia's future role in Asia.
[6] But then perhaps not surprisingly, Backman's support was quoted approvingly in a speech by Malaysia's then Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik.
[14] It also said that the fact that Today published Backman's column showed that some in the Singapore media agreed with him and wanted to carve out more independence.
At the start of November, information minister Lee Bon Yang told the Press Club that foreign journalists should stay out of Singapore's politics.
His figure of 1,251 companies in which members of the Soeharto family had significant interest has been widely quoted in media and studies around the world.
[17] He provided an affidavit on behalf of Time Magazine when it was sued in a Jakarta court by former President Soeharto for defamation over an article it published on 24 May 1999, called 'Suharto's Billions' in which Backman was quoted.
The link between Soeharto and Australia's then Prime Minister Paul Keating was examined too, leading to the matter being raised in the Australian Parliament.
Senator Susan Knowles told the Parliament that Backman had raised in the book "extraordinarily important questions about the national interest".
[19] Singapore's then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong quoted Backman in his 1998 National Day Rally Address calling him an expert in overseas Chinese.
However, in 2006, Backman penned a column for the Melbourne Age newspaper in which he questioned the Malaysian government's wasteful spending.
Malaysians critical of their government took to calling their country or at least its administration Bodohland and websites with political comment sprung up that made use of the terms boleh and bodoh as part of their domain names.
Backman had earlier penned a column in which he criticised Rafidah's allocation of permits to import cars into Malaysia.
Then opposition leader Lim Kit Siang had quoted from Backman's article in the Malaysian Parliament to embarrass the minister.
[27] Backman wrote more columns on Malaysia in the lead-up to and in the aftermath of the historic 2008 elections at which the Malaysian government achieved its worst result in fifty years.