|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
... Said wrote, “it is the role of the post-colonial intellectual to clarify and expand” the problematic aspects of postcolonial discourse which consists of a facet that he termed as the “politics of blame” (Said 1986: 45). He regards the intellectuals engaged in the “politics of blame” as wailers and whiners whose primary role is to denounce the evils of colonialism, it is thus up to the post-colonial intellectual to ensure that when the “empire writes back” it does so in contribution to the body of knowledge between the Occident and the Orient of the Orient.
Post-colonialism can be defined as the social, political, economic and cultural practices, which arise in response to colonialism thus, the discourses of post-colonialism attempts to reinstate the marginalized in the face of the dominant (Dehay: 2003). In The Empire Writes Back, the authors noted that the term ‘post-colonial’ is used to ‘cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 1989: 1). ... It is thus the aim of this paper to examine the development of post-colonial scholarship in the former British Malaya.
Unlike continental India, the geographical and political boundaries of Malaya went through a dramatic change in the post-colonial period. ... It is ironic that in an attempt, to search for the post-colonial discourses in the Southeast-Asian region, one has to revisit the area that was known as Malaya during the colonial period. However, as Dipesh Chakrabarty noted, third world historians could not afford to ignore Europe in the writing of their history, even if the history of Europe can be written comfortably without reference to the works of the third world intellectuals (Chakrabarty 1992: 1492)
This paper will examine a few discourses that have developed in post-colonial period concentrating mainly on the scholarship produce in Malaysia. In studying the discourses of sociologists such as Syed Hussein Alatas and Shaharudin Maaruf this paper hopes to uncover the focus and concerns of the Malay postcolonial project. This paper will also look at the works produced during the colonial period by Abdullah Munshi and the Malay Annals, which has had a gargantuan impact on the works of current scholars of the Malay world.
The Scholarships
Abdullah Munshi is often regarded as one of the pioneering figures in the history of Malay literature and one of its earliest intellectual. ... Abdullah was also the editor of the Sejarah Melayu (the Malay Annals). Abdullah’s original works provided insight into the Malay society during the colonial period not only at the administrative level but also the masses. ... For the purpose of this paper, Abdullah is proposed as the one of the colonial intellectuals that created the foundation for the post-colonial discourse on Malay society.
One of the Malay intellectuals in the postcolonial period that would be discussed in this paper is Syed Hussein Alatas. One of the leading sociologists on Malay society, Alatas’ works include Reflections on the Theories of Religion (1963), The Sociology of Corruption (1968), Modernization and Social Change in Southeast Asia (1972), Intellectuals in Developing Societies (1977), The Myth of the Lazy Native (1977) and The Problem of Corruption (1986), to name a few. This paper will focus on The Myth of the Lazy Native, a book touted by Edward Said as “post-colonial and specialist, addressing a smaller audience about more specific issues”(Said 1986: 59).
Approximate Word count = 2771
Approximate Pages = 11.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|