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On communal unity and cohesion in Malaysia.
Based on two years of intensive fieldwork, this detailed community study breaks new ground. Combining anthropological and historical disciplines, it deals with village politics amongst rural Malays growing oil-palm and rubber. This study traces the continuing influence of the colonial and post-colonial state policies on contemporary rural development. It shows that village political cleavages are not just the result of modern electoral practices introduced after World War II but are responses to politico-economic events at the national and even international levels. It examines not only inter-party rivalry between the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) but also the intra-party politics of both organizations at the local level.
This book brings together a set of incisive essays that interrogate Malaysian history and social relations which began during pre-colonial times, and extended to colonial and post-colonial Malaysia. It addresses economic misinterpretations of the role of markets in the way colonial industrialisation evolved, the nature of exploitation of workers, and the participation of local actors in shaping a wide range of socioeconomic and political processes. In doing so, it takes the lead from the innovative historian, Shaharil Talib Robert who argued that the recrafting of history should go beyond the use of conventional methodologies and analytic techniques. It is in that tradition that the chapters...
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. The ten essays which make up this volume create a delectable salad, which stands out both in taste and appeal, through a multifarious exploration of themes enriching the all-inclusive discourse on food. Rather than reiterating the debates that have been hashed and re-hashed in various disciplines, the essays compiled here explore novel ideas and spark unique discussions regarding the situatedness of food in everyday life using parameters such as culture, identity, space and taste. Employing unique inter- and intra-disciplinary methodologies and critical approaches, each article explores the evolution of definitions of food, cuisine and foodways and focuses on the ways in which discussions about food have moved beyond the superficial – food as a means of survival – to play a role in economic, social, political, cultural and ideological realms. By transcending boundaries of discipline, methodology and interest areas, this compilation will appeal to the tastes of anyone interested in food.
Malaysian Cinema in the New Millennium offers a new approach to the study of multiculturalism in cinema by analysing how a new wave of filmmakers champion cultural diversity using cosmopolitan themes. Adrian Lee offers a new inquiry of Malaysian cinema that examines how the ‘Malaysian Digital Indies’ (MDI) have in recent years repositioned Malaysian cinema within the global arena. The book shines a new light on how politics and socioeconomics have influenced new forms and genres of the post-2000s generation of filmmakers, and provides a clear picture of the interactions between commercial cinema and politics and socioeconomics in the first two decades of the new millennium. It also asses...
‘The basis of our historical imagination is the intellectual’s (or historian’s) critical thinking and their solidarity with the people, with their destiny and predicament, with the consistent aim of emancipating and liberating the subjugated, the oppressed, and the marginalised.’ History conditions the way that society discusses its problems. Treating history as a form of ‘imagination’, Azhar Ibrahim invites readers to probe the colonialist and nationalist tampering, suppression, and distortion of narratives on the Malays. In this thought-provoking book, the author encourages contemporary historians to move beyond the practice of Orientalist scholars: collecting data and describing facts. Instead, he promotes an alternative reading of history, one that departs from mainstream versions. Reflecting a strong understanding of classical Malay texts, the author also touches on broad themes such as psychological feudalism, orientalism, and the contestation of nationalist and colonialist perspectives on the community. Azhar’s book is a welcomed contribution and a must-read for those interested in alternative discourses in Malay Studies.
This book discusses multilingual postcolonial common law, focusing on Malaysia’s efforts to shift the language of law from English to Malay, and weighing the pros and cons of planned language shift as a solution to language-based disadvantage before the law in jurisdictions where the majority of citizens lack proficiency in the traditional legal medium. Through analysis of legislation and policy documents, interviews with lawyers, law students and law lecturers, and observations of court proceedings and law lectures, the book reflects on what is entailed in changing the language of the law. It reviews the implications of societal bilingualism for postcolonial justice systems, and raises an important question for language planners to consider: if the language of the law is changed, what else about the law changes?
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In this monograph Philipp Bruckmayr examines the development of Cambodia’s Muslim minority from the mid-19th to the 21st century. During this period Cambodia’s Cham and Chvea Muslims established strong relationships with Malay centers of Islamic learning in Patani, Kelantan and Mecca. During the 1970s to the early 1990s these longstanding relationships came to a sudden halt due to civil war and the systematic Khmer Rouge repression. Since the 1990s ties to the Malay world have been revived and new Islamic currents, including Salafism and Tablighism, have left their mark on contemporary Cambodian Islam. Bruckmayr traces how these dynamics resulted inter alia in a history of local Islamic factionalism, culminating in the eventual state recognition of two separate Islamic congregations in the late 1990s.
The Age of Knowledge emphasizes that the ongoing transformations of knowledge, both within universities and for society more generally, must be understood as a reflection of the larger changes in the constitutive social structures within which they are invariably produced, translated and reproduced.