All Entries in the "Book Reviews" Category
The Star Review: Absorbing tale
Review by AMY DE KANTER
What could have been very dry academic text is fleshed out with a bountiful crop of oral history.
LAND TO TILL: The Chinese in the Agricultural Economy of Malaysia
By Tan Pek Leng
Publisher: Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 285 pages
ISBN 978-9833908042
CHOOSING to read Land to Till took a bit of deliberation. On the one hand, the book contained a lot of tables with loads of numbers. On the other hand, I knew nothing about the role of the Chinese in Malaysian agriculture, and I like learning about things, anything.
So I made up my mind to plough through this book on agriculture (yes, pun very much intended!), to start at page one and trod determinedly through a few pages a day.
I did not count on author Tan Pek Ling making the subject so interesting. Despite stumbling over and sometimes completely ignoring the tables, Land to Till proved to be a smooth and absorbing tale.
Tan begins each chapter with an overview of some aspect of agriculture in Malaysia. In these chapters she outlines the cultural background, the process (planting, growing, gathering, processing), and even the local and international socio-political events that led to the success of a certain crop.
At the end of each chapter are stories she has gathered about individual workers and landowners. Many of the people she writes about are no longer living, so she interviewed descendants, transcribing oral history that otherwise may have been eventually lost.
Many of the stories are of adventure, risk, struggle and success. A great number are of Chinese people newly-arrived in Malaysia, others of a first generation born in this country. Some are extremely rich today, while others continue to scrape by.
In one of the most riveting stories Tan allows the person involved to speak for himself. She reprints excerpts of Recollections of a Chinese Planter which was originally printed in the Malaysian Estate Owner’s Association’s newsletter and annual report. This was written by a H.L. Tang, who started out as an assistant on a British-owned estate. Although he is both hardworking and experienced, he earns a third of what is offered to British staff who “unless he had visited Kew Gardens, didn’t even know what the rubber tree looked like”. He eventually resigned after being told that even after eight years, he would not earn the same as a newly-disembarked Englishman. His “arrogance” resulted in his being blacklisted from European estates but he persisted, slowly and painfully paving the way to equality. It was a page-turner.
The chapter on research (in which the significant role of women is acknowledged) will have readers swelling with pride at local accomplishments.
Not all stories are so uplifting. Tan’s book is a valuable historical record, an education and also an impassioned plea for those who are in danger of disappearing.
Is it not always the case that we admire those who do well for themselves while those most directly involved in our survival are ignored? One cannot think of the country’s agricultural wealth without making the immediate leap to palm oil and rubber. But the farmers who put fresh, nutritious and affordable grain, fruit and vegetables on our tables work just as hard – for less return and with no secure future.
Tan not only writes about the problems they face (knowing that at any moment they can be kicked off their land is frightening for anyone, especially a farmer), she also outlines solutions to ensure that this most necessary form of farming continues.
Hip hip hurrah for the author! Long may she write.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/1/24/lifebookshelf/4872870&sec=lifebookshelf
How a “high modernist” approach to leprosy control was subtly subverted.
Alongside modern diseases such as AIDS and SARS or the H1N1 strain of influenza that is currently in the headlines, leprosy does not attract as much attention or the same level of research. Often, too, the voices of those affected by leprosy have been neglected or simply ignored.
Providing a corrective is Making and Unmaking the Asylum. At the center of Dr. Loh Kah Seng’s study are men, women and children from different ethnic groupings in Singapore and Malaysia who, as a result of being diagnosed with leprosy, ended up in sanatoriums such as Singapore’s Silra Home and the Sungai Buloh leprosarium north of Kuala Lumpur.
The book examines how a “high modernist” development ethos impacted on the history of leprosy in colonial and postcolonial Singapore and Malaysia. As defined by social scientist James Scott, cited by the author, this is “a self confidence about scientific and technological progress.”
The ideology and practices that grew from this have had, according to Dr. Loh, paradoxical outcomes upon the management of leprosy in the two countries. On the one hand, the high modernist state’s will to clean up social ‘messiness’ — combined with the coercive powers to do so — led to the segregation of people affected by leprosy and near-total control over them by the state, which sought to protect society from an imagined social danger.
On the other hand, the author documents how the high modernist logic was subverted, or at least resisted, by the very people it sought to dominate. The majority for whom the asylums became their permanent home devised strategies to salvage their ‘bad’ lives. They formed friendships, married, practiced their religion and put on cultural performances. Some joined secret societies, gambled, smoked opium, trafficked in contraband items, and partook in riots and strikes. In so doing, they sought to contest and remake the terms of their confinement.
What this thoughtful and discerning study underscores is the need to be mindful of how people are treated, or mistreated, in the campaign against infection. Leprosy may be an old disease compared with modern pandemics, but the lessons it teaches are no less relevant for it.
Making and Unmaking the Asylum: Leprosy and Modernity in Singapore and Malaysia by Loh Kah Seng (SIRD, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 2009).
AUTHOR: Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied is a lecturer in the Malay Studies Department of the National University of Singapore.
WHO Goodwill Ambassador’s Newsletter
No. 41 December 2009: 5
http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/2jcahj000005bps8-att/8f0j6k000006tuct.pdf
Straits Times Review: Living with stigma of leprosy
31 October 2009
Straits Times
Review - Others
Living with stigma of leprosy
Cheong Suk-Wai, Senior Writer
899 words
(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
LOCATED on the eponymous isle that flanks Penang Bridge, the Jerejak Rainforest and Spa is an idyllic retreat hugged by thick Malaysian jungle.
The visitor is greeted by glossy darkwood floors, intricate wood carvings adorn its walls and the linen is spotless white-and-blue. But for those old enough to remember, from 1871 till World War II, this was a fearsome no-go area that served to isolate leprosy patients
It was, in fact, colonial Malaya’s first such colony, to be followed much later in 1930 by the Sungai Buloh leprosarium set up in Selangor.
In Singapore, from where the British governed the rest of Malaya, there were holding areas for leprosy sufferers only in Kandang Kerbau Hospital and then McNair Road. Eventually, such patients were sent to Pulau Jerejak for good.
What a world away Jerejak’s Balinese body scrubs, steam baths and jacuzzis seem from the frightful 4,000-year-old disease whose name comes from the Greek word lepis for scale.
Since 1873, leprosy has also come to be known as Hansen’s Disease, after Norwegian scientist G.H. Armauer Hansen, who first discovered that it was caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.
Up till the early 20th century, leprosy was thought to be incurable, but a cocktail of drugs proved to be effective in stamping out this badly disfiguring and nerve- deadening disease that often results in the loss of sight and limbs.
Unfortunately, it was often confused with syphilis and thus erroneously thought to be highly contagious when, actually, scientists have since found that 95 per cent of people are immune to leprosy.
All this makes the disease’s tortuous and sometimes callous course in Malaya all the more tragic.
It was only in 1949, after three British nuns from the Catholic order of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood settled down here and agreed to nurse leprosy and tuberculosis (TB) patients, that the British authorities were willing to set up a leprosarium proper, the Trafalgar Home in Woodbridge.
Such things are all but forgotten these days, but local historian Loh Kah Seng has just launched his book, Making And Unmaking The Asylum: Leprosy And Modernity In Singapore And Malaysia.
The book tracks how the British authorities were bent on compulsory segregation of all sufferers, which in effect rendered anyone stricken by leprosy effectively a walking corpse.
It was from late 2004 that Dr Loh had been researching the history of leprosy in Malaya for the International Leprosy Association’s Global Project. His core finding is that, in banning leprosy sufferers from mingling with the rest of society as a means of minimising the risk of contagion, Singapore’s early governments prioritised the control of society for economic progress and modernisation above the needs of individuals.
Dr Loh, who has also studied the effects of the Great Depression in 1930s Malaya, points out that even so, the British were selective in how they regarded leprosy sufferers in their colonies. For example, he argues, because Singapore was important to them economically, they made it illegal not to confine institutionally anyone with leprosy. In India, under its 1898 Lepers Act, by contrast, only paupers had to be segregated.
While the colonial government pursued compulsory segregation on the grounds that leprosy was highly infectious, Dr Loh points out that they backslid badly when they were short on funds. In 1937, when the Great Depression squeezed budgets and housing people became a great cost, the British government in Malaya admitted that leprosy was only ‘very slightly infectious’ and that compulsory segregation was ‘unnecessary and costly’.
His book abounds with examples of the British taking a sledgehammer to flies in dealing with the hundreds of leprosy sufferers, especially considering that TB was vastly more contagious but patients were allowed to roam freely.
Dr Loh records former leprosy sufferer Kuang Wee Kee as saying that, of the most-feared diseases in mid-20th century Singapore, ‘leprosy, TB and mental illness were the three brothers. Mental illness was…the little brother. Second brother was TB. Leprosy was the big brother. These were the three big clans’.
Once segregated, however, the leprosy sufferers were well fed and encouraged to be active in the open air as much as possible. They even grew vegetables and tended livestock, albeit within the confines of their delineated compounds.
Many gave up the struggle against the hopelessness to which society had consigned them. Many thus became incorrigible gamblers, instigating fights and killing themselves.
Yet many other leprosy sufferers ‘unmade the asylum’, as Dr Loh puts it, by founding musical troupes, writing and performing plays, and publishing inmates’ stories in magazines for sale.
Unfortunately, the push of progress continues to belittle their efforts to live with self-respect. In September 2005, residents of the Singapore Leprosy Relief Association had to move from their leafy premises with generous spaces to a flatted factory-like building. There, even for married couples, privacy is no priority. Finding their own digs is often a pipe dream given the stigma that still sticks to the disease.
Noting how contagious diseases are rearing their ugly heads these days, Dr Loh muses: ‘We have a social duty to be mindful of how ordinary people are treated, and mistreated, in the campaign against disease and infection.’
suk@sph.com.sg
A torrid 100 days : Review by ANDREW SIA
Oon Yeoh maintains that his book is a fair and neutral look at our Prime Minister’s first days in office. – BRIAN MOH / The Star
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/8/9/lifebookshelf/4476457&sec=lifebookshelf
Sunday August 9, 2009. The Star
A blogger follows the PM’s first few months in office, while keeping an eye on where he’s headed.
THE first thing a reader is wont to ask, “Why does Oon Yeoh’s Najib’s First 100 Days, have No Honeymoon as its sub-heading?”
Yeoh, the editor of new (online) media at a business weekly, says: “No Honeymoon is a factual statement. It’s simply been a battle for the Prime Minister since Day One.
“There were various allegations against him, and the economic slowdown. Things weren’t going very well for BN (the Barisan Nasional) and it seemed like everything was against him.”
Oon Yeoh maintains that his book is a fair and neutral look at our Prime Minister’s first days in office. – BRIAN MOH / The Star
As an “objective” observer, Yeoh had initially thought that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak “would fare poorly”.
“But in February, he made me sit up with the speed, even ruthlessness, of the Perak takeover. This was in contrast to his reputation as a cautious fence-sitter. It was like he was telling Pakatan (Rakyat), ‘Don’t mess with me’.”
Najib came into office with a 41% (public) approval rating
“But he did quite well during his first 100 days and his ratings went up to 65%. This is no mean feat,” adds Yeoh, who has been writing mainly on IT, then politics, for 12 years.
He maintains that the book is a fair and neutral look at Najib’s 100 days, down to its cover picture
“Those who dislike him think the photo shows Najib picking a fight, (like) wanting to bash Pakatan. But those who like him feel it shows gritty determination. It’s like the Mona Lisa, which looks different to different people.”
The first part of the book contains Yeoh’s summary of and commentary on events, while the second has articles from 14 contributors.
He tried to pick a spectrum from different genders, races, age groups and political persuasions. The last ranges from blogger Rocky’s Bru (a Najib supporter) to former Star associate editor Kee Thuan Chye (who is not).
“Others were more middle-of- the-road. I chose people who had something to say; I didn’t want ranting demagogues or elected politicians. If readers look at my track record, and that of the contributors, they will see we have been critical but fair.”
What motivates Yeoh?
“Years ago I read a survey about elderly people who were asked what they could have done differently,” he recalls.
What struck me was that, first, they wished they had taken more risks. They also wished they had been more thoughtful in their actions. Finally, they wished they had a legacy to leave behind, something greater than themselves.
“For me as a writer, my small contribution is in my articles, podcasts, articles and books.”
Yeoh’s interest in politics was stoked by his late father, Yeoh Chiang Kee, a university lecturer in linguistics.
“My dad never joined any party but was always interested in politics as an observer. In the late 1990s, during the Anwar Ibrahim saga, he taught himself how to access the Internet just so he could read political news.”
Yeoh’s political awakening happened at the University of Texas in Austin, the United States, where he did his Economics degree in the early 1990s. “American college students are very politically aware and I had lots of conversations and debates with them about Republicans, Democrats and so on.”
He started his journalism career in 1997 with the Nikkei wire news service, and covered politics and economics.
Najib’s First 100 days is divided into eight chapters, and Yeoh posts comments in each one.
> Leadership: “Despite the economic and political turmoil, Najib has shown decisiveness,” he says.
> Managing BN: The author points out that Sabah has four important ministerial posts while Sarawak has two; when it comes to MPs, Sabah has 24 and Sarawak, 31.
“Perhaps this was because Sarawak politicians did not make as much noise as their Sabah counterparts about potentially leaving the BN,” he notes.
> Dealing with Pakatan Rakyat: In this chapter, Yeoh writes that Najib showed his political shrewdness in June when he seized the chance to rattle Pakatan Rakyat by welcoming Malay unity talks with PAS. However, the removal of the Perak State Assembly Speaker by force on May 7 was criticised by Suhakam and raised concerns about the impartiality of the civil service, the police and the judiciary.
> Economic Reforms: These are debatable, but measures like removing the 30% Bumiputra requirement for public listings have symbolic significance and “have taken guts”, Yeoh says.
> Race Relations: Najib has been saying the right things (such as 1Malaysia and merit-based scholarships), besides going on “surprise” walkabouts and attending harvest festivals in Sabah and Sarawak. However, having taken over from someone who did not fulfil his promises, he has “a difficult task of convincing people that he’s for real …”
> Foreign affairs: He has done a good job at mending fences with Singapore and made a symbolic trip to China.
> Civil Liberties: Yeoh notes that people taking part in peaceful protests, like wearing black T-shirts, have been arrested, especially in Perak. Even lawyers who went to assist those arrested were detained.
> Media Strategy: While Najib has his own “new media” presence via a blog, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, he follows his two predecessors’ “old playbook” of controlling the mainstream media.
For instance, Yeoh writes, TV3, Ntv7, 8TV and TV9 were asked not to broadcasts certain issues related to Perak.
In summary, he says: “Najib has broken out of the box in the first six areas, but not where civil liberties and the media are concerned. He has played his cards correctly in all areas except Perak, which I believe will return to trouble him.”
Political observers commented that many urban voters of all races voted against BN in March 2008 partly due to exposure to “more” information online. Yeoh believes politics will be challenged even further by technology in the next general elections
> ‘Najib’s First 100 Days: No Honeymoon’ will be launched on Wednesday by Tunku Abdul Aziz, a former president of Transparency International Malaysia, at 8pm at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (No. 1, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur). For details, call 016-465 5107 or 016-379 7231 .
M/C Reviews: Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia
Media Studies: Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia
Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia: A New Civil Society in the Making is the first book to discuss blogging in Malaysia in detail. It draws upon a survey completed in late 2006, interviews and observations, and it is a unique record of the early moments of social-political blogging in Malaysia. There is also a timely postscript to the book that discusses the overall impact of blogging on the ‘political tsunami’ of the Malaysian general elections in 2008.
The first chapter provides a brief history of blogs, and some of the earlier research by writers including Blood and Herring; it then discusses their potential as a “democratic medium” (4), particularly as an alternative media, and argues that bloggers and journalists have complementary roles—as opposed to being locked in a “duel to the death” (7).
The second chapter focuses on the relationship between the media and Malaysian “pseudo-democracy” (9), highlighting the relevance of the “developmentalist” (12) discourse that posits a pay-off between stability and economic progress on the one hand, and democratic and human rights on the other. Legislative restrictions on the media are explained, as well as how the ruling parties exercise control through the direct or indirect ownership of the major media outlets. Developing out of the Reformasi upheavals of 1998, when websites and email were deployed in opposition to the government, and because it does not print on paper, a highly successful online news website Malasysiakini has been able to bypass some of these restrictions; thus the Internet is described as the “final frontier for freedom of speech” (18).
Chapter three examines the slim pickings of previous research on the Malaysian blogosphere, and notes the apparent prominence of political blogs in Malaysia compared to other Asian countries. Quoting from newspapers, the authors detail “the increasingly fraught relationship between control-minded ministers and bloggers” (20). In 2007, legal action by a major English-language broadsheet and related individuals against two prominent social-political bloggers sparked the formation of the National Alliance of Bloggers (All-Blogs). This is a very interesting episode of which Tan had direct experience, and is recounted in some detail. The debates amongst bloggers that these moves engendered are recounted, as well as details of other cooperative endeavours such blogger meetings, blog awards, or charity events. Also noted are the increased means for bloggers to make money through blogs.
Noting that the Malaysian blogosphere “is by no means a homogenous community” (34), chapter four starts to detail the results of the online survey to which 1,537 blog readers, including 852 bloggers, responded. The picture that emerges is of mostly young and ethnically Chinese respondents; educated, middle or upper-class occupations; and avid blog readers who prefer blogs to newspapers, and prefer personal diary-type blogs to SoPo blogs. Political commitment is assessed: 89 per cent were not affiliated to any political organisation (40), but nearly all intended to vote. Those interested in SoPo content were mostly older and male. The bloggers reflect similar demographics, but a lesser proportion of them prefer to read social-political blogs, and only 6 per cent have social-political blogs. ‘Personal experiences’ was the overwhelmingly popular choice of self-description for blogs and most update three or more times a week, in English.
With an important reminder that blogs are not a panacea for systemic deficiencies in democratic institutions, chapter five opens by stating that “Blogging as an instrument for democratization is only as effective as the civil society behind it.” (49). Interviews show that the social-political bloggers explicitly see themselves as role models with an educative role, enabling the presentation of more critical viewpoints and providing a space in the blog comments for open political debate. The significance of blogs as an alternative channel of information is demonstrated: the head of an opposition party, who would normally struggle to have his voice hear through the mainstream media, garnered a daily audience of 4,000-7,000 readers; bloggers are used as a back channel by unnamed influential figures in industry and politics to leak stories; and there are also some documented examples of blogs having initiated public debate and remedial measures by the government. That this bothers people in power is suggested by evidence of intimidation of bloggers from police as well as unidentifiable sources. The ubiquitous call for “responsible blogging”—aptly described as “an ambiguous code of ethics which many have talked about but none have actually defined” (55)—is discussed, and the authors identify two fundamental aspects: checking facts and revealing identity. Results show that more than half of the bloggers do not check facts, and about half use pseudonyms. In spite of this, bloggers tend to trust blogs more than the mainstream press, but the foreign press is the most trusted.
The sixth chapter gives examples of the government clamping down on bloggers in the period before the 2008 elections, and recounts examples of bloggers rapidly mobilising support, and organising ad-hoc gatherings in response to police action. The importance of the comments in blogs was highlighted when a blogger was arrested because of a comment left in his blog; in a countermove, a police report was filed against the Prime Minister because of objectionable content in comments on his website. Additionally, rumours were rife of ‘cyber-troopers’ who were believed to be paid by the ruling party to leave comments and/or to act as agents provocateurs.
In effect, there are two conclusions to this book—the first, offered in the conventional manner; and the Postscript, which is able to deal with the actual context of the 2008 general election. In the conclusion, the three goals of the work are outlined as: firstly, “to understand the composition of the Malaysian blogosphere and its readers” (78); secondly, to see whether blogs are being “used as a platform for enabling civil liberties” (ibid); and thirdly, to assess blogs’ actual influence on the political/public agenda. The main argument is that blogs offer a clear opportunity for greater freedom of information, and potentially democratisation. There is a clear and vocal minority of bloggers who make moves in that direction; these are mostly journalists, politicians or civil society activists. However, overall political indifference remains prevalent amongst bloggers: “an ethnicized or racialized view of society remains overwhelming [and]… the possibility of developing a more inclusive – and thus more democratic – terrain of political struggle is deeply compromised” (79). The relevance of the digital divide, the negative impact of government anti-blogging propaganda—which may also paradoxically increase the profile of certain bloggers—and popular inertia towards political participation are highlighted as relevant factors. “What needs to happen is the translation of the interactive energy captured by the Internet into the making of a vibrant civil society and, crucially, viable and effective opposition parties.” (81). It may be that, with blogging, the genie of free information has been let out of the bottle, but it remains to be seen whether it can have a decisive effect.
The Postscript makes an important point that not only blogs, but also SMS, email, YouTube and even Facebook were important in breaking the monopoly of the media by the government. Even though the digital divide was present, there was also the ‘ripple effect’ whereby revelations and discussions on the Internet spread to non-Internet users by the distribution of printouts and CDs. Again, the complementary but non-decisive contribution of blogs is noted: six bloggers overall were elected to public positions, but they benefited from party organisation and media exposure in various forms; blogs helped to mobilise and publicise ceramah—public gatherings—but these articulated issues that were already of concern to voters (corruption, inflation, etc.), rather than necessarily setting the agenda. Here more attention is paid to particular affordances of the blog as a medium. The bloggers as “proactive agents” (93) are able to challenge the dominant discourse and articulate broader issues to interested citizens. By sharing personal experiences and thoughts, the regular readers can begin to identify more with the blogger and even engage in a conversation with the blogger and other readers via the comments. This enables “personalized and interactive synergy … between certain social-political bloggers and their readers.” (p.92) which assists their emergence as “thought leaders” (93).
Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia: A New Civil Society in the Making is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in blogging in general, as well as its political aspects. It has a wealth of primary data, drawn from a large survey and in-depth interviews, some of which are reproduced in full as appendices. It is also unique in Malaysia and possibly worldwide, in terms of the detail provided and fortuitous events that occurred during its conception and fed into the research. It could however benefit from more comparative discussion, for example drawing upon the works done in relation to liberal and conservative bloggers in the USA. It could also have engaged more with debates on the meaning of ‘democracy’ as such. Especially with hindsight, it is clear that the social-political bloggers had different concepts of acceptable democratic practices—after the upset of the 2008 elections, some bloggers were vocal in arguing for a greater use of detention without trial, and there has also been a pro-government/anti-government alignment of blogs.
Readers looking for a discussion of the blog-as-medium, and related issues of sociotechnical systems, or technology as agent/actant, will not find much here in terms of theoretical debate. Neither does it problematise the terms ‘blogosphere’, ‘community’, or ‘civil society’. However the authors do well to emphasise the socially embedded nature of social-political blogging in Malaysia, and avoid jumping on the ‘netopian’ bandwagon or falling into the real/virtual dichotomy that has plagued much research on Internet phenomena.
Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia: A New Civil Society in the Making
(2009)
by J. Tan & I. Zawawi
SIRD (Gerukbudaya)
ISBN: 9789833782536
153pp MYR25.00
The Star REVIEW - ETHNIC RELATIONS IN MALAYSIA: Harmony & Conflict
Conflicting interactions
Review by MARTIN VENGADESAN
A seasoned political observer warns about the dangers of discord. ETHNIC RELATIONS IN MALAYSIA
Harmony & Conflict
By Syed Husin Ali
Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development, 169 pages
ISBN: 978-9833782598
DR Syed Husin Ali has been rather prolific lately. Last year he updated and revised The Malays: Their Problems and Future and re-published Two Faces, an account of his six-year detention under the Internal Security Act.
This latest work, Ethnic Relations in Malaysia, is very much a companion piece to The Malays. And like it, it does read like an academic work. Yet, there are elements which relate directly to his political role as deputy president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
In Syed Husin’s own words it is a selection of “11 diverse articles, including a speech and an interview, collected over three-and-a-half decades.”
The collection is presented cohesively, thanks in part to a “current” introduction (although the ever-shifting nature of our country’s political landscape means that though it’s only been a few months since the author penned the introduction, he’d probably have a lot more to add!)
To tell the truth, a lot of what’s penned here will already be familiar to his readers/followers and I wonder if he would have been better off combining it with his previous work on the Malays, and producing a trimmed down version that avoids repetition of ideas and presents statistics in a more reader-friendly manner.
What we are treated to, however, is an insight on his views of the dangers of racial discord within the country, and how special care must be taken to restore an element of justice into our political, economic and educational systems, while preserving the peace between our numerous racial groups. Syed Husin examines not just the relationship between the Malays and the Chinese, but all the various interactions that take place in this wonderful country of ours.
Among the topics featured are his views on the meaning of Merdeka celebrations (actually through an interview with online publication Malaysiakini), South East-Asian politics post-Sept 11/the Bali bombings and that old chestnut, the New Economic Policy. Syed Husin maintains that the policy has failed to bridge the gulf between the rich and poor in Malaysia; in fact, the gap has widened, he says, and current policies only benefit an elitist group.
I do hope a time will come when there is less of a need to dissect Malaysian society in racial terms. As such I’m not entirely sure that his call for a Royal Commission to be set up to examine the state of inter-ethnic relations in Malaysia is what is needed.
Despite the acute academic analysis and solid arguments that serve as a warning to future generations, my favourite parts of the book are when Syed Husin drops his “professorial tone” and writes about his personal experience.
In describing the Japanese Occupation (partly through his role as small time banana-selling tycoon!) and the racial clashes that took place in his native Batu Pahat in 1945, he proves an entertaining storyteller and the book could do with a more personal approach throughout.
A former professor of anthropology and sociology at Universiti Malaya, Syed Husin has been a political leader for more than half a century. Initially very much a product of the 1950s school of Sukarno-inspired Malay nationalists he has transcended those times and become an important leader of our country’s largest multi-racial party.
Hopefully, after getting all this writing out of his system, he will get back to his political work and work towards that truly just multi-racial Malaysia we all dream of.
The Star REVIEW - BLOGGING AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN MALAYSIA
Blogosphere guide
Review by Dr JOHAN SARAVANAMUTTU
BLOGGING AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN MALAYSIA
By Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim
Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 153 pages
ISBN: 978-9833782536
THIS is a book about a highly significant socio-political phenomenon that has, up till now, never been studied in any scholarly fashion.
The two authors provide the reader with seven chapters, a postscript, and three appendices – that is an ample amount of material to comprehend the blogging phenomenon in Malaysia, and they should be complimented for producing an important piece of work.
First, by the reading the book, I was able to learn about the origins of the neologism “blog”, which most of us now take for granted as a household term. It comes from “web” and “log”, ie, “weblog”, which later morphed into “blog”.
Blogs are simply frequently updated websites with reverse chronological entries (latest first) and are usually interactive in that readers can “post” comments and reactions that are sometimes monitored by the blogger.
As the authors put it, blogs are now an important “democratic medium”. Given Malaysia’s famed muzzling of the mainstream print media, blogs, which exist on the Internet, usually escape most but certainly not all of the controls of Government.
The legal suits against well-known bloggers Jeff Ooi and Rocky Bru, the police detention of Nat Tan and Sheih Kickdefella, and the arrest and detention of the ebullient Raja Petra Kamaluddin under the ISA, all this year, are glaring examples of that long arm of the law reaching deep into cyberspace.
Despite the formation of the National Alliance of Bloggers (ALL-Blogs) comprising some 50 bloggers, the blogger community has, to date, failed to find legal protection when it come to the ISA, and neither could it stop or even check the activity of hostile “cyber troopers”.
This said, there could be an upside to governmental monitoring of blogs. Some bloggers believe that government surveillance of blogging could actually end up on the positive side of the ledger for both groups. Ooi, for instance, has claimed that he was able to help the police and the Transport Ministry communicate on reducing fines for traffic offences through various postings on his website.
How extensive is blogging in Malaysia? The Tan and Zawawi study gives us the first clear picture of the Malaysian blogosphere. Their characterisation is the gist of the book, with the data drawn from a survey conducted in 2006.
First, there are the blog readers who are typically young: from 19-23 years with a secondary group of 24-28 years. The majority of Malaysian blog readers are Malaysians (80%), with Selangor and Kuala Lumpur residents taking the lion’s share; but, surprisingly, Sarawak is ahead of Penang.
Interestingly, from the survey of 1,537 blog readers, 451 (30%) chose blogs with “socio-political content”, which in my view is a significant figure. Admittedly the vast majority of blog readers go for a non-political diet.
Turning to the bloggers, gender is reasonably split with 44 % of bloggers being female but the ethnicity is skewed in favour of Chinese bloggers: 78%, against 19% for Malays and 2% for Indians and 5% others.
The book’s authors aver that bloggers themselves know that the Malaysian blogosphere is in its infancy and that “there is still much room for progress to a level where the opinions of bloggers are taken seriously to assist in policy formulation or evaluation”.
There was no figure on Internet penetration in Malaysia, which seems to be an oversight on the part of the authors. Googling for this, I discovered that Internet usage in Malaysia has increased manifold from 3.7 million in 2000 to 14.9 million in 2008 (Internet World Stats, internetworldstats.com/asia/my.htm). This clearly means that the Internet easily rivals the mainstream print media as a source of information, and social and political commentary.
What is, then, the thesis of Blogging and Democratization In Malaysia? The authors argue that blogging is here to stay despite the hiccups and governmental intimidation of bloggers. Blogging promotes democratization by enhancing the civil liberties of Malaysians, and helps to frame the discourse and agenda for public policies.
The authors admit that blogging may still be a marginal activity in the complex process of the deepening of democracy in Malaysia but it is clearly an “unstoppable means to empower individuals and civil society”. It short, it has created the new world of “netizens”.
What then would be the future of blogging in Malaysia? The postscript of the book that takes a look at the impact on blogging on this year’s 12th General Election provides the reader with some interesting observations.
Some analysts claimed that the Internet in 2008 had become a key political battleground. Raja Petra is on record as saying that the blogs swung the middle class around to the Opposition while even Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek admitted that the blogs provided a viable alternative to mainstream print media.
Without doubt, many bloggers got into the thick of the election campaign. Let me just mention two examples, other than the most obvious one, Raja Petra of the Malaysia Today website (malaysiatoday.com). There was also Sheih Kickdefella (kickdefella.wordpress.com), who was Kelantan’s Corporate Information Officer while Haris Ibrahim of The People’s Parliament (harismibrahim.wordpress.com) used his blog to generate interactive dynamics to provide Malaysians with a platform to transcend ethnicity and imagine a “new politics”.
How much of the “political tsunami” of March 8 was due to blogging remains a moot question but there is no doubt that blogging and netizens had a significant impact on the election results.
One can hardly disagree with Tan and Zawawi that the Malaysian blogosphere has led to a deepening of Malaysian democracy, but clearly the road ahead remains full of pitfalls.
I would commend highly this engaging book to those who are interested in both understanding the blogosphere and navigating its pitfalls.
Dr Johan Saravanamuttu was formerly Dean, School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas).
The views expressed are strictly those of the writer and not necessarily those of Star Publications (M) Bhd or Iseas.
