This book by Farish A. Noor is a collection of his essays much like Cherian George's "The Air-Conditioned Nation". But unlike Cherian's compilation, this Malaysian political scientist, human rights activist and one time academic wrote it for the non-establishment virtual publication Malaysiakini.com.
Through this collection, he has attempted to sieve through official history and politics to get to the real deal. Unearthing tomes of hidden narratives, he has attempted to tell the Malaysian story while recognising the grasp of the dominant political discourse both of the establishment and the opposition and the pervasive essentialism that has been inherited from the British colonial powers. In calling a spade a spade, he spares no one from his sharp pen; sorry make that his keyboard and has illuminated for this Singaporean reader Malaysian history that has been subsumed by the politics of authenticity and political Islam Malaysian style.
I have learnt more about Malaysian history from this book that I ever did from my dry and dour "History of South East Asia" that accompanied me through my last two years of secondary school. Though I have to admit that I did enjoy that textbook to a certain degree, which explains my continuing passion for history.
For instance, Malacca in my textbook was considered the precursor of the modern Malay federation as we know it today. I was taught that Pahang was an offshoot of Malacca and that the Johor-Riau-Lingga empire was Malacca's successor state. But the missing histories of the surrounding Kerajaan-Kerajaan (kingdoms) like Kedah, Perak and others have always confounded me. I should have asked my teachers then, but strangely it never did occur to me.
Though Farish did not provide me with extensive information, it did lead me on the right track. And it was through his book that I learnt of the existence of the Langkasuka Empire that existed from the second century AD (possibly the predecessor of modern Kedah) and that it was the Buddhist Malay Suryavarman from Patani that initiated the building of the Angkor Wat. Boundaries were much more fluid before the arrival of the western powers and their notion of borders and spheres of influence. We see interlocking histories and heavy interactions between the old kingdoms and empires that spanned from the Khmers of Cambodia to the Siamese Ayutthaya of Thailand, the whatevers in Burma (there were quite a number of kingdoms and petty principalities in Burma then) and Cholas of India and down south all the way to the Majapahit and Srivijaya of Indonesia.
To be honest, I was politically biased against Malaysia. After getting whack terok terok by their politicians one too many times, I totally lost all interest and my eyes would glazed over whenever I read of some new shenanigans by their political elite and its opposition.
Politics under Mahathir must have been quite frustrating for them. So much so that books like Anjing, Babi, Muntah and SHIT (where the central character is a person by the name of PM@pukimak *gasp*) had to be written by supporters and members of UMNO and PAS. Man...! What a slugfest!
But for all those times I glazed over, Farish has done me the favour by revisiting those momentous events that makes contemporary Malaysian political and social history so damn fun. Yup, events like the Anwar Ibrahim arrest, the arrest of Malay-Muslim transvestite performers by the Selangor religious authorities, etc.
Quite a contrast to Singapore's boring politics eh?
And far from being boring, Farish writes with sardonic and sarcastic wit, and dare I say bitchiness? Yes!! This guy kicks ass.
Thomas De Quincey and the Malay From Nowhere
...Opium, in short, was for de Quincey the only poison-remedy to the ills of a society driven base and corrupt by itself. It was the asylum of the lonely and the oppressed, the downtrodden and the marginalized. False though its promises may be, it was the only escape for many. In his deranged and idle wanderings and fantasies, de Quincey could at least find momentary refuge from a world that was evil, degraded and corrupted from what it once was. It was the final equalizer that brought high and low, rich and poor down to the same level of the basest humanity. (Today we have Karaoke instead, which equalises both the gifted and the criminally untalented in a medium of universal mediocrity.) Cold comfort for one who was thoroughly sicked by life in a sick world...
...Opium, in short, was for de Quincey the only poison-remedy to the ills of a society driven base and corrupt by itself. It was the asylum of the lonely and the oppressed, the downtrodden and the marginalized. False though its promises may be, it was the only escape for many. In his deranged and idle wanderings and fantasies, de Quincey could at least find momentary refuge from a world that was evil, degraded and corrupted from what it once was. It was the final equalizer that brought high and low, rich and poor down to the same level of the basest humanity. (Today we have Karaoke instead, which equalises both the gifted and the criminally untalented in a medium of universal mediocrity.) Cold comfort for one who was thoroughly sicked by life in a sick world...
Pharisees at My Door
...My own 'marriage class' was a pathetic affair that lasted three days and all I learned was the benefit of strawberry flavoured condoms. The Ustaz also compared making love to playing football in such a ridiculous way that I now understand how the Malaysian football team could lose to Laos nil-6...
...My own 'marriage class' was a pathetic affair that lasted three days and all I learned was the benefit of strawberry flavoured condoms. The Ustaz also compared making love to playing football in such a ridiculous way that I now understand how the Malaysian football team could lose to Laos nil-6...
Porn and the Sheikh
...Perhaps the only people who are truly relieved by this move are those concerned parents who have of late been worried that their pirated copy of Snow White or 101 Dalmatians may contain more than they bargained for. It may be trendy for those of the post-structuralist school to deconstruct the persona of Snow White herself and to claim that underlying the whole story is a sublimated sub-plot which involves sexual repression and unspoken desire. But to suddenly find Snow White undressed and in the company of several men who certainly do not look like dwarves is another thing altogether...
What I really appreciate is the fact that though Farish is a Malay-Muslim and thus a member of the dominant Bumiputra, he rises above the deep-seated politics and boundaries of race, ethnicity and religion and writes from the perspective of a Malaysian, period. He reclaims the history of his country from the grasp of politicians who have hijacked and simplified it in their quest for racial and political legitimacy. (While at the same time teaching me a new phrase, "epistemic arrest". What the fuck is that?)...Perhaps the only people who are truly relieved by this move are those concerned parents who have of late been worried that their pirated copy of Snow White or 101 Dalmatians may contain more than they bargained for. It may be trendy for those of the post-structuralist school to deconstruct the persona of Snow White herself and to claim that underlying the whole story is a sublimated sub-plot which involves sexual repression and unspoken desire. But to suddenly find Snow White undressed and in the company of several men who certainly do not look like dwarves is another thing altogether...
Which leads me to wonder about our history. Was Singapore always a forgotten island inhabited by a few hundred fishermen and orang laut before the arrival of the British? What happened to the Temasek of old? And what was life like here when it was part of the earlier Srivijaya and later Johor-Riau-Lingga Empire? As far as the Singaporean population and government are concerned, we start with Raffles. But just like Malaysia (and other countries as well), history is not just a mere retelling of events passed; it is also a basis for the politics of legitimacy. And this will always fall under the ambit of the political elite; and to a lesser extent, their opponents as well.
I guess this book's publication is coincidentally timely coming a year before the end of the Mahathir era. It documents the history of the federation till date and the shadow play of politics under Mahathir's reign. Now with Abdullah Badawi as PM@putrajaya, will things change for the better or the worse or will it proceed as usual? Time will tell, and I am sure Farish A. Noor will still be around click-clacking away at his keyboard and irritating all and sundry, UMNO and opposition, secular and outwardly religious.
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Drew
Webmice: I think "epistemic arrest" would mean the arrest or retardation of knowledge when it is hijacked by a certain group. Could be wrong, it was explained to me before but I forgot.
Drew: As in Singapore getting whacked terok terok by Dr. M (don't you just love that name? Sounds so much like a villain in James Bond) and his buddies lah. You know their theatrics. The last one was what ah? Oh yah, launch a war with Singapore over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Putih and water. :-)
And let's not joke about war with S'pore.