About the Seminar
Malay power remains the predominant force in Malaysian politics. Ever since political independence in 1957, a majority of Malays have supported the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a party that advocates what Abdullah Ahmad emphatically called ‘ketuanan Melayu’, Malay supremacy or Malay pre-eminence. The ketuanan Melayu ideology framed the New Economic Policy (NEP) and justified the implementation of race-based affirmative action policies and programmes to redress inequalities in the country.
But, the NEP’s success in reducing inter-ethnic inequalities while increasing the class differentiation of Malay society has revealed the contradictions and distortions of continuing the raced-based preferential policies. Rising intra-ethnic inequalities, especially among Malays, mean that a more inclusive approach is needed to redress the new inequalities in Malaysia.
More broadly, instead of UMNO’s ketuanan Melayu, Malay politics should adopt a diverse approach that recognizes and accepts multiculturalism and multi-ethnic interests. Political parties such as Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) uphold the need to move away from racial politics and embrace an inclusive, progressive approach.
About the Speaker
Dato’ Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa was born on 25 October 1964 in Georgetown, Penang, and educated at Penang Free School. He received a BA (Arabic language and literature) from Al-Azhar University, Egypt, and an MA (Human Resource Management) from Universiti Putra, Malaysia. In 2008, he was awarded a PhD (Political Science) by University Malaya.
Before entering politics, Dato’ Dr Mujahid worked as a lecturer at Multimedia University, Malacca. Currently, Dato’ Dr Mujahid is a Vice President of Parti Amanah Negara and the Member of Parliament for Parit Buntar, Perak. He was a member of the AIPA CAUCAS Committee at parliamentary level, and in 2011, Dato’ Dr Mujahid was elected as the Chairman of Southeast Asia Interfaith Dialogue for Peace. In 2013, he was appointed as a member of the Consultation Council for National Unity.
As a parliamentarian, he has participated in many seminars and represented Malaysia in many international conferences in the US, Niger, Krygystan, Morocco, Indonesia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, and so on. Dato’ Dr Mujahid is also an active writer and has published a few books including Rejuvenasi PAS, Menuju PAS Baru and and Berdialog Dengan Gereja.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by
11 November 2016.
About the Seminar
Malay politics today frequently provokes surprise (and often criticism) – and yet tends to be discussed in an historical and cultural vacuum. History, when cited at all, usually begins in 1946 – when Malay nationalism took effective form in reaction to the threat posed by the British proposal for a Malayan Union. The term ‘nationalism’, however, fails to capture the different levels of Malay political experience – and the degree of ideological contest taking place in Malay society. What traditionally motivated Malay communities politically was the sense of being part of a ‘kerajaan’ – a kingdom focused sharply on personal allegiance to a ruler. Elements of the old political culture remain influential today, including in UMNO politics, and today’s Rulers – descendants of the pre-colonial rajas – continue to engage in political contest.
How can we best investigate Malay political thinking in earlier times? In what ways does the Malay political heritage help us to appreciate contemporary issues concerning Malay identity, politics and unity – or the lack thereof?
About the Book
“Kerajaan is a classic in Malaysian studies because of its theoretical and empirical elaboration of the state and content of traditional kerajaan Melayu – an elaboration based on hikayat Melayu and dealing with that period in history when European powers began to reshape Malay polities through the colonial ‘define and rule’ approach. For anyone who wants to begin to make sense of contemporary Malay politics, especially the role of the Malay royalties and their socio-historical roots, Milner’s Kerajaan is a must read.”
— Shamsul A.B. (Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; and member of ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s International Advisory Panel (from the foreword to the 2016 edition)
About the Author
Anthony Milner is Visiting Professor at the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya and Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. In 2014–2015 he was the Tun Hussein Onn Chair in International Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia; in 2002 he was Raffles Visiting Professor in the Department of History, NUS. As Basham Chair of Asian History at the Australian National University – apart from producing a series of publications on regional relations – he has written widely on Malay and Malaysian history. His books include The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (1995, 2002), The Malays (2008, 2012) and (as co-author) Transforming Malaysia (2014).
About the Discussant
Sher Banu is Assistant Professor at the Malay Studies Department, National University of Singapore. Her research expertise is on the Malay world and Southeast Asia in general in the early modern period focusing on history, gender studies and Islam. She has published in numerous journals and chapters in books amongst which are “Ties that Unbind: the Botched Aceh-VOC Alliance for the conquest of Melaka 1640-1641”, Indonesia and the Malay World, vol. 38, no.111, July, 2010; “What Happened to Syaiful Rijal?” in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde, April, 2011; and “Men of Prowess and Women of Piety: The Rule of Sultanah Safiatuddin Syah of Aceh 1641-1675” in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 44, no.2, June 2013. Her forthcoming book, Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom: The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641−1699, will be published by NUS Press in 2017.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 7 November 2016.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
Arts in Southeast Asia Seminar Series
About the Seminar
Indonesian reverse painting on glass is seldom studied because it is considered to be one of Java’s ‘minor’ arts. Produced mainly by Javanese painters for urban and rural Javanese, it was also much appreciated by Chinese and Arabs communities. While European or Chinese artists probably introduced reverse glass painting to Java in the late 19th century, its golden age was between the 1930s and the 1960s. An expression of mixed modernity, combining Javanese, European and Islamic features, the themes ranged from so-called ‘traditional’ Javanese wayang figures and mosques to new technologies and modern lifestyle in the Dutch Indies.
In the first part of this talk, I will present the main features of Javanese reverse glass painting such as technical aspects, themes of representation, and production issues. I will then focus on one of the trends from the early 1900s: the representations of the Ottomans (or Turkey). These representations show the emergence of a clear narrative linking the Ottomans with an idea of political and religious modernity at the turn of the 20th century amongst the local population in the Dutch Netherland Indies. This theme will also allow me to demonstrate the swift circulation of iconographic models throughout the Muslim world, from Istanbul to Java, through the Holy Land and Singapore.
About the Speaker
Professor Jérôme Samuel is a sociolinguist and historian specialising on Indonesia. He is the co-director of French National Research Center’s laboratory Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CASE) and lectures in Paris’ INALCO on Malay and Indonesian language and civilisations since 2002. He published widely on politics of linguistic and terminology history and authored a seminal book on teaching Indonesian language for a French public published in 2012 (second volume forthcoming). He has been working on reverse glass painting for 10 years and has published several articles on this subject, in Journal Archipel, and is currently working on a book. He was awarded a PhD from INALCO in 2000 and obtained a full professorship in 2015.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by Thursday, 3 November 2016.
About the Seminar
Since mid-2015 the dramatic pictures of refugees on their way to Central Europe raised attention and emotions worldwide. Leaving their war-torn countries in the Middle East behind, several hundred thousand people started their arduous journeys to look for a better life for themselves and their families. The global media coverage has focused heavily on the refugees in Europe. However, the current refugee crisis is not only a challenge for Europe. The growing numbers of refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers are a worldwide issue. The arrival of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi people on the shores of several Southeast Asian countries in May 2015 and the following human ping-pong between the ASEAN member states made clear that this region will also have to deal with this issue in a larger scale in the near future.
In his presentation Dr Patrick Ziegenhain will explain how the European Union and its member states reacted to the refugee challenge in the last year and why they have been incapable of managing the crisis in a proper and common way. He will also discuss why Germany opened its borders for refugees and what kind of consequences this policy will have on the national and European level. In a next step, he will then focus on current and future migration problems in Southeast Asia and analyze what lessons the ASEAN member states can learn from the current refugee crisis in Europe.
About the Speaker
Dr Patrick Ziegenhain from Germany is since May 2015 Visiting Professor at the Asia-Europe Institute of University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia. Previously, he had been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Business Administration at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta/ Indonesia, an Interim Professor at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at Goethe-University Frankfurt/ Germany (2015), a Visiting Professor at De la Salle University Manila/ Philippines in 2014 and Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat) at the Department of Political Science, University of Trier/ Germany (2007-2014). Since 2005, Patrick Ziegenhain holds a PhD in Political Science from Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg/ Germany. Beside numerous academic articles, he is the author of the books “Institutional Engineering and Political Accountability in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines” (2015), “The Indonesian Parliament and Democratization” (2008) and co-author of the book “Parliaments and Political Change in Asia” (2005). These three books were all published by ISEAS, Singapore. More information about Dr Patrick Ziegenhain can be found on his website at http://www.patrick-ziegenhain.de.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by Friday, 4 November 2016.