Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow

Studies on Southeast Asia #54

by Meredith L. Weiss

This work traces the early rise and subsequent decline of politically effective student activism in Malaysia. During the 1970s, the state embarked on a project of intellectual containment that both suppressed ongoing mobilization of university students and delegitimized further activism. That project has been notably successful in curbing student protest, erasing a legacy of past engagement, and stemming the production of potentially subversive new ideas. Innovative student proposals for reform that were once sanctioned and even welcomed (within bounds) are now illicit and discouraged, reflecting not only changes in Malaysia's political regime, but changes in the political culture overall. This incisive study sheds new light on the dynamics of mobilization and on the key role of students and universities in postcolonial political development.

This analysis is based on extensive research, including interviews with dozens of past and present student activists and a close study of archives, government reports, firsthand accounts, and student publications extending over decades. Student Activism in Malaysia traces how higher education and student activism have developed and interacted, beginning with the start of tertiary education in early twentieth-century Singapore and extending to present-day Malaysia. In the process, Weiss calls into question the conventional wisdom that Malaysian students--and Malaysians overall--have become apathetic. The author demonstrates that this apparent state of apathy is not inevitable, cultural, or natural, but is the outcome of a sustained project of pacification and depoliticization carried out by an ambitiously developmental state.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2011

About the author

Meredith L. Weiss is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has held visiting fellowships or professorships in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, as well as the US. Weiss is the author of Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow (Cornell SEAP/NUS, 2011) and Protest and Possibilities: Civil Society and Coalitions for Political Change in Malaysia (Stanford, 2006), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is also co-editor of Global Homophobia: States, Movements, and the Politics of Oppression (Illinois, 2013), Student Activism in Asia: Between Protest & Powerlessness (Minnesota, 2012), Political Violence in South and Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives (UNU, 2010) and Social Movements in Malaysia: From Moral Communities to NGOs (Routledge Curzon, 2003). Her research addresses political mobilisation and contention, the politics of development, civil society, nationalism and ethnicity and electoral change in maritime Southeast Asia.

Reviews

[Izzat Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penulis memulakan kajian ini dengan memberi gambaran institusi pengajian tinggi terawal di Tanah Melayu iaitu Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) dan Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris (MPSI), Tanjung Malim. Di situ telah bermula pendedahan semangat nasionalisme kepada pelajar-pelajar Melayu, untuk menentang penjajah dan kolonialisme. Penyatuan King Edward VII College of Medicine dan Raffles College telah melahirkan Universiti Malaya (UM) di Singapura. Di situlah bermulanya penentangan mahasiswa yang bersifat anti-establishment sehinggalah UM dibuka cawangan di Kuala Lumpur. Penentangan dan aktiviti aktivisme mahasiswa dilakukan oleh mahasiswa Cina.

Selepas peristiwa Rusuhan Kaum dan Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) dilaksanakan, secara mendadak mahasiswa Melayu membanjiri universiti. Ketika itu Sudut Pidato di UM mejadi platform utama kepada pelajar untuk berucap dan menyentuh isu-isu semasa seperti kes kebuluran di Baling. Revolusi Islam di Iran telah memberi pengaruh kepada mahasiswa Melayu dan secara perlahan-lahan aktivis yang memperjuangkan nasionalisme dam sosialisme beralih kepada gerakan keagamaan. Mahasiswa mula melibatkan diri dengan Jemaah Tabligh, Al-Arqam dan Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM). Penubuhan universiti-universti awam terkemudiannya seperti Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dan Institut Teknologi MARA merancakkan lagi aktivisme oleh mahasiswa, bahkan oleh para pensyarah. Pelbagai isu-isu menjadi perhatian sama ada berkaitan masyarakat mahupun politik.

[Fajar Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, everything is sourced so it's ideal to use as a reference for a paper. My only complaint would be that it's kinda dry but that's just the nature of these kinds of books.