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Kemiskinan Melayu dan Jalan Kepulihannya
87 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2024
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About the author
Za'ba
17 books66 followersZainal Abidin Ahmad, juga dikenali sebagai Za'ba merupakan seorang sasterawan dan pemikir Melayu keturunan Minangkabau yang giat menulis sekitar tahun 1940-an. Berdasarkan pencapaiannya dalam bidang kesusasteraan, beliau merupakan salah seorang budak kampung yang berjaya meletakkan dirinya sebagai seorang tokoh yang terkemuka dalam sejarah Malaysia.
Beliau merupakan seorang cendekiawan Melayu yang dihormati dan selama hampir 40 tahun, aktif dalam kegiatan penulisan termasuk penterjemahan. Aktiviti beliau juga tertumpu kepada penerbitan buku sekolah dan bacaan umum di Biro Penterjemahan, Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris.
Dilahirkan di Kampung Bukit Kerdas, Batu Kikir, Negeri Sembilan, Za'ba menerima pendidikan awalnya di sebuah sekolah Melayu di Linggi. Beliau menyambung pembelajarannya di Institusi St. Paul Seremban dan merupakan orang Melayu pertama menduduki peperiksaan Senior Cambridge dan lulus peperiksaan pada 1915.
Za'ba memulakan kerjayanya sebagai guru sekolah di Johor Bahru pada tahun 1916, dan kemudiannya bertukar ke Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar (1918), Jabatan Pendidikan, Kuala Lumpur (1923), Kolej Perguruan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim (1924), Jabatan Maklumat, Singapura, (1939 sehingga 1942), Pusat Pengajian Kajian Timur dan Afrika, Universiti London (1942 sehingga 1951), dan Universiti Malaya, Singapura sehingga (1951 sehingga 1959).
Za'ba adalah seorang yang gemar membaca dan memiliki bakat dalam bidang penulisan. Kebanyakan hasil penulisannya muncul dalam akhbar-akhbar tempatan dan majalah-majalah seperti Utusan Melayu, Lembaga Melayu, Pangasuh, dan Pakar Majalah. Beliau telah menerbitkan beberapa siri monograf dalam bahasa Melayu, termasuk Bahasa Pelita, dan Ilmu Mengarang. Hasil penulisannya yang lain termasuk Cerita-cerita Shakespeare yang diterbitkan oleh Percetakan Gudang Chap, Singapura.
Beliau merupakan seorang cendekiawan Melayu yang dihormati dan selama hampir 40 tahun, aktif dalam kegiatan penulisan termasuk penterjemahan. Aktiviti beliau juga tertumpu kepada penerbitan buku sekolah dan bacaan umum di Biro Penterjemahan, Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris.
Dilahirkan di Kampung Bukit Kerdas, Batu Kikir, Negeri Sembilan, Za'ba menerima pendidikan awalnya di sebuah sekolah Melayu di Linggi. Beliau menyambung pembelajarannya di Institusi St. Paul Seremban dan merupakan orang Melayu pertama menduduki peperiksaan Senior Cambridge dan lulus peperiksaan pada 1915.
Za'ba memulakan kerjayanya sebagai guru sekolah di Johor Bahru pada tahun 1916, dan kemudiannya bertukar ke Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar (1918), Jabatan Pendidikan, Kuala Lumpur (1923), Kolej Perguruan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim (1924), Jabatan Maklumat, Singapura, (1939 sehingga 1942), Pusat Pengajian Kajian Timur dan Afrika, Universiti London (1942 sehingga 1951), dan Universiti Malaya, Singapura sehingga (1951 sehingga 1959).
Za'ba adalah seorang yang gemar membaca dan memiliki bakat dalam bidang penulisan. Kebanyakan hasil penulisannya muncul dalam akhbar-akhbar tempatan dan majalah-majalah seperti Utusan Melayu, Lembaga Melayu, Pangasuh, dan Pakar Majalah. Beliau telah menerbitkan beberapa siri monograf dalam bahasa Melayu, termasuk Bahasa Pelita, dan Ilmu Mengarang. Hasil penulisannya yang lain termasuk Cerita-cerita Shakespeare yang diterbitkan oleh Percetakan Gudang Chap, Singapura.
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June 2, 2025
Buku ini merupakan himpunan empat artikel oleh Pendeta Za’ba berkaitan ekonomi Bumiputera. Artikelnya ditulis pada 1923 saat beliau berusia 28 tahun (Prof. al-Attas juga menulis “Some Aspects of Sufism” ketika berusia sekitar 28 tahun).
Dua daripada artikel dalam buku ini, telah termuat dalam buku Jejak-jejak di Pantai Zaman oleh Ungku Aziz manakala dua artikel berbahasa Inggeris yang berbaki, menyentuh mengenai tiga perkara:
i. Kekontangan bangsa Melayu dalam merebut biasiswa untuk menuntut ilmu di Cambridge, Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perancis, Jerman dan Amerika serta berpencak dalam sektor-sektor penting negara baik ekonomi, pentadbiran, bisnes mahupun pendidikan lalu mengakibatkan bangsa Melayu “terjual di tanah air sendiri”.
[“Such, in brief, are among the principal reason why the Malays are so poor in the sense indicated above. Their country is rich and abundantly supplied with natural resources; but it is not they who benefit thereby. Trades and professions, crafts and businesss – carpentry, shoe-making, tailoring, shop-keeping, rubber-dealing, ‘coffee-shopping’, to name only but a few of the simpler and less technical business activities – are being actively carried on in every nook and corner of their towns and even in the remote parts of their villages; but it is not they who carry on all these works. The English Schools in every town have produced many prominent, useful, public-spirited, and respectable citizens in their (the Malays) country; but it is not they (the Malays) who contribute even a small number among these ‘successful old boys’. Government offices and business firms are full to overflowing with clerks, subordinate assistants, typists, book-keepers, shorthand writers, managers, partners, and holders of responsible appointments; but it is not they (the Malays) who form the largest number among them, except perhaps as peons, messengers, and the like. Foreigners come and go in their (the Malays’) country, make their fortune, and establish themselves as landed proprietors, mine-owners, and wealthy merchants; but it is not the Malays who have any hand in the enterprise. People go about in luxurious motor-cars, sit in magnificent offices under breezy electric fans spend pleasant evenings with tennis, golf, music, and all the comforts and amenities of life; but it is not the Malays who are thus favoured.”
“The country has prospered by leaps and bounds since the benign British Government took the reins; but it is not the Malays principally who have brought about all these changes for the good, or who profit most therefrom.”]
ii. Kritikan terhadap graduan luar negara yang tidak prihatin, berbakti dan menyumbang kepada anak bangsa Melayu sendiri setelah menuai keranuman buah-buahan luar negara dan pulang ke tanah air.
[“But them there is another defect of their character, and that is the remarkable lack of public spirit among them. There are scattered among them a few individuals of their own race who are comparatively rich and well-to-do, having rank and titles, dignity, and influence; but they care nothing for the welfare of their people. So long as they themselves can sit, eat, and sleep in comfort, and roll about in Rolls-Royces, why should they trouble others? With few exceptions, selfishness is one of the chronic qualities of the Malay nobility.”
“But some of the Malay royalties present objected on the ground that the money so spent would be simply wasted, that the students would not go to learn but to enjoy, and that even if they learn and become clever, they will come home, proud and haughty, looking down with contempt upon their less fortunate brothers, forgetting their own customs and traditions, discarding all the “sacred” (?) ways of “paying respect” to their rajas! These objections may be wise in the light of the examples we have had in the case of some son’s of the Malay aristocracy who were sent to England to study, but who only “enjoyed” there and never studied in the true sense of the word, and therefore came home with nothing with the Malays can be proud of, except the ability to speak English with an English twang and that rarely on edifying topics of conversation.”]
iii. Peri penting keseimbangan kepakaran dalam setiap sektor. Bukan semua insan perlu menceburi sektor kehakiman, kedoktoran, mekanik dan kejuruteraan. Bahkan, perlu ada juga insan yang menceburi bidang bisnes, perdagangan, kraftangan, agrikultur, perkebunan, penanaman dsb.
[“Not all should flock become lawyers, doctors, engineers, mechanics and civil servants. According to aptitude, some must be made to learn business, trades, crafts, agriculture, poultry-keeping, dairy-farming, planting, and so forth. All these are the first and most important essentials in the national assets of the Malays if they are ever to progress side by side with the other advance people in the various fields of activities.”]
Dua daripada artikel dalam buku ini, telah termuat dalam buku Jejak-jejak di Pantai Zaman oleh Ungku Aziz manakala dua artikel berbahasa Inggeris yang berbaki, menyentuh mengenai tiga perkara:
i. Kekontangan bangsa Melayu dalam merebut biasiswa untuk menuntut ilmu di Cambridge, Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perancis, Jerman dan Amerika serta berpencak dalam sektor-sektor penting negara baik ekonomi, pentadbiran, bisnes mahupun pendidikan lalu mengakibatkan bangsa Melayu “terjual di tanah air sendiri”.
[“Such, in brief, are among the principal reason why the Malays are so poor in the sense indicated above. Their country is rich and abundantly supplied with natural resources; but it is not they who benefit thereby. Trades and professions, crafts and businesss – carpentry, shoe-making, tailoring, shop-keeping, rubber-dealing, ‘coffee-shopping’, to name only but a few of the simpler and less technical business activities – are being actively carried on in every nook and corner of their towns and even in the remote parts of their villages; but it is not they who carry on all these works. The English Schools in every town have produced many prominent, useful, public-spirited, and respectable citizens in their (the Malays) country; but it is not they (the Malays) who contribute even a small number among these ‘successful old boys’. Government offices and business firms are full to overflowing with clerks, subordinate assistants, typists, book-keepers, shorthand writers, managers, partners, and holders of responsible appointments; but it is not they (the Malays) who form the largest number among them, except perhaps as peons, messengers, and the like. Foreigners come and go in their (the Malays’) country, make their fortune, and establish themselves as landed proprietors, mine-owners, and wealthy merchants; but it is not the Malays who have any hand in the enterprise. People go about in luxurious motor-cars, sit in magnificent offices under breezy electric fans spend pleasant evenings with tennis, golf, music, and all the comforts and amenities of life; but it is not the Malays who are thus favoured.”
“The country has prospered by leaps and bounds since the benign British Government took the reins; but it is not the Malays principally who have brought about all these changes for the good, or who profit most therefrom.”]
ii. Kritikan terhadap graduan luar negara yang tidak prihatin, berbakti dan menyumbang kepada anak bangsa Melayu sendiri setelah menuai keranuman buah-buahan luar negara dan pulang ke tanah air.
[“But them there is another defect of their character, and that is the remarkable lack of public spirit among them. There are scattered among them a few individuals of their own race who are comparatively rich and well-to-do, having rank and titles, dignity, and influence; but they care nothing for the welfare of their people. So long as they themselves can sit, eat, and sleep in comfort, and roll about in Rolls-Royces, why should they trouble others? With few exceptions, selfishness is one of the chronic qualities of the Malay nobility.”
“But some of the Malay royalties present objected on the ground that the money so spent would be simply wasted, that the students would not go to learn but to enjoy, and that even if they learn and become clever, they will come home, proud and haughty, looking down with contempt upon their less fortunate brothers, forgetting their own customs and traditions, discarding all the “sacred” (?) ways of “paying respect” to their rajas! These objections may be wise in the light of the examples we have had in the case of some son’s of the Malay aristocracy who were sent to England to study, but who only “enjoyed” there and never studied in the true sense of the word, and therefore came home with nothing with the Malays can be proud of, except the ability to speak English with an English twang and that rarely on edifying topics of conversation.”]
iii. Peri penting keseimbangan kepakaran dalam setiap sektor. Bukan semua insan perlu menceburi sektor kehakiman, kedoktoran, mekanik dan kejuruteraan. Bahkan, perlu ada juga insan yang menceburi bidang bisnes, perdagangan, kraftangan, agrikultur, perkebunan, penanaman dsb.
[“Not all should flock become lawyers, doctors, engineers, mechanics and civil servants. According to aptitude, some must be made to learn business, trades, crafts, agriculture, poultry-keeping, dairy-farming, planting, and so forth. All these are the first and most important essentials in the national assets of the Malays if they are ever to progress side by side with the other advance people in the various fields of activities.”]
October 20, 2025
Bacaan: Februari 2025
Selesai membaca rencana asli 'The Poverty of the Malays' dan 'The Salvation of the Malays' yang direncanakan oleh Za'ba di The Malay Mail, Dec 1923 melalui buku Kemiskinan Melayu dan Jalan Kepulihannya.
Rencana asli itu buat pertama kalinya tidak disunting sedikit pun isinya kerana Za'ba disifatkan sebagai "rara avis" (sejenis burung langka yang jarang muncul walaupun dipikat dengan umpan jerat terlicik.
Merobek kesedaran bertalu-talu tatkala aku meneliti sorotan penjelasan bersifat kritik sosial pada orang Melayu yang miskin hidup dalam memajukan diri dan bangsa sendiri.
Makna miskin itu sendiri sebenarnya dibincangkan dalam konotasi yang luas kefahamannya dalam konteks yang malar segar untuk diguna pakai untuk pembaca.
Buku yang wajar difahami dan dinikmati untuk pembaca khususnya golongan muda.
Selesai membaca rencana asli 'The Poverty of the Malays' dan 'The Salvation of the Malays' yang direncanakan oleh Za'ba di The Malay Mail, Dec 1923 melalui buku Kemiskinan Melayu dan Jalan Kepulihannya.
Rencana asli itu buat pertama kalinya tidak disunting sedikit pun isinya kerana Za'ba disifatkan sebagai "rara avis" (sejenis burung langka yang jarang muncul walaupun dipikat dengan umpan jerat terlicik.
Merobek kesedaran bertalu-talu tatkala aku meneliti sorotan penjelasan bersifat kritik sosial pada orang Melayu yang miskin hidup dalam memajukan diri dan bangsa sendiri.
Makna miskin itu sendiri sebenarnya dibincangkan dalam konotasi yang luas kefahamannya dalam konteks yang malar segar untuk diguna pakai untuk pembaca.
Buku yang wajar difahami dan dinikmati untuk pembaca khususnya golongan muda.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews