The Myth of the Lazy Native - Book Report/Review Example

DECONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF THE LAZY NATIVE This essay is focused on Syed Hussein Alatas’s most well-known book, The Myth of the Lazy Native,published in 1977. The book was written in a time when people of the region of Malay Archipelago – a term coined by European explorers and particularly popularized by Wallace in1869 – had grappled with issues of independence and nationalism, trying to shake off the historical baggage of colonial rule. The essay argues that the prime objective of Syed Alatas’s book is to oppose the widespread denigration of native history, society, and the native people themselves, as presented within the Western (European) point of view. Broadly based on the premise that the ideology of colonial capitalism – as Alatas defines it – is solely responsible for the poor image of Malays, Filipinos and Javanese, the book attempts to analyze in particular the so-called ‘myth of the lazy native’, which is thought to have originated and widely projected from the 16th to the 20th century in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines (Alatas 1977). According to the author, the myth itself appeared not only a key component of colonial ideology, which performed the function of justifying the supremacy of Western rule and culture, but also the means of validation of an interethnic, social and political hierarchy, with the natives at the bottom, which have had serious repercussions for both national and economic integration of Malays (Alatas 1977). Looking into author’s biography, the essay situates the production and consumption of the book in the context of important domestic and global events, and attempts to define the purpose this book served and serves, as well as its importance to every one concerned. Introduction Writing on history has always been a large and complex undertaking, whose results, however, are more or less full of controversy and bias. This is either a natural consequence of a situation where, as pointed by Lysa (1966), one selects facts or evidence which he or she deems significant and puts them in a particular sequence, thus suggesting an explanation for certain outcomes, or due to differing interpretation of all those facts considered equally important by each and every one of the parties concerned. It’s especially true of a region, like Southeast Asia, in which different nations, religions and political creeds had become entangled in the labyrinth of local mentality, customs and tradition. In this train of thought, the prominent Malaysian scholar and politician, Syed Alatas writes (1977) that “no scholarship is free from the influence of ideology” (p. 16) since whatever stand a researcher has on social, economic or political issues, it is inevitably based on a certain system of values, which, in turn, is related to his ideology. Not surprisingly therefore, Alatas’s most well-known work, The Myth of the Lazy Native (1977), reflects its author’s ideological commitment, although the author himself stipulates that producing objective analyses and conclusions that not suffer a distortion due to the initial grip of ideology is quite plausible under certain circumstances. Further in the book, Alatas presses on with his point (1977): It should be possible for a native scholar committed to the ideal of independence to recognize the merits of colonialism without distorting them — similarly the converse should be true. What we are concerned with here is the negative influence of ideology, the distorting, uncritical, inconsistent streak in a scholars reasoning which arises from an unconscious attachment to his ideology (P. 16). Being a notable example of more or less an ideologically-based argument, the book also presents an alternative discourse upon the nature of interactions between the East (Southeast Asia in particular) and the West during the colonial period, including judgments on the nature of Asian natives; as well as appears a logical continuation of Alatas’s concept of “academic imperialism” first raised in the 1950s, and a portent of his call for an autonomous social science tradition in Asia in the 1980s (Alatas 1956; Alatas, S. F. 2001). Biographical Data Syed Hussein Alatas was born in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1928. Having graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a degree in social sciences, Alatas returned as a lecturer to the Department of Malay Studies at the University of Malaya (Sevea 2008). In 1967, he was promoted to the position of Head of the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore, where he served until 1988. During that period, namely in 1968, Alatas got involved in the politics with the foundation of Malaysian opposition party, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, which, following the 1969 general election won most of the seats in the state legislature of Penang; hence the party’s president, professor Syed Alatas, took the seat of a senator (Sevea 2008). In 1988, he became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Malaya and later transferred to the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization at the National University of Malaysia (Sevea 2008). Alatas’s involvement in politics is considered indicative of his efforts to address the ‘uncritical’ adoption of Western economic system, law, governance, and conceptions of welfare, which appear to have formed the developing countries’ postcolonial reality. His willingness to regularly take issue with policymakers over their disregard for sociology and lack of understanding of contemporary social problems, along with his criticism toward the ‘neocolonial’ Malaysian state, including the former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed and UMNO’s linkage of Malay economic backwardness to the colonial-time ‘myth of the lazy native’, supposedly led to his resignation from the vice-chancellor’s post in 1991 (Sevea 2008). In the academic field, Alatas pursued a critique of social sciences in the region of Southeast Asia, being a strong advocate of re-conceptualizing the history of Malay Archipelago from a Southeast Asian perspective. He coined the term ‘academic imperialism’ suggesting that colonialism, or on a bigger scale, imperialism, is not just a two-dimensional phenomenon – political and economic – but also possesses psychological and academic features which are well-nigh responsible for Western epistemological utility and superiority (Alatas 1977; Alatas, S. F. 2001; Sevea 2008). An earlier example of Alatas’s aspiration for countering the concept of Western hegemony – whether political, economic or intellectual – along with his pursuit of alternative discourse, appears his 1971 publication, Thomas Stanford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer?, which could be seen not only as a daring effort to demythologize a key colonial figure in the region, hence on the legacy of colonization as a whole, but also as a clear demonstration of what is probably considered Alatas’s most conspicuous trait, namely his gallant readiness to go against the grain. In actuality, this particular characteristic is thought to have influenced his intellectual framework and subsequent works. In regard to his endeavor to re-conceptualize the history of Malay-Indonesian Archipelago from Southeast Asian perspective, as mentioned above, Alatas attempted to highlight the Southeast Asian “Islamic period’ - from the 13th to 16th centuries - and questioned the Western representations of Islam (Alatas 1961). He also appealed to Islamic philosophy to address the problems stemming from development, as well as challenged contemporary Islamist’s intellectual and political instrumentation of the sharia (Sevea 2008). Syed Hussein Alatas passed away on 23 January 2007, at the age of 79, leaving behind an academic legacy that, in the words of Prof. Noraini Othman of the National University of Malaysia, as cited in Noor (2007), was specifically “focused on Malay society, culture and politics”, and whose primary purpose was to critically question, debunk and deconstruct all the assumptions that constituted the foundation stone of the colonial and post-colonial hierarchy of power and knowledge (Noor 2007). “The Myth of the Lazy Native” and it’s Socio-Political Background Prof. Syed Alatas’s magnum opus, The Myth of the Lazy Native, is believed to have been conceived somewhere between the mid- and late 1960s, when Alatas headed the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore (Ismail 2003). The then tumultuous time, during which an extensive scholarly research was being carried out before to culminate into the book, inevitably left its imprint on Alatas’s own ideas and consequently on the pages of his book – the global rivalry between the two opposing post-war blocs, aka the Cold War, which expressed itself in ideological propaganda, espionage, proxy wars, military tension and arms race, and reached its climax in the Vietnam war; as well as the widespread decolonization processes and nationalistic independence movements all over the world (Louis 2006). The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, aka the Cultural Revolution, was launched in China under Mao Zedong and gathered strength during the years to come. The domestic implications of these global trends and nearby events for the region of Southeast Asia were the undeclared war that broke out between Indonesia and Malaysia after the creation of the Malaysian federation, the heated ideological conflict between the ruling parties of Singapore and Malaya, which resulted in the 1965 Singapore exit from the Federation of Malaysia, and the subsequent foundation of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), as well as the 13 May racial riots in Malaysia in1969 (Kheng n.d.; LePoer 1989; World 1969). In nearby Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge’s rule was established over almost two-thirds of the country and their units reached the edges of the capital Phnom Pen. Inasmuch as those throes of creation have been more or less considered a legacy of the colonial past, Alatas’s interest in addressing the issue is anything but surprising. Being compared to Frantz Fanon and Jean-Paul Sartre, Syed Alatas employed a wide range of tools – from ideology to sociology and history – in order to identify, explain and deconstruct the legacy of colonial capitalism, including the construction of racial categories and stereotypes that helped the colonial power to justify the colonial enterprise, and which embedded itself in the politics of difference and sectarianism in many colonies after the departure of the colonial power (Sevea 2008; Noor 2007). One of the most significant events that followed the publication of Alatas’s book in 1977 was the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which inter alia had changed the focus of attention from decolonization and nationalism to the resurgence of Islam, and set the ground for vigorous growth of Islamic movements worldwide ( Kepel 2006). On December 24, 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in order to topple Hafizullah Amin’s rule and to establish pro-Soviet regime; which eventually led to occupation of the country and nine-year long conflict between the Soviets and Afghan mujaheddin supported by the West, along with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc. Meanwhile, the developing countries that suffered from debt crises were facing serious economic and social difficulties in the 1980s; terrorist attacks and military conflicts had shaken up the Middle East, and the long-lasting rivalry between the Eastern and the Western blocs was brought to an end by the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, thus marking a major milestone on the road to the so-called ‘New World Order’. The Vietnamese army occupied ‘Democratic Kampuchea’ (Cambodia) in 1978 and thus ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, which was followed by a brief but bloody border between China and Vietnam in 1979. Broadly speaking, the 1990s were mainly a period of economic growth for the region of Southeast Asia, which period, however, ended with the Asian financial crisis. The effects of the crisis, besides the adverse ones upon the economies of the region, were felt within the politics as well, inasmuch as political figures, like Indonesian president Suharto, were forced to resign under public pressure. Malaysia and Singapore’s economies dipped into depression, whose dimensions in the two countries differed markedly in terms of duration and severity. Given that Syed Alatas’s book is focused on an ideologically-based phenomenon with certain implications for the economic well-being of the local people (employment), it definitely kept topicality, although the world political and ideological landscapes underwent serious alterations. Perceptions and Understanding of the Book The main argument in The Myth of the Lazy Native, according to its author, is that “the colonial ideology utilized the idea of the lazy native to justify compulsion and unjust practices in the mobilization of labor in the colonies” (Alatas 1977:2). Therefore, the colonizers observations of the nature of natives should always be taken with a grain of salt, to put it mildly, as they are considered to have stemmed from an ideology, rather than out of facts. Alatas’s statement that the colonization, or the colonial capitalism, have in fact prevented the colonized from developing industrial relations similar to those in European societies during the Industrial Revolution (p. 18), sounds both heretical and prophetic, especially after the developments in the region between the 1980s and 1990s. The main purpose of the book, as already mentioned earlier, is to probe the origins and functions of the notion of the “lazy” native, which, according to Noor (2007), have been designed to epistemologically arrest, disable and disempower thus constructed image of the colonized subject; with the prime objective to deconstruct an important part of the colonial legacy, hence the ideological premise of Western hegemony and moral pretext for colonization as well. Identifying the real motives behind the creation of the myth, Alatas reproached the colonial capital, showcasing what exactly the natives had been up to colonial times which are thought to have actually put them in a position to be labeled likewise by the colonizers. The book is also seen to critically debunk the “racialised stereotypes that were found in Malaysian works such as Mahathir Mohamad’s ‘The Malay Dilemma’ (1970) and ‘Revolusi Mental’, a compilation of essays edited by the then Secretary-General of UMNO” (Noor 2007), thus illustrating how deep the colonial legacy have embedded itself into the politics of racial differences and sectarianism in many ex-colonies after the withdrawal of the colonial power. Therefore, the significance of this book does not just lie in the fact that it is trying to demystify certain colonial notions or to help clear the reputation of natives per se, but also in its call towards better scholarship in terms of being more objective by realizing as many sources of bias as possible, including ideology, cliché-ridden stereotypes, and the agenda behind the study itself - whether being purely for academia or for state-led projects such as development and nation-building. Although being considered either controversial or ahead of its time, the book of Prof. Syed Alatas presses the reader to look into the South Asian history from definitely differing point of view, as well as reconsider his own reasoning or/and assumptions as seen from this particular vantage point. The book has also set a precedent for future generations, a framework, within which a Southeast Asian – either be a scholar, like Chandra Muzaffar, or an economist, like Jomo Kwame Sundaram, can work maintaining a critical, objective and rational approach; and which is distinct and autonomous from colonial and even contemporary Western work done on this region (Noor 2007). Conclusion Speaking from a Southeast Asian point of view, before to undertake this journey of discovery, it is more than necessary to first deconstruct all knowledge that has been passed down from the colonizers to us, especially the knowledge that pertain to ourselves. Therefore, the importance of Prof. Syed Alatas’s work, The Myth of the Lazy Native, to each and every one who is to follow on the same path, consists in the fact that the a distinctive passage has been cleared in the mountain of prejudices and false ideology. Unfortunately, despite the publication of this book several decades ago, the idea of the lazy native is prevalent even today, made even worse by the fact that it’s advocated by some political elites. This makes the book and its assertions socially and politically relevant even in the current context. References Alatas, Syed H. 1956. Some Fundamental Problems of Colonialism . Eastern World. London ------ . 1962. “Reconstruction of Malaysian History.” Revue de Sud-est Asiatique 3. ------ . 1977. The Myth of the lazy Native: A study of the image of the Malays, Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th century and its function in the ideology of colonial capitalism. Pp. 2, 16-18. London: Frank Cass and Company ltd. Alatas, Syed F., ed. 2001. Reflections on Alternative Discourses from Southeast Asia Editor: Syed Farid Alatas Ismail, Faezah. 2003. “Revisiting ‘The Myth of the Lazy Native’.” New Straits Times. September 21. Kepel, Gilles. 2006. Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam. 4th ed. London: I. B. Tauris & Co ltd. Retrieved November 7, 2011. http://books.google.com/books?id=zFlsp_kI66IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jihad&ei=pcp2Scv5PIPSNJXp9c8E#v=onepage&q&f=false Kheng, Cheah Boon. “How I got into Malaysian History” in Historians and Their Discipline: The Call of Southeast Asian History, edited by Nicholas Tarling. MBRAS Monograph No. 40 LePoer, Barbara L. 1989. “Singapore as Part of Malaysia” in A Country Study: Singapore. Library of Congress Country Studies. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved November 5, 2011. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sgtoc.html Louis, William R. 2006. Ends of British Imperialism: the Scramble for Empire, Suez and Decolonization. London: I. B. Tauris & Co ltd. Retrieved November 5, 2011. http://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=bg#v=onepage&q&f=false Lysa, Hong. 1996. “What is Southeast Asian History?” in An Introduction to Southeast Asian Studies, edited by Halib M. and Tim Huxley. London: Tauris Academic Studies. Noor, Farish A. 2007. “In Memoriam: Prof. Syed Hussein Alatas, Myth – breaker.” Malaysia Today – Guest Columnists. Retrieved November 3, 2011. http://www.malaysia-today.net/blog2006/guests.php?catid=13 Sevea, Terenjit. 2008. “In Memoriam: Syed Hussein Alatas – the Postcolonial Oeuvre.” OpinionAsia: Global Views on Asia. Retrieved November 3, 2011. http://www.opinionasia.org/article/print/184 “World: Race War in Malaysia”. 23 May, 1969. Time Magazine U.S. Retrieved November 6, 2011. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,90 0859,00.html Read More