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Against The Grain: Malay Studies and the School of Autonomous Knowledge

In the different fields of study in the arts and social sciences, there are some which are concerned with specific regions of the world. These are Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Central Asian Studies and so on.

Against the Grain: The relevance of pre-modern Malay political theory

There is much for us to learn from pre-modern Malay political theory as far as contemporary governance in Malaysia is concerned. An example of a work that is from the pre-modern Malay world is the Taj al-Salatin. This belongs to the nasihat (counsel-for-kings) genre, or what was known in the European tradition as “mirrors for princes”, and which was influenced by Persian works of the same genre. The Malay nasihat writings were likely derived from the Persian tradition of the “mirrors for princes”. The Taj al-Salatin, therefore, is an example of a Malay “mirror for princes” and is said to have been composed around 1603 in Aceh. What is interesting about this work is that it has an anti-feudal orientation. This is a crucial element of pre-modern Malay political theory that remains relevant to contemporary politics and governance, to the extent that we are still afflicted by the feudal mentality.

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