Malay Political Leadership

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to analyse Malay political leadership according to its historical, political and socio-cultural foundations. The concepts of Malay leadership are rooted in tradition and history, and they are explained firstly from the standpoint of the early Malay World belief system and feudal polity, and then progressively through the dynamics of modern politics encapsulating the biographical profiles of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Dato Hussein Onn, and Dato Seri Dr Mahathir in three aspects - national unity, the economy, and foreign affairs. The study of Malay political leadership evokes a special interest in the research of leadership development since it is still relatively nascent as it attempts to carve a durable role within the complexity of Malaysia's large ethnic diversity. As the path to this objective is being plotted, Malay leadership is modernizing progressively but equally cognizant of the value of traditions in its development. Thus far, the Malaysian experiment can take credit for making important inroads in fulfilling a crucial void in the understanding of leadership in a plural society. Throughout the evolution of leadership, certain practices were adapted and modified, for example, in the persistence of Indian symbolisms in the Islamized Malay World for the perpetuation of leadership veneration. Though Malay society today does not regard its leadership as it did traditionally, the ambivalence, if not tolerance, of paternalistic leadership points to a tendency of recurring obedience to tradition and authority. Such was the experience during Colonization when the Malay sultanate, while surrogating to alien power, was still revered for its sublime power. With Independence, the character of Malay leadership radicalized. Many of the modern concepts of Malay leadership that evolved from those traditional ideas and practices were modernized and re-visited by the leaders of modern Malaysia. This book offers the theory that leadership is innately perceived by Malay society to be predestined, a perception that has pre-existed throughout the evolutionary processes of Malay leadership. This perception is an enduring psyche that binds the leader and the led, evident by its remarkable political continuity and one that believes that authoritarian and paternalistic leadership is necessary for sound governance and economic well-being.