Orientalist is the one who researchers, teaches and
writes about the Orient. The Orient usually refers to the East, particularly
Middle East since this is the object of research that European really like to
focus on. It is also a style of thought that makes distinction between the
socio-culture of the East and the West. Understanding the history and trend of
Orientalism, we can understand how the West sees Asia and the effect of their
policy in the former colonies.
Edward Said elaborates that Orientalist creates an
idea of Orient that differs from their actual reality. This is because the
Western scholars themselves did not involve with local society and this creates
misunderstandings. This supposedly academic venture is actually important for
political hegemony of the West towards the colonies. The discovery made by
those academics strengthens the perceptions of the West that the West is better
than people in the East. This book also shows that the West had learned about the
Orient very systematically with huge investment in institution. It is not just
a fantasy created by certain people.
The study of Orientalism had been done primarily by
the British and France. They have the best network of academic studies pe-20th
century and their ideas continue to influence American foreign policy. Their
research has amassed huge historical work on the Orient, and eventually being
used by the modern Asian countries to understand about their own history.
The study of Orient also undergone changes since it
was very dependent on the Western intellectual development. Sometimes their
object of studies, which is Orient itself does not undergone changes and their
society still remain the same. The author also acknowledges that there should be
alternatives of how to learn from other cultures since Orientalism is a way of
learning other cultures but in a repressive way.
In relations to my research which is political
changes, I would like to understand how Orientalism had affected the political
structure in the East. Are there any leaders in the East that engage with any
Orientalist in the past? Did we learn anything from Orientalist when they come
and study about our society or we just dismiss them as insignificant? We should
also try to unravel the influences of Orientalist in our local academic
university especially older university such as Malaya University. Our own
teaching of history in schools and university should be examined to make sure
that it is not influenced by Orientalism.
Malaysian academics should appreciate the works of
Edward Said since he writes a lot about the history and influence of British
Empire to the colonies. Since he himself come from British Mandated Palestine,
the area that still in conflicts decades later because of the British foreign
policy after World War I. Malaysia society and nation had greatly influenced by
the political and economic structure that being left by the British
colonization in Malaya and Borneo.
