Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 1)

*This is an assignment for Islam in Malay History and Culture class

Introduction

Politics are an important part in governing society and country. Without political system that was agreed among its citizen, a country will go into disorder and even dissolved. A political system usually was created in the onset of the founding of the nation. For example, United States of America was created as a republican system with president as the head of government. It was agreed by the founding fathers and banded it up with a constitution. 

Most of the times, a land and the people inhibit it had existed before a country or a political system ever existed. In African continent, tribes had existed a long time and have their own political system. After European imperialist come in the 19^th century, they created a new nation with their own border that was agreed not among the tribes, but among the imperialist powers. A political system of a country could also undergo radical change through revolution and desires of its citizens. This is what happened when Russia Empire undergone Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and changes its political system from monarchy into Socialist state.

Many lands in the world had gone through major changes because of the effect of colonialism. This had happened across America, Africa and Asia continents. After imperialism was forced to disband with Truman Doctrine after World War 2, a lot of new country created instead. Although a lot of these countries were called by the independence leaders as liberated and gained independence from the European, but their new country never actually existed before European come. When British and France come to the Indian continent, it was held by the Mughal Empires, Maharashtra and other small princely states. While British did give choices for these princely states to choose their independence, British colonials never gives the country back to the Mughals since that old kingdom already ceased to exist in 1945.

The Situation in Malay Archipelago

In the case of Malay Archipelago, after colonialism ended, several new countries were created. in particular Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia was a federation of several older Malay states that was existed before the British come. Meanwhile, Indonesia was unitary republic with provinces not related to any older kingdom in the past except several provinces such as Acheh and Jogjakarta. The new country that was created was a government based on democracy and elected by the citizens. In Malaysia the older rulers such as Sultan and Kings still maintain position, but their power had been redefined according to the constitution, which is not existed in the political system before British come. 

The political system of Indonesia and Malaysia was still very much inherited from the British and Dutch administration. Since the time of colonials, the higher ranking officer was from Europe. But after the independence, these positions were replaced by the locals. These locals were still educated in colonials’ education system. Although the rulers have not regained the sovereignty they have before, but they are still very much influential in the administration of the country. In Malaysia, the first Prime Minister is a prince of Kedah, which is one of the Malay states. The position of the rulers’ family and Malay nobility had given themselves a privilege to be educated and eventually elected to the higher offices. 

But the political system in the new country also allowed groups among workers and traders who before this never have opportunity to be in administration to join politics especially through political party. This is something unthinkable in the older system before colonialism where only the nobles that have relations to the royals can rise to the position of administration. 

One of the landmark evolutions of thinking among the Malays start after the British and Dutch colonials come to the Malay Archipelago. The ideas from European were translated to Malay language and help creating an emerging class of intellectuals. One of these ideas was political thought since the political structure of European and the Malay Archipelago is very much different. 

Under the colonial administration, the modern Malay thinkers recognized the paradox of time they live in. They understand that political powers lie on the colonial officers, not on the Sultan and local rulers. But the local rulers still being recognized their sovereignty by colonial powers especially on Islamic and Malay heritage affairs. Several political ideas such as liberalism and socialism from Europe had rejected the political structure of monarch. This structure is contradicted with traditional political structure in the Malay Archipelago.

To understand the evolution of political thought in the Malay world especially from the onset of anti-colonials struggle until the independence of a country, I pick 3 thinkers that were influential in shaping the thought of the Malays. The 3 thinkers were Syed Sheikh al-Hadi, Burhanuddin al-Helmy and Mohammad Natsir. Syed Sheikh al-Hadi is an important journalist and educator in the earlier 20^th century of Malaya. Meanwhile Burhanuddin al-Helmy is influential in creating several Malays organizations and political parties such as KMM, PKMM and PAS and help awakening the Malay nationalism. Mohammad Natsir meanwhile was an influential writers and politician from Indonesia that tries to infused Islamic ideology in the young nation.