Rich in detail and lucidly written, this is the first definitive study of the new middle class in Malaysia. Abdul Rahman Embong examines the emergence and role of the new Malay middle class, particularly with regard to democratization and evolution of civil society in Malaysia. As well as exploring variations within the class across the country, the author also draws comparisons with the Malay working class, and the middle classes of China, India and elsewhere in East Asia.
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Malaysia offers a broad, analytical survey of Malaysia. It provides a comprehensive survey of significant topics in Malaysian politics, economy, and society today, focussing on issues, institutions, and trends. It is divided into four thematic sections, which are all introduced by the editor: • Domestic politics • Economics • Social policy and social development • International relations and security. The volume brings together an international team of experts: an interdisciplinary mix of forty contributors from Malaysia and elsewhere, including many of the leading specialists on Malaysian affairs. The chapters included in the volume form an accessible and fascinating window onto contemporary Malaysia. They each introduce a different aspect of the Malaysian polity, economy, or society, offering both historical perspective and a current assessment or investigation. Designed for general readers and specialists alike, chapters may be read individually -- each stands on its own -- or conjointly. Up-to-date, interdisciplinary, and academically rigorous, the Handbook will be of interest to students, academics, policymakers, and others in search of reliable information on Malaysian politics, economics, and society.
Summary: "Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is often seen as the sole author of the country's foreign policy. Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era shows that while Mahathir's personality, leadership style, political ideology and brand of nationalism unquestionably had a deep impact, so too did domestic issues and external forces associated with globalization. The book examines seven major foreign policy initiatives of the Mahathir period: Buy British Last, Anti-Commonwealth, Look East, Third World Spokesmanship, Regional Engagement, Islamic Posturing and Commercial and Developmental Diplomacy. In discussing these topics, the author explains the significance for foreign policy of communal concerns, the regime's need to maintain its own authority in the face of political and social initiatives (some rooted in Islam), and its desire to achieve national development. He also discusses external pressures, including Japan's regional designs, Singapore's defense posture and the growing importance of China for the region. The approach breaks away from the elitist decision making styles and single factor models usually employed to explain the foreign policy of developing nations, and establishes a direct link between domestic politics and foreign policy during the period studied, suggesting that the latter was truly an extension of the former."--Publisher description.
The relationship between secularism, democracy, religion, and gender equality has been a complex one across Western democracies and still remains contested. When we turn to Muslim countries, the situation is even more multifaceted. In the views of many western commentators, the question of Women Rights is the litmus test for Muslim societies in the age of democracy and liberalism. Especially since the Arab Awakening, the issue is usually framed as the opposition between liberal advocates of secular democracy and religious opponents of women's full equality. Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective critically re-engages this too simple binary opposition by reframing the debate around Islam and women's rights within a broader comparative literature. Bringing together leading scholars from a range of disciplines, it examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part One addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part Two localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part One. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women's rights in minority conditions to shed light on the gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder on the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.
"This book makes an important contribution to understanding the ongoing political evolution of politics in Sarawak. It also provides a case study of the engagement of a dominant state with social forces in a multi-ethnic society." - Prof Harold Crouch, Emeritus Professor, Department of Political & Social Change, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, Australian National University "Taking off from Joel Migdal's notions of 'the strongman-politician’, 'strong society, weak state' and 'the state in society', the author discusses how the federal government accomodates Taib Mahmud's chief ministership over Sarawak, and how his long tenure is anchored in winning political support from the Sarawak Muslim Bumiputera community. An insightful book on contemporary Sarawak politics." - Prof Francis Loh Kok Wah, School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. "This volume will go a long way in explaining why a single Melanau family has been able to dominate Sarawak politics for the past four decades." - Prof James Chin, Head of School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia Campus
Mahathir Mohamad turned Malaysia into one of the developing world's most successful economies. He adopted pragmatic economic policies alongside repressive political measures and showed that Islam was compatible with representative government and modernization. He emerged as a Third World champion and Islamic spokesman by standing up to the West.
Few challenges to the modern dream of democratic citizenship appear greater than the presence of severe ethnic, religious, and linguistic divisions in society. With their diverse religions and ethnic communities, the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia have grappled with this problem since achieving independence after World War II. Each country has on occasion been torn by violence over the proper terms for accommodating pluralism. Until the Asian economic crisis of 1997, however, these nations also enjoyed one of the most sustained economic expansions the non-Western world has ever seen. This timely volume brings together fifteen leading specialists of the region to consider the impact of two generations of nation-building and market-making on pluralism and citizenship in these deeply divided Asian societies. Examining the new face of pluralism from the perspective of markets, politics, gender, and religion, the studies show that each country has developed a strikingly different response to the challenges of citizenship and diversity. The contributors, most of whom come Southeast Asia, pay particular attention to the tension between state and societal approaches to citizenship. They suggest that the achievement of an effectively participatory public sphere in these countries will depend not only on the presence of an independent "civil society," but on a synergy of state and society that nurtures a public culture capable of mediating ethnic, religious, and gender divides. The Politics of Multiculturalism will be of special interest to students of Southeast Asian history and society, anthropologists grappling with questions of citizenship and culture, political scientists studying democracy across cultures, and all readers concerned with the prospects for civility and tolerance in a multicultural world.
This book represents contributions from leading scholars from several disciplines that show the diversity of approaches to religious rituals, while also providing cross-disciplinary perspectives on this topic.
The contributors engage with a range of critical and contemporary issues of two key societies in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and Malaysia. These include foreign policy and national security; multiculturalism and citizenship; the middle class; global governance; migrants and international students.
Examining some of the most critical issues in Malaysian politics today, including human rights, law and democracy, gender and Islam, this book explores the contours of the contemporary landscape of Malaysian politics, focusing especially on politics among the majority ethnic Malay community. In particular, the book explains why changes in patterns of political mobilization and the rhetoric of the dominant parties - particularly the PAS and UMNO - have been so limited, despite the overt and growing dissatisfaction shown by Malaysians with the state of their political system and the ability of these parties to represent their interests. It considers the recent history of events and discourses within Malaysian society, and UMNO and PAS, and goes on to analyze why important transitions have occurred in society yet political parties have not adapted themselves to these changes and remained reticent about instituting meaningful reforms involving these matters.
