AN empirical focus on Chinese society would be of immense benefit in the long term, not only to reduce prejudice, but also to engage with an objectivised knowledge of the Chinese in Malaysia and the region.
A bachelor’s or postgraduate degree in Chinese society — economics/thought/culture/politics would be much relevant. Even a degree of the traditional Chinese Studies-type would still be relevant. Many years ago, a professor at Universiti Teknologi Mara objected to this suggestion by saying: “We are a Malay university. Why should we study the Chinese?” An inward thinking and logic would not be a tenable one any more.
On a more global note, a China Studies thrust (as distinct from Chinese Studies) would augur well for UiTM in terms of preparing its students for the global market. This should enable students to focus on “China” as a field of specialisation within their chosen degree programmes at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. The China area studies should provide a broad understanding of Chinese society, history, philosophy, political and economic development. What is significant is that it makes visible the scale of China’s impact on the world economy, the geopolitics of China and Southeast Asia, and the “One Belt One Road” initiative. It should create a national community that would be able to engage with China’s new silk road.
The UiTM offering should introduce China in an integrated and interdisciplinary manner. That should create students who are globally aware through developing a cross-cultural competency through a critical understanding of Chinese cultures. The school/centre/institute and the programme focus would be the role of China within the larger regional and global spheres where the largely Malay majoring students apply practical language skills, cultural knowledge on the Chinese imbued with a global awareness. Bearing in mind the opening of China to the world, the China and Chinese area studies are pertinent tools to understand national, regional and global politics, economics and society.
Malaysia does not have a developed area studies tradition. Hence it is opportune for UiTM, given its thrust and genesis, to construct a framework in, for example, economic development and democratisation given conditions in China, as well as engaging in the different notions of the nation-state and how China sees itself vis-à-vis Southeast Asia.
Malays must be able to competently engage with China and the Chinese. Would we not expect that Chinese popular culture, as produced in China, not dominate the global scene, as we had seen of Western and American culture and media since 1945?
If the United States sees itself as a dominant nation-state, China sees itself as a civilisational state. UiTM must not isolate itself from the China phenomenon. The Malays have never been an “imperialistic” or a “colonising” power. The Malays should never be. But it does not stop UiTM as a Malay institution from inquiring and developing a corpus on other powers and civilisations.
Perhaps Malay scholars, intellectuals and policymakers are never interested in studying the outside world. China represents a new globalisation. UiTM, with its capacity in numbers, cannot afford to be oblivious to the strategic emergence of China and its implications on the region.
The first 60-year phase is over. The Malays cannot allow their own prejudice to rule the day. Aspiring to be global is not the same as engaging with the new global realities.
Kishore Mahbubani in Has the West Lost it? A Provocation (2018)” saw that the Chinese leadership since Mao Zedong, and his successor Deng Xiaoping down to the present has been responsible for the extraordinary transformation of Chinese society. Almost a billion people have been rescued from absolute poverty in three decades.
UiTM must draw on the soul and values of China and the psyche of the Chinese if it aspires to produce a community of competent entrepreneurs and technocrats for the domestic, regional and global markets. It is enhancing the new Bumiputera capability against this new geopolitical theatre that UiTM would have to respond to.
Datuk Dr A. Murad Merican is a professor with the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia