Malay studies in Malaysia seems to have intellectually ostracised itself. The confidence in promoting indigenous and endogenous perspectives on the field is wanting.
This does not mean establishing a Malay-centric view of knowledge and the world.
What it must do is engage with the mainstream Eurocentric perspective of knowledge in social sciences and humanities. Malay studies' scholarship should intellectually counter the European canon. It suffers from epistemic inequality.
The corpus has been developed from the uncritical reception of thought and methodologies. There is a need for capacity building and internationalisation.
Malay studies must recontextualise itself as integral to European and global studies. Malay studies cannot isolate itself from the modern global political, economic and cultural landscapes.
Recently, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin called for Malay studies to elevate itself as a strategic field when he spoke at the Za'ba Lectures programme in Academy of Malay Studies, Universiti Malaya. The minister's suggestion is timely.
The corpus of Malay studies is a tool for us to study ourselves and others. Some 20 years ago, the Institute of Occidental Studies was established in a local university. Occident studies is the other side of Malay studies.
Nevertheless, the initiative was not sustained. The parties and scholars concerned conceived these only as part of the larger network of area studies rather than a bridging discourse, intertwined and informing one another. Occidental studies died an unceremonious death.
In light of political and epistemological undercurrents, and overt challenges, Malay studies needs a new narrative, manifesting a transdisciplinary face. The nomenclature of Malay studies has variably been described as Malay World Studies and the Study of Malay Civilisations.
Epistemologically, things must be dismantled. The captive mind is still around and partisan politics still holds sway. The curriculum of Malay studies must view the colonial condition as problematic.
How can one teach about the Malays if one denies its representations (or misrepresentations) in history and society?
We have to regard the separation of "tanah" from "air" as intellectually and culturally divisive as manifested in the various names as The Malay Archipelago, Nusantara, or in the name of the major new nation states or Southeast Asia.
A "reoriented" Malay studies may uncover other enlightenment, cosmopolitan spaces in the Malay Archipelago. One is the Melaka Sultanate's enlightenment period in the 15th century. The other is in Riau, some 400 years later.
Riau is also the cradle of Malay modernity and journalism. Malay intellectual history must be central in restructuring the field.
The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation of the International Islamic University Malaysia is also engaged in the study of Malay history and civilisation. It convened the Malay Maritime Civilisation project in 2021, and will co-organise the Ottomans and Malay World Conference in October this year.
Malay studies is a significant component of Islamic thought and civilisation.
Certainly curriculum revisions must take place. Khaled came out strongly on this. The research agenda needs to be reorganised. A resurgence of Malay studies beyond language and literature is anticipated.
Its decolonial scholarship must move beyond critiques of colonialism and eurocentrism. This has to be conceived as an intellectual project working towards an autonomous scholarship.
The few centres of Malay studies in Malaysia must collectively engage with long-standing institutions studying the Malay world, not only in Leiden and London, but also in other parts of continental Europe, as well as Russia, not forgetting China and Korea.
There is an emerging interest in the Malay world from Turkiye and the Indo-Iranian world. And, we must not forget Singapore, which has produced some fine and defining scholarship on Malay society over the decades.
Khaled mentioned the re-establishment of the Za'ba Chair in the Academy. There is one in a university in Tanjung Malim. Other chairs commemorating figures in intellectual history must be endowed, including Abdullah Abdul Kadir Munshi, Syed Shaykh al-Hadi and A. Samad Ismail.
Establishing chairs for Malay studies abroad is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Re-establishing and ensuring the continuity of Malay studies' chairs is essential in extending the Malay (and Malaysian) narrative to the world. These include the Arab world, Turkiye and Iran, as well as Japan, the Philippines and Hawaii. The chairs must be part of the collective effort in using cultural diplomacy in extending Malaysia's soft power on the global stage.
The writer is professor of social and intellectual history, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation, International Islamic University Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times