Customer Reviews

A History of Malaysia

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I read this work in Malaysia in 1998 as a student in a Universiti Malaya graduate program through the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College. This is a Malaysian government and academic favorite, as was very quickly made clear to me, but not for its academic depth or the purely sholarly tackling of contentioius historical issues. Quite the contrary, this book is a favorite due to its smooth, polished, there-are-never-nor-have-there-ever-been-problems approach to modern Malaysian history.

This is a popular book as it is a recently published history, which implies it is full of new research. Not so. A quick study of the source references shows precious little primary resources, and a great deal of secondary sources; the book is a collection of previous histories. This is not to say it is worthless. The book is indeed an adequate, up-to-date introduction to the basic issues and facts of Malaysian history, and as such is acceptable. But what you will not find is anything even remotely controversial or unflattering about Malaysia and Malaysians, especially the country under Mahathir. The thrust of this book is that all is well in Malaysia, all has been well, and the future is rosy indeed for all. Tragic and unfortunate events are not addressed. For example, the description of the politically-driven ethnic riots of the 60s is very poorly done, with the blame for the mob murders of hundreds of ethnic Chinese apparently being placed upon the Chinese for starting the trouble in the first place (an issue itself in doubt).

The glossing-over of controversy is fairly recognizable throughout the book, which soon enough becomes a pro-Malay bias. This eventually taints the book as a serious and balanced work of historical research, but keeps it on Malaysian bookshelves. If it were totally unbiased, direct, aggressive, and unflinching in examining and reporting Malaysian history, it would also be banned there.

This is a long boring tome on Malaysian history filled with a plethora of incomprehensible names of people and places. The minute details, instead of enlightening, cause one to find it hard not to fall asleep - much less make any sense out of what the authors are trying to relate. The 344 pages of text could have been easily reduced by 50%, thus making the book much easier to read & understand. The authors swamp the reader with so many useless insignificant details that it is almost impossible to glean any useful information from this tediously long book. Given the fact that this gobbledygook is a 2nd edition, the first having been written 20 years ago, it is hard to believe that there could have been much demand for a revised look at Malaysia's history. I had hoped to use this book in one of my university history courses on Southeast Asia. There is no way I would inflict such esoteric pedagogic claptrap on my students.

Alot of information that you may not care for if you really want to know about the people of Malaysia per say. I do recommend it however, if you are interested in why another part of the world withdraws from Western culture, or why Western influence is so prominent in Malaysia.

This is an excellent historical introduction to Malaysia's past. It is a must read for anyone interested on Malaysia. However, if you are looking for an history of history writing and historical interpretation in Malaysia in this book then you would be disappointed. We usually wish a lot more from such a good book. Nonetheless, the book badly needs a revised edition, after it appeared nearly 16 years ago. A solid contribution.

The book is valuable in giving perspective to Malaysian history. It surveys the cultural roots of the nation in an excellent description of the early period. The contribution of the colonial period to the nation's development is explained but not over-emphasised.

Based on Mr. Shamsul Akmar's editorial commentary from daily English based newspaper The Star in peninsular Malaysia, is this book really worth reading?