The hybrid-Malay Malaysian dilemma: Interview with Farish A. Noor in The Nut Graph
By Yusseri ~ June 11th, 2009. Filed under: TOM_Main.
Dr. Farish Noor is a prolific academic. The founder of The Other Malaysia project writes on the politics of Malaysia, Indonesia, Islamism, and old Malay hikayats with gusto and insight. He has been published everywhere. Well, nearly. It makes one wonder what he does to de-stress.
“I repair old batik, I knit and I stitch,” he tells The Nut Graph. What? No American Idol for our historian-activist?
“I haven’t watched television since I was 19, although lately I’m drawn to Indonesian pop culture,” he says.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:29
Hey Farish,
Thanks for the article. Something I can relate to very well myself as a mixed hybrid of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and somewhat distant Achehnese and Arab origin. Looks like our families suffer the very same Dilemma in wanting to be Malay when their simply not.
June 11th, 2009 at 13:42
Great interview!
June 12th, 2009 at 01:08
On reading your interview it reminded me this.
A couple of months ago I met a man who looks like malay but more like eurasian and he wanted some business dealings and partnership. His cousin will be made in charge of the business and no others. I was curious as most of his talk was centered on his cousin. Finally he cited some reason and passed remarks I can never forget.
His remarks “They are pure malays and I don’t trust them in business. They are real bumi …they will screw up my business and later screw me up too. I am different, a Hybrid, a cross with indian, javanese and malay blood and maybe arab too.”"
To cut short, children of mixed blood, generally I find them smarter than pure blooded ones.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:32
Meng, are you a believer in Eugenics then? Frankly, I dont think blood or genes has anything to do with intelligence, and the idea that being either ‘pure’ or ‘unpure/hybrid’ makes one more intelligent/superior is itself rather silly and totally without any rational scientific basis. Walk down that path and you end up with the madness of racialist eugenics and the nightmare of racialist fascism all over again.
June 12th, 2009 at 16:52
Farish, don’t worry I would never walk down that line. Observance and own opinion differs but funny think, most outspoken malaysian malays have mixed blood. Am I wrong again?
By the way have you stored in the net the weekly articles you wrote to the media …is it on thursday. I have compiled some of the cuttings but someone borrowed it and that was it. Must be the same Farish Noor aren’t you. Is it possible to retrieve those writeups.
June 12th, 2009 at 18:55
Meng said,
“…own opinion differs but funny think, most outspoken malaysian malays have mixed blood. Am I wrong again?…”
Well, depends what you mean by ‘outspoken’ .
‘Malay’ness is an idea. There is no genetic basis for being ‘Malay’. But the idea is that we are muslims to a greater or lesser extent, speak a common-ish language and share some uniting traditions. This has been so long before the the Brits arrived. It is a great idea, a uniting label; a bit like being American - all saluting the flag and not dissing it.
But ideas evolve. Onn Jaafar thought that anyone residing in the Malay Peninsular was qualified to join UMNO. He himself was part Turkish. Then you have his outspoken grandson (Sigh!)
Isn’t it time we are all Malaysians, with a common language (Bahasa Malaysia) and a uniting creed (Rukunegara)?
June 12th, 2009 at 23:30
While I’m quite certain there is a genetic basis to race (otherwise, it would be a random lottery, wouldn’t it?), however the idea that we are singular racial entities e.g. Malay or Chinese or Indian etc., is rather obviously flawed.
Argued from that angle, for the mixed/hybrid, the multiplicities of races within our genetic makeup means the determination of single racial entities for example, what a ‘Malay’ is etc., is almost entirely dependant on the social construct. Hence begs the question, is one Malay if only one parent is Malay? Grandparent? Great-grandparent? etc. The delineation of races hence becomes marred and blurred.
While having the exact same make-up, in this country, paternal lineage would matter most to determine ‘bumiputera’ status. An idea that is arguably quite controversial. The dispensation of separate racial entities would do this country a whole lot of good. After all, didn’t we all come out of Africa?
June 13th, 2009 at 00:49
Hey Meng,
Just for your info. The idea that one’s intelligence has to do with their genetic composition sounds rather familiar. If I’m not mistaken, I first got that idea from The Malay Dilemma by Tun Mahathir. The author put forward an absurd argument by trying to equate one’s competitiveness and intelligence with Mendel’s law of hereditary and the infamous Darwinian theory of evolution. It’s an absurd argument as Farish Noor put it well, have no scientific base to it.
Certain studies would contradict it such as “The Glenwood State School” project and “The Milwaukee Project”. You would find that a more plausible conclusion would be that one’s intelligence would reflect one’s environment. As with most things, our environment dictates almost everything we do.
Marx was right!
June 13th, 2009 at 15:42
Hi Farish,
I read and reread it, but I still don’t get it. Of course explaining a pun is self-defeating so my question is rhetorical I guess.
What is the Dilemma? Is it sexuality?
KB
June 14th, 2009 at 08:06
Farish,
I’m Chinese and I want to apologise to you for the racism you suffered under that Chinese teacher.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:53
Drachen
Under no circumstances should you apologise!!!!! Why should you do that?? Its not as if you did what the teacher did.
Please let us not take on the guilt/responsibilities of the older generation. If we walk down that path, then every German child born today would have to apologise for Hitlers mistakes, and that would not only be absurd, but also terribly unfair to the present generation of Germans.
Take care and do keep well,
Farish
June 23rd, 2009 at 23:41
Hi Farish. I have just recently stumbled upon your name, courtesy of malaysiakini.tv uploading the interview you had with them. since then, i have been voraciously scouring the web for your works. I really am thankful for people like you, who have opened my mind to what our nation really ought to look like. I find it so fascinating that people like as far back as Munshi Abdullah have developed cosmopolitan mindsets that transcend race and ethnicity. their whole concept of a ‘malay race’ is so radically different from the current norm….how i wish the day of old would return to Malaysia. The concept of malaya-raya continues to enthrall me, now i can only think of ‘what-ifs’. Thank you Farish for teaching me so many things about the origins of our country,something UMNO-tainted history textbooks can never accomplish!
a gracious uni student…….