(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
According to Khoo, to his knowledge, the C.H.E. Det essays have never been seriously
studied “but they wonderfully illustrate the young Mahathir’s immersion in the Malay world
of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In attempting to reconstruct Mahathir’s worldview, Khoo
explores the unexplored “world of C.H.E. Det’ in his essay in his conclusion of Chapter 3 of
Paradoxes of Mahathirism. Khoo notes that the articles themselves may be categorized
according to their contents as follows:
1. Observations of Malay customs and social life – as in the articles on ronggeng, fish,
durians, marriage customs, and the housewives;
2. Analyses of the problems of the Malays – as in the articles on the Malay language,
education, fisherfolk, and padi planters; and
3. Political writings – as in the articles on nationality, royalty and the Malays in South
Siam (Khoo: 82).
To provide an insight on the genesis of Dr. Mahathir’s attitude toward the West, which are to
be the themes of his future discourse, it would be well worth to delve into these writings. Dr.
Mahathir would insert playful notes and light-hearted comments, as on the faux pas of
‘uninitiated orang putehs try[ing] to hold the ronggeng girls in their arms. 13 At his best, it was
observed that Dr. Mahathir showed a feel for the changing texture of Malay social life
“without betraying a maudlin nostalgia at the passage of certain customs.” Dr.Mahathir
wondered how “the seemingly crude Malay dance, the Joget or Ronggeng, still holds its own
among Malays” in spite of the popularity of Western dances and the large number of
cabarets’ but notes that “even the dancing has been modernized and shows influence of the
rumba and samba” (Khoo, pp.82-83).
This paper makes reference to Khoo’s engagement with C.H.E. Det with a view of
Mahathir’s engagement with the West from the 1940s onwards. ‘Che Det’ was formed by
adding the common Malay honorific to ‘det’,’ a familiar shortening of the last syllable of
Mahathir. Khoo notes that the adult converted the ‘Che’ into ‘C.H.E.,’ a set of European-like
initials. The resultant ‘C.H.E. Det’ became Dr. Mahathir’s European-sounding pseudonym in
the series of Straits Times articles in Singapore. Dr. Mahathir’s sense of identity was
pronounced in those years. As a pseudonym, ‘C.H.E. Det’ was an artful improvisation,
probably born of the self-consciousness of young adulthood for Dr.Mahathir employed it to
‘conceal the fact that the views expressed [in his articles] were being written by a Malay.’ 14
We find a list of ‘paradoxes’ in Khoo’s book that serve to inform us of the man and his
relation to Western civilization. Below are statements that illustrate, in this context, the
embrace and resistance of the West in Dr. Mahathir.
• Anxious to secure the survival of the Malays, Mahathir seemed prepared to see the
end of ‘Malayness.’
• His Social Darwinism accentuated his Malay nationalism. His Malay nationalism
checked his Social Darwinism.
• The ideologue of state-sponsored constructive protection, he became the advocate of
capitalist competition,
13 Ronggeng is Popular, Sunday Times, 9 January 1949.
14 Khoo Boo Teik, p.81. Cited from Zakiah Hanum, former Director-­‐General of the National Archives in Robin
Adshead (1989). Mahathir of Malaysia. London: Hibiscus Publishing Company. But “we shall never really
know, nor is it essential to be able to tell, whether this small guile was successful,” Khoo laments. He maintains
that the little-­‐explored ‘world of C.H.E. Det’ harboured the many dilemmas of the adult politician who became
famous for disdaining to conceal any of his views.
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