(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
community as well as “in the Kitchens of their husbands,” Dr. Mahathir compares them to the
English women.
Like the English suffragettes of the early 1920s they could point to concrete proofs of
their abilities and eligibility for a new status at par with their menfolk. But unlike
English suffragettes, they did not resort to violent methods and neither will they in the
future.
That article, and the subsequent articles in the newspaper marks an important milestone in
Malay intellectual history, and that of Dr. Mahathir’s consciousness of the West. 15 In this
case, in what is to be reminiscent of his 19 th June 2003 speech to the 54 th UMNO general
Assembly, Dr. Mahathir urges the Malays to learn and comprehend the ways of Europe and
the West. His 1947 public discourse debut through the empowerment of Malay women
called for the availability of a sound education and a through knowledge of modern
housecraft. And what he emphasises in countering a Eurocentric view of the world was that
Religious teaching designed to enable them to distinguish between the good and evil of
Western culture must be initiated.
In what many may not realise, Dr. Mahathir has always been a student of the West. The
‘West,’ the Occident and European civilization have been instrumental in formulating
Mahathir’s sense of being, the Malay and national identity. Dr. Mahathir represents post War
modern Malay thought. In itself it is the outcome of the interplay of diverse forces inducing a
Malay discourse on the West. Historically, Dr. Mahathir set a new beginning on Malay
knowledge production, through his direct and didactic common-sense language, which were
to build up through speech and writing in a rational and coherent form..” He has a particular
mode of representation – and in this case both Malay society and ‘the West.’
In his early writings, we find Dr. Mahathir positioning himself as the subject – an informed
rather than a passive one. He displays a critical sense of judgment on the presumed natural
superiority of the West.
Subsequently he writes on “Town Malays Drop national Dress,” Straits Times, 28 November
(Published in the Early Years 1995, pp.1-5.). Here, Dr. Mahathir rebukes Malay men in
Singapore for forgetting that “their race has a national dress worthy of their pride, and that
the art and desire to wear the national dress had been lost.
If one were to delve into the literature on media and cultural imperialism, or Cultural Studies
of the Occidental kind, Dr. Mahathir’s comments in the 1940s precede its modern-day
inquiry as academic themes in the universities. He observes then that
(T)he cosmopolitan atmosphere of this city, the American tourists and the cinemas have
had their effects, and the result is none too pleasing. In upcountry towns, Raya days are
occasions for a display of a riot of colours. Gay kebaya and sarung mingle with equally
15 And this consciousness can be seen throughout his discourse to the present.
455