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Analysing Pre-modern Malay Political Systems: From Raffles to Shaharil Talib

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Abstract

In this chapter, Anthony Milner seeks to define the contribution of Shaharil Talib to the study of pre-modern Malay political systems. His essay outlines the extraordinary range of analytical approaches employed over the years up to Shaharil’s time. Beginning with the work of Thomas Stamford Raffles and John Crawfurd two centuries ago, then considering such later scholar-officials as Hugh Clifford and Richard Winstedt, and finally noting the influence of different anthropological and Marxist-influenced perspectives developed in the post-colonial period, the chapter then examines the major study on Terengganu, which Shaharil published. Milner’s main focus is on the significant shifts and contests in the historiography of pre-colonial Malay societies, seeking to show in particular where Shaharil’s endeavours can be appropriately positioned. In Milner’s view, Shaharil was innovatory in adopting a diachronic approach—portraying the Malay states as societies in motion, and focusing on elite strategies, which Shaharil sees as driven by a quest for wealth. Milner notes that Shaharil’s conclusions, and the interpretive framework which he employed, have provoked scholarly debate—and this, Milner says, underlines the fact that Shaharil produced a classic work in the field of Malay history.

I am grateful to Peter Borschberg and Gareth Knapman for advice on this essay.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I have considered the way Malay writings do this in Milner (1982).

  2. 2.

    (Carroll, 2005; Maier, 1988; Quilty, 1998, 2001). For a superb study in another field, which examines an investigator in the context of the scholarly discourse and debates of his time, see Hill (2003).

  3. 3.

    Raffles (1991: 81). For Raffles’s attitude to Islam, see Aljuneid (2005). Quilty stresses the role of the Romantic movement in encouraging Raffles’s sense of loss when considering the decline of ancient institutions—and, in the case of Java, of ancient buildings; Quilty (1998: 68).

  4. 4.

    Raffles (1991: 81). For Raffles’s attitude to Islam, see Aljuneid (2005). Quilty stresses the role of the Romantic movement in encouraging Raffles’s sense of loss when considering the decline of ancient institutions—and, in the case of Java, of ancient buildings; Quilty (1998: 68).

  5. 5.

    See his reference to a character in Scott’s novel, Guy Mannering; Anderson (1971: 45).

  6. 6.

    Anderson also quotes lines from John Gibson Lockhart, Walter Scott’s son-in-law (Anderson, 1971: 85). For Scott’s influence on Charles Hose—who wrote about Sarawak—see Boon, 1990: 13. Quilty has noted that Anderson uses lines from William Wordsworth to portray the Sumatran jungle (Quilty, 1998: 36).

  7. 7.

    Thomas Carlyle, one of the leading thinkers of the age, was an admirer of John Crawfurd’s writings—a reminder that nineteenth-century Southeast Asianists did not write only for one another but were in dialogue with mainstream intellectual developments (Knapman, 2017: 242). For an introduction to the theoretical context in which Crawfurd wrote, see, for example, Burrow (2009: chapters 21–24).

  8. 8.

    The physical attributes of the Malay and other Archipelago races are discussed in Crawfurd (1967: Vol. 1, chapter 1). I am grateful to Gareth Knapman for his advice on Crawfurd’s approach. On the influence on Crawfurd of Scottish thinking about the different stages of social development, see Quilty (1998: 44).

  9. 9.

    Crawfurd was a critic of Hunt, and less inclined to stress inferiority (Knapman, 2017: 220).

  10. 10.

    For the Conrad connection, see Gailey (1982: 39); also, Hampson (2000: chapter 3). A.R.Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago (1869) influenced Conrad, and probably Clifford, and certainly included racial stereotyping (Hampson, 2000: 76).

  11. 11.

    See footnote 8 above on how Carlyle, on his part, admired Crawfurd’s work. Crawfurd’s view of the European Middle Ages, however, was not positive (Quilty, 1998: 8).

  12. 12.

    Crawfurd’s private views may have been different. Gareth Knapman tells me that Crawfurd read aloud Javanese texts to his family.

  13. 13.

    He certainly cited Skeat’s work – and also, for instance, that of the cultural anthropologist, Edward Burnett Tylor. See Wilkinson (1932: 135–137); see also Lienhardt (1966: chapter 1).

  14. 14.

    An influential essay in Southeast Asian studies, influenced by Diffusionism (though not unicentric Diffusionism), is Heine-Geldern (2018). I am grateful to Wilbert Wong for drawing my attention to evidence of Winstedt’s interest in Heine-Geldern’s work. On the influence of diffusionism, see Kuper (1973: 15–16).

  15. 15.

    See also, Winstedt (1947b) on the cultural origins of different features of Malay rulership.

  16. 16.

    For the contest between functionalism and the earlier diffusionism (and evolutionism), see for example, Boon (1987: 10–20).

  17. 17.

    Sullivan cites the methodological approaches of C. Meillassoux, M. Godelier and E.P.Thompson, as well as B.Hindess and P.Hirst.

  18. 18.

    On Terengganu history, see also Mohamed Anwar Omar Din and Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud (2009), Abdul Rahman Embong (2112), Muhammad Abu Bakar (ed), (2018).

  19. 19.

    Among the positive reviews of the book, see especially those by John Gullick (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 18, 2, 1987, 335–337) and Carl Trocki (Journal of Asian Studies, 46, 1, 1987, 220–221). See also my review: Milner (1986). ‘Capitalism, the dominant classes and the peasantry in Trengganu: a review article’, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Studies, 20, 1, 1986, 129–140.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Anthony Milner

  2. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Anthony Milner

  3. University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Anthony Milner

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  1. Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Rajah Rasiah

  2. Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Azirah Hashim

  3. Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Jatswan S. Sidhu

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Milner, A. (2021). Analysing Pre-modern Malay Political Systems: From Raffles to Shaharil Talib. In: Rasiah, R., Hashim, A., Sidhu, J.S. (eds) Contesting Malaysia’s Integration into the World Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0650-2_5

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