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This text contains an examination of processes of cultural citizenship in peninsular Malaysia. ... Read more

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This study considers how localizing the integration of rights, cultures, and religion challenges the universality and secularization of the rights discourse and practice globally; the extent to which this bridges the disparity between the rhetoric and implementation of women's human rights in global and local contexts; and the embodiment of an Asian-Malaysian feminist standpoint epistemology that has the potential to reconcile the impasse of universal versus cultural relativism of rights. It offers a solution to the impasse of universalism versus relativism of rights in the rhetoric and practice of women's human rights. ... Read more

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'I have read the draft of this book sent to me by the editor. Afterreading this draft, I do think this book is valuable and timely. Itdiscusses the contemporary issues that have worried many people in the present world: terrorism, human rights, Islamic radicalism and theproblem of identity in the Singaporean capitalism. These issues are notdiscussed in the theoretical/abstract way (it also doesn't meant thattheories are not discussed at all), but in the context of variousconcrete societies.The book deals with one of the above issues in Malaysia, Singapore andIndonesia (Aceh and Sumenep in Madura). Each issue is written by a different author that has studied the issue thoroughly. So, the book isa collection of research done by specialists of these issues.Two essays on Southeast Asia (one on health and the other on humansecurity) give the general picture of this region, acting as a broad introduction of the chapters that follow.Each chapter has been written professionally and the readers will learnmany things from each of them. One has to read the chapter in order toreally appreciate them. Therefore I really recommend that this manuscript to be published as a book in order to get a large audience.One shortcoming though, this book deals with three countries only(Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia), albeit these three are theimportant countries in the region. Other important Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Burma are not discussed individually.With the omission of these countries, it thus can be argued whether thisbook can represent the Southeast Asian region?Also in dealing with Indonesia, the chapters talk on sub-national level,namely on Aceh province and a peripheral city Sumenep in the island ofMadura, East Java, while Malaysia and Singapore are dealt on the levelof nation state.To conclude, even with these shortcomings, this book is still valuable.Therefore I would like to recommend it be published.'Melbourne, 20 June 2007 Arief Budiman, Foundation Professor of Indonesian, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne, Australia ... Read more

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This book explores the formation and the ethnic development of these assimilated Chinese besides addressing their ethnicity/identity and culture. A linguistic analysis of the mother tongue of these unique Chinese with their sociolinguistic history forms a substantial portion of the book. It has detail discussion of the varieties of the language and borrowings of the local Malay dialect, local Thai language and standard or mainstream Hokkien as spoken in the state of Kelantan. It illustrates clearly the communication patterns and discourse organization of their interaction with the wider society. This is a comprehensive study of the language and linguistic behavior of the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese community in Malaysia, a group who has assimilated extensively to the Kelantanese rural Malays, and to some extent to the Kelantan Thai community, culturally as well as linguistically. ... Read more

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A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette in Borneo

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This digital document is an article from Oceania, published by University of Sydney on September 1, 1995. The length of the article is 5003 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia. (book reviews)
Author: Sanjay Srivastava
Publication: Oceania (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1995
Publisher: University of Sydney
Volume: v66Issue: n1Page: p62(8)

Article Type: Book Review

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How do Islamic courts work? What sorts of cultural understandings inform judicial process and litigants' strategies? How do women's claims fare? Do these courts promote social tolerance? And how do states use them to consolidate power, build nations, and shape a modern citizenry? These are among the questions addressed in this book, which not only enhances our understanding of diversity among and within the world's Muslim communities, but also provides ethnographic, historical, and transnational perspectives on contemporary Islam in the shifting landscape of a strategically important region of the world.

Focusing on Malaysia, which has sustained more rapid development than probably any other Muslim nation, Michael Peletz explores the culture, political economy, and history of Islamic courts. He demonstrates that they are centrally involved in the creation and policing of new Malay-Muslim identities (such as middle-class urban dwellers) that the state sees as the basis for a national polity that will be highly competitive. He also shows how and why Islamic courts are key sites in struggles involving ethnic and religious groups, social classes, political parties, and others with a major stake in defining Islam's role with respect to the maintenance of sovereignty and the achievement of modernity and civil society in an age of globalization.

Peletz deepens our knowledge of Islamic political development in a country very much concerned with forging an Islamic modernity viewed by its leaders as a viable alternative to Western-style modernization. ... Read more

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Fascinating documentation of cases, less helpful analysis
Since 9/11, Islamic law has gained an unfair reputation for being medieval and repressive. Certainly, there are occasional high-profile cases that seem disturbing according to modern notions of human rights (stoning in Iran for instance). Yet, many non-Muslims lack a firm grasp of how Islamic Courts actually operate on a regular basis. In Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia Professor Michael Peletz, who conducted fieldwork in Malaysia during the 1980s, provides synopses and transcripts of several cases in the Islamic Court in Rembau. He argues that, far from being repressive, Islamic Courts in fact tend to resemble arbitration and family counseling.

As a record of the types of cases in the docket of the Islamic Court of Rembau, Islamic Modern is invaluable. The book - and Peletz's commentary - really conveys a sense of how Islamic courts operate on a daily basis. Almost all of the cases dealt with actions for divorce - from the husband who wants a second wife to the wife who abandons her lazy husband. Surprisingly, females were more likely to initiate litigation than males. Indeed, I was surprised how often the Kadi (judge) permitted the wife's petition for divorce and how often he stressed the husband's responsibility in marriage. Furthermore, by treating marriage as a contractual obligation between individuals, Peletz argues that Islamic Courts are modernizing Malay identity slowly eroding customary familial and kin linkages (hence the title "Islamic Modern").

Beyond the actually cases, I found Islamic Modern unfortunately lacking. First, the cases Peletz summarizes deal almost exclusively with divorce. I understand that marital actions probably do comprise a large portion of the docket of most Islamic Courts (as statistics on pages 156-59 suggest). However, it would have been useful to learn more about how Islamic Courts handle other areas of the law - especially because several Malaysian apostasy cases, such as "Lina Joy," have received so much international attention. In fact, Peletz spends much of the last third of the book discussing gender and homosexuality in Malaysia. This is an important discussion, but seems only tangentially related to the courts.

At the end of the day, Peletz, an anthropologist by training, focuses more on the individual cases and concepts of human culture (he uses the word "symbol" quite a bit). As such, Islamic Modern excels when discussing gender relations, but almost ignores the courts as political institutions. After reading the book, I learned very little about the jurisdiction of these courts, their relationship to the secular courts, or even the tenure of Kadi judges - all of which seem to be hot issues in the field of Shari'ah law in Malaysia. I do hope Peletz's future research explores these issues in a bit more depth. In the meantime, if you have any interest in Islamic law, I highly suggest reading at least the discussion of the cases in Islamic Modern. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3790 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Intended to provide a comprehensive description of the enterprise of education both within the United States and throughout the world. Articles offer a view of the institutions, people, processes, and products found in educational practice. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Contemporary Southeast Asia, published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) on December 1, 1998. The length of the article is 7652 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: In the aftermath of the Cold War, the security literature has increasingly become focused on problems within states. This has led a number of scholars to apply ideas traditionally associated with international security to internal security issues. One such case concerns the application of the security dilemma to ethnic tensions. This article considers this application with reference to Malaysia and argues that not only can the security dilemma be applied, but that the coalition regime and the notion of Bangsa Malaysia represent the types of power-sharing and ethnic reconstruction which can mitigate and ultimately escape the security dilemma.

Citation Details
Title: The ethnic security dilemma: evidence from Malaysia.
Author: Alan Collins
Publication: Contemporary Southeast Asia (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1998
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
Issue: 20Page: 261(1)

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A major contribution to South East Asian studies literature
This volume on culture and politics in Southeast Asia contests the essentialist argument that culture is something derived from the past and hence unchanging. ... Read more