Table of Contents

Introduction: colonialism, nationalism and contest; 1. The ancien regime: described and condemned; 2. Establishing a liberal critique; 3. A description of the real world: expanding vocabularies; 4. Conceptualizing a Bangsa community: a newspaper of moderate opinions; 5. Building a bourgeois public sphere; 6. Ideological challenge on a second front: The Kerajaan in contest with Islam; 7. Answering liberalism: Islamic first moves; 8. Kerajaan self-reform: chronicling a new Sultanate; 9. Practising politics in the mid-colonial period; 10. Surveying the homeland; Sedar and dialogic processes; Conclusion: the Malay political heritage.

Promotional Information

This book, first published in 1995, is a study of political debate in this important Southeast Asian society.

Reviews

'This magnificent book is certainly essential reading for Malaysianists and Malaysians interested in the intrigues and mystique of Malay politics, in the past and at present.' A. B. Shamsul, Asian Studies Review 'The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya is a model of its kind and will undoubtedly become a landmark in Malaysian studies.' William R. Roff, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies ' ... unusual, detailed and original book .' Asian Affairs