Syed Hussein Alatas

Syed Hussein Alatas (September 17 1928 – January 23 2007) was a Malaysian academician and former politician. He was once Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya in the 1980s, and formed the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan). Syed Hussein wrote several books, the most famous being "The Myth of the Lazy Native".

Early life

Syed Hussein was born in Bogor, Indonesia. His grandfather, Sayyid 'Abd Allah bin Muhsin al-Attas, came from Hadhramaut and settled in Bogor. [ [http://www.opinionasia.org/article/print/184 In Memoriam: Syed Hussein Alatas - The Postcolonial Oeuvre] ] [http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/newsncom.php?itemid=2050 Syed Hussein Alatas dies] . (Jan. 24, 2007). "Malaysia Today".] Syed Hussein is the older brother of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas. [ [http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~hagha/library/attas.htm Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas] ]

Political career

Syed Hussein was among several intellectuals who formed Gerakan in 1968 as an offshoot of the defunct Labour Party. Gerakan was relatively successful in the 1969 general election, where it campaigned on a platform of social justice and the reduction or elimination of Bumiputra privileges outlined by Article 153 of the Constitution. Gerakan held a victory rally in the capital of Kuala Lumpur to celebrate. However, it deviated from its planned route into Malay areas of the city, where party members jeered at the Malays. Although an apology was issued the following day, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a major component of the ruling Alliance coalition government, held a retaliatory rally. This rally soon degenerated into outright rioting with at least 180 people killed during the subsequent riots (although other estimates put it substantially higher). As a result, a state of emergency was declared, and Parliament was suspended; it did not reconvene until 1971. [Means, Gordon P. (1991). "Malaysian Politics: The Second Generation", pp. 7 – 9. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-588988-6.]

When Gerakan joined the Alliance coalition government in 1972, Syed Hussein left to help form Pekemas (Parti Keadilan Masyarakat Malaysia, or Social Justice Party of Malaysia), based on similar principles that Gerakan had been formed on. [George, K. (2005). [http://www.aliran.com/monthly/2005a/6e.html "Champion of the downtrodden"] . Retrieved Feb. 14, 2006.] However, the party collapsed in 1978 due to massive defections to the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Academic career

Syed Hussein's academic career began at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka publishing house, where he worked as head of the research department from 1958 onwards. He began lecturing part-time in philosophy at the University of Malaya in 1960, and served as the Head of the Cultural Division at the University's Department of Malay Studies from 1963 to 1967. He served as the Head of the Department of Malay Studies in the National University of Singapore from 1967 to 1988, before quitting to form Gerakan. He returned to academia as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya in 1988, before becoming a professor at the Centre for General Studies in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1995. He later transferred to the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1997, before becoming principal research fellow at the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation of the same university in 1999. [Ismail, Faezah. [http://www.multiworld.org/m_versity/articles/capt.htm "Intellectual captivity of freedom"] . Retrieved Feb. 20, 2006.]

Syed Hussein has authored a substantial number of books, many of them on corruption.Faezah, Ismail. [http://www.multiworld.org/m_versity/articles/lazy.htm "Revisiting 'The Myth of the Lazy Native'"] . Retrieved Feb. 19, 2006.]

"The Myth of the Lazy Native"

In 1966, Syed Hussein began pondering the question of why Western colonialists had, for four centuries, considered the natives of the Malay archipelago to be generally lazy, since Europeans had not arrived until the 17th century. His research eventually produced "The Myth of the Lazy Native", a book which was published in 1977. In the book, he cited one instance of a "denigrating" view of the natives, when a German scientist suggested that the Filipinos made their oars from bamboo so they could rest more frequently: "If they happen to break, so much the better, for the fatiguing labour of rowing must necessarily be suspended till they are mended again." Syed Hussein criticized such beliefs in the book as ranging "from vulgar fantasy and untruth to refined scholarship." He also asserted that " [t] he image of the indolent, dull, backward and treacherous native has changed into that of a dependent one requiring assistance to climb the ladder of progress".

Death

Syed Hussein died after a fall in his home on January 23 2007. The cause of death was later declared to be a heart attack. He was buried at Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery, Kuala Lumpur.

Bibliography

* Reflections on the Theories of Religion (1963)
* The Sociology of Corruption (1968)
* Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer? (1972)
* Modernization and Social Change in Southeast Asia (1972)
* Intellectuals in Developing Societies (1977)
* The Myth of the Lazy Native (1977)
* The Problem of Corruption (1986)
* Corruption: Its Nature, Causes and Functions (1990)
* "Corruption" in Oxford Companion to World Politics OUP New York (1993)
* "Social Sciences" in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World Vol 4 OUP New York (1995)
* Corruption and the Destiny of Asia (1999)
* Cita Sempurna Warisan Sejarah (2000) [Fernandes, Bruno [http://www.desclasificacion.org/PDF/bruno.pdf "Compte-rendu analytique et extraits de l'ouvrage"] Review in French and Malaysian, in the "Anales de desclasificación". Retrieved June. 10, 2006.]

Notes and references

Further reading

* [http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/destination/syed%20alatas%20mansion.html Syed Alatas Mansion]
* [http://www.tourismpenang.gov.my/page.cfm?name=ht02a_03 Tourism Penang]
* [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/25/nation/16670172&sec=nation Scores pay last respects to Syed Hussein]