student activism in malaysia

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The Journal of Asian Studieshttp://journals.cambridge.org/JAS

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Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow. By Meredith L. Weiss.Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast Asia Program,Cornell University, 2011. x, 302 pp. \$46.95 (cloth); \$23.95 (paper).

Cheong Soon Gan

The Journal of Asian Studies / Volume 72 / Issue 03 / August 2013, pp 752 - 753

DOI: 10.1017/S0021911813001058, Published online: 19 September 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021911813001058

How to cite this article:Cheong Soon Gan (2013). The Journal of Asian Studies, 72, pp 752-753 doi:10.1017/S0021911813001058

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Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow. By MEREDITH L.WEISS. Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast AsiaProgram, Cornell University, 2011. x, 302 pp. $46.95 (cloth); $23.95 (paper).doi:10.1017/S0021911813001058

InStudent Activism in Malaysia, Meredith Weiss seeks to explore student politicalactivism on university campuses as a distinctive genre of social movement, and . . . toexamine the political impacts and externalities of student activism in Malaysia (p. 3).In the process, she fills a critical gap in Malaysian history and offers a useful approachto understanding similar movements in Southeast Asia.

Weiss begins her study with a careful consideration of the category of student,which, in the context of political activism, mainly refers to university students.However, membership in the category goes beyond enrollment in a tertiary institution;a student in this sense is one with an embedded sense of collective agency (p. 3).Student activism takes place within a campus ecologya unique physical and social

environment that structures the flow of ideas, the nature of collaboration, and theforms of organization in ways that produce a distinct form of youth or social movement.Weiss argues, convincingly, that the Malaysian case adds to the broader scholarship ofsocial movements because student activism there is broad and diverse; has to grapplewith persistent ethno-religious cleavages; has developed in distinct phases, thereforelending itself to fruitful comparisons; and has spanned a manageable time frame.

The following chapters describe five periods of student activism from the 1950s untilthe present. These include a pre-independence phase (before 1957); the early years ofself-rule (195766); the peak of student activism in Malaysia from 1967 to 1974, aperiod that coincided with widespread and epoch-making student protests across the

world; the governments vigorous response to these protests from 1975 to 1998, inwhich the state successfully curbed the wings of student activists through a sustainedpolicy of intellectual containment; and, finally, the tentative revitalization of campus acti-vism since the late 1990s, and the states swift response to any possibility of a resurgentstudent movement. The details of these successive phases are sourced from a wide rangeof primary materials, an exhaustive reading of secondary scholarship, as well as interviewswith many key participants of the various phases of activism. Weiss cautions that oralhistory can favor those willing to speak on the record, but she mitigates any potentialimbalance by contextualizing these memories with published records and expertlydeploying them when the written archive is silent.

This comprehensive narrative of student political activism is significant in itself, andjustifies the project, as it fills an important gap in Malaysian history. Yet this history alsoilluminates the broader narrative of a nascent postcolonial state grappling with thegrowing pains of nationalism and the meaning of the nation. The issues that preoccupy,unite (or divide), and drive student activism forwardclass, language, economic oppor-tunity, and, above all, ethnicity and religionare those that have gripped the nation sincethe hoisting of a flag and the singing of an anthem in 1957. By weaving the two narrativestogether, Weiss clearly shows the significance of student activism in driving the debateover the soul and shape of the nation. At the same time, this is not solely a nationalstudy: Weiss also consistently situates her subject within the Southeast Asian context,

comparing Malaysia to the more robust student activists and movements of Thailandand Indonesia to draw out nuances in objectives, organization, and outcomes.

Weisss disciplined focus on the political dimensions of student activismhow stu-dents interpret their political status, choose their targets, find allies, build legitimacy, getriled up, decide when to act, mobilize others, whether allies or opponents(p. 33)is

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admirable in the breadth of its coverage, but there are other aspects of student mobiliz-ation that are not overtly political but have significant political impact, and these warrantmore study. For instance, during the period after the heyday of student activism, the gov-ernments relative success in intellectual containment forced certain Chinese and Indian

groups to devote more energy to safer, nonreligious

parapolitical outlets

(p. 216). Amore sustained examination of, say, New Era College students or the University ofMalaya Chinese Language Societys nonpoliticalcultural activities would have providedan interesting counterweight to Weisss thorough treatment of the PBMUM (Universityof Malaya Malay Language Society). Another aspect worth exploring is the impact ofnon-student-organized events (particularly films, plays, talks, and other performances)on the campus ecology that fashioned activism. For instance, the University ofMalayas Experimental Theatre witnessed many of these events through the years, includ-ing Kee Thuan Chyes searing political satire,1984 Here and Now, which premiered oncampus in 1985 to much excitement among students, due in no small part to nightly

speculation about whether the police would shut the performance down.These are less critiques ofStudent Activism in Malaysiabut more an identification ofpaths that build on Weisss important work. Readers interested in Malaysian and South-east Asian studies, as well as social movements, will be indebted to her theoreticallyinformed and historically expansive treatment of student political activism in Malaysia.

CHEONGSOONGANUniversity of Wisconsin-Superior

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Book ReviewsSoutheast Asia 753
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