Rationality and Politics
By Farish A. Noor
It would be too difficult and lengthy for us to discuss the import of the term Modernity and what it entails, suffice to say that one of its hallmarks is the primacy it gives to reason and the capacity of human beings to make rational choices in their lives.
This is particularly so in the context of so many postcolonial developing countries today, where the term modern postcolonial state is used in the most glib and casual manner by academics and laymen alike. But are these societies truly modern, and if not, how would be classify them?
Events in Malaysia of late have given some of us reason to deliberate over the meaning of modernity and to raise the question of whether Malaysia is a modern state at all. True, the modern framework of the nation-state is there: Malaysia, as it was formed and shaped during the colonial era was given clearly defined borders and boundaries. The various treaties that were signed between the British, Dutch, Thai and French authorities then demarcated the frontiers of Malaysia as we know it today; and by doing so also severed many of the long-held traditional connections and relations that the Malaysian Peninsula once had with Sumatra (now part of Indonesia) and the Malay-Muslim kingdoms of Patani, Jala, Narathiwat and Satun (now part of Thailand). The country inherited a constitution, a Parliamentary system (lately installed, one might add), a legal system, a police force and security forces, etc.
Today of course Malaysia prides itself with its various accoutrements of modernity- though it would be more correct to say that as far as the epiphenomena of modernity is concerned we are more a superficially developed nation than anything else. Malaysians talk about their twin towers, their tall buildings, their shopping malls, their long bridged and flagpoles in a celebration of phallic excess as never before.
