Southeast Asia. Questioning modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia Edited by Wendy Mee and Joel Kahn Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press with Kyoto University Press, 2012. Pp. 257. Index.

Abstract

Questioning modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia Edited by WENDY MEE and JOEL KAHN Singapore and Kyoto; NUS Press with Kyoto University Press, 2012. Pp. 257. Index. Modernity as a foundational analytic concept has so far received inadequate attention in Southeast Asian Studies. This collection of essays is a long overdue reiteration of efforts to rethink the concept of modernity, particularly in relation to Indonesia and Malaysia. It offers fascinating case studies that demonstrate the complexity of the notion of the modern. The themes highlighted in this multi-author volume include the deep cultural roots of many contemporary developments; the intercivilisational foundations of modernity (as opposed to being of purely Western origin); the emphasis on the darker side of modernity (as opposed to the tendency to celebrate its progressive aspirations); and the importance of ethnographic and phenomenological views. It is no accident that these themes are germane to co-editor Joel Kahn's earlier works (Constituting the Minangkabau: Peasants, culture, and modernity in colonial Indonesia, 1993; Culture, multiculture, postculture, 1995; Modernity and exclusion, 2001; Other Malays: Nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the modern Malay world, 2006), and that the contributors are his close associates and former students. The introductory chapter is persuasively argued. It is admirable for its clear exposition, cogent argumentation, strong empirical support and theoretical and conceptual sophistication. Echoing the idea popularised by Bruno Latour (We have never been modern, 1993), that even the West did not live up to the conceptual definition and normative expectations of the modern, this chapter suggests that the persistent East/West divide misleads, and the sense of a 'modernity deficit' that unduly pressures many countries to play a catch-up game with the West, often with adverse consequences, is wrong-headed and unnecessary. It insists that contemporary developments in Asia are 'fully modern' (p. 1). The editors also assert that modernity must be understood not as an objective reality, but rather as an 'objectifying story that self-designated moderns tell about themselves and their societies' (p. 7). Kahn's chapter ('Islam and capitalism in the frontiers and borderlands of the modern Malay world') shows the intercultural or intercivilisational roots of modernity and capitalist practices in the Malay world. By highlighting the features of commercial or entrepreneurial practices of 'modernist' Muslims, it argues against the longstanding perception of Islam's incompatibility with or aversion towards capitalism and modernity. The picture that emerges is that of dynamic intermixing or interaction between the old and the new, and Western and Eastern or local elements. Goh Beng Lan's chapter ('Dilemma of progressive politics in Malaysia') offers a penetrating analysis of the manifestations and roots of the dilemma of liberal politics in Malaysia. The exposition effectively conveys the gravity and complexity of the problem as it highlights progressive politics occupying a key position in the ambiguous and problematic nature of modernity. Thung Ju-lan's piece ('Ethnicity, nation-state and citizenship among Chinese Indonesians') extends or applies a number of Kahn's ideas (Culture, multiculture, postculture, 1995) to the case of the Indonesian Chinese, particularly the 'culturalisation of everyday life' (p. 149). As in the chapters by Goh and Kahn, it shows that cultural difference cannot be outside of, or opposite to modernity, but rather it is a constituting element of modernity as clearly manifest in the state-formation process. …