Malaysian Landscape Research Articles

More Talk than Walk? UMNO, “New Politics” and Legitimation in Contemporary Malaysia

The aftermath of the 2008 general election saw a series of upheavals occur in the Malaysian political landscape, not least of which was the emergence of a so-called “new politics.” Driven primarily by concerns over issues of public governance, this politics contained a set of interrelated questions involving changing notions of legitimate political authority. Although much has already been written about whether or not the post-2008 changes to Malaysia's socio-political terrain are genuine and enduring, I argue that many such analyses are too narrow in scope and fail to adequately recognise the complexity involved in such social realities. By distinguishing between the images and practices of the Malaysian state, this article aims to highlight the dynamic, contingent and contested nature of processes of legitimation. A detailed investigation of the consensus/dissensus surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak's concept of 1Malaysia as the basis of a collective national identity reveals a more fundamental contestation occurring within contemporary Malaysian politics and society over the source(s) of political and moral legitimacy. While the opposition's challenge to Najib's administration remains formidable, of more pressing concern to Najib might be the objections arising from within his own party over the direction in which he is taking them. To define the present horizon of socio-political possibilities in Malaysia it is not enough, therefore, to simply explain how legitimation occurs; we must also be able to account for the way(s) in which it can occur.

The Importance of Concept in the Landscape Design Process in Malaysia

Proper designs usually come from a sound concept, though some of Malaysian landscape design projects are carried out by disregarding its conceptual development. Therefore, concepts are not well defined and well-tied to their site context which results in the final design products are rendered useless and misused. Although there are several models by Motloch (2001), Milburn and Brown (2003), and Faizi and Khakzand (2007) which show the process of design, there isn’t any practical study that determines the way of considering this process in Malaysian landscape designers. The sample size for this study consists of eight professionals with more than 10 years of working experience. The researcher used in-depth interviews and focus groups to collect data from selected respondents who were chosen from Malaysian professional landscape designers through purposeful sampling. The participants were asked to draw a diagram, which is the preferable way for designers to present their thoughts. The Malaysian landscape designers’ understanding about the concept and its interaction with the influential factors such as social-cultural aspect, aesthetic, art and material in the landscape design process are investigated, through analyzing the sketches which are drawn by the respondents. In addition, the probable limitations which designer has to deal with are recognized through comparing the Malaysian landscape designers’ sketches with previous presented models. This study explores landscape designers understanding of importance and position of design concept in the landscape design process through analyzing its different steps. The output of the study aims to theoretically and practically enhance the position and importance of the design concept in the landscape design process. Correspondingly, more admirable, successful, and meaningful landscape designs will be resulted through considering the provided concept development model for being applied in landscape design process.

Design Concept: A Displaced Anecdote in the Landscape Architectural Design Process

In the landscape architecture design process, “concept” is important for providing uniqueness to a design. However, many landscape designers today do not rely on a well-defined concept, thus obstructing the development of their designs. This study aimed to identify the problems that Malaysian landscape designers face in developing a strong design concept. To address this issue, in-depth and focus group interviews were conducted by guiding the participants through a conceptual thinking procedure in which eighteen participants took part. The respondents were chosen among Malaysian professional landscape designers through purposeful sampling. Results indicated that most Malaysian landscape designers neglect the post- design evaluation stage, which obstructs the development of a strong concept for subsequent landscape designs. The results aim to contribute to a better understanding of the importance of design concept and the factors that contribute to its development among Malaysian landscape designers.

Urban geography as pretext: Sociocultural landscapes of Kuala Lumpur in independent Malaysian films

Current independent filmmaking in Malaysia has the potential to be an alternative and viable space for creative and political expression, relative to mainstream national cinema (Malay cinema) and to the state. I focus on alternative imagery and sociocultural mappings of Kuala Lumpur in three ‘indie’ films. All three films contain documentary elements capturing social geographies of the city not represented in mainstream Malay cinema, or even if represented not subjected to a critical gaze by the filmmaker. The Big Durian centres on the perspectives of the city's urban middle class of all ethnicities; Bukak Api portrays the daily struggles of Malay transsexual sex workers in Chow Kit, a predominantly working-class Chinese neighbourhood and red light district; and 18? highlights the opinions of the nongovernmental organization community, bohemians, artists, anarchists and media activists mostly in the cosmopolitan suburb of Bangsar. These representations of the Malaysian urban landscape are pretexts for and politicize the national landscape through a discussion of ethnicity and race politics, sexuality, and the lack of space for freedom of creative expression and critical thinking.

Exigency or expediency? Contextualising political Islam and the pas challenge in Malaysian politics

Few would disagree that Islam has become a major force in Malaysian politics. Be that as it may, scholarship on political Islam in Malaysia has mostly centred on detailing the umno–pas confrontation. While it is important to understand the depths of this phenomenon of politicised Islam, it is equally vital that attempts be made to relate it to broader socio-political tectonics in the complex Malaysian landscape in order to better appreciate the nature and trajectory of the politicisation of Islam in Malaysia. Focusing on pas as the institutional manifestation of politicised Islam in Malaysia, this paper advances two arguments. First, pas has been successful insofar as it has managed to relate Islam to the pressing issues of the day. Second, the best electoral performances turned in by pas have all coincided with problems with umno and the broader coalition. Islam then, appears to be less vital to the politics of pas than is widely perceived.

Malay Dominance and Opposition Politics in Malaysia

On 2 September 1998, almost a year after the financial meltdown afflicted the Southeast Asian region, the economic fallout in Malaysia became intertwined with a political crisis when Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from his posts as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. A day later, he was also voted out of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). From 5 September until his arrest on 20 September, Anwar took the initiative to go on the political offensive. He launched a Malaysian version of the Indonesian reformasi, organizing and leading a series of hugely popular meetings renouncing korupsi, kronyisma, and nepotisma (corruption, cronyism, and nepotism, or KKN), among other things, and demanding the resignation of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister. Earlier on the day that he was arrested, Anwar led a huge demonstration, estimated to have gathered between 35,000 to 100,000 people, in Kuala Lumpur. Even after his arrest on 20 September 1998, regular street demonstrations persisted such that they became a feature of the Malaysian political landscape.1 That Malays constituted by far the overwhelming majority of those who participated in the demonstrations was indicative of the deep split in the community arising from the Mahathir-Anwar break-up. The full impact of the split in the community was evidently felt in the November 1999 general election. Although the Barisan Nasional (BN, or National Front) retained its two-thirds majority, UMNO suffered a dramatic setback as it lost considerable Malay support.2 One reason why UMNO fared poorly in the election was that, for the first time, the disparate opposing forces managed to unite to form a single opposition party, the Barisan Alternatif ( A, or Alternative Front) ,3 to challenge the BN. The formation of BA and its performance in the 1999 election gave hope that Malaysian politics might finally move beyond the BN's brand of ethnic politicking. The large Malay vote for the opposition was interpreted as signifying a move away from the ethnic-based issues to that of the reformaste universal ones,4 for example, human rights, environmental degradations, eradicating KKN, independence of the judiciary, and so on. The reformaste universal issues,

Dancing in the Fire: Ritually Constructing Hindu Identity in a Malaysian Landscape

Hindus have been a part of the plural society of Malaysia since colonial times. Imported by the British to work on rubber plantations and to build railroads, Hindus transplanted both great tradition and little tradition practices to their new homeland. National cultural policies and local competition for social power among diverse Hindu groups places pressure on the salience of specific manifestations of Hindu culture, particularly on the form and function of temples and the performance of public rituals. Local context and the ambiance of particular landscapes situate specific acts of resistance and resolution in the forms of Sanskritization and parochialization. Thus Hindu communities in Pulau Pinang contest and recapture their interpretation of Hinduism through the renovations of temples and an annual festival that draws upon symbolic acts of both little tradition ritual performance and the Sanskritized temple so essential to their historical and contemporary identity as Hindus in Malaysia.