The Social Sciences in Malaysia: A Critical Scenario

Abstract

Any discussion o f the "senario" and current situation o f the social sciences* in Malaysia must give particular attention not only to the historical within that historical context, a number o fepistemologicalproblems that have constrained their growth. The primary focus of the present discussion is upon certain inherent weaknesses in our own local intellectual and social science research tradition in Malaysia. Why fundamentally, has the development o f our social sciences been so deformed and stunted that they have failed to yield any critical thinkingor conceptual approach commensurate with theproblems that confront them and our nation as a whole? Basic to any explanation must be the altogether shallow cultural and intellectual legacy that was left to Malaysia by British colonial rule. The formation of this paltry scholarly and intellectual tradition was also shaped by some features of our post- independence social and cultural situation. The cultivation within our society of an intellectual orientation that has encouraged the mere borrowing and transplantation of existing (and often, even where they originated, quite mediocre) Western social scientific approaches and practices has been a notable problem. Entirely lacking in this process of mere imitation and replication has been any creative adaptation or modification of these borrowed, and generally inappropriate, models and paradigms; any critical questioning of their presuppositions and appropriateness to our own circumstances; any effort to create a vital and, in local terms, culturally authentic intellectual and philosophical tradition. This narrowly limited vision is not only attributable to the intellectually attenuated cultural legacy that colonialism bequeathed in Malaysia; it is also the result ofafailure to create and sustain any progressive intellectual tradition in our own time. Further inhibiting the emergence o f such a progressive or critical orientation has been the increasing pressure and worldwide intellectual ascendancy exerted throughout the 1980s by neoclassical economic rationalism. But in addition to the marginalization and even "colonization" of large areas of broad sociological and philosophical concern by this narrow materialist economism, the other social sciences have also been afflicted by various "internal"problems of their own: not merely the setting of their long-term intellectual agendas and priorities by short-term, even immediate, policy demands and considerations but also the increasing isolation and divergence from one another o f these various social science disciplines. The intellectual compartmentalization and fragmentation broughtabout by their theoretical specialization have thwarted the development of any unified, totalizing, and progressive social science.

ABSTRAK

Sesuatu perbincangan tentang senario dan keadaan ilmu sosial kini di Malaysia tentu sekali memerlukan penelitian khusus bukan sahaja terhadap sejarah dan perkembangan disiplin-disiplinnya tetapi juga satu analisis terhadap beberapa masalah epistemologis yang menghambatnya. Dalam kertas kerja ini, fokus utamanya adalah kepada kelemahan pengajian, dan satu persoalan yang kami bangkitkan adalah mengapa perkembangan ilmu sosial di negara ini begitu tergugat sehingga tidak terhasil pemikiran yang kritis serta pendekatan yang sejajar dengan tuntutan masalah-masalah sosial yang dihadapi. Huraian yang diberi berteraskan kepada satu penilaian terhadap dampak pemerintahan Kolonial Inggeris yang boleh dianggap meninggalkan satu warisan budaya ilmu dan keintelektualan yang amat cetek. Kemunculan tradisi ilmu dan intelektual yang tidak tuntas itu pula dihambatoleh beberapa masalah sosial dan budaya yang timbul dalam zaman selepas kemerdekaan. Antara masalah itu adalah budaya ilmu yang telah tertanam dalam masyarakat kita, yang hanya menggalakkan penerapan ilmu sosial dari Barat tanpa penyesuaian kreatif persoalan kritis dan daya melahirkan filsafat dan orientasi ilmu yang tulen, kukuh lagi sejajar dengan keadaan tempatan. Pandang alam yang agak tersekat ini bukan sahaja disebabkan oleh warisan budaya ilmu kolonial yang lemah tetapi juga disebabkan oleh tidak timbul dan hidupnya satu tradisi intelektual yang progresif pada zaman ini. Tambahan pula, tuntutan ekonomi moden yang kini rata-rata mencirikan suasana sedunia sejak awal dekad 80an melahirkan satu sikap materi yang kurang menitikberatkan pengembangan ilmu dan ideologi progresif. Selaras dengan itu, ilmu sosial sendiri menghadapi masalah-masalah "dalamannya" yang tersendiri: antaranya pengasingan antara-disiplin yang mengkotak-kotakan interpretasi konseptual masalah-masalah sosial yang dikaji, dan dengan itu membenteras kelahiran penyatuan ilmu sosial baru.