Seminar Talk by Professor Dr OOI Keat Gin
The Cold War in Malaysia - A Longer Trajectory, c. 1920s-1990s
DATE: Thursday, 12 December 2019
TIME: 2:30 pm
VENUE: G21.B, Academy of Brunei Studies, UBD
Abstract
In adopting a longue durée approach of the Cold War (1947-1990), offers a wider and deeper comprehension of external influences and impacts on local, internal developments. In taking the viewpoint in the context of Malaya/Malaysia that the Cold War was not only a post-war spectacle but also could be traced back to the 1920s and 1930s and beyond the 1990s presents a refreshing look on this global phenomenon. It shall be argued that the British colonial administration in Malaya, the Brooke Raj in Sarawak, and the Company administrators in North Borneo had as early as the 1920s and through the 1930s had presented an anti-communist stance, hence had clearly drawn the line between the Left and the Right, favouring the latter from the beginning. Utilizing Malaya/Malaysia as a case study of stretching the conventional Cold War period of between 1947 and 1990 on either end of the timeline might set the agenda for other nation states and/or regions to follow suit hence further enriching our understanding of the influence and impact of this global phenomenon.
After the main talk, Professor Ooi will then give a shorter talk about his forthcoming edited book on Borneo and Sulawesi that is a Festschrift for Professor V.T. King, a leading scholar in the field of Southeast Asian studies.
