Intellectuals in Developing Societies -  Syed Hussein Alatas 

Author: Syed Hussein Alatas
Publisher: Gerak Budaya
ISBN: 9789670076348
Weight: 
Pages: 
Year: 2024
Price: RM45

Intellectuals in Developing Societies was first published in 1977, alongside The Myth of the Lazy Native. It was written after Syed Hussein Alatas’ withdrawal from active politics. Alatas’ experience as the national chairperson of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia and presence in the Senate in brought him face-to-face with problems that were largely the result of the kind of elites ruling the country. Intellectuals flourish during times of crisis; but in periods of relative calm, they must form a community, without which there will not be conscious and intelligent solutions to the problems faced by developing societies. These problems must be met by intellectual justice, not with the exploitative ignorance of the fools. Only after the emergence of such a community can the developing societies of our world escape the clutches of the fools and chart their own course.

Syed Hussein Alatas was born in Bogor, West Java, in 1928. He received his primary education in Johor Bahru. Due to the interruption caused by World War II, he returned to be with his parents in Sukabumi, West Java, but later returned to Malaya to resume his studies. His ties with Indonesia led to the option of pursuing higher degrees at the University of Amsterdam, where he became exposed to works in the social sciences and humanities outside of the Anglo-Saxon world. Alatas received his PhD from the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences in 1963, and returned to Malaysia as a lecturer at the Department of Malay Studies at the University of Malaya (UM). He then founded and served as professor and head of the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore from 1967, before taking up the position of vice-chancellor of UM from 1988 to 1991. Alatas’ major works deal with the critique of colonial knowledge, the sociology of corruption, the study of modernisation and development, historiography of the Malay world, and the study of Muslim reformist thought. Underlying all his works was the concern with the problem of intellectual imperialism, mental captivity, and the lack of a functioning group of intellectuals in the Third World. He was committed to the idea of an autonomous social science tradition. He also promoted the idea that certain forms of socialism were in line with the worldview of Islam. Syed Hussein Alatas’ last position was professor and principal research fellow at the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation, National University of Malaysia. Alatas passed away on January 23, 2007, at his home in Kuala Lumpur.