History of the Malaysia Society

By the early 1970s Australia was moving towards a closer engagement with Asia.This was reflected in growing numbers of courses on the region at tertiary institutions, attracting an inflow of scholars from overseas to join Australians who had pioneered Asian studies in the 1950s and 60s at centres such as Monash University and the Australian National University.

In 1974 Sydney University established a Centre for Asian Studies to involve scholars across a wide range of disciplines; the humanities, social and medical sciences etc. This development was mirrored at other universities and coalesced into a drive to set up an institution at national level, leading to the formation in 1976 of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). An inaugural conference was held in Melbourne in that year, with subsequent meetings to take place in alternate years.

The academic programme in Melbourne allowed for panels focussing on individual countries and regions, but the strong contingent of Malaysianists who attended felt that a specialist grouping could further serve their particular interests. We were fortunate to have among us several people with notable talents for organisation to help us focus our efforts. The outcome was a meeting on 6th March 1977, originally arranged by Peter Drake at the University of New England, Armidale, but for administrative reasons (caused by an airline strike) transferred to Griffith University, Brisbane, at the invitation of Jim Jackson. The meeting decided to establish a Malaysia Society ‘as a focal point for scholarly contact and communication … and [to] represent the interests of Malaysian Studies in Australia’ (Minutes of meeting). Martin Rudner (Hebrew University of Jerusalem on attachment to ANU) was elected as the first Chairman, and an Executive Committee appointed. A second major decision was to seek affiliation with ASAA, the first ‘country’ association to do so. This was accepted under Article 8 of the ASAA’s constitution. Initially membership of the Malaysia Society was available only to those who were paid-up members of ASAA. Later, in 1988, a category of associate membership was adopted to cater primarily for scholars of Malaysia not normally resident in Australia.

It was further decided that the Society’s principal scholarly activity would take the form of a colloquium, to be held in alternate years to avoid overlapping with the ASAA conference, at which researchers could present papers on work in progress. However, panels on Malaysia would continue to be organised at the ASAA conferences, at which time the Society’s business meeting and elections for offices would also be held.
For the first three years the Society operated without a membership fee, relying on support from ASAA and the institutions of members. In 1980/1 a $3 annual fee was adopted, remaining at this level until 1987 when it was raised to $5 and subsequently to $10 in 1996 where it now stands.

The Society’s first colloquium was held at Griffith University, Brisbane, concurrently with the formation meeting just mentioned. The theme was ‘Issues in Malaysian Development’, which attracted a substantial number of papers of which all but one dealt with Peninsular Malaysia. These were subsequently revised under the editorship of Martin Rudner and Jim Jackson (who had an untimely death at the early age of 43 just before publication) and appeared under the above title as No.3 in the newly commenced Southeast Asia Publications Series of ASAA.

The second ASAA National conference was held in Sydney at UNSW in May 1978. The Society mounted a major social and cultural programme along with the Malaysian panels, which were enhanced by the attendance of a strong contingent of scholars from Malaysia/Singapore including Khoo Kay Kim, Cheah Boon Kheng (then a doctoral student at ANU), Stephen Leong, Wong Lin Ken and Tham Seong Chee. A highly successful dinner was held at a nearby Malaysian restaurant attended by Dr Awang bin Hassan, High Commissioner for Malaysia in Australia who gave an address welcoming the society’s formation.

The Second Colloquium went north again to James Cook University, Townsville, at Philip Courtenay’s invitation, the theme chosen for this occasion being ‘Change in Rural Malaysia’. Attendance was good once again, and included Charles Hirschman, a leading demographer (then at Duke University, USA). Full sets of the papers were presented to the institutions of the participants, and several were published in Kabar Seberang, the journal of the JCU Center for South-east Asian Studies.This occasion was memorable too for the post-colloquium trip organised by Philip Courtenay to the Atherton tableland which, among other things took us to a delightful French restaurant in rural north Queensland – a mystery trip par excellence! John Drabble, who had been acting Chairman of the Society following Jim Jackson’s death, was confirmed in the position until the next general meeting.

This took place concurrently with the ASAA National Conference at Griffith University, Brisbane, in August 1980 and again included a vigorous social programme. Once more the Malaysian High Commissioner attended, and was presented with a copy of Issues in Malaysian Development. A buffet supper had a combination of food from a local Malaysian takeaway, and some dishes prepared under rather confined conditions by Irene Drabble and Joan Drake! At the Business Meeting John Drabble stepped down, and was succeeded as Chairperson by Philip Courtenay.

For the Third Colloquium in August 1981 the Society travelled to Adelaide where Peter Burns was in charge of arrangements. No particular theme was chosen, but some fourteen papers reviewed the current state of Malaysian studies, and members’ research projects. K.S. Jomo (newly arrived at Universiti Malaya) was the main attendee from overseas.

The Fourth Colloquium (1983) was to have been in Melbourne, but unfortunately there was no one locally available at that time to undertake the arrangements. This is the only ‘date’ missed in the Society’s existence so far.
For the Fifth Colloquium (1985) we moved to Canberra where the Society had strong representation at the ANU , University of Canberra and National Library. The theme on this occasion was ‘Malaysian social history’, which attracted a wide-ranging selection of papers, and two participants from Malaysia – Amarjit Kaur (Universiti Malaya) and Loh Kok Wah (Universiti Sains Malaysia), then at Monash. These papers became the basis of the Society’s second major publication, The Underside of Malaysian History, edited by Peter Rimmer and Lisa Allen.

With the Sixth Colloquium (1987) in view Philip Courtenay proposed a challenging initiative, a venue in Malaysia. After prolonged and sometimes delicate negotiations with the Malaysian Social Science Association (MSSA), it was decided to hold a joint meeting hosted by Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. Special airline fares were obtained, and a party of a dozen or so from Australia and New Zealand, including a student sponsored by the Society, travelled to Malaysia in July. They were joined by around 50 from the MSSA to make up a very substantial programme (37 papers) stretching over two full days on the theme ‘Perceptions of Malaysia’. Side events were organised, including an interesting bus trip through rural Kedah to visit development projects such as the Muda rice irrigation scheme headquarters. Many of the colloquium papers were subsequently published in variety of forms, including an MSSA edited collection under the title Images of Malaysia (Ikmal Said and Saravanamuttu, eds).

Back in Australia the sequence of colloquia continued uninterrupted; Sydney (1989), Melbourne (1991), University of South Queensland, Toowoomba (1993), UNE, Armidale (1995), and ANU, Canberra (1997, 1999), Sydney (2001). A proposal was made to go offshore once again for the 1995 colloquium, this time to Sabah (Kota Kinabalu), but this proved beyond our resources. The Society’s fourth major publication, The Shaping of Malaysia (Amarjit Kaur and Ian Metcalfe eds) arose from the 1995 colloquium at UNE, a unique feature of which was the inclusion of papers on the geology, flora and fauna of Malaysia, alongside the more usual ones on politics, economy and society. Attendance at the Sydney colloquium (2001) was relatively small, but nonetheless supported a two-day programme including excellent papers from young postgraduate students which promises well for the field. It was decided to hold the next colloquium (2003) also in Sydney, with Clive Kessler (UNSW) as convenor. The theme will be on Islam and Society in Malaysia.

In 1992 Philip Courtenay stood down as the Society’s Chairperson after a long and productive stewardship. Peter Wicks (USQ) was elected in his place, with Ponniah Arudsothy (Griffith), and after him Brian Ridge ( USQ), taking up the position of Treasurer (created at the AGM in 1992). In 1997 Peter Wicks relinquished the Chair and was succeeded by Amarjit Kaur (UNE). The current Secretary/Treasurer is Lily Zubaidah Rahim (Sydney), while Ian Metcalfe (UNE) is the society webmaster.

One of the first questions to engage the Society’s attention was the question of facilitating the obtaining of visas to enable foreign scholars to conduct research in Malaysia. In 1978 a memorandum on applications for this purpose, prepared by Lenore Manderson, was submitted to the Malaysian High commission in Canberra. No formal response was received, but in 1979 a revised form of application was issued which did bear on principal issue, the length of time required for processing. Unfortunately, the period was substantially increased from 6-8 weeks to up to 6 months.

In 1980 the Society made written submissions to two Australian government committees; the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Inquiry on Australia and ASEAN, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts Inquiry into the funding of tertiary education. Both were prepared by Martin Rudner.

The Society’s major continuing function apart from the regular colloquia has been the James C. Jackson Memorial Lecture delivered at the biennial ASAA National Conference by invitation to a leading scholar of Malaysia. The proposal for this came from George Elliston at the Townsville Colloquium in 1979, and has proved a most effectual means of perpetuating Jim Jackson’s pioneering work in Malaysian studies. The inaugural lecture was given by Donald Fryer, a close colleague of Jim, at the ASAA meeting in Brisbane in 1980 and has been followed at regular intervals by ten other scholars, listed below, whose subjects have ranged over many aspects of Malaysian history and contemporary affairs. With only two exceptions, these have been printed at the Society’s expense and distributed to members and to interested institutions.
Past and Future

Over the past 25 years the Malaysia Society has amply fulfilled the ambition of its founders, namely to provide a forum for research in progress among Malaysianists in Australia and overseas. The colloquia have enabled scholars to exchange views at first hand, and subsequently to disseminate their work throughout the scholarly community. The highly productive outcomes have been four major book-length publications (listed below), as well as numerous articles in leading journals. The bi-annual J.C.Jackson Memorial Lectures have showcased eminent scholars of Malaysia who have given wide-ranging overviews of their fields of specialty. All in all the Society’s work has helped to raise the profile of Malaysian Studies in Australia and internationally, and with governments as well as academia.

The founders of the Malaysia Society have now either retired (though still active in research), or are in the later stages of their academic careers. We are fortunate, however, to have the nucleus of a new generation of scholars with which to maintain the original momentum.

Colloquia Publications

Jackson, J.C. and Martin Rudner, eds (1979), Issues in Malaysian Development, Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books Asia.

Rimmer, Peter and Allen, Lisa, eds (1990), The Underside of Malaysian History; Pullers, Prostitutes, Plantation Workers …, Singapore: Singapore University Press.

Muhammad Ikmal Said and J.Savaranamuttu, eds (1991), Images of Malaysia, Penang, Universiti Sains Malaysia Press.

Kaur, Amarjit and Metcalfe, Ian, eds (1995), The Shaping of Malaysia, Basingstoke, Macmillan.

James C.Jackson Memorial Lectures

Donald W.Fryer (University of Hawaii at Manoa), James C.Jackson: Geography and Area Studies (1980)

Tunku Shamsul Bahrin (Universiti Malaya), ‘From Pioneers to Investors’ (1982, not published)

J.M.Gullick (London), The Entrepreneur in Late Nineteenth Century Malay Society (1984)

James C.Scott (Yale), Resistance Without Protest: Peasant Opposition to the Zakat in Malaysia and the Tithe in France (1986).

Noraini Abdullah (Universiti Sains Malaysia), ‘The Politics of Bumiputraism’ (1988, not published).

Jomo, K.S. (Universiti Malaya), Beyond the New Economic Policy? Malaysia in the Nineties (1990).

Shamsul A.B. (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), Malaysia in 2020, One State Many Nations? Observing Malaysia from Australia (1992)

Philip Courtenay (James Cook University), Development, the Environment and the Malaysian Padi Industry (1994)

John H.Drabble (Sydney University), The Study of Malaysian Economic History (1996).

Virginia Matheson Hooker (Australian National University), Malaysia as History (1998)

Nicholas Tarling (University of Auckland), Imperialism and State-Building in Southeast Asia (2000)

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