Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied's Radicals: Resistance and protest in colonial Malaya is a pioneering work on resistance and protest against British colonial rule, which traces the origins of protest from the onset of colonial rule to the attainment of independence in Malaya. Aljunied has attempted to weave a coherent, historical thread to provide an account of the anti-colonial struggle by those who were pushed aside, as well as to draw linkages between the various radical groups.
In evaluating this book, we can assess its value only in reference to how most other writers have treated these same radicals. William Roff, in his book Origins of Malay Nationalism (Reference Roff1967), did not even touch on pre-colonial rebels such as Dato’ Bahaman, Dol Said, Tok Janggut, and Mat Kilau, mainly because these rebels did not fit into the context of a genuine anti-colonial struggle. In contrast, Aljunied's approach is truly innovative: It highlights how the radicals used myths, poetry, and other writings on the pre-colonial rebellions to inspire anti-British sentiment and prepare the ground for a nascent Malay nationalist movement.
However, when the radical movements are examined on an individual basis, Aljunied's attempt to connect them through the use of concepts such as warisan (heritage), cita-cita perjuangan (the spirit and ambitions of the struggle), kesedaran (consciousness), kesatuan (unity), kebangsaan (nationalism), Melayu Raya (the union of Singapore, Malaya, and Indonesia), and merdeka (freedom) has some flaws. The radicals did not seem to have much in common as groups, or even as individuals within the same organisation, so Aljunied's analysis of their struggle encounters a problem in determining what their struggle was all about. The founders of the monthly periodical Al-Imam viewed their struggle as an attempt to promote Islamic unity, ignoring the issue of race or nation-state in an era when ethnicity and nationalism held sway.
In contrast, the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM; the Young Malay Union) emphasised race and aimed for the unity of Malaya and Indonesia through the establishment of a Melayu Raya, with the hope that the collapse of British colonial rule would bring about a union with Indonesia. However, this did not materialise, even with the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945. The failure of Melayu Raya forced the radicals to face the reality of cosmopolitanism in Malaya. Ironically, race was never a factor in Indonesia, where the stress was on Indonesia Raya – a geopolitical unity – markedly different from what Malay radical groups such as the KMM and the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM; Malay Nationalist Party) had envisaged and campaigned for. For the radicals, the progress of the Malays was possible only through unifying the kindred races; this, however, is a view that did not materialise in Indonesia.
One of Aljunied's major contributions in this work is his description of the role of Malay women and the sense of liberation they gained through their involvement in radical politics. This sense of liberation has had a lasting effect until the present day, as can be seen in the pivotal role played by Malay women in the political ascendency of the country's largest party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), after independence. Indeed, the radicalisation of Malay women is a subject that requires examination in greater depth. Aljunied's contribution to this subject would serve as a useful backdrop to Lenore Manderson's Women, Politics and Change: The Kaum Ibu UMNO, Malaysia 1945–1972 (Reference Manderson1980).
In analysing Aljunied's use of concepts and his attempt to describe the radicals and their lack of success, not much has been done to consider what constituted being Malay and why the inability to identify the essence of ‘Malayness’ created impediments in determining its characteristics. Thus, Anthony Milner's book, The Malays (Reference Milner2008), can be said to be a necessary reference in understanding why the concept of bangsa (race) was problematic in the conception of the Malay identity.
Aljunied's research on ‘the losers’ seems to imply that there were winners among the conservative Malays. Yet, we note that in comparison to many Southeast Asian countries, Malay nationalism did not lead to the emergence of a Malay nation: Therein lies the irony of Malay nationalism. Having come into existence, Malay nationalism could not be defined in an inclusive context but came to exist as an exclusively ethnic and beleaguered definition in a country that was neither fully Malayan nor Malay (Ariffin Reference Ariffin1993).
The last chapter of Aljunied's book reveals the sad finale of the radicals, some of whom, after their release from detention or giving up active involvement in politics, gravitated towards language and literature as mediums to express their hopes and desires: something that they had previously been unable to achieve. This point is illustrated by the differing fortunes of two radicals: Mustapha Hussein, a prominent leader in the KMM, who lost by one vote to Tunku Abdul Rahman during the UMNO elections to replace Dato’ Onn bin Jaafar as leader of UMNO and soon faded to obscurity, and Aishah Ghani, a leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS; Conscious Women's Front), who rose to prominence in UMNO's Kaum Ibu (Mother's Movement) and became a minister in post-colonial Malaya.
However, the major success of the radicals was their ability – at least for a short period of time – to obtain cooperation and agreement from the non-Malay All Malaya Council for Joint Action (|AMCJA) in preparing a People's Constitution in 1947 and more importantly, the acceptance of Melayu (Malay) as the nationality of their proposed nation-state. This Melayu nationality would be purged of its ethnic and religious connotations to encompass both Malays and non-Malays. Sadly, the greatest triumph of the radicals was also their greatest failure, as they were unable to inspire Malays and non-Malays to unite and thwart the political programme of the Malay conservatives and the British colonial government. In Aljunied's final analysis, neither radicals nor conservatives emerged as winners in the anti-colonial struggle, and the Malayan (now Malaysian) state still struggles to find an identity acceptable to all in a plural and multi-ethnic political entity classified as a state, but lacking in the substance of nationhood.
