MODERNITY,ANTI-MODERNITY AND POST-MODERNITY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

The problem of modernity and post-modernity centres on the fate of the bourgeois carriers of the Protestant Ethic in an inordinately differentiated and rationalised world. Post-modernity is a reaction to the advanced alienation of late capitalism, an attempt to restore some meaning to the existential despair over the growing irrationality of modernity. The emphases on sensualism, pluralism and realism comprise desperate efforts to cling on to the human sources of a runaway creation called modernity.

If post-modernity comprises efforts in criticising the foundations of modern Western civilisation, how do they influence the development agenda of the Third World nations? Through a study of the modernisation programme in Malaysia, it is argued that modernity in Malaysia is a recent phenomenon and must be considered in the context of its colonial history. Industrialisation in Malaysia does not follow the same historical trajectory as industrialisation in the Western democracies. Thus, modernity in the recent history of Malaysia must be studied as a complex interplay between ethnic nationalism, international markets, class formation, and inter-ethnic competition.

Post-modernity in Malaysia can at best be described as a superficial imposition of Western consumer patterns on the local population without an attendant cultural critique. Post-modernity as a form of demodernisation cannot but pose a serious threat to the modernisation programme of Malaysia which not only comprises the raison d'être of the dominant Malay political party but also involves the commercial interests of many transnational companies.