BOOK REVIEW | Thinking of colonial elites remains relevant today

BOOK REVIEW | “The Straits Philosophical Society & Colonial Elites in Malaya” - A book providing the thinking of colonial elites on subjects of concern remains as relevant today as then, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Indeed, previous preoccupations may not be so remote from our own as might at first appear.

How much has changed since then? To what extent have earlier ideas influenced subsequent policies?

Touching on topics which one would find in today’s mass media, print and digital platforms, may not only reveal the applicability of past perspectives on a range of important matters - notably “race, identity and social order” - but may also offer some insights on how to address current issues. 

The endorsement by two leading scholars of Southeast Asian history should be sufficient to motivate readers to at least dip into this volume.

As Wang Gungwu suggests, this collection of essays invites us to ask: “Have we become wiser? Do we have better answers?” while Anthony Reid informs us that the “treasure Lim Teck Ghee has unearthed! ... [enables readers to] peer into the private passions and prejudices of the British (and some Chinese) elite…” as they seek to construct a new governmental system....