2 - Malaysia: Still “Islam and Politics” But Now Enmeshed in a Global Web

Summary

One of Professor Clive Kessler's lesser known accomplishments is a mastery of Kelantan Malay. This colourful dialect of standard Malay is laconic but rich in earthy metaphors, direct and subtle at the same time, and for non-Kelantanese Malays and foreigners alike, a challenge to their forbearance and tolerance. The people of Kelantan, in general, make few concessions to outsiders and take pride in their independence of spirit and behaviour. Undaunted by this reputation, the young Kessler chose as his “case study” the township of Jelawat in rural Kelantan and lived among the people of Jelawat for almost two years. He observed not only their history, politics, religion, economy, and culture but also learned their language, without which a true insight into Kelantanese life would not have been possible. From this intense experience was distilled one of the classic works of Southeast Asian anthropology, Kessler's Islam and Politics in a Malay State: Kelantan 1838–1968, a work which has become a benchmark for studies of Malay society.

In part motivated by the failure of the “old paradigms” of social science to engage with social reality, Clive Kessler argued for an integrated and holistic approach which “seeks to draw together, as complementary aspects of the same reality, class and culture, ‘material’ and ‘ideal’ factors, ‘existence’ and ‘consciousness’” (Kessler 1978, p. 19). In his first book, Kessler develops the methodology which he has maintained and refined in later writing. As he himself describes it:

Ultimately, through a detailed analysis of one concrete case, … to address what is both a basic question of social theory and an urgent matter of human concern, the complex interdependence between the material and the ideological dimensions of political life (Kessler 1978, p. 7).