31 December 2010
From Indrapura to Darul Makmur: A Deconstructive History of Pahang
To write a history of a state like Pahang today requires us to go back to the history of the land and its peoples before the emergence of a political entity that would be named Pahang. While doing so, the historian cannot neglect the fact that before the Malay polities that emerged from the 15th century onwards, there were other sociopolitical systems present in the peninsula, including the indigenous peoples known as the Orang Asli.
Writing the history of the Orang Asli of the Malaysian peninsula is a task fraught with discursive and political complications. For a start, the term ‘the Malay Peninsula’ is itself troublesome because it came into use only during the colonial era and has since become an ideologically loaded signifier, bringing with it a host of essentialist assumptions and primordial historical claims. It has to be emphasised that a history of the Malaysian peninsula has to begin with the recognition that it has always been a fluid, open territory inhabited by a myriad people, with a complexity that resists any attempt at closure and compartmentalisation.
To write a history of a state like Pahang today requires us to go back to the history of the land and its peoples before the emergence of a political entity that would be named Pahang. While doing so, the historian cannot neglect the fact that before the Malay polities that emerged from the 15th century onwards, there were other sociopolitical systems present in the peninsula, including the indigenous peoples known as the Orang Asli.
Writing the history of the Orang Asli of the Malaysian peninsula is a task fraught with discursive and political complications. For a start, the term ‘the Malay Peninsula’ is itself troublesome because it came into use only during the colonial era and has since become an ideologically loaded signifier, bringing with it a host of essentialist assumptions and primordial historical claims. It has to be emphasised that a history of the Malaysian peninsula has to begin with the recognition that it has always been a fluid, open territory inhabited by a myriad people, with a complexity that resists any attempt at closure and compartmentalisation.
