Abu Talib Ahmad, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia.

Horton, A.V.M.

Abu Talib Ahmad, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015; ISBN 978-9971-69-819-5 pbk; tables, maps, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index.

This publication raises important questions about the role of museums in modern society. The author is Dato' Dr. Abu Talib bin Ahmad, Professor of South-East Asian History at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, whose previous works include The Malay Muslims, Islam and the Rising Sun 1942-45 (Kuala Lumpur, 2003) and a host of articles in journals and edited volumes (cited on pages 276-7).

Museums in present-day Malaysia date from as far back as the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Perak Museum opened its doors in 1883, the Sarawak Museum in 1886, and the Selangor Museum in 1906, the last-named being destroyed by Allied bombing in March 1945. The National Museum was established in 1963.

Nowadays museums fall into four categories. First, "Museums under the Department of Museums and Antiquities" (pp. 27-8), such as the Labuan Museum and the Labuan Maritime Museum. The Labuan Museum, founded in 2002, features ethnological and archaeological artifacts, numismatic collections, photographs and treaties relating to the island, as well as historical, cultural, and ceramic collections (p. 27). The Labuan Maritime Museum, dating from the same year, covers live specimens of fish, corals and other marine life, fishing equipment, diving apparatus, and shipwrecks. Second, museums under state control (pp. 29-33), including the Sabah State Museum (1965), the Sarawak Islamic Museum (1992), and the Chinese History Museum (Kuching, 1993). Thirdly, departmental museums (pp. 34-8), for example the Sibu Civic Centre (1988), the Bau Mini Museum (1988), the Timber Museum (Kuching, 1998), Kapit Museum (1989), and the Cat Museum (Kuching, 1993). And finally, private museums, mostly in Penang or Melaka; not one of this type is listed from Malaysian Borneo (p. 39).

According to another classification, museums might be divided into art museums, history museums, natural history museums, and science museums, along with specialist thematic museums based on local history, music, cultural heritage, and maritime history. There arc also general museums, royal museums/galleries, and memorials.

Research for the book was undertaken from 2003 and covered institutions located in various states in peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Singapore (page xii). The study focuses on contests and challenges between and within museums. It is based on numerous visits to museums, including during special exhibitions between 2006 and 2011.

Serious issues are examined in a balanced and impartial manner in this monograph. Should museums seek objective coverage of the past or should they concentrate on present-day nation-building imperatives? Should museums reflect the official version of national history? Should they focus on how things actually were or how they ought to have been? Should all races, religions, cultures, classes, age cohorts, and political ideologies be fairly represented; or should one stream be privileged? And which type of visitor should a museum target: should a national museum be an institution where all members of society feel at home, or should it appeal only to the dominant group? Should museums peddle a partisan version of history, or should they offer a wider perspective? Which epochs should be covered by exhibits, and which aspects of any particular era should be highlighted? How far should museums kowtow before religious dogmas? And to what extent, if at all, should museums compromise their scholarly principles for the benefit of the local tourist industry? All of this can be highly-contested ground.

The pre-Melaka period is synonymous with the pre-Islamic past and is demoted into insignificance in Malaysian museums, partly because of "a negative if not belligerently hostile, perception in some quarters of the earlier Hindu-Buddhist period" (p. 42). Archaeology is problematic: "one still hears questions raised by older visitors as to how the information in the gallery can be reconciled with the existence of the Prophet Adam as the first man based on Quranic revelations" (p. 44). The aftershocks of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 are also noted (pp. 80, 82).

There is a perception that Melaka museums "represent only Malays" (chapter two): these museums, the author says, "are closely linked to the concept of Malay dominance, which is anchored on the Melaka Sultanate" (p. 114). Professor Abu Talib also claims that "other realities such as slavery and the non-Islamic nature [in some respects] of the sultanate are omitted" (p. 118).

The third chapter is a case-study of how contemporary economic needs can affect museum presentations. In this connection Malaysia's post-merdeka trading links with Japan impact upon the way the occupation period (1941-5) is viewed. Chapter four examines three prominent personalities (Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, and P. Ramlee), while chapter five is devoted to "provincial museums and culture." Dato' Abu Talib concludes that museums "remain the exclusive preserve of Malays in tenns of visitors, administrators and exhibits" and that museums "must change" their displays in order to sustain visitor interest; otherwise museums will "remain unpopular and unattractive" (p. 263).

Illustrations are incorporated into the text proper as and when appropriate, instead of being awarded a gallery of their own in the middle of the book. There are useful plans of selected museums, an extensive glossary, a comprehensive bibliography, and a perfectly satisfactory index. It is true that the book has its share of anachronisms, (1) split infinitives, and colloquialisms, as well as the very occasional orthographical error; but these are comparatively insignificant blemishes. More seriously, the author does not appear to question the assumption that museums ought to be pursuing a nation-building agenda (p. 263). Furthermore, the book is heavily weighted towards the Peninsula at the expense of Borneo; Sarawak is neglected; nor does Professor Abu Talib make any comparison between Malaysian policy and that of Negara Brunei Darussalam, which might be instructive. The Orang Asli are almost invisible. And the author does little to clear up the confusion relating to the date of the coming of Islam to the Malay States: was it Kedah, in 1136 (pp. 67, 249) or 1414 (p. 75)?; or Terengganu, in 1303 (pp. 69, 70)?; or Melaka, in the mid-thirteenth century (p. 85), or in 1400 (pp. 68, 84), or in 1409 (p. 75)? (2) The reader emerges little the wiser. Finally, given the deliberate belittling of the colonial era by Malaysian museums (pp. 253-5, for example), it is somewhat ironic that this tome should have been written in English.

Museums ought to be reliable sources of neutral information; this book demonstrates conclusively that they are not; on the contrary, they pursue their own bias, as dictated by present-day national, ethnic, religious, political, cultural or commercial requirements. To achieve their ends they indulge in omissions, obfuscations, and misleading emphases. As exhibits become unsuitable according to the prevailing orthodoxy, they are relegated to the storeroom. Museums plainly seek to give a picture in harmony with current ideological shibboleths.

Overall, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia is the original, professional, and informative product of prolonged research. This admirable book is an objective and scholarly study by a learned, insightful, and well-read author. It deserves to achieve a broad influence.

(1) People from Labuan, Sabah, and Sarawak might be surprised and interested to leam that "Malaysia" became independent in 1957 (p. 3).

(2) The author adds: "Quite often the thirteenth century is taken as the date of Islam's arrival in Southeast Asia. This is misleading, as the date merely denotes the change from Shiite to Sunni" (p. 77).

(A.V.M. Horton, Bordesley, Worcestershire, United Kingdom)