CONCEPT OF A HERO IN MALAY SOCIETY

 Shahruddin Maaruf. 2014. Concept of A Hero in Malay Society. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

 Initially I had reservation in bringing out a new edition of this book, which had long been out of print, partly intended on my part. However, all these years I constantly received requests that I expand the book or republish it. Indications from the researchers and the reading public suggest that some find the book still useful or worth reading.      

           Responses to the book had been varied and interesting, and these had persuaded me to work on a new edition. Why a new edition and not an expanded, revised or an updated version? This is basically because I wish to keep the book within the social-political context of its writing. In other words I meant the book to be a sort of social document, a history of ideas, of which the book itself is a part. Well, it is very much like a painting, once completed let it be, why rework or ‘update’.

          One question often posed me is just how do I see the book in today’s terms? Well, actors and specifics may have changed, given the passage of time, but the fundamental issues and concerns articulated in the book remain as pertinent as ever. Some of the problems discussed in fact can be said to have taken a turn for the worse, if we penetrate deeper than the superficial changes since then.

          Another response bespeaks of moral relativism, arguing that the idea of the good and noble or lofty, the stuff of heroism, is really of shifting sand and delusional measure. For those of this moral temper, the subject of heroes and heroism is meant only for the Don Quixote of the world, misfits and dreamers, ill at ease and out of temper with the contemporary world. In this respect, the book is seen as delving with trifles and misinformed idealism, bordering on self-indulgence. To this the book can only say that such relativism is itself part of the very problem inquired into by the book.  

        Yet another constant response had been to place the burden of anointing heroes on the book, grudging it for its criticisms of socially or popularly acknowledged heroes. The writer is often chided ‘who do you think then should be Malay heroes?’  Such retort always impressed me how the process of social evaluation remain closed to many, hence their lack of self-introspection. They feel it is a question of finding and installing heroes in a detach manner, little realizing their values, ideals and humanity is very much bound with the process.

        This book is not so much on heroes as on hero worshippers. It studies heroes to the extent they reflect the values and ideals of their worshippers themselves. It is not really addressed towards resolving the debate which personality should be heralded as Malay heroes, be it Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat or anybody else for that matter. The interest of the book remains primarily an examination of Malay values and ideals, the sense of cultural identity. The book examines the social-historical forces that had shaped those values and ideals, as reflected in group dynamics and ideologies, as well as the vested interests involved.

Shaharuddin Maaruf

University of Malaya

18 April 2014