1. Script for Pecha Kucha
Azlina Abdul Aziz
1. I was born 16 years after Malaysia gained her independence from the British, in a
small town off the coast of Peninsula Malaysia where fishing and agriculture were the
main preoccupations. (12 sec)
2. My childhood memories of this languid town included following my mother to the
wet market on weekends; taking walks on the beach at night; being lulled to sleep by
the sound of the gentle waves; catching tadpoles and dragonflies; and wading in the
flood water during the monsoon season. (17 sec)
3. Learning English for me meant reading English nursery rhymes, Aesop’s Fables, Fairy
Tales, Enid Blyton’s ‘The Famous Five’; and watching programs from the U.K and the U.S.
(12 sec)
4. Aside from English being spoken in the English classroom, it was not a language of
communication for the wider community. The local dialect prevailed over the sounds of
lapping waves and falling rains. Learning English for me meant learning other people’s
history and culture, where nothing of myself is reflected in what I read. (19 sec)
5. I learned about the value of standard British English as spoken by Professor Higgins,
the status it accorded Eliza Doolittle at the expense of her sense of belonging, the
language of power and injustice of the colonial and slave masters. As opportunity to
speak in English was fairly limited, learning English for me had been mainly in a culture
of silence. (20 sec)
6. English functioned as a tool for gaining control of our own resources. For example,
we gained ownership of the company Guthrie, after a raid in 1981 at the London Stock

2. Exchange, bought the company’s shares, which resulted in 200,000 acres of oil palm
plantation returned to Malaysians. (20 sec)
7. To be colonized also means that we are aware of our own image as defined through
the eyes of another more powerful person. No more is this evident than in the writings
of Sir Frank Swettenham the first Resident General of the then Federated Malay States.
(15 sec)
8. Swettenham was the representative of the British Empire to Malaya from 1896 until
1901. He had lived in this palatial residence he had designed, which was equally as
fitting for a Malay Sultan. (15 sec)
9. He had written a number of books on his experience in Malaya. Two books in
particular, ‘British Malaya’ and ‘Malay Sketches’ were written accounts of the British
political and economic influence on Malaya and the Malays. (13 sec)
10. Of Malaya, he writes, "Malaya, land of the pirate and the amok, your secrets have
been well guarded, but the enemy has at last passed your gate, and soon the irresistable
Juggernaut of Progress will have penetrated to your remotest fastness, slain your
beasts, cut down your forests, 'civilised' your people, clothed them in strange garments,
and stamped them with a seal of a higher morality". (1895, p.x) (27 sec)
11. "Education and the contact with Western people must produce the inevitable result.
isolated native races whose numbers are few must disappear or conform to the views of
a stronger will and a higher intelligence." (p. xi) (16 sec)
12. He describes the Malay man, “The real Malay is a short, thick-set, well-built man,
with straight hair, a dark brown complexion, thick nose and lips” (1895, p. 2). He goes on
to discuss ‘Malays inherent laziness’ as “...a climate which inclines the body to ease and

3. rest, the mind to dreamy contemplation rather than to strenuous and persistent toil.”
(Alatas, 1977, p. 45). (23 sec)
13. Of the Malay girl, he describes her as “ proud of wealth of straight, black hair, of a
spotless olive complexion, of the arch of the brow ... of the curl of her eyelashes, and of
the dimples in cheek or chin” (1895, p.7). (15 sec)
14. In reality, there is no singular or real Malay. There are many Malays of mixed races
from Chinese, Indian, and Arab descents. There are various Malay ethnic communities
like Bugis, Javanese, Minangkabaus, and Achinese who had lived in a “history of ... cross-
cultural fertilisation and cultural hybridisation” (Noor, 2009, p.69) long before
colonization. (23 sec)
15. Why does this narrative still matter? Why does it still have some strange hold on me
as to invoke anger, incredulity, sadness? Why do I continue to speak back to it? In
privileging the voice of the colonizer, do I continue to acknowledge my subjugated
position, to nod in agreement with this figure who had lived before my time? (21 sec)
16. At times I am uncomfortable with efforts at writing counterstories to colonial
discourse because in doing so I feel we are acknowledging our subjugated position. If all
our efforts are focused on dispelling myths, writing counternarratives then will we ever
be in the position to be creators of our own theory and knowledges. (20 sec)
17. But it does speak to the harm that European researches have had on the colonized.
We are still trying to dislodge the stereotypes that accompany us to this day and
understand its detrimental effects on the relationships between communities which had
led to the racial riots between the Malays and Chinese in 1969. (21 sec)
18. In response to the question on why colonialism is still relevant, Linda Tuhiwai Smith

4. argues, “….. The reach of imperialism into ‘our head’ challenges those who belong to
colonized communities to understand how this occurred, partly because we perceive a
need to decolonize our minds, to recover ourselves to claim a space in which to develop
a sense of authentic humanity.” (p.24) (24 sec)
19. But amidst the voices of the colonizer and the postcolonial scholars, I wonder what
of the silence of the many colonized locals, whose voices remain irretrievably lost? (14
sec)
5 min 47 sec
347 secs
References:
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples.
London: Zed Books.
Swettenham, F. A. (1906). British Malaya.London: John Lane.
Swettenham, F. A. (1895). 'Malay sketches'. London: John Lane.
Bhabha, Homi. "The Other Question . . . Homi K. Bhabha Reconsiders the Stereotype
and
Colonial Discourse." Screen 24.6 (1983): 18-36.
Noor, F. A. (2009). What your teacher didn’t tell you. Petaling Jaya: Matahari Books.
Alatas, S. H. (1977). The myth of the lazy native - A study of the image of the Malays,
Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th century and its function in the ideology

5. of colonial capitalism. London: Routledge.