Book Review: South and Southeast Asia: Political Ideology in Malaysia: Reality and the Beliefs of an Elite
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | Gordon P. Means |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500323 |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
650
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
of
the
Vietnamese
people,
whose
history
"has
been
brought
about other-
wise
than
by
display
of
heroism
and
exercise of
wisdom."
It
seems
Vietnam's
main liability
is
its
people.
The
Vietnamese
are
"xenophobic."
They
gracelessly
rejected
France's
mission
civilisatrice
and
ungrate-
fully
refused
"America's
unprecedentedly
altruistic
help."
Representing
disunity as an
historical
characteristic
of
Vietnam,
the
author
argues
that
"the
present
division
is
...
normal
not
excep-
tional." This
is
a gross
simplification
of
Vietnamese
history
and
the
several
errors
in
the
author's
attempt
to
substantiate
his position
re-
veal
his
lack
of
familiarity
with
Vietnam's
past.
Ho
Chi
Minh
and
his
followers
are
portrayed
as
anarchists
(chap.
4,
"The
Anarchy
of
Ho
Chi
Minh")
trained
and
equipped
"from
outside
Vietnam
by
the
Soviet
Government
as
an
instrument
for
embarrassing
France."
This,
indeed,
demonstrates
an
embarrassing
ignorance
of
the
origins
and
evolution
of
Vietnamese
communism
on
the
part
of Mr.
Duncanson.
The
book
abounds
with
other
factual
errors and
misconceptions,
too
numerous
to
examine here.
The
most
unfortunate
aspect
of
this
book
is
the
prestige
it
may
derive
from its
sponsorship
by
the
Royal
Institute
of
International
Affairs.
University
of
Western
Ontario
HUYNH
Kim
KHANH
Political
Ideology
in
Malaysia:
Reality and the
Beliefs
of
an
Elite.
By
JAmas
C.
ScoTT.
New
Haven:
London:
Yale
University
Press
[Montreal:
McGill
University
Press].
1968.
x,
302pp.
$8.85.
Much
of
the
current literature
on
developing
areas
stresses
the
impor-
tance
of
changing
attitudes
and
beliefs
as
an
essential
feature
of
the
process
of
modernization.
Unfortunately, the
collection
of
reliable
data
has
not
kept
pace
with the
generation
of theories
about
the
nature
of
modernization.
This
book
is
a
significant addition
to
the
literature
since
it
helps to
close
this
gap
by
relating
theories
of
modernization
to
intensive
research
into
the
beliefs
and
attitudes
of
a
small
sample
of
Malaysian
elites.
The
first
part
of
Mr. Scott's
work
offers
a
useful
summary
of
the
theoretical
literature
concerning
the
role and
nature
of
"personal
ideology"
in
transitional
societies.
The
author
gives
particular
atten-
tion to
the
alternative
approaches
represented
by
Lucian
W.
Pye
(Politics,
Personality
and
Nation
Building)
and
Edward
Banfield
(The
Moral
Basis
of
a
Backward
Society),
but
also surveys
relevant
litera-
ture
in
the
fields
of
socialization
and
the
psychology
of
culture
change.
Much
of
the
methodology
and
his
interview
schedule
is
borrowed
from
Robert
Lane's
Political
Ideology, and
the
book
as
a
whole
bears
a
striking
resemblance
to
the
latter,
even
to
the
style
of
writing.
The
data
for the
work
is
based
on
intensive
interviews
with
seventeen
civil
servants,
supplemented
by a
shorter
questionnaire
administered
to
just
over
100
civil
servants
enrolled
in
training
courses
at
Kuala
Lumpur.
At
the
risk
of
oversimplification,
we
may
note
that
the author
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