Khoon Choy Lee
Autor(a) de A Fragile Nation: The Indonesian Crisis
About the Author
With 14 years experience as a journalist and a 29-year career as a politician and diplomat, Mr. Lee Khoon Choy has set foot on every land in Southeast Asia and observed closely the local life in each country. Mindful of his Hakka identity, Mr. Lee has a keen interest in multi-ethnic Chinese mostrar mais descendants in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. mostrar menos
Obras de Khoon Choy Lee
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1924
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- Singapore
- Local de nascimento
- Penang, Malaysia
- Ocupação
- journalist
ambassador
Membros
Resenhas
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 8
- Membros
- 37
- Popularidade
- #390,572
- Avaliação
- 3.0
- Resenhas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 17
Singaporeans have a complicated relationship with their Malay neighbours. As a city-state with a higher average education and a much better administration, Singapore lives off its neighbours’ inabilities to quite some extent . Many Singaporeans learn some Malay in school, and are otherwise exposed to Malays in school or to Indonesian domestic helpers at home. Still, there is a certain level of distrust against Islam and sometimes discrimination against Malays.
Hence it is good if someone like Lee Khoon Choy, Singapore’s ambassador to Indonesia from 1970 to 1974, writes a book about Singapore’s largest neighbour. The result is a somewhat curious product . As you may expect, its perspective on things is Southeast Asian and a lot of attention is given to the plight of the Chinese minority in Indonesia. Another Chinese aspect is his surprising description of Indonesian languages as “dialects”. Mr. Lee unfortunately also accepts the Indonesian nationalist version of history, which has been tainted by its use as propaganda when forging the nation.
In his introduction Mr. Lee states that his book is personal, journalistic interpretation, and that specialists may find certain defects. Unfortunately, defects can also be found in the editing of the book, with the same phrases being used various times, incidental cases of Singlish grammar, and many spelling errors in people’s names. For a book written by an ambassador it is also strangely devoid of economic and military data.
Essentially, the book consists of two parts. The first is a one chapter analysis of the fall of the Soeharto regime. It was published shortly after the event, and is not as good as books like A Nation in Waiting by Adam Schwartz. A Fragile Nation mainly earns its merit with Mr. Lee’s description of Javanese mysticism, its importance to Soeharto’s generation of leaders, and the author’s own supernatural experiences (which makes me wonder what went into his reports to Singapore). Basically, Mr. Lee follows a classical explanation of this importance: it is part of traditional culture. Beyond that, the book contains nice introductory chapters about the culture of other parts of Indonesia (e.g. about the Badui).
The enthusiasm for his subject shines through quite clearly. It is not a bad book to carry in your backpack when you are crossing the world’s greatest archipelago.… (mais)