Voices Outside the Dominant Media

This chapter highlights intellectuals who worked outside the dominant cultural and language milieux of Malay and English, and who stood outside the intellectual circles described elsewhere in this book. The chapter holds that, because people at the time, including intellectuals, overwhelmingly viewed Malaysian society in communal terms, the voices of individuals who made their mark through Chinese- and Indian-language media deserve their own chapter. Chapter 8 presents chief editor Fong, who chose his words carefully on all topics, including his paper’s recent difficulties with the authorities; multi-talented Ahmad Shah, conservative in both outlook and manner, whose sense of vulnerability was compounded by his status as a non-citizen; and W.G. Kumar, Opposition supporter with an acute sense of injustice. The chapter notes that all expressed a sense of insecurity, their own and on behalf of the organisations they represented.