{"id":28377,"date":"2021-01-04T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=28377"},"modified":"2021-01-04T16:01:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T08:01:17","slug":"royal-prof-ungku-aziz-a-man-ahead-of-his-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/royal-prof-ungku-aziz-a-man-ahead-of-his-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Prof Ungku Aziz, a Man Ahead of His Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Much has already been celebrated about\nthe impact, contributions and legacy of Allahyarham<\/em>\nRoyal Professor Ungku Aziz in honour of the memory of one of Malaysia\u2019s\ngreatest sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this writer feels there is more\nto be said especially in relation to what could have truly made him such a\nvisionary and a rarefied personality in Malaysia\u2019s modern history such that we\nwould be able to build on his legacy in a more comprehensive manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Ungku\nAziz\u2019s academic inquiry can be classified to some extent in the \u201cdevelopment\neconomics\u201d category, much of his concerns,\nwritings and ideas appears to go beyond the discipline of modern economics and\nreflects a broader conception of development that regards religion, ethics, culture,\nhistory, and language as important considerations for development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\nscrutinise Ungku Aziz\u2019s early life, readings and milieu, the facts reveal that\nUngku Aziz\u2019s vision of development and thinking in general must have been shaped\nby the various personal and intellectual exposures throughout his life\u2014starting\nwith the basic religious awareness imparted by his father, who, according to an\naccount documented by Asmah Hj Omar, advised his son to hold on to his prayers\nand perform the requirements of Islam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a later\ninterview, he regarded Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273), and Ibn\nKhaldun\u2019s (d. 1406) as his sources of inspiration, which shaped his\nunderstanding on social philosophy, and the meaning of life, all indicated his\nbasic commitment to the philosophical outlook and value-system of Islam. According\nto former colleague of Ungku Aziz at University of Malaya, he would consult his\ncousin, Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas, on matters of religion as he regarded\nhim as more conversant on the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is fortified\nfurther with various literatures and heritage of mankind, which he personally\nadmired such as the Samurai tradition\u2019s code of conduct, Confucius\u2019 philosophy,\nAnton Chekhov and Dostoevsky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herein lies the key point which we\nshould pay more attention to about Ungku Aziz\u2019s legacy: as noted by his\ndaughter, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz more recently, ther father had always\nencouraged students to recognise different disciplines or the interconnectivity\nof disciplines of knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Royal Prof Ungku Aziz espoused\na more universal outlook and integrative approach towards life and scholarship,\nwhich was most likely informed by the great literatures and philosophies he was\nacquainted with. Indeed, the literatures made him more humane, more selfless,\nand more thoughtful about his specialised field\u2014economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, according to the late H.W. Arndt\nfrom Australia, Ungku Aziz was \u201cone of those distinguished economists who has\nnever been entirely happy with economics as a discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, one can deduce that Ungku\nAziz did not necessarily see the problems of the world through the lens of his\nspecialisation but likely in a more interconnected way which regarded the\nfollowing into the equation: the quality of the thoughts, the ethics and\nmorality, the languages, the art, and the historical consciousness\u2014the domains\nof what we today associate as the \u201chumanities\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, such a standpoint of Ungku Aziz is\nmore emphasised in his article on \u201cThe Role of the University in Asia in the 21st<\/sup>\nCentury\u201d (1990), in which he had said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional\nbarriers between subjects are being reinforced by increasing scholarly\nspecialisation for administrators in higher learning. In reality, the problems\nof the modern world have not conveniently fitted themselves into the\npigeonholes of university departments. Many problems involving complexity need\nto be studied from a cross-disciplinary approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was perhaps for this reason also\nUngku Aziz was espousing that Malaysia must not neglect the proper appreciation\nof the great literatures and discourses of mankind of the past in the context\nof progressing as a country. He once said, \u201c”The study of literature and\nmankind\u2019s heritage should not be forgotten even though Malaysia is gearing\ntowards becoming a scientific and progressive society in the next century…\nman could not live by science alone as he needed cultural nourishment for his\nmind… We have examples of advanced nations where scientific advancement is\nbalanced by an education system that encourages learners to appreciate the\ngreat works of the past and present and to be familiar with at least a portion\nof the creative works and discourses of mankind through time and across the\nglobe.\u201d (New Straits Times, 7 December 1991)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, having been exposed to great\nliterary works of the world, Ungku Aziz recognised the importance for the\nMalays to be connected to their own literary and intellectual heritage even in\nthe context of progress and development. In a newspaper report in 1985, Ungku\nAziz publicly urged the learned community in Malaysia to study \u201cthe thinking of\nthe Malay people of the past so that the findings can be used to contribute to\nthe progress of this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shows that contrary to mainstream\nor Western doctrines and conceptions on development that restricts development\nmerely as economic growth, Ungku Aziz pursued a broader meaning of it\u2014he was\nnot an uncritical imitator of the West. It is thus for the next generation of researchers\nto further scrutinise the concepts he employed, the solutions he proposed, and\nhis development vision as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much has already been celebrated about the impact, contributions and legacy of Allahyarham Royal Professor Ungku Aziz in honour of the memory of one of Malaysia\u2019s greatest sons. However, this writer feels there is more to be said especially in relation to what could have truly made him such a visionary and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}