I thought, the following words in the Dreams from My Father describe something also relevant to the Malaysian society.
“Truth is usually the best corrective”, Rukia said with a smile. “You know, sometimes I think the worst thing that colonialism did was cloud our view of our past. Without the white man, we might be able to make better use of our history. We might look at some of our former practices and decide they are worth preserving. Others, we might grow out of. Unfortunately, the white man has made us very defensive. We end up clinging to all sorts of things that have outlived their usefulness. Polygamy. Collective land ownership. These things worked well in their time, but now they most often become tools for abuse. By men. By government. Any yet, if you say these things, you have been infected by Western ideology.” [Barack Obama. Dreams from My Father]
Not too long ago, I remember Malaysian politicians — religious conservatives too — accusing those who think disagree with various government policies and various traditions as being influenced by Western ideology.
One reply on “[1832] Of infected by Western ideology”
Good one.
To me, ideas in themselves defy labels and ownership.
What makes an idea “Western”? Origins?
Classifying ideas is just a way of creating a “them” vs “us” scenario to protect one’s vested interest and hide one’s inability to defend one’s ideas.