What do you think?
Rate this book
Budi Kritik
Why is it important to imbibe a thinking culture? What can contemporary Malays contribute by way of an active intellectual and social life towards reform and progress? Where are the loci of critical thought in Malay public life?
In a revealing book of essays edited by Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib and Nurul Fadiah Johari, writers from various backgrounds—academics, researchers, community organisers, and social activists—offer insights and critical reflections into contemporary Malay society. These essays span wide-ranging fields—from culture to religion, identity to literature, faith to governance—with a shared objective: to promote the will to think and challenge dominant perspectives.
By actively engaging in the identification of problems in society, defining and diagnosing them, Budi Kritik offers ways to overcome these problems through deep thinking, cogent analysis, perceptive insights, and an unwavering commitment to lasting peace and progress. This is a necessary and urgent book for anyone asking where the Malay voices are in public discourse.
In a revealing book of essays edited by Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib and Nurul Fadiah Johari, writers from various backgrounds—academics, researchers, community organisers, and social activists—offer insights and critical reflections into contemporary Malay society. These essays span wide-ranging fields—from culture to religion, identity to literature, faith to governance—with a shared objective: to promote the will to think and challenge dominant perspectives.
By actively engaging in the identification of problems in society, defining and diagnosing them, Budi Kritik offers ways to overcome these problems through deep thinking, cogent analysis, perceptive insights, and an unwavering commitment to lasting peace and progress. This is a necessary and urgent book for anyone asking where the Malay voices are in public discourse.
260 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 21, 2019
A great selection of short essays, my favourite chapters being 'Identity, Race and Gender' and 'Inter- and Intrafaith Diversity'. Although the quality of the essays varied, there were some real gems in there!
August 20, 2018
Great collection of essays that highlight the importance of critical thinking in our world today. It is definitely a timely read for me, and it cleared up some thoughts that were muddled up in my head. With a fairly wide range of topics, this collection sheds light to pertinent issues that Malay and/or Muslim communities in Singapore need to think about, and hopefully, discuss further. I definitely recommend this read and I look forward to having many more meaningful discussions on the said topics!
February 17, 2020
Budi Kritik is a much appreciated, accessible, diverse collection of essays from activists, academics, community organisers, and others involved in the community in different capacities. It covers 5 main areas - (1) culture, language, and literature, (2) religion, tradition, and reform, (3) identity, race, and gender, (4) inter- and intrafaith diversity, and (5) sociopolitics, thought and education. A well-curated collection that thoughtfully showcases pieces from writers of diverse backgrounds - in fact, one thing that delighted me was a note in the extended version, which I read, that after getting pushback from conservative pockets of the community, they included 6 new essays from women and young writers, hah! A quote from the editors:
The essays discussed issues such as being a minority race in Singapore, structural inequalities, intersectionality, and religion. In a political landscape where there is a named and identified 'Malay Problem' by policymakers, discussed earnestly by newspapers and on which a whole cultural and religious organisation has built its entire mission on tackling, the editors feel that it is imperative that this book introduces readers to a 'thinking culture' and critical discourse, and encourages participation from the general society as well.
I've learnt so much from the writers. One of my favourite essays is 'Human rights are not Western; there were similar concepts in traditional Malay society', which seeks to address the myth that the idea of freedom and justice is a Western concept that is inherently contradictory to Malay values. Dr. Mohd Faizal Musa outlines the historical origins of these concepts in Malay culture, talks about the importance of recognising cross-fertilisation of cultures, and warns of the dangers of reductive and binary view of 'East vs West' in terms of human rights.
A second favourite is 'We need an emancipatory orientation that goes beyond identity and privilege politics' by Diana Rahim. She believes that discourse around oppression should go further than what's currently most in the forefront these days, which is identity and privilege politics. She weighs up and critiques popular criticisms and alternatives to identity politics, and proposes that we look at the larger picture of structural and institutional forces that causes oppression. Something that made me reflect on my current understanding of identity politics is her paragraph on conferred power.
She goes on to state that power is conferred to a group of people we deem as privileged by an external exploitative system without their consent, and the current state of privilege politics may run the risk of being too focused on the individual rather than the oppressive structure around us. This brings up a few points that I would like to get more insight on: (1) do people who have privilege have a responsibility to recognise it, participate in active unlearning, as well as work towards dismantling the system or giving power back to marginalised groups of people (also, brings the question to what responsibility is, and how we assign responsibility), (2) who participates in oppression most of the time, in a manner with most consequences, in an exploitative system, if not the privileged, and how does that idea juxtapose against the idea that we are all, without our consent, in an exploitative system, and (3) while power is conferred, can that power be transferred to or out of a person in their lifetime in pertaining to their identities. Genuinely looking to learn!
Overall, a highly recommended book.
"It is our contention that the task of building a thinking society is not a professionalised activity best left to the academia. It is a collective responsibility and cuts across various spheres of society, including the arts, media, and literary circles."
The essays discussed issues such as being a minority race in Singapore, structural inequalities, intersectionality, and religion. In a political landscape where there is a named and identified 'Malay Problem' by policymakers, discussed earnestly by newspapers and on which a whole cultural and religious organisation has built its entire mission on tackling, the editors feel that it is imperative that this book introduces readers to a 'thinking culture' and critical discourse, and encourages participation from the general society as well.
I've learnt so much from the writers. One of my favourite essays is 'Human rights are not Western; there were similar concepts in traditional Malay society', which seeks to address the myth that the idea of freedom and justice is a Western concept that is inherently contradictory to Malay values. Dr. Mohd Faizal Musa outlines the historical origins of these concepts in Malay culture, talks about the importance of recognising cross-fertilisation of cultures, and warns of the dangers of reductive and binary view of 'East vs West' in terms of human rights.
A second favourite is 'We need an emancipatory orientation that goes beyond identity and privilege politics' by Diana Rahim. She believes that discourse around oppression should go further than what's currently most in the forefront these days, which is identity and privilege politics. She weighs up and critiques popular criticisms and alternatives to identity politics, and proposes that we look at the larger picture of structural and institutional forces that causes oppression. Something that made me reflect on my current understanding of identity politics is her paragraph on conferred power.
"Power is something that is conferred, not something that is essential to an identity."
She goes on to state that power is conferred to a group of people we deem as privileged by an external exploitative system without their consent, and the current state of privilege politics may run the risk of being too focused on the individual rather than the oppressive structure around us. This brings up a few points that I would like to get more insight on: (1) do people who have privilege have a responsibility to recognise it, participate in active unlearning, as well as work towards dismantling the system or giving power back to marginalised groups of people (also, brings the question to what responsibility is, and how we assign responsibility), (2) who participates in oppression most of the time, in a manner with most consequences, in an exploitative system, if not the privileged, and how does that idea juxtapose against the idea that we are all, without our consent, in an exploitative system, and (3) while power is conferred, can that power be transferred to or out of a person in their lifetime in pertaining to their identities. Genuinely looking to learn!
Overall, a highly recommended book.
September 21, 2018
Small book, many short essays with big words and interesting ideas. My favourites are the chapters by Dr Nuraliah Norasid, Halijah Mohamad and Faris Joraimi. Not all the ideas are new to me, so several essays are very readable and skimmable, but it's a nice compilation of all these ideas and I like that a lot of the sources are listed for further reading. (Minus one star for the number of editing/proofreading errors - but I've noticed this seems to be a thing in most library copies of books. 🤨)
May 28, 2019
An intriguing collection of essays critically evaluating issues that prevail within the Malay/Muslim community. A little confusing on who the intended audience was as the issues brought up does pertain to the Malay/Muslim community at large but some seem to sound like more like academic writings. Nonetheless, the essays brought up issues which we tend to overlook as a community and demands greater critical thought and discussions. Looking forward to a Budi Kritik 2!
September 28, 2025
Some chapters could be more incisive. I think linguists will take issue with Dr Nazry Bahrawi's uncritical acceptance of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I liked the chapter about Islam and I do feel such a compendium of essays is a very very good thing to have
December 18, 2020
3.25 stars*
June 3, 2021
3.5 stars, rounding up to four. Some essays were stronger and sharper than others but overall, the collection was a meaningful read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews