Ungku Aziz's ideas on development

Abstract

This study attempts to present a systematic account of the ideas on development of Royal Professor Ungku Abdul Aziz bin Ungku Abdul Hamid (1922 - present), a dominant figure in the intellectual and cultural life of Malaysia since the 1950s, which is dispersed over a large number of books, articles, lectures and interviews. Based on thorough review and scrutiny of Ungku Aziz’s works, available in English and Malay, the study adopts the inductive, descriptive and analytical method. The main finding indicated is that Ungku Aziz’s ideas on development follows from his cooperative economic framework and is as rooted in a decolonizing vision of rural development, higher education and cultural development. Thus it is a creative interpretation of development that factors in the local socio-economic realities and the spiritual and cultural well being - departing from the colonial orientation that have caused disintegration, fragmentation and exploitation of the local community. The study concludes that Ungku Aziz’s ideas on development were geared towards meeting the real social, economic and cultural needs of the local community, improving the quality of life and strengthening national unity rather than serving a narrow interpretation of development, and thus commendable from the Islamic point of view, although not directly informed by the Islamic tradition. This study hopes to offer readers lessons and insights as well as a useful mapping of the ideas of a prominent 20th century Malay academic and thus make a contribution towards filling in that gap of knowledge especially in the Muslim world and the developing world.