Nomadology in Rehman Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey

As people travel, they offer various kinds of description of the places, society, culture and their personal experience.  Various genres emerge for instance, maps during the early documentation, report, diary, travelogue, journals or narrative account.  Rehman Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey is more like a narrative account where he narrates his experience of the present and past, blended them as if readers are reading some kind of historical facts and compare them with the current time. 

A Malaysian Journey is very rich in characters.  In every chapter, Rashid will encounter with many different people, new faces that he will not talked about again in other chapters.  By meeting a lot of people, travelers will gain lots of views from others and how the world is being viewed and perceived differently by different people.  From there, they will obtain the knowledge and information they seek for.  To Rashid, his meetings with a lot of people in his travel around the world have offered him different kinds of views and from these observations he gains self-improvement through the reflections he makes and also gains the current knowledge of his homeland.

In his book, Rashid decides to travel back to his homeland after returning from abroad is probably due to his sense of belonging towards his country.  He wants to seek his past trails that he has left behind for many years back.  It is only by doing so he can reminisce to not only his history but the history of his country as well.  This desire of his can be seen in one of the chapters in this book, when Seng Keat questions him why must he travel on railroad and wait for the train to leave at three in the morning when he has other alternative to reach his destination which is faster and more convenience.  His answer to his friend, “Because its still there,” (Rashid 105) which depicts his determination in seeking for what he has missed all these years when he was away from the country.  Perhaps he believes by meeting a lot of people from all walks of life will give him a better and clearer picture of what Malaysia is today. 

Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey can be considered as contemporary travel writing due to the fact that it is free from strictly chronological, fact driven narratives.  In this writing, he describes obviously of his childhood, his hometown Taiping, detailed and precise historical facts on Malaysia back then as well as the socio-political scenario.  When reading his work, sometimes it makes me feel that I am reading a historical book due to these reasons.

Apart from that, Rashid observes the people and their religion, Islam specifically, and how it influences their lives.  He views various kinds of Malay in his journey.  Some Malays are broad minded and some, otherwise.  He observes that his friend, Zak is a man with a vision despite not having high degree in education.  He is able to look into the future, always think of alternative ways to succeed and not just stay stagnant in their ‘comfortable zone’ – the elements that all Malays should have in order for them to be at par economically with other races.  On the other hand, Nizam who is young and well-educated refuses to venture and explore himself with the talents he has into the job world.  He prefers to return home after obtaining a degree in the university.  As observes by Rashid, “Nizam’s work was highly “accessible”, but the trouble was, Nizam himself was not- least of all to himself.” (Rashid 176)  Perhaps Nizam is lacking of confidence in himself and fear of failure in confronting the competition in the job world.

Rehman Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey is a beautifully written non-fiction work with a unique style of writing.  His insight of what is going on in his environment and his country with his powerful command of good language has placed him up high amongst the national literary work.  Reading A Malaysian Journey makes me feel like I am reading a history school text book but in an interesting manner.  His style in dictating all the historical and political accounts is very precise and detail that readers can actually visualize in their mind what is written in the pages.  It is a significant narrative of what and how Malaysia has become today.  Readers may enjoy reading his experience and observations made, but at certain points his voice can be a little bold and blunt which may lead to readers feeling offended and defensive, especially his comments on Islam.  Nevertheless Rashid is highly regarded in the writing community for his deep insights of the socio-political world and his sharp observations of human behaviour. 

In a nutshell, Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey is a book worth reading, a book that gives the readers a complete insight of the complexities of Malaysia’s historical events and political issues as well as writer’s personal accounts of his experience throughout his youth right until his adventurous life as a journalist and a writer.