#TrivialTuesday; Reflecting on Week 3 Lectures.

Sang Kiai, 2013

Commenting on this week's lectures regarding Values, Beliefs and Norms in societies, we would like to comment on what had been mentioned in class as 'hierarchal' values of Malaysian society or in other words, Malaysians are of a high power distance culture. Social hierarchy is widely accepted and practice in the Malay Archipelago, even before the introduction of Islam to its people. Pre-Islamic era of the archipelago witnessed blind allegiance to priest and Sultans or Rajas in exchange for salvation and security. Those who have the money and power were respected because of money and power and those who are on top, were respected because they were on the above social pyramid structure. When Islam came to the archipelago, it brought with it reasons and logic to make sense of the cultural values of the people in the archipelago back then. 

We view the high power distance culture in this region as the manifestation of justice, or al-Adl, which, have been elaborated further by S.M.N al-Attas in his works, as putting something in its proper place. If a person, or a group of person should be treated above others, and not equal, due to his/her stature in the society, then be it. The Sultan was or still treated with respect, due to their perceived roles as a khalifah, or a leader of the society. With such roles, gives out massive responsibilities, hence, he should be put above others, but below Allah (as the ultimate sovereign), where he belongs.

Whatever it is, we're totally against cultural relativism, because the present is dead, the past is very much alive. Do we have this type of thinking 100 years ago? We'll leave you with this movie, and think about high-low context culture and power distance while watching this.