2 - The rakyat and their ecologies: Unfinished contestations in Malay(si)a

Building on an upcoming co-edited volume on Malaysian ecocriticism (Yeow & Tham, forthcoming), I broadly focus on the intertwined nature of democratic rights and environmental activism. In otherwise authoritarian states, environmental movements may offer spaces for activism (Tham, 2023). I suggest how ideas of democratic discourse can be articulated in relation to these ecological relationships, thus suggesting linkages between the personal and the political. Through interviews with environmental activists and industry professionals about their work, as well as close-reading texts such as Memoirs of a Malaysian eco-activist (Singh, 2017), I outline how environmental activism – such as among civil society actors – necessarily negotiates the tensions between ecological consciousness and dominant discourses of development in the postcolonial context.


Besides drawing upon theories of performativity, which have been applied to a broad range of disciplines, including geography (Glass & Rose-Redwood, 2014), I also suggest how various forms of cultural work, including personal praxis, enables these negotiations to take place. However, this discussion should not be limited to contemporary national borders. For example, Malaysia and Singapore essentially constitute a joint ecological unit, where different practices around scientific and environmental work have since led to significant differences in the representations of nature by both states (Tan, 2023), while ecological relationships transcend national borders between Sabah and the southern Philippines (Somiah, 2021). In cognisance that national ecologies are not autonomous units, I conclude by speculating on the ways in which environmental activism can reimagine forms of organisation and mobilisation, including beyond these national confines.