via The Star, 28 October 2020: The headline screams ‘Decolonise Museums’ but I suspect it is only picking up on the comments of one speaker. While coming to terms with colonialism is important, looking at the comments more closely the speaker is really just advocating for replacing colonialist perspectives with more Islamic and ethnonationalist ones.
“It is time for us to re-establish our museum institution with philosophy and thoughts based on the Quran and Sunnah as well as local customs and cultures that do not clash with Islamic teachings, ” he said in his presentation.
To achieve this, Ahmad Farid said there needs to be a clear understanding of colonial academic theories that are negative abut the Malay race and Islam.
“Solid arguments are needed to rebuild the Malay race’s spirit to unshackle ourselves from baseless colonial academics’ claims.
“The museum is one of the institutions used by the Western colonial academics to plant their doctrines into the colonised community. Therefore, it is the responsibility of this institution to give a detailed explanation to refute the colonial academics’ claims, ” he said.
Source: MUSEUMS NEED TO BE FREE OF COLONIAL INFLUENCE | The Star
