Textual analysis on Rehman Rashid’s “A MALAYSIAN JOURNEY”

“A Malaysian Journey” is written by Rehman Rashid, a Malaysian Bumiputra, born in Taiping (p 25), whose father is of Arab ?Indian parentage while his mother is from a Tamil ?Eurasian parentage (p39-41). The text describes two journeys, the first being a physical journey that Rehman Rashid, the writer himself undertakes upon his return home to Malaysia, while the second journey is an emotionally critical, highly personal, expressive and hopeful journey on Malaysia’s pre and post independence history and its impact on the him as an individual and on the multiethnic Malaysian society. Both journeys, however, attempt to introduce readers to the social matrices, politics, religion (practiced by the majority) and culture of Malaysians. The goals are here to challenge reader’s existing socio-political perceptions on pre and post independent Malaysia and to shape writer’s own discernment and consciousness on his social cultural background.