Abstract—This paper attempts to identify and assess Singapore and Sumatra’s Westkust (West Sumatra) as the centre for Malay intellectual activities before World War II. The present literature has not focused on this subject. Therefore, what this paper does is examine the context of Malay publishing and journalism and the growth of newspapers. It tries to answer why Malay journalism and writing thrive by identifying factors from geography, to colonialism to the cultural. In so doing, two factors emerged as critical to the growth of Malay writing and journalism, that is, trade, and the consciousness for information and knowledge and rejection towards Pax Neerlandica.
Index Terms—Colonialism, journalism, Malay newspaper, publishing.
Mohd Amirul Akhbar Mohd Zulkifli is with the Institute of Journalism Studies, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, University Technology MARA, Malaysia (e-mail: amirul@uitm.edu.my).
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Cite: Mohd Amirul Akhbar Mohd Zulkifli, "Singapore and Sumatra’s Westkust as a Malay Writing and Journalism Hub before World War II," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 6, no. 12, pp. 900-903, 2016.