Title: Real Bad
Review: I had looked forward to reading this book. Alas, there is something that is not quite right with it. First of all, McAmis' definition of Malay is quite misleading. His definition is a bit too liberal and too broad. Malay first and foremost in today's terminological use refers to Malays in Malaysia. While some Malays in Malaysia are likely to see Southern Filipinos, Indonesians, etc as their distant kinsmen, they're not very likely to call them Malays. 'Malay' is very strictly defined in legal terms in Malaysia. To broaden this definition as McAmis does is akin to saying that Vietnamese, Thais, Cambodians, Laotians are all 'essentially' Chinese. Apart from that, McAmis' research into Islamism in SEA isn't too illuminating. Judith Nagata has, in her essays, done a much better job. She has written about the dakwah movement and given such details that I am, as a Malaysian, completely amazed by how much she managed to ferret out of these communities.
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