Decolonizing History in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Manila and Singapore Conferences, 1960-61

FROM THE EDITOR'S FOREWORD:

Reynaldo C. Ileto’s paper, “Decolonizing History in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Manila and Singapore Conferences, 1960–1961” documents the role played by the Philippine Historical Association (PHA) in organizing a conference in November 25–26, 1960 spearheaded by then Professor Nicolas Zafra of the University of the Philippines, Department of History. This conference of PHA was the first the international conference of historians of Southeast Asia. The conference aimed to decolonize historical writing in Southeast Asia. Ileto’s paper mentioned the persistent concern over colonial scholarship by presenting the views of four scholars who asserted the need to write the history of Southeast Asia from the perspective of the Southeast Asian. There was Teodoro Agoncillo’s who mentioned that “the Filipino mind is still being held captive in a very captivating way and not been fully liberated from colonialism.” There was K. G. Tregonning who decried the “Europocentric” treatment of the history of Malaya and Southeast. There was as well the remark made by Sartono Kartodirjo of Indonesia who declared that “colonial ideology” survives to the present and finally Syed Hussein Alatas of Malaysia who decried the way European scholars handled the early history of Malaya and Indonesia and their failure to understand the role played by Islam in Southeast Asian history. Included in Ileto’s paper was the suggestion of John Smail of an autonomous history. Smail thought that his proposal was a way out from the clash between the Euro-centric and Asia-centric perspectives and a move towards a universal history of Southeast Asia. His proposal would
viihave made light the colonial experience of Southeast as well ignore the existence of nationalist historiography. According to Ileto, Smail’s proposal of autonomous history would have allowed that scholars like him “to avoid combating Agoncillo and Alatas and continue dominating the field of Southeast Asian history in another way—the Third Way.” Ileto’s paper documents the role of the Philippine Historical Association in forging a collective effort of decolonizing historical writing in Southeast Asia which it pioneered in the decade of the sixties and continues to the present with the creation of the International Council for Historical and Cultural Cooperation—Southeast Asia (ICHCC-SEA). Composed of the Philippine Historical Association, Society of Indonesian Historians and Malaysia Historical Society. The ICHCC-SEA was created in August 2015 upon the initiative of the Philippine Historical Association.