I must say Lung Ying-tai’s critical writings of the 1980s and 1990s did inspire me tremendously. She shot to fame with her seminal book The Wild Fire, in which she chastised mercilessly the authoritarian Kuomintang regime, a rarity within the intellectual circle at the time. 

Times have changed; so has Taiwan, which now boasts one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. Lung has moved on too, so much so that she now serves as the minister of culture under the Kuomintang government.

As the Chinese saying goes: officialdom is the natural abode for fine scholars. In accepting the invitation by President Ma Ying-jeou, Lung has simply followed the path of the millions who went before her in Chinese history, hoping that her scholarship will eventually be acknowledged in official records.
NONEBut Lung is no long the fiery writer she once was. In 2002, she called on the authorities in Beijing to review their assessment of the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989 and restore justice to the victims. 

With the cabinet post comes a drastic change in her position. When asked for her opinion on the 23rd anniversary of the bloody crackdown of the student protest, all that she could offer was that she is now tasked with negotiating cultural issues with China and it would not be appropriate for her to comment further. 

This evasive response reminds me of Rais Yatim (right), whose PhD thesis ‘Freedom Under Executive Power in Malaysia: A Study of Executive Supremacy’, in which he concluded that the Internal Security Act was ‘draconian’ and ‘should be abolished’.

It was completed while he was in political wilderness, and much water has passed under the bridge. When the same Rais Yatim - then a cabinet minister under Mahathir Mohamad - was confronted on the use of the ISA against reformasi activists in 2001, he simply dismissed his own argument as being ‘an academic exercise’.

I am quite certain it is this malleable and opportunistic nature of his that has ensured his political survival for so long. 

Hence, one must not take his word for it when he announced that the government would allow the opposition airtime for their manifestos. 

Most probably, a five-minute slot would be followed by half an hour of Umno bombardment, as the People’s Action Party has done to the opposition in Singapore.

Dearth of genuine intelligentsia

Lung and Rais Yatim are indicative of the dearth of genuine intelligentsia in the world today. As China is beginning to exert more influence internationally, more and more politicians, media professionals, writers and scholars outside the country are willing to overlook its past as they look to the mainland for their future. 

In Malaysia, it goes without saying that our universities - both public and private - are hardly the places where real intellectual work is produced. Rather, they tend to end up being nothing more than academic bureaucrats, as exemplified by Khoo Kay Kim. 

Hou Kok Chung, my senior from the School of Oriental and African Studies, was once critical of the MCA’s lack of political directions. I am still wondering how he faces up to his ‘wayward’ past now that he is a deputy minister.

NONEBut even some other so-called public intellectuals can be highly unpredictable, too. Chandra Muzaffar (left) used to be known as a vocal, fiercely independent and no-nonsense scholar. 

After a short stint with Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Nasional, he seems to have gone through some baptism of fire and is now on a crusade against his former comrades, while heaping praises on a regime that he once so despised. 

To me, he now looks more like an Umno hitman than an intellectual giant that he perhaps still regards himself to be.

From east to west, intellectuals - like anyone else - are yearning for recognition and some form of political influence, however aloof, transcendental or even angelic they perceive themselves to be. 

Anthony Giddens was initially merely a prominent sociologist, but began to assume global fame when he agreed to be a political guru to Tony Blair with his Third Way theory. 

And I need not mention those who jump instantly on the bandwagon at the sound of war.
But it is worth remembering that true intellectuals are - more often than not - found outside of the establishment.

As the late Edward Said once wrote: the real or true intellectual is always an outsider, living in self-imposed exile and on the margins of society. 

Judging from this, those like Rais Yatim, Khoo Kay Kim and Chandra Muzaffar have not only betrayed their own ‘scholarship’, but also made themselves a national joke.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.