Stamford Raffles, James Brooke, John Crawfurd and Anna Leonowens were some of those

who came from Europe or the United States to Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century —

and then wrote about what they saw.

Their writings deserve to be read now for what they truly were: Not objective accounts of a

Southeast Asia frozen in imperial time but rather as culturally myopic and perspectivist

works that betray the subject-positions of the authors themselves. Reading them would

allow us to write the history of the East-West encounter through critical lenses that

demonstrate the workings of power-knowledge in the elaborate war-economy of racialised

colonial-capitalism.

Many of the tropes used by these colonial-era scholars and travellers, such as the indolence

or savagery of the native population, are still very much in use today — which means we

still live in the long shadow of the 19th century.

(Matahari Books)