Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract he formative period of Alatas’ thought was that of colonialism, particularly in British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. While a student at the University of Amsterdam in the 1950s, he wrote his first piece on the problems of colonialism. Here, he divided the problems created by colonialism into three categories. The third category is the non-material, that is, the sociological, psychological and moral problems created by colonialism. Alatas believed that the greatest damage that colonialism brought about was in this third area and it was this problem that hampered the solution to many societal problems. It was also during this time that Alatas attached a great deal of importance to the nature of the elite in development. He suggested that the ruling elite which was nurtured in the colonial period lacked a well-integrated system of thought, having been unable to bring about a synthesis between their cultural heritage and Western thought. This chapter described Alatas’ decolonial perspective in terms of his theory, method and context.