ABSTRACT
This book has attempted to explain notions of Malay political leadership in terms of historical, cultural and political-economic experiences. Underlining these notions, the book hypothesized, is an innate quality in Malay psyche that perceives leadership with a sense of predestination. While this quality is not distinctive only to the Malays since there are similar experiences in other messianic disciphnes, it is the Malays' abiUty to harmonize old ideas with the new transcending successive experiences to a discernible western secular leadership. That is the uniqueness about Malay leadership. That this has evolved into a rich hybrid of culture rests on the atavistic percep tion that all things are ordered and pre-determined. Since perception is intrinsic, it follows that we can form attitudes about people by instinct.
