Shaharuddin Maaruf

Shaharuddin Maaruf (b. 1951) was Head of the Malay Studies Department at the National University of Singapore. He holds a BSc from the Universiti Sains Malaysia and received his MA and PhD, under the tutelage of Syed Hussein Alatas, at the National University of Singapore. Shaharuddin has also served in the Malaysian public service sector as an administrator and diplomat. He was also a founding member of the National Consciousness Movement (Aliran) in 1977. He has lectured at the National University of Malaysia before joining the National University of Singapore in 1986 as a professor. He also sits in the Board of Directors for the National Library, Singapore. Shaharuddin Maaruf has published two important critiques of Malay Society, Conception of the Hero in Malay Society (1979) and its sequel, Malay Ideas on Development: From Feudal Lord to Capitalist (1988). He has also written numerous essays, including monographs Religion and Utopian Thinking Among the Muslims of Southeast Asia (2001) and Some Theoretical Problems Concerning Tradition and Modernisation in Southeast Asia (2002) published by the Department of Malay Studies, the National University of Singapore.