A Quest for Malaysian Environmental Justice in Yang-May Ooi’s The Flame Tree

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the environmental agenda in The Flame Tree, an English novel by Yang-May Ooi, a Malaysian-British author. The concepts of environmental justice and environmental racism are employed in the analysis. Through the main characters and incidents in the novel, Ooi suggests that Malaysian local people suffer greatly from a lack of environmental justice in their community as a result of the manipulation of a transnational corporation operated by a global capitalist, who commits crimes in different forms to win a mega project under the policy for the country’s modernization. This mega project eventually causes an environmental apocalypse and a tragedy for the local people who do not have an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process regarding this project. Based on environmental racism, the local Malaysian people endure disruptions from the project initiated by the British race, the former colonizers of Malaysia, who aim to reap its full benefit. Despite the end of British Imperialism, the power relation between the British and the Malaysians persists. This novel protests against transnational environmental crime which leaves detrimental effects on the Malaysian land and people.