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TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia (2026), 1–15doi:10.1017/trn.2026.10022ORIGINAL ARTICLEMalaysian Science Fiction in the Mahathir Era(1981-2003): From “Knowledge Society” to “LingkunganTeknikal” (Technoenvironments)?Arndt GrafDepartment of Southeast Asian Studies, Goethe University of Frankfurt, GermanyEmail: arndtgraf@yahoo.de(Received 11 February 2025; revised 1 August 2025; accepted 6 May 2026)AbstractDuringthef i rst,longtenureofDrMahathirMohamadasPrimeMinsterofMalaysia(1981-2003),thecoun-tryembarkedonalong-termstrategytoachievethestatusofahighlydevelopednation.T h is“Vision2020”(Wawasan 2020) placed high-technology, especially Information and Computer Technology (ICT) at thecentre of the country’s transformation, in line with the notions of “Knowledge Society” and “KnowledgeEconomy.” Within the political framework of that period, the government discourse was propagatedthrough government agencies and institutions, including schools, universities, and the Dewan Bahasa danPustaka (DBP), as well as by the media controlled by or in sympathy of the government. Positive visions ofhigh technology in the future Malaysia were soon to be found in many publications, including in the nowbooming genre of science f i ction for the youth. T h is article examines several of these textual scientif i c andtechnical imaginaries, including the novel Panrita by Arena Wati (1993), as well as popular science f i ctionnovels and short stories.It is found that of t en the plot centres on the notion of a journey. T h e youth novels mostly depict a con-crete trip to planets and galaxies far away, while in one case, a time-machine brings the juvenile heroes toanearly20 th centuryMalayanti-colonialstruggleagainsttheBritish.Inthesejourneys,theutopianvehiclessymboliseMalay/Malaysianagencyandcompetenceinscienceandhightechnology,beingatparwithotherdevelopednations.Intheaward-winningnovelPanrita,thevoyagethroughthesenewTechnoenvironmentsalso encompasses a deep spiritual and religious meaning within Malaysian Islam. Given the great politicalemphasis on Malay language and culture in this period, de-centring away from the Anglosphere, the ques-tion is raised whether in the Malaysian case the English term should be localised, e.g. by the Malay term“lingkungan teknikal”, building on previous theoretical contributions in Malay, including that of SohaimiAbdul Aziz (2013) on “teknoteks” (technotext).Keywords: Malaysia; technical imaginaries; science f i ction; Arena Wati; PanritaIntroductionAf t er the riots of 1969, the ruling coalition in Malaysia, called National Front (Barisan Nasional),embarked on a long-term strategy to lif t the Malays out of their (relative) poverty. T h is was ref l ectedin the various development strategies, beginning with the New Economic Policy (NEP, or: DasarEkonomiBaru,DEB)launchedbyPrimeMinisterTunAbdulRazakHusseinin1971atthebeginningof the Second Malaysia Plan (Tillainathan and Kee Chok Cheong 2016: 56). Sub-sequent periods,© T h e Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Institute for East Asian Studies. T h is is an Open Access article,distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permitsunrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2026.10022 Published online by Cambridge University Press