第一任萊佛士歷史教授：C. N. Parkinson

Cyril Northcote Parkinson (b. 1909, d. 1993) 是馬來亞大學的第一任萊佛士歷史教授。

他是第二任萊佛士歷史教授K. G. Tregonning (b. 1923, d. 2015) 的博士論文導師，而Tregonning後來是邱繼金 Khoo Kay Kim (b. 1937, d. 2019) 的學士論文導師。所以算起來，Parkinson是邱老師的師公。

英國人在二戰後1949年在新加坡搞了一間叫馬來亞大學的學校。當時Parkinson在利物浦大學教書，年薪400英鎊。馬來亞大學因為要招攬學術人才，所以用約1000英鎊的年薪把Parkinson從英國搬到了新加坡。1960年的1000英鎊大概是現在的120千令吉。

Parkinson原本是打算一直教到退休的，不過後來馬來亞的政治局勢迫使他在1958年辭職。他是這樣說的：

. . . to teach and write history until the age of retirement . . . Fate decreed otherwise . . . for the politics of Singapore and Malaya made the post untenable.

其實馬來亞的政局可能只是一個小理由，更大的理由是因為Parkinson在1957年出版了一本叫Parkinson’s Law的暢銷書。該書在全球的大賣，是Parkinson意想不到的。大賣的必然結果是鈔票和榮譽。有了鈔票和榮譽，誰還會選擇窩在一個小島的歷史系過完餘生。

Parkinson’s Law當年是一個很轟動的理論，他在書裡面是這樣寫的：

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. . . Granted that work (and especially paperwork) is thus elastic in its demands on time, it is manifest that there need be little or no relationship between the work to be done and the size of the staff to which it may be assigned . . .

之後，Parkinson再接再厲，發表了Parkinson’s Second Law, Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, Mrs . Parkinson’s Law等等的幽默短文。管理學大師Peter Drucker在為Parkinson的其中一本書寫序的時候，是這樣寫道的：

. . . I can only hope that many business leaders will read this book, will study it, will learn from it - and will then practise what Parkinson so ably preach . . .

總之，當一位暢銷作家是比在大學教書有錢途的。

1. K. G. Tregonning (1958) The founding and development of Penang, 1786-1826, PhD Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya.
   
   
2. K. K. Khoo (1960) The municipal government of Singapore, 1887 - 1940, B. A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya.
   
   Khoo eventually completed his postgraduate degrees under Wang Gungwu in 1967 and Muhammad Kamlin in 1973. See K. K. Khoo (1967) The western Malay states, 1861 - 1873: The political effects of the growth of economic activities, M. A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya. K. K. Khoo (1973) The beginnings of political extremism in Malaya, 1915 - 1935, PhD Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya.
   
   Muhammad Kamlin is a relatively unknown political scientist trained in LSE. M. Kamlin (1968) Domestic instability as a factor in Pakistan's foreign policy, 1952 - 58, PhD Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
   
   
3. Wang Gungwu supervised the completion of postgraduate works of Khoo Kay Kim and Rollins Rajathungu Bonney in 1967 and placed these two important works in the East Asian Historical Monographs series (the book series was first suggested to Wang by Raymond E. Brammah (b. 1927, d. 1993), the representative for East Asia, OUP).
   
   Rollins Bonney (1971) Kedah, 1771-1812; the search for security and independence, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur. Khoo Kay Kim (1972) The western Malay states, 1850 - 1873; the effects of commercial development on Malay politics, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.
   
   See also Rollins Bonney (1967) Kedah 1771 - 1821: the search for security and indepedence, M. A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya.
   
   
4. Other titles in the East Asian Historical Monographs series:
   1. Philip Loh Fook Seng (1969) The Malay States, 1877-1895 : political change and social policy. Philip Loh (b. 1927, d. 2019).
   2. Badu Simandjuntak (1969) Malayan federalism 1945-1963 : a study of federal problems in a plural society. This is a D.Phil thesis submitted by the Badu Simandjuntak (b. 1925, d. 2021) to Oxford University in 1965.
   3. Raj Vasil (1971) Politics in a plural society : a study of non-communal political parties in West Malaysia. Raj Vasil (b. 1931, d. 2021).
   4. Michael Barry Hooker (1972) Adat laws in modern Malaya : land tenure, traditional government and religion
   5. Deliar Noer (1973) The modernist Muslim movement in Indonesia, 1900-1942
   6. Margaret Clark Roff (1974) The politics of belonging : political change in Sabah and Sarawak
   7. Lincoln Li (1975) The Japanese army in North China, 1937-1941 : problems of political and economic control
   8. Leonard Y. Andaya (1975) The kingdom of Johor, 1641-1728. Leonard Y. Andaya (b. 1924)
   9. Rex Stevenson (1975) Cultivators and administrators: British educational policy towards the Malays, 1875-1906
   10. Yen Ching-hwang (1976) The overseas Chinese and the 1911 revolution : with special reference to Singapore and Malaya. Yen Ching-hwang (b. 1937)
   11. Charnvit Kasetsiri (1976) The rise of Ayudhya : a history of Siam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
   12. Tej Bunnag (1977) The provincial administration of Siam, 1892-1915 : the Ministry of the Interior under Prince Damrong Rajanubhab
   13. Lim Teck Ghee (1977) Peasants and their agricultural economy in colonial Malaya, 1874-1941
   14. Michael Barry Hooker (1978) Adat law in modern Indonesia
   15. Lee Poh Ping (1978) Chinese society in nineteenth century Singapore
   16. B. W. Andaya (1979) Perak, the Abode of Grace: a study of an eighteenth-century Malay state
   17. Peter Wesley-Smith (1980) Unequal treaty, 1898-1997: China, Great Britain and Hong Kong's New Territories
   18. Jagjit Singh Sidhu (1980) Administration in the federated Malay states, 1896-1920
   19. Rajeswary Ampalavanar (1981) The Indian minority and political change in Malaya, 1945-1957. Rajeswary Ampalavanar (b. 1943)
   20. Virginia Matheson, Barbara W. Andaya (1982) The precious gift (Tuhfat al-Nafis). Virginia Matheson Hooker (b. 1946)
   21. Ian Black (1983) A gambling style of government: the establishment of the Chartered Company's rule in Sabah, 1878-1915.
   22. Khasnor Johan (1984) The emergence of the modern Malay administrative elite. Khasnor Johan (b. 1968)
   23. Pamela Atwell (1985) British mandarins and Chinese reformers : the British administration of Weihaiwei (1898-1930) and the territory's return to Chinese rule
   24. John Wong Yue-wo (1986) The origins of an heroic image : Sun Yatsen in London, 1896-1897
   25. David Faure (1986) The structure of Chinese rural society : lineage and village in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. David Faure (b. 1947)
   26. B. H. Shafruddin (1987) The federal factor in the government and politics of Peninsular Malaysia
   27. John Gullick (1987) Malay society in the late nineteenth century: the beginnings of change (b. 1916, d. 2012)
   28. Norman John Miners (1987) Hong Kong under imperial rule, 1912-1941. Norman John Miners (b. 1931, d. 2020)
   29. Francis Loh Kok Wah (1988) Beyond the tin mines: coolies, squatters and new villagers in the Kinta Valley, Malaysia, c.1880-1980. Francis Loh Kok Wah (b. 1951)
   30. Cheah Boon Kheng (1988) The peasant robbers of Kedah, 1900-1929: historical and folk perceptions. Cheah Boon Kheng (b. 1935, d. 2019).
   31. Shum Kui-Kwong (1988) The Chinese Communists' road to power : the Anti-Japanese National United Front, 1935-1945
   32. Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian (1988) Thai-Malay relations : traditional intra-regional relations from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries
   33. Ian Brown (1988) The élite and the economy in Siam c.1890-1920
   34. Wong Young-tsu (1989) Search for modern nationalism: Zhang Binglin and revolutionary China, 1869-1936
   35. Robert Stuart Lee (1989) France and the exploitation of China, 1885-1901: a study in economic imperialism
   36. David Faure (1989) The rural economy of pre-liberation China: trade expansion and peasant livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, 1870 to 1937. David Faure (b. 1947)
   37. Edmund S. K. Fung (1991) The diplomacy of imperial retreat: Britain's South China policy, 1924-1931. Edmund S. K. Fung (b. 1943)
   38. Anthony Sweeting (1993) A Phoenix transformed: the reconstruction of education in post-war Hong Kong. Anthony Sweeting (b. 1938, d. 2008)