Ethnicity, communal relations and education in Malaysia

Abstract

Each Malaysian community has its religion, language, customs, and practices, and most Malaysians identify themselves and others on communal lines. This has been a source of impediment to the creation of national consciousness. But perhaps the most disturbing development of post-independence era, in terms of national unity, has been the resurgence of chauvinistic Malay nationalism. There has been a growing tendency among Malays to assert their superior claims in the country and to deny the existence of non-Malays. In the name of national unification they strive to impose their culture, language, and religion on minorities. Non-Malays have experienced their deep dissatisfaction with the measures adopted for the advancement of Malaynization. They wish to preserve cultural variety and insist that multilingualism should be the national policy and that education should be truly national, not Malay-dominated.

At present there are no visible signs of an amicable solution to the communal problem of Malaysia and the attitudes of the extremists only tend to compound the difficulty. But so long as the Malays persevere in their goal of ascendancy, the non-Malays would remain nervous and would offer resistance to what they perceive to be their suppression.