ethnicrels.pdf - SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES NO 1(2000...

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES NO. 1(2000)
Ethnic Relations in Peninsular
Malaysia: The Cultural and
Economic Dimensions
Lee Hock Guan

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES NO. 1(2000)
August 2000
Ethnic Relations in Peninsular
Malaysia: The Cultural and
Economic Dimensions
Lee Hock Guan
ISEAS Fellow
© 2000 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
ISSN 0218-8961

ETHNIC RELATIONS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: THE CULTURAL
AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS
Abstract
This paper looks at the changing ethnic relations in Peninsular Malaysia in
terms of the interactions between the state’s policies to advance Malay cultural
dominance and reduce ethnic economic inequality and the aspirations and
actions of the Chinese community. The state of ethnic relations partly will
depend on whether the majority of the ethnic members, in particular the ethnic
elites, are pursuing separatist or amalgamative strategies and goals, and on
whether the rival ethnic groups stand in positions of marked inequality or near
equality to each other. In this sense, since the 1969 ethnic riots, ethnic
relations have eluded out right conflicts in part because the rival ethnic
communities have pursued mainly amalgamative strategies and goals, and in
part because the economic inequality gap has narrowed between the Malays
and non-Malays. However, the expanding place of Islam in the Malay
personal, and hence collective, identity and the relative success in making social
classes more multiethnic have added additional complexities to the future of
ethnic relations.
Introduction
Ethnicity remains the most potent force in Malaysia even if of late its influence has
been somewhat adulterated by other social stratification forces, principally class and
gender. The potency of ethnicity lies in its ability to combine both affective and
instrumental appeals. As members of distinct and self-conscious cultural communities,
Malays, Chinese and Indians naturally were inclined to identify with and treasure their
respective languages, cultures and religions, and thus actively strived to preserve and
propagate them.
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Since they share a common pool of generalized symbols and values,
the ethnic members would primarily socialize and associate with their own. Ethnicity
thus continues to constitute an integral constituent of the individual Malaysia psyche
and ethnic membership critically demarcates his/her social life and taste. It follows that
the effectiveness of affective appeals originates from the evident passionate

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attachments to a particular ethnicity that continue to sway individual identification and
pattern of social life.
Passionate attachments are readily excited for the purposes of galvanizing
ethnic individuals to preserve, protect and promote their culture, language, and
religion. Historically, in Malaysia, the affective appeals also became intimately
intertwined with the instrumental pursuit of political and economic goals that aimed to
manipulate the system and distribution of rewards in preference of the particular ethnic
members.