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Abstract
Focusing on ethnic Chinese as cultural citizens of the nation, this paper examines national identity in the context of generational change. In so doing, it connects to colonialist conceptions of identity the dominant framework of ethnicity that operates in Malaysia. It argues that this framework allows for the nationalist imagining of ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ as ‘outsiders’. In probing the complex conceptual relationship between ethnicity, national identity and cultural citizenship, this article asks: How does ‘ethnicity’ enter into negotiations over the ‘national’ in the cultural realm? What are the notions of cultural difference and national otherness that operate in the negative dualisms by which nation and ethnicity are defined? How are these dualisms tied to notions of authenticity and cultural citizenship? Using the novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian author Tash Aw to address these questions, this paper argues the need to rethink current policies and narratives of ethnic and national identity in Malaysia.
Notes
1. Malaysia's population (28.31 million in 2009) comprises various ethnic groups, with Malays making up the dominant political and cultural community. The state has accorded Malays the ‘special position’ of bumiputera (‘sons of the soil’). Together with other bumiputera groups, they constitute 65% of the population. ‘Chinese’ account for 26% and ‘Indians’ 8%. Malaysia was known as ‘Malaya’ before 1963.
2. ‘Malaysian Chinese’ is also widely used in academic and critical discourse. Other terms are ‘Chinese Malaysian’ or ‘Chinese-Malaysian’. Here, I use ‘Malaysian-Chinese’ throughout, although my comments also apply to the non-hyphenated variants. The official racial or ethnic category is ‘Chinese’.
3. On 13 May 1969, riots broke out in Kuala Lumpur with Malays, already insecure about their economic situation, expressing their anger at the massive political inroads made by the mostly ethnic Chinese-led opposition in the just-concluded national elections. The Chinese retaliated over the lack of political and cultural equalities. ‘May 13th’ provoked sweeping reforms through the New Economic Policy (1971–90). The New Economic Policy was succeeded by the National Development Policy; both have been manipulated by hegemonic actors, especially in UMNO, for wealth accumulation and the dispensing of political patronage.
4. The National Culture Congress of 1971 defined as ‘National Literature’ only writings in the Malay language; writings in English, Chinese and Tamil were assigned the status of ‘communal’ or ‘sectional’ literature. Other symbols of nationhood formulated at this congress, such as ‘National Language’ and ‘National Culture’, were also built around the hegemony of Malay culture.
5. The NCP outlined three principles for the formulation of Malaysian national culture: (1) that it be based on the culture of the people indigenous to the region; (2) that it may incorporate suitable elements from other cultures; and (3) that Islam be an important element in its composition. The state, endorsing principles (2) and (3), actively implemented the NCP throughout the 1970s and 1980s (Carstens Citation2005, 150–151).
6. Although it has lost much of its institutional traction since the 1990s, the NCP is invoked now and then by Malay ideologues to buttress their claims to cultural supremacy.
7. Please refer to note 5 for the NCP's guidelines for the construction of ‘National Culture’.
8. In August 2010, newspapers reported that a (Malay) principal of a public school in Johor state had announced, in a special National Day assembly, that ethnic Chinese and Indian students were free to ‘balik Cina’ or ‘balik India’ (‘go back home to China or India’).
9. The 1971 Sedition Act forbids public discussion of key provisions in the Constitution relating to the position of the national language and the special rights of the Malays. These were deemed ‘sensitive issues’.
10. Aw has to date authored three novels: The Harmony Silk Factory (Citation2005), Map of the Invisible World (Citation2009), and Five Star Billionaire (Citation2013).
11. Quoted by Donald Morrison in ‘Farewell, Pink Gin’ (Review of The Harmony Silk Factory’), TIME Magazine, 25 April 2005 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1053691,00.html).
12. Among them are Wong Phui Nam, Ee Tiang Hong and Lee Kok Liang.
13. One early example is the call in the 1970s for the lion dance, a ritual of auspiciousness for the ethnic Chinese, to be accepted as part of national culture. The Home Affairs Minister responded by calling it ‘foreign’ (Kua Citation1990, 16).
14. Then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad defined Bangsa Malaysia as ‘an inclusive national identity for all inhabitants of Malaysia… of all colours and creeds’ and as ‘people being able to identify themselves with the country by speaking Bahasa Malaysia [Malay] and accepting the Constitution’. Malaysia ‘must be a nation at peace with itself, territorially and ethnically integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership, made up of one “Bangsa Malaysia” [Malaysian Race] with political loyalty and dedication to the nation’ (Mahathir Citation1991).
15. In the 2008 General Elections, the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front)-ledgovernment lost control of five states and its two-thirds majority in parliament. Its race-based partners – UMNO, MIC and MCA – lost many seats. This led to the creation of a multicultural opposition, Pakatan Rakyat (People's Coalition). Najib's One Malaysia was introduced in this atmosphere of the people's demands for change and national inclusion.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sharmani Patricia Gabriel
SHARMANI PATRICIA GABRIEL is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Malaya. She is currently Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.