1Malaysia? Young people and everyday multiculturalism in multiracialized Malaysia

ABSTRACT

In Malaysia over the last decade, a more meaningful form of multiculturalism beyond mere tolerance has been encouraged through the 1Malaysia initiative of the Najib government. This paper explores how a framework of everyday multiculturalism can enhance our understanding of the ways Malaysian youth negotiate formal injunctions to build unity in diversity while an inequitable multiracialism persists both structurally and informally in Malaysian society. We illustrate how an everyday multiculturalism approach reveals on-the-ground processes of the (re)production of unequal difference and ordinary possibilities for interethnic conviviality.

KEYWORDS:

• Malaysia
• multiculturalism
• youth
• multiracialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.